He wanted to meet with Ganson last week after the Magic game where it was Kendall. So I really wouldn't be shocked if his problems with Kendall were from previous and something in the Saints game compounded it.

Get over yourselves, jeez

Not sure how relevant your first point was to the actual topic but as a general statement it’s spot on.

When Cas froze in last years GF you could positively feel the combined joy from Leeds, Wigan and Saints fans in general and most especially those who love the status Quo!!! Even better that Cas are not appearing as good as last year which just validate their snobbish opinions.

That’s not fair but as there are numerous reasons for Cas slight dip in form. Hoe er the Ref isn’t one and blaming him makes the whole club look stupid and just reinforces the elitists.

Ditto my own club Trinity - we won’t exactly lay down and die far from it but results have not gone our way and we are on possibly six points less than perhaps we might of been.

If we’d have been Wigan every week would be endless sob stories and brilliantly constructed excuses. We on the other hand have been dismissed as on season wonders who are slowly but surely heading back where we belong and as you say we will become an obscurity soon enough if we don’t change this season around.

That said our results are of our own making, we’ve had some rough calls and some were even game changes but then who doesnt? We need to respond positively as do Cas and I see absolutely nothing positive in what Powell said and imho he let himself down.

As someone who lives in Cas and was well and truly sick of all the 'Champions' hype including merchandise as shown below, I laughed my 'ickle socks off!!!

The problem is that the highlighted statement is not true. The referee was not rubbish, he actually had a pretty good game with the odd 50/50 decision going against you. That happens. It's a bloody fast game and the ref is only human.

Another point that has been muted on this thread is that Powell can be as angry as he wants regarding the referee, but it should never spill out into the public domain. I might be biased, but Radders is excellent post match regardless of the result and Powell could do with gaining some of that humility.

Not really. Most of the Saints fans I was watching the game were miffed that the Grand Final was a one-sided romp for Leeds so I don't know how you got that impression.

As for Cas' drop in form. I'd suggest that's more to do with other teams improving their efforts e.g. Saints and Warrington. Take those two, with their NRL experienced coaches, out of the equation and Cas would be comfortably top 4. What Holbrook is doing is raising the standard of the game over here, which in turn is exposing the lack of quality coaching within this competition. The success last year was great but it was tied in with a competition which has been stagnating since Maguire left Wigan at the end of 2011. Now that coaching quality is rising again, so it becomes harder to compete.

The majority of the fans from the "big" clubs had a lot of respect for the way Cas played the game and I don't think they would have complained at all if they joined the party and became superleague champions.

Come grand final day i reckon the question was Daryl Powell a good enough coach to get them over the final hurdle, it appeared not then the question later was Cas going to be one season wonders. It appeared so early in the season but Powell has got them firing a bit better despite the injuries to key players. There have been a lot of ups and downs with teams having the odd injury crisis to disrupt winning momentum.

Wigan and Saints have not had a lot of injuries to key players and there defence is a pretty hight standard, obviously thats why they are currently 1 and 2 in the league.

Warrington and Castleford look as though they can go up a level but there defence is currently not where it should be, still lots of games to play yet but I think there is more pressure on Warrington and Cas to be more consistent if they are to make a serious challenge.

Almost every part of that post validates my opinion that top sides are snobs - Holbrook has done sod all as yet and neither have Saints, nothing or nobody has be ‘exposed’ yet, your post is a crock.

Let’s see if your still boasting when McDermott or Wane come good at the end of the seaon as per (which incidentally is what happened to Cas last year) - learn from history is my advise.

Raising the standards of the game over here?? Good lord. Holbrook is doing well but christ he had a decent squad vastly underperforming and was handed SLs best player on a plate....an absolute gimme for a coach so far and as stated he's won nothing yet. Wigan arent exactly on fire, wires recovering from a horror season (a much bigger rebuilding job), Leeds are gone (for now), cas struggling and hull decimated with injuries yet saints are still nowhere near as dominant as Wire 2011 or Cas 2017. Holbrook looks a good coach so far but typical scouse hyperbole to have him down as some sort of coaching god and revolutionary here to save the British game.

Agreed. Sts aren't playing some revolutionary style, but they are playing with confidence and getting the best out of Ben Barba, who has genuine class.

I'd say Cas at their best last year were a better side than Sts this year. Some of their ball movement as a team was really top class, which a couple of NRL coaches commented on. The Eden no try was about the only time they showed similar flair in the GF, and showed what they could do if they could execute their plays. Luckily for Leeds Cas' ball control was U9s level whilst we managed something like U12s.

Cas in 2017 won the league by 10 clear points so can see how you can say Saints aren’t quite at that level of domination yet...

Wire in 2011 however finished top of the league 1 point in front of Wigan and 7 in front of Saints in 3rd. Currently Saints sit 4 points clear of Wigan in 2nd and 6 clear of Wire in 3rd.

Not sure how you can make the statement saints aren’t as dominant as Wire 2011 (who didn’t even make GF that year), or more importantly bou can say Wire dominated the league in 2011 finishing a point clear