The League Leaders Shield is a tinpot award given to the club who happens to be doing the best an an arbitrary point in the middle of the Super League competition. Warrington have failed to win anything this season. As Bilko says it is questionable as to just how many clubs were even trying to be top of the league which puts that particular "achievement" into perspective.

Of course there is, all you have to do is look at all the teams in the past who finished 5th in the regular season and then made it to Old Trafford

Whether you treat it with the respect it deserves or not, doesn't stop it from being a trophy available for all SL teams to win. Warrington won it this year, Wigan won it last year and Leeds won it the year before.

I treat the [delhub-cap[/del shield with the respect it deserves. It is a token gesture introduced (recently) to pacify clubs who couldn't cope with their own failure to capitalise on a good league season. It isn't won, it is awarded.

Now you're just being silly.

Which of course accounts for all those years where teams finishing 5th have constantly gone on to win the Grand Final.

For a normally logical poster, that's a massive pile of tosh you've just dumped on the VT. Leeds have played one less game than Wigan this year, Warrington one less than Leeds. Yet Leeds had the gas to go to both Huddersfield and Warrington (teams that had given them a spanking in the regular season) and win.

As for the implication that Leeds "threw" games to ensure they finished 5th rather than 4th, that's not even worthy of a response.

How on earth is 5th an easier route than 2nd, 3rd or 4th?

Some teams prefer to be the underdog. Leeds surely seem to thrive on it.

Its a very mute point that finishing 5th is better than finishing in the top 4, it only really counts if you finish in the top 4 then lose the next game.
To say Leeds finished 5th on purpose is ridiculous, they finished their because on an appalling start to the season when they had key players out.

I think its great for the game and will give teams more confidence that it can be done from 5th - 8th.

the only time that 5th is better than 4th, is like this year when the team finishing 4th is garbage. Team in 4th gets a spanking in week1, team in 5th gets an easy game and the confidence to tackle the wounded team in 4th.

The only converse to this would be if a team had a terrible start to the season but hit great form and sneaked in at 8th - then gave the team in 5th a battering.

You should see his match report from Saturday's game. He blamed Wigan's tiredness and Stuart Fielden being injured as big factors as to why Wigan lost. Nothing to do with the fact Saints just simply outplayed Wigan on the day after doing the same thing 2 weeks earlier, despite having 6 players missing - Pryce, Gardner, Perry, Flannery, Magennis and Eastmond - 5 who were definite first choice players at the start of the season.

The fact is, Saints and Leeds rose to the challenge in the Play Offs, whilst Warrington and Wigan didn't have the bottle and the quality to qualify for the final. Less of the excuses, accept it and aim to rise to it next season.

Saturdays grand final will contain more homegrown english players than any other grand final in super league.

Vindication, if ever, for the way saints and leeds go about their business. It's great for the game!

So screw the doubters and the haters. Saints, as well as leeds conduct themselves with integrity, they play the game in the right way and they blood their youngsters, who normally turn out to be pretty damn good.

It's a fitting final for 2 great clubs that have shown the true qualities of champions.

Do you genuinely think it's better to finish 5th just too be called an underdog?

How many times has a team outside the top 2 won a gf, once iirc

No team in their right mind would finish lower down on purpose. I don't even know why I dignify the suggestion with a response. Teams will aim to finish as high as possible. It just feell nicely for leeds that huddersfield lost form and hull were gash, but leeds can't control that, that's just circumstances falling their way.

They could just as easily have been playing a bloody tough cas team at home, and if they got through that a tough trip to france. Only outside results at the end prevented that.

We wouldn't even be discussing this, but for leeds and saints showing just how bloody good they are at making grand finals.

They just get the job done, whether in 1st position, or in this case 3rd and 5th.