Quote: Fatbelly "I am totally and wholly gutted, this was our season beyond doubt this was our season.
We have been the best team in SL this year and we got knocked out in a one off match. If we played Leeds 10 times we would win 8 draw one and lose one, last night was that one. We are a much better team than Leeds but we faced an intensity that we have not all season and perhaps our lack of play off experience meant that we were not fully prepared for the intensity that we were to face, TS can tell the lads what it will be like but they will need to have experienced it to know what to expect.
'"
This lack of playoff experience line is a myth. According to the rlproject site where it breaks down finals appearances, Warrington's team last night have played in a combined 159 playoff games, including 10 Grand Finals...thats not to mention the Challenge Cup semis and finals that many of them have played in. Look at the names in the side you aren't talking a bunch of nervous kids who have never been in a big game before, its players who have played in State of Origin, internationals, NRL Grand Finals, Super League Grand Finals and Challenge Cup finals....
Playoff experience:
Brett Hodgson: 14 (Parramatta 4 inc. 1 GF; Wests Tigers 4 inc. 1 GF, Huddersfield 4, Warrington 2)
Joel Monaghan: 9 (Canberra 7, Warrington 2)
Matt King: 17 (Melbourne 12 inc 2 GF; Warrington 5)
Ryan Atkins: 5 (Wakefield 1, Warrington 4)
Chris Riley: 6
Lee Briers: 8
Richie Myler: 3
Adrian Morley: 27 (Leeds 8 inc. 1 GF Sydney 10 inc. 3 GF; Bradford 4 inc. 1 GF; Warrington 5)
Michael Monaghan: 14 (Canberra 3, Manly 6 inc. 1 GF, Warrington 5)
Garreth Carvell: 12 (Hull 8 inc 1 GF, Warrington 4)
Louis Anderson: 4
Simon Grix: 3
Chris Bridge: 7
Ben Westwood: 8
Jon Clarke: 5
Mike Cooper: 4
David Solomona: 13 (Sydney 3 inc. 1 GF, Parramatta 4 inc. 1 GF, Wakefield 2, Bradford 2, Warrington 4)
Earlier in the season when we lost to Huddersfield twice, and Catalans and Hull nobody said that we had lost our bottle - we just had blips where other teams were better than us on the day and that's what happened last night.
Also as Cullen liked to say, 'games are won and lost on fractions', if Briers had kicked a drop goal a few minutes earlier and Sinfield had been going for a try instead of a drop goal at the end it might have ended differently, and nobody would be talking about us not being able to deal with pressure of the playoffs, it would have been all about how Warrington can win the tight games as well as the blowouts and are unbeatable....
