Quote: Rugbylad7 "You don't understand rugby do you son? Wigan weren't off form, they just weren't allowed to play against a far superior team on the night. I always thought that the honeymoon period with Maguire wouldn't last too long as on paper Wigans team is average. Silly people writing Leeds off. And the only wembley for Leeds is wembley itself or old trafford don't flatter yourself and think you're more thought of than you actually are.'"
Not only was the reaction of your team and your crowd on Friday night proof that Wigan's visit was your Wembley. The reaction of people like you afterwards is also proof.
No-one gets this upset about a result unless it was a game they really, really, really wanted to win, and really fancied their chances for.
The trouble is that wanting to be as good as Wigan isn't enough. I think you're all now realising that your last couple of titles were won in the interim period between the decline of one genuine RL power - St Helens, and the rise of the next one, Wigan. Hetherington has certainly realised that, hence his transformation over the last year from magnamimous lord of the manor to surly, petty, bitchy little whiner (oh, and number one house-caller at the RFL).
Sinfield's face said it all at the end of the game on Friday: "How did we not win that? We gave it everything we had, and by their own standards they were rubbish, but they still had more than enough in the tank to do us at the death."
But overall, Sinfield is not too bad a bloke. It's the rest of you - you're not handling your fall from grace in a manly fashion.