As it stands you can't bet against Leeds being Champions this season.

True but can they keep that level of intensity up for another 7/8 weeks? Will be interesting to see. And they will face bigger challenges than Warrington.

That's why I put as it stands

Does throwing it about work on a cold wet night at OT when the pressure is on?

A structured, error free opposition with an intense defence will/could beat Leeds in a 1 off game. Wigan etc

The GF isn't won on a hot night in leeds in Aug

Yep. Leeds have historically been terrible on rainy Old Trafford evenings.

It will be very interesting to see if leeds stick with the same principles in the challenge cup final and a potential grand final. Will the usual cautious nature of cup finals be thrown out of the window?

Hard to believe that many, many Leeds fans were calling for McDermotts head a short while ago and now he has improved the squad and got his team playing the most attractive brand of RL in this country.(cough, choke)

Their 3/4 line is just too good for most of the other teams in the comp, plus Hardaker at FB.

Most clubs would swap 1-5 with Leeds, which shows just how good their back line is.

Very true, far too many sports fans want to be damming of coaches and players at the first hint of trouble rather than accepting hights and lows happen it's the nature of life let alone sport.

It wasn't last season. Leeds played a very disciplined, field position based game against Cas last year. Made yards up the middle, kicked well and challenged the opposition to come out of their own end. They played Old Trafford football at Wembley, despite having been more expansive in the weeks leading up to the final.

The thing is, McDermott has always wanted to play this brand of RL. He said it openly in the press when he first became coach and, Leeds started 2011 throwing the ball around like a it was a grenade, scoring some great trys but, conceding as many soft ones through coughing up possession. I think we lost 5 of our first 10 games that year and, McDermott realised that Leeds needed to adopt a more pragmatic approach, which wasn't always as easy on the eye but, it was the most effective method given the players he had available.
He's had the unique job of having to replace the back line in a relatively short space of time and, I don't think it's overstating it when I say the current back line Leeds have is as good as anything we've seen in the SL era. Now his next job is to oversee the transition in the engine room, the signings of Cuthbertson and, Garbutt seem to be extremely shrewd and, the signing of Galloway to replace Peacock is about as good as Leeds could have hoped for in the current climate and, we probably have the strongest group of props we've had in quite some time.
Replacing Sinfield is almost impossible but, he's certainly proving himself to have a good eye for talent.

I know you bit to a straight forward bit of trolling.

True Leeds' style won't be suitable for a rainy night.....but its not like we've forgotten how to play wet weather rugby. When we played Hull in the cup QF it rained and we played a very smart wet weather game and won comfortably and smartly, led by Sinfield who still knows what we'll need to do in what conditions to win.

I think it's difficult to get the blend of players right to make this a successful style, and probably even harder to sustain.

For historical precedent, the Widnes side from about 1988 to the World Club Challenge in 1989 is a good example. The ace in the pack if you'll pardon the pun was Derek Pyke at prop. He'd be introduced after about half an hour during which Joe Grima had played as a battering ram. Pyke was one of the best offloaders around at the time and defences just couldn't contain their style of play.

After Pyke left, they brought in Les Holliday as a replacament, but the good times had gone by then.

Translation from troll to English: I acted like a nob to get a rise out of someone because it's the only way I can feel big.