Prior to the C Cup semi final and final Smith rested his thirty somethings and lost the league games concerned. The following week they returned for the semi and the final, were superb and Wire deservedly won the C Cup.
In the final eliminator Smith had to play all his thirty somethings at St Helens to get the win which took them to the Grand Final. Then the following week in the GF he had to play them all again. They couldn't do it the second week in succession whereas Leeds did.
When Leeds raised the intensity in the last fifteen minutes in an effort to win the game Wire couldn't go with them.
An excellent last try which was gained in a set following a Wire handling error.
On those things Grand Finals are won and lost.

I take it you missed Chris Riley's effort on Ben Jones Bishop that cost us a try ? I'm a fan of Chris Riley but even he would admit that it was an embarrassing attempt at a tackle.

I Agree I couldn't believe it at the game, and I couldnt believe it watching the replay it just didn't make sense it was woeful from us. Dropped balls can be explained away and are to be expected in a tight game with two very good defenses. I thought that the kicks were actually quite good but absolutely no pressure whatsoever.........that will trouble me for a while, I hope it troubles the players a bit more.

I'm surprised that Wire didn't kick more towards Jones-Bishop. He fumbled one leading to the Myler try but can't really remember anything else aimed at him and in last years GF he had a 'mare dealing with kicks. Hardaker and Hall looked extremely comfortable dealing with the high balls.

I don't think there is anything really we need to change as a result of yesterday.

What we learned from yesterday is we are a good enough side to be double winners. The game could have gone either way. In the end we lost because we made a couple of handling errors at times when we were on top and could have scored another try or two.

After we won the Challenge Cup there were lots of threads on the Leeds forum talking about lessons to be learned, their squad was ageing, too many players living off past reputations etc (pretty much like was said after we beat them in 2010).

We will still be there next year fighting for the title, lets hope that Old Father Time can stay off this group of players for one last crack at the top. In years to come we will remember this period with guys like Briers, Morley, Hodgson, Monaghan and Carvell as being probably the greatest time of our lives watching Wire and when we go back to being crap and having proper stuff to moan about we will be the old timers on this forum reminiscing about these glory days when teams feared and respected us, when we had the best coach in the league and played some of the best rugby ever seen in Warrington.

Against teams like Leeds we need to cut down on the flamboyant stuff & play basic rugby league to grind down the opponent. Boring I know but effective.

to be honest with you, when we got to the half way line with about 15 minutes to go, i was calling for 'warrington' style rugby, i thought that was the only thing that was going to win us the game at that point.

Only problem was, forwards were out on their feet, harrison should've been off the field before briers popped that ball up to him. mind as we now know, woody was done, and morley didn't re-appear at theback end of the game.

One thing that seemed apparent pretty much throughout the whole game was the difference in line speed.

In attack....Leeds really ran onto the ball, making good yards... Time after time we just seemed to be passing the ball along a flat static line, getting stuck and not making much ground. This happened for large portions of the game.

In defence... leeds pushed up quickly and got on top of us.... We on the other hand were not our usual selves... there was an awful lot of defending in a stationary line, waiting for the Leeds runner to come to us before making the tackle.... leeds were getting the roll on when they had the ball and seemed to make some very easy cheap yards... This can make a massive difference in a game. This was one of the main reasons we spent the game nowhere near the Leeds line.

And what was that constant infective use of the high ball about? There seemed little point in using that kick when there was absolutely no pressure on the kick receiver. Strange that we didn't change tactics a bit.

All in all the best team won... no arguments at all from me.

what about the empty wing with about 4 mins to go because they were still arguing with Bailey for trying to take mylers head off. chance begging?

Disappointingly this

Sorry! just found the other thread on the bailey / myler incident

What won the Challenge Cup wasn't 'flamboyance' but very well executed plays which Leeds failed to deal with. Some of the plays Wire made that day were as smooth as anything you'll see in the NRL. Leeds defended better in the GF, but wire didn't execute as well either. I really hope wire fans don't blame Briers or anybody else individually - you were very close and on another day could have won.

In any event, I'd say that under Tony Smith I wouldn't worry about the squad ageing etc. IMO he's by far the best technical coach in SL, and easily capable of managing a turnover of personnel and getting wire back to the GF.