Seems to be a bit sidetracked with playoff talk, but I liked what Sinfield said.

They were written off, belittled and widely criticised yet reached both finals and won 1 of them. Well done to them.

I knew you'd be first to reply. Shouldn't you be campaigning "Burrow for England" somewhere?

That is a very easy question to answer. They should have to beat 4 th, 3rd , 2nd and first. That is what the top 5 playoff system requires and that is certainly not a pointless system. It certainly legitimatises 5th winning it more than this system does. Bradford winning it from 3rd was harder because they had to beat both teams above them.

In the top 8 system we have, in week 1 the advantage goes to the team finishing 5th because they play 8th, the weakest team in the competition, whereas 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3. Much harder games. So in our current system in week 1 the 5th placed team gets the biggest advantage which is utterly stupid. They get an easier game in week one than all four sides who finished above them and that is just not right.

If we must have a top 8 system it should be 1 v 8 etc and 5th should be away at 4th in week 1. Not at home to 8 th which is far too big an advantage given the league record that will have got them 5th.

I didn't like the what McDermot said whilst being interviewed on the pitch afterwords. He said that he was glad it was Saints they had played in the GF as opposed to another club, as Saints play the game the way it should be played. A dig at Wigan and the style we play IMO.

Have you not worked out that this is now the standard euphemism for "Wigan are dirty ****ers"? As also used by Sinfield, Tony Smith, John Kear etc etc

Typo etc............

What absolute nonsense

The only reason Leeds didnt have to beat 2nd was because 2nd managed to lose two games in a row. Had they won, leeds would have had to beat 1st, 2nd, 4th and 8th, whereas 1st would have only needed 4th and 5th to get to the final that is a huge advantage, the fact neither Wire or Wigan could capitalise on their advantages is their fault, not the systems. They were given enough advantage to make it to the final and couldnt.

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 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_five_play-offs'"

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