I too noticed the remark by Mc Dermott and it surprised me that neither Eddie or Stevo picked up on it. It is getting beyond a joke now. When Huddersfield played a similar style to us there were the odd complaints, and that was it, because they never became a force no one bothered after a while. With us it has gone on and on for two seasons now, I think we must have invented the three man tackle and the forward pass. Leeds and Saints were getting away with forward passes all through their so called glory years when everyone else were being pulled up, this last season though they have been penalized a few times, especially Leeds who were so used to getting away with throwing the ball forward they couldnt get out of the habit. As for our tackles they are not illegal.

So under your system, Leeds would have had to win away to Huddersfield (4th vs 5th), then away to Warrington (1st/8th vs 4th/5th), then win a Grand Final against Wigan or Saints. Which, except for also having a sudden-death match against Hull to make the route more precarious, is exactly what's just happened.

No its not absolute nonsense if it were you would be able to refute what I said which you can't do, see below.



But then they would not have beaten 3rd would they!

The only reason Leeds didn't play 2nd (and Saints didn't play 1st) is because the top 8 fixture format means certain fixtures are not possible. And that is a fact. As you have just proved to yourself with the above example because the current top 8 format means they would not have played either Wigan or Saints. In the top five system they would play both.

And I see you ignore the point I made that in week 1 the easiest fixture of the round is the reward you get for finishing 5th not 1st.

I also think it is a bit graceless coming out with the "everybody wrote us off and now look" speech.

I think regarding how good a coach Brian McDermott is, it will all come out in the wash in the long run when players' books are released and we will see how Leeds do over the next few years.

I remember back in 1993/94 season Wigan had a wobble when they were put under pressure by an emerging Bradford and a Jonathan Davies inspired Warrington, I think that was the year Wigan lost in the Regal Trophy final to Cas. There was a lot of talk in the media that Wigan's dominance had come to an end and the great Wigan machine was cracking. Then Wigan came through at the end of the season and won the league and Challenge Cup and the media talk turned to "well we all wrote Jon Dorahy off, but what a great coach he is....."

Certainly that was why I was excited when in 1996 Warrington appointed Dorahy as coach, I thought the double awaited for us



Then it became clear Dorahy was a divisive figure both at Warrington and as players' books, interviews after they had retired came out of Wigan, it became clear Dorahy had lost the confidence of the Wigan squad in 1993/94 as well and Edwards had become de facto coach for the latter part of the season.

Similar happened in RU (I know its not popular on these boards) when England made the world cup final against the odds in 2007, and the media story was how Brian Ashton had been written off but then inspired his team from rank outsiders to the final....when Mike Catt released his book he related a similar story to what had happened to Wigan under Dorahy, the players had got disillusioned with what was happening and rallied behind senior players.

No it didn't and it is not "my" system. It is the system that was in force for the first few years of the play off system (1998 to 2001). They used it for 21 years in Australis as well. It is not something I dreamt up this week!

You also don't understand how a top five system works because that is not what happened with the fixtures this time.

It is explained here :

Assuming Wigan Lost to Saints in week one that means this could have been a likely path to the final for 5th

Week 1 (Wire get week off)

Hudds v Leeds - Leeds win
Wigan v Saints - Saints win

Week 2

Wigan v Leeds - Leeds win
Wire v Saints - Saints Win (Saints to final,. Saints get week off)

Week three
Wire v Leeds - Leeds win , Leeds to final

Week 4

Final - Saints v Leeds

Leeds would be away for each game (as the team finishing highest always gets home advantage) and each game would have been sudden death. The system is designed that way deliberately because it means 5th has the hardest route to the GF - because they finished 5th! What it doesn't do is give them an easy game v 8th while the top four team batter each other much tougher games.

And you seem to strangely ignore that Wigan got home advantage and a second bite of the cherry, which is a much greater reward than a guaranteed extra game that you have to play against 8th.

He should've just give em' the 'V' sign

In Tomkins' defence, that was unscripted. He was reacting to the bile that he puts up with every week in the heat of the moment.

Sinfield's speech was obviously carefully thought out after the event. I know which one I find worse.

but this is not about Sam Tomkins is it? no one is denying his obvious talent.Kevin Sinffield is a RL treasure ,he is a left wing intellectual and that tells me he has had a very decent upbringing, thankyou Oldham.Enough said

It doesn't sound ignorant, but it does sound arrogant (and bitter).

Did Wigan and Warrington not know the format of the Super League competition at the start of the season?

The poster I was quoting was alluding to the Tomkins incident at Wembley, which is why I replied as I did.

Also let's not bring politics into it.