I've always felt that, but then some other people say they like it that way, or that's how it's always been in rugby league and I should stick to watching football etc.

It may be a great achievement to twice win the Grand Final from 5th place, but for me it's more akin to that Hull Challenge Cup win under John Kear, when they knocked out all the top league sides to win it. You can be little better than mediocre for 27 league matches, then just win a few one-off games and be crowned champions.

Wigan and Warrington have both been far more consistently excellent over the past two years. During Mc Dermott's two seasons at Leeds they must have lost as many matches as in the previous four seasons, when they were often winning the Grand Finals too.

Ove the past two years Leeds have simply sustained their long run of success, but via a more difficult route because their overall standards throughout the season have slipped.

Yes teams who finish top have the chance of another bite of the cherry (most of the time) if they lose their first game. That is the reward for the consistency that you spoke about earlier. As it happens the 2 most consitent teams of the year contested this years Grand Final. So the system can work it's more a case of some coaches are better at game plans for those one off games than others. So even though Warrington have a muche better squad than most, McDermott had the better game plan. I'm all for it.

I can barely understand you most of the time.

The play-off system essentially comes into force after a 27 game league season and turns SL into a knockout comp, similar but not the same as the challenge cup. Are all forms of knock-out wrong? I don't understand

Leeds have been rewarded for being able to successfully negotiate a knock-out competition and raise themselves for the big occasion. McDermott's key contribution here is clearly instilling a sense of belief into his players that, despite finishing 5th, they could go on and win. Leeds do not (IMO) have the strongest squad in the competition - Wigan and Warrington have more depth and some outstanding individuals - and yet they came away with nothing.

The players did it all, the play-off system is unfair, the weather was too dry - how many more excuses are you people going to come up with before you just back down and admit that McDermott had proved us all wrong, he clearly has got a great amount of coaching ability and he's going from strength to strength?

stevo was moaning about the play offs what he tends to forget was when he won the title with dewsbury in the 60s they won it from 8th place the play offs arent a new format

So lets step back a few years and go back to what it was!! team finishes top, bottom couple of teams get relegated end of! So you have a runaway team, they have won the league with 4 rounds or more to go, bottom team know with same time they are down, whats the point of the remaining games.
Our comp has made the decision to go this way! finishing top has tended to benefit that or second! apart from the last couple of years.
I personally think the play offs have got too complicated and should prob be top 6 but!!!! thats my opinion, sat night was a spectacle of rugby league, there were supporters from every club there and yep its taken over from the challenge cup.

As for the thread, yep Mac is rubbish!! has no control or influence on anything thats happened with Leeds the last 2 seasons, the players singing his praises today mean nothing

Am I right in thinking that certain posters are suggesting BMcDs success at Leeds is solely down to inheriting a great Tony Smith side (circa 2004-07) but his perceived failure at London was all his own work and nothing to do with the players he inherited? Seriously?
I'd suggest we finish 5th lately because there's more sides capable of beating us on the day coupled with the emergence of Wigan, Catalans,Warrington and even Huddersfield in the last few years. We'd regularly take 12 of the 16 points against them but recently have been getting 4 or 6. Also Bradford, Wakey and Cas like nothing better than beating us and the two Hull clubs are hardly our best friends either. As the team everyone wants to beat I think Macca has done a great job. He's a successful BRITISH coach FFS!