powell has rested key players in games this season hasn't he? Didn't he do it against saints earlier in the year

One thing is for sure - if we play like we did against wakey our season will likely be over Friday night

yes i know that but if saints win on thursday Cas cannot influence their presence in the top 4

Any way, onto the game itself. we seemed to get a clean bill of health last Friday. Any news on Manu, i assume he will overcome last week's illness. What about Cas, how did they get on injury wise yesterday?

Whilst very unlikely, if Saints were to slip up and lose to Salford on Thursday night they'd be out and Hull would be guaranteed a playoff spot.

Would Hull then rest guys for Cas on Friday and risk dropping to 4th if they lost and Wigan won? Or you go strong and try win for 3rd place?

Try and get 3rd I think

Players will obviously be going into the leadup thinking they have to win, even if somehow hudds beat Saints beating Cas on their own patch would be a huge boost. in the same vein this is why Powell will want to go all out to beat us, why play differently to how you've done all season, you can't second guess injuries and you certainly can't play half hearted otherwise you run the risk of getting injured even more. Cas win and they continue on with confidence, lose and that introduces a few doubts, small as they might be, it certainly a negative at the part of the season you don't want.

I think the meldown comment is a bit over the top this season (last year we really did bomb at the back end) but how we performed against Hudds before wembley really encapsulated how poor we've been at times, you look at the Cas home game, the cup 1/4 and semi final and those performances are so incredibly far apart it is massively frustrating.

We did incredibly well against Wigan and sneaked it against Wakey, to pull off a win to ensure top 4 is going to be a big big ask, can we do it, yes, we have the firepower and hopefully the desire and mindset. Will we do it, really depends which Hull team turn up, most of all we just need to keep our discipline, play to our strengths both in attack and defence and not start playing panic rugby when under pressure which usually compounds itself with errors and giveaway tries. That 2nd half try against Wigan was because we tried to force the game at a ridiculous point in the match, that eventually cost us the game.
Should be absolutely rocking in the stands and hopefully a nice tight clean contest with us on top by even a point will do.

Salford, not Huddersfield, play St. Helens.

We've been pretty gash in the league for most of the year so if we miss out we only have ourselves to blame. Despite all the talk coming out of the club about peaking at the right time, we find ourselves have to win against the best team in the league to be certain of a play off place and I've seen no real evidence we're peaking at all.

Does anyone think we look like a GF winning team? I hope I'm wrong but can see us 5th at the end of the comp

Difficult to disagree with that.

The hope I'm left with though is that the players seem to relish the pressure games, and somehow go up 3 or 4 gears for knockout rugby, which Fridays game is for us now.

No I don't, much as I'd like to. We've been far too inconsistent all year.

That said I think we'll get the right results this weekend to secure 4th and then go back to Cas next week. Then anything can happen

I'm hoping that the result of beating Wakefield whilst being a very patchy performance mirrors last year when we were struggling and managed to beat Wakey and then went on a winning streak.

Win at Cas and we go then go to Headingley for a SF which hopefully if all goes to plan sets up a Hull v Cas GF.

We have have the squad to be able to get the results needed so no excuses.

This^^^^^
I really don't think Cas want FC in a semi, even at thier's, our record against them says it all. I can see Powell resting players for the semi. A win for me, then revenge for post Wembley game, at Headingley. The double for me, but I'm a happy clapper and a club apologist.

We're fully fit and set to go
Cas don't need to win at all
We really do
There should really be only one result

Cas haven't needed to win for weeks, yet are still beating sides easily, that themselves have needed to win - so we cannot use that as a reason to for us to win.

If we lose, then I will be disappointed at the way the league has gone again, but say thank you for the back to back Wembley wins, get ready to enjoy the World Cup and roll on 2018 and the 2 games in Australia

Exactly, Cas look more dangerous when they're playing with no pressure. The only high pressure game they've played this year they lost. With the shackles off and throwing around they look dangerous. At least we're going in knowing exactly what we have to do.