Quote: Mrs Barista "The problem as such is that if you sack off the cup, which is a more realistic target requiring 4 wins, you put all your eggs in a basket months away. You could deliberately put less into the cup and have loads of injuries in September scuppering either chance of silverware. It's probably been exacerbated for Hull in that last year our cup run was all the other 4 of the top 5 and this year included Cas, Wigan and Leeds so highly draining (in fact, apparently, we've only faced non top tier opposition twice in 6 years in the cup), but the principle remains.'"
I don't agree, having to win 4 games without slip up, no second chances is harder than getting through to the play-offs and having to win only 2 games.. You can afford to lose, you can have injuries through the season or go off the boil and still make the play-offs, we proved that this season, we've being gash in parts, we lost TWELVE games out of 30 and still made the play-offs. It's then only a 2 game knockout comp. We played the top teams both last season and this to win the CC so it's no different to playing the 2 games in the play-offs to win the GF except you have to beat potentially 4 top SL teams to win the CC. IMHO winning the CC is harder if you get a really difficult draw than winning 2 games at the end of the play-offs.