Wigan by exactly 14. Called it here. The wrong Cas turned up. Not all Cas playing bad though. Our defence was decent. Just silly penalties from Milner and Wigan defence.

Maybe. I don’t really think it’s fair to use the 2014 challenge Cup Final team to beat the current team with. It was more or less a completely different set of players, particularly in pivotal positions.
My worry s that our pivots aren’t improving with experience. I thought Gale would benefit from both last year’s grand final and World Cup Final. But he
was equally as poor tonight.
McShane, Gale and Roberts were our pivots last year. Again, none of them seemed to have learnt from last year’s big games.

I think we're on the same boat to an extent- there are 6 big games (semis and finals) each year that need these big game players you mention to win. Its much easier to be the big team for the rest of the year (see St Helens 2018, Cas 2017 as recent examples and, as a Leeds fan, Leeds 2005).

Hmm I think you will find they do.

Errr... yes they do! Warrington sports holdings IS Warrington Wolves.

I get that point, the issue tonight is that no improvement was made from last year. Leeds fell just short in both competitions in 2003 (under Powell) but players learnt and were winning the GF in 2004. Even if Cas didn’t win tonight a closer game decided by a single score would’ve suggested progression. 14 point defeat might not sound a lot in the regular season but in a playoff game its a big winning margin to overturn. Should’ve really been evidence of lessons learnt from 2017 even in defeat tonight, they weren’t and that doesn’t bode well for the future.

You might be right, but even after tonight’s result I wouldn’t swap Powell for another coach. I think it’s unfair to judge progression on the score of two individual games against different teams almost twelve months apart (though of course we’ve dropped two places in the league too).
Putting Brian McDermott, for example, in charge I think would be a backwards rather than a forwards step.
I do wonder, however, how things might have been different had we signed Danny McGuire this season. The argument is that it might have blocked the progression on Jake Trueman, but I’m pretty sure we’d have been better tonight with him in the team.

Depends what kind of steps you want to take. If Cas are to continue being a top 4 team then falling short will only be tolerated for so long. The biggest step you could take as a club is winning silverware and McDermott would give you the better shot in the playoffs.

McDermott wouldn’t have got you playing more attractive rugby but you would’ve probably stood a better chance tonight. One of his finest hours was winning away 13-12 to Wigan in the 2012 playoff semis without the suspended McGuire.

Don't blame you. I heard the lakes is a great place to watch the semi final/pinnacle of your team's season. As you are the go to man for RL, I've just booked myself a hotel in Windermere to watch the Grand Final.

Ultimately, 11 of 12 teams fall short every year though.
At that time Leeds had Sinfield to call on.
At the moment, Cas have no big-game player. Potentially, Hardaker could have been the one and with him I think we’d likely have won something by now, if only he could keep himself out of trouble (which he can’t).
I think Powell knows what we’re missing though. In time Mata’utia could be this player, but he’s only played a handful of games for us.

Cas are a show pony side, last years grand final showed that and tonight backed it up, basically they cannot cope when it matters and I don’t think they have the players to get to the next level, and this may be controversial but I don’t think Powell is all that as a coach, he doesn’t seem able to get the team up for it when it actually matters, has he ever coached a team to win anything?

Finally, that's more like the Leeds fans I know, & you wonder why...

Anyhow, well done to Wigan.

I only caught the odd ten minutes here & there, but on all occasions they looked solid, very Aussie like.

Cas on the other hand, were so below par with their handling & decision making. To beat the best you have to play at the top of your game,all game.

If I was a Cas fan tonight I'd be so disappointed with my team.