A very valid (and under-estimated) point

When Leeds were dominant, the game plan was speed at the ptb, support in numbers and run teams off the park. It worked well for a season, then teams (Wigan in particular) rumbled us, slowed us down at the ptb & knock us off our game plan.

The game is constantly evolving and what's great one season, isn't necessarily great the next. MM is credited with being the first coach to introduce NRL style 'domination' tactics, which again worked brilliantly last season, but not as effective this year, as other teams have developed similar styles.

I guess what makes a great coach is one who keeps up with the evolution of the game - perhaps even one step ahead. As you say, this is more important (and far more difficult) than peaking in September

Firstly congratulations to Leeds and St Helens for getting to the GF, I am looking forward to a great match.

What if all coaches build through the course of the season to peak at the business end? And who's to say they don't. I think Wigan's approach and belief is that they have the players to win every game so that is what they set out to do. During the course of a season they must leave room for testing different approaches where they feel this is necessary and this is where I see a key difference. One approach - and I think this is Wigan's - is that you aim to win the game and try new ideas - another approach is that your first priority in a particular game or run of games is to try new ideas and winning the game is of secondary importance. I think either approach is valid and would back either.

While what happens at the end of the season does depend on your approach it is influenced by all sorts of other things that happen in your team and the others. This year the slow build approach has come out on top, last year the more ruthless approach won through.

All credit to Royce Simmons and Brian McDermott for getting their teams to the GF, I'm pleased for them and feel very relaxed about it. I enjoyed winning the GF and CC and the memories are still very fresh, as a Wigan fan I have been spoiled and I love it. Looking forward to next year - who knows how it will turn out!

Leeds and Saints have managed to hit good form just at the right time. Wigan seem to have felt the effects of no week off all year and a difficult end of season run-in proved to be too much. Not sure about Wire, they were odds on to beat Leeds, in fact the title was theirs to lose imo. Complacency maybe? Or the opposite of Wigan and have had too many weeks off, though their form leading in to the Leeds game suggests this isnt the case.

We have had a great season, 2nd in the league and Challenge Cup winners, if anyone on here isnt happy with that, get a reality check and go and support Wakefield or somebody, they would give anything for what we have had.

Please - this has got to be a joke, surely? Never has a side looked so clueless & rudderless as we did under Millward. If we'd kept him, we'd have been relegated & would still be picking up the pieces now.

In response to the OP - there's certainly a case to be made for the 'peaking' approach this season, however previous years have not supported this theory as the top 2 have nearly always got to the GF. Peaking for the end of season always seemed to be Noble's approach, but that for us always meant looking unfit at the start of the season, losing a lot of games in Feb/March, and then having too much to do to get to a GF from 4th/5th.

As others have said, I think our problem this season was a) the lack of forwards come the end of the season (or all season in Fielden's case), and b) not only did we get to the CC final, but we had to play 2 very hard matches in July/August to get there, plus a tough final, which compounded the problem all CC finalists have faced.

As for Wire, not sure why they didn't get there - certainly shouldn't have been knackered. You do just wonder if there's a sub-conscious level of doubt within the players when it comes to the play-offs. You don't win the CC twice in succession if you can't handle big games, but there just seems to be something which stops them performing to their full abilities in the play-offs.

Thats what i think lost us both that extra 5-10% that would of took us into grand final imo, lets face it Leeds and Saints didnt have any pressure for back end of season and they look fresh at the moment. Wigan and Wire were like two dogs fighting over the same bone but now we look stupid for being the 2 most consistent teams . I would seriously against anyone outside the top 6 say play a load of younger players next season and use the big guns in the big games then phase them back in fully the last 10-12 games. Thats how daft this format is and if teams did that maybe they would consider changing it?

It was reply to a poster who said that Ian Millward would have had Wigan peaked for the play offs

Losing fielden for the season, Mossop (who had been immense all season) for the business end of the season, and Hock, who, had it gone to plan would have been hitting match fitness at semi final stage were the big factors - not MM peaking too early.

Add to that an excellent saints defence and we just cAme up short. I can't criticise MM for that.

Even our back up prop O'Carroll was injured most of the season, then Cross - hence Coley and Lima playing far more than he probably would.

Genuine question: did we ever peak this season?

We never once hit the highs of last season. This year was a constant trudge.

Leeds' crowds are way down this season - ok they are compensated with final appearances, but if this plan backfires any club will be in financial trouble (until we fans get the message and stop turning out for a 27 week qualifying tournament which causes the system to change).

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that Sally is a Wire fan, and was pulling your leg mate.

I think people have looked too deeply into Friday's result to try and find reasons Warrington didn't win. In 2010 we had a shocker getting blasted by Huddersfield but against Leeds on Friday it was a close game that was swinging either way and it could easily have gone the other way - it was 24-24 going into the final minutes and many times in the past Warrington have won those sort of games with a Briers drop goal - including in the playoffs a few years ago when we scraped into the top 6 and knocked Leeds out away. If we'd have edged out Leeds, I bet the commentators would have been gushing about how tough Warrington were, how this is our year, we can not only win the blowouts but the tight games as well...

I also think Warrington were overrated by the media before the game and Leeds were underrated, because Warrington have had blowout scores, the expectation was that we were going to beat Leeds by 40 points and the fact we got dragged into an arm wrestle (which we ended up losing) people now say we bottled it under pressure...I didn't expect us to smash Leeds, I thought we'd win but I thought it would be a similar type win to what Wigan got in the CC Final.