I agree, Myler will be missed , looked great towards the back end of last season. However i'd rather see O'Brien step in than Ratchford

Listen Sally the oracle !
Others are allowed an opinion on here the last time I looked and from my point of view Leeds did not deserve to be called team of the year they were pee poor for the majority of the season when they beat us it was more by a dip in performance by us than an exceptional performance by them IMO !
Sorry but if u don't agree with it but you'll have to live with it sulky cinnamon that's my opinion :0)

Sally is right - Leeds weren't winners by accident and deserved the title of champions. It's worth remembering that they got to the Cup final too and could have won with a different performance from the officials. No mean feat in one season, especially one with a new coach.

(Many Leeds fans aren't in too much of a position to crow, amusingly, as they wanted McDermott sacked early on).

Were we the best team over the calendar year? Yes, I'd say we probably were. But we have a lesson to learn about when the trophies are handed out, and we still haven't learned it. Leeds most certainly have from a number of years at the very top of the game.

I still think a lot of people are overthinking this. Any team can lose a game to another good side it doesn't mean we did something wrong in the preparation.

What lesson do we need to learn? Was Tony Smith to blame for not preparing us properly to win that game? What would have happened had Myler not been offside and given away that late penalty that Sinfield kicked? It could have been very different and we could easily have won SL last year and nobody would have said anything about us preparing wrongly.

I think if people were expecting us to smash Leeds by 60 odd points they were kidding themselves, it was always going to be a tough game. Look at the Challenge Cup final, Wigan were in a tough game against Leeds and they edged home.

In 2010 we blew the playoffs admittedly, but that year we had won the Challenge Cup. Wigan last year won the Challenge Cup and they blew it in the playoffs - does it mean that Wigan need to learn lessons about when the trophies are handed out....no.

History has shown that teams find it hard to back up a Wembley run in with a strong end of season run in, only twice has it been done since the cup final moved to August, once by Saints in 2006 when they were head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the league, and last year when Leeds didn't win the cup final but they had to play all those games and they finished the season much stronger than Wigan did.

I think we will be strong contenders for the Challenge Cup again this year and actually I can see a situation developing this year when we win the Challenge Cup and then tail off a bit, finish 2nd or 3rd and get knocked out of the playoffs. Would this be regarded as a successful season? Yes for me.

I agree with some of the things that Sally has said.

At the end of the day every club knows the format of SL before the season starts, you have a league which is mainly used for gaining the best possible finishing position to get you an easier path in the play-offs.

You then have the grand final play-offs which is viewed as the pinnacle of our sport, the team that wins that is known as the SL champions, again we all know this before the season starts.

In football Man United have become experts at peaking at the right time, they are a lot stronger over the xmas period than they are in the early part of the season, they are also very strong from xmas onwards towards the back end of the season. In football you obviously don't have play-offs but it just shows how important it is to peak at the right time of the year, have Man City peaked too early as they have mirror imaged what we did in the early parts of the year ????

Man City had a 5 point lead over United and have played some breathtaking football this year and blew quite a few teams away, ring any bells ? They also had virtually twice the goal difference of United, now both teams are level on points and the goal difference is well within United's grasp.

Leeds Rhinos and Man United are very similar in what they have both achieved in their own sports, they both have one thing in common that both Man City and Warrington don't have just yet, thats experience in knowing how to win the biggest prize of all and knowing when and how to peak at the right time.

I aint saying that City won't win the premiership title, they may well win it but United have valuable experience on their side of which both Mancini and City don't have at the min.

Experience cost us against Leeds last year, we panicked and didn't know how to put the game to bed. Experience makes you wiser, i'd like to think that in a similar situation again we we'd know what to do.

The Rhino's have won the SL Grand Final and from numerous different league finishes since 2004, the common denominator in all of both our successes and our failures is how we have peaked as a side come play off time

These discussions have never occurred on these forums and in such large numbers prior to our win last season <from the lowest finishing position>

It is clear that the Rhino's know how to play to the SL format and also know how to win the week to week intensive play off games, those that sides finishing well above them on the weekly rounds in 2011 did not

In 2012 i would love the Rhinos to do a repeat of their 2004 season and go on to win the SL by a clear 9 points and then win the GF, But i would also accept a lower SL finish but with GF glory

We were peaking at the right time of the season though, we went into the playoffs in great form, first playoff game we had a tough Huddersfield side and smashed them 47-0.

Leeds beat us by two points, 26-24, thanks to a Sinfield kick late on. That could easily have gone the other way from 24-24, if Sinfield had missed the goal and Briers had kicked a drop goal the other end then 25-24 to us and everybody would be saying about how great we were that we could not only smash teams by 40 clear points but win the close ones as well. When it comes to those small margins it's not about preparing differently or who has peaked at the right time of the season but about how the game unfolds in the final few minutes.

The idea that we can't win in big games doesn't wash with me because it's not like we're a young inexperienced side....most of our players have won two Challenge Cups, Morley and Carvell have also won Challenge Cups with other clubs, Hodgson has won an NRL Grand Final, Hodgson and Joel Monaghan have played State of Origin and Joel has played for Australia. If we didn't know how to 'peak at the right time' then how come we went to Wembley twice and won twice.

Didn't we beat Leeds in 2010 when Leeds were garbage at Wembley, and then we got offended when the press said Leeds had bottled it, we said it was because we were that good nobody could live with us. Leeds have lost 5 Challenge Cup finals in recent seasons maybe they need to learn how to peak at the right time and how to handle the intensity of these big games....?

CBA to read all the bickering but as Padders stated, the Leeds play off loss was down to a dip in form and injuries. Let's not forget Monas was playing with a damaged shoulder. Granted he must have said he was ok to play but in all honesty were Leeds so good that night? We were poor with he ball and gave up possession too easily with handling errors.
It's an opinion and that's why we go on here. Embrace it and smile!

Do you seriously believe that we peaked for the Leeds game ?

You could see very early into the Leeds game that we didn't have our normal energy or intensity, we looked flat and lethergic from an early stage. Even if we had got past Leeds i'm not sure we would have had a great deal left for the final.

Leeds were far from brilliant that night, they took advantage of some lethergic and lazy efforts in defence from us i.e Bridge and Grix just to name 2 that cost us dear. If it wasn't for Matt King's usual high level performance it would probably have been a lot worse, King and Morley were 2 of our best performers and ironically they were our 2 players that have both tasted grand final success, Brett Hodgson obviously went off injured. You could see how much Morley wanted it with that late smash to get us the ball back.

Leeds were gritty but nothing more than that, they took the chances well that we offered to them on a plate. We contributed largely to our own downfall that night.

Major flaw in your argument Sally, is that in 1986, nobody was claiming that we were the champions.....We all fully accepted that we had got a good couple of months at the end of the year and that concluded with us winning a relatively MINOR trophy......Halifax were rightly lauded as that season's CHAMPIONS.

Now, unfortunately in my opinion, we have a situation where people accept a play-off winner as champions ahead of a side which dominates over a full season.

Yes, before anybody tries to correct me, I understand that we all know the rules before we start in February, but it still doesn't mean we have to accept it as the right thing.....Padders might be a ranter, but he has a point when he slates Leeds's right to be hailed as the League's best, when, in fact, they won a 4 week play off at the end of a 7 month season.

Well i have read it on here about the strenght and depth of the Wire squad,so it shouldnt be a issue if we dont have Mlyer for a few weeks.AT the start of the season.For me just put Ratchford in let him so us what he can do.He has said he wants to play there so now he as the chance.

Its now up to Ratchford to take his chance.

Whoever they put in, at least its happened now before they go to Aus and work on warm weather training which usually means ball handling and attack methods so the "new" halfback wont need to learn all over again

We've got Ratchford & O'Brien who will be more than adequate to play halfback & Grix who can also do a job. Great squad depth.

I think it will be Briers and Ratchford to start the season, SL experience to try and get us off to a solid start. Like most other wire fans i hope to see Gareth O'Brien get his chance at some point but obviously not because of an injury to someone else, he looks to be an exciting prospect that will take on the opposition line.

Thats the style style of half back i like to watch, he would compliment Lee Briers well, in our half backs we'd have organisation, a great passing game, a very good kicking game and a player that likes to attack the line.