for those of us who worry about these things, warrington's defeat today means they cannot overhaul us in the regular season. Widnes and Leigh already could not. Only Catalan can prevent us from getting a top 8 finish and with a points diff of around 200 in our favour we are all but mathematically there now. still a battle on down there with hudds win over catalans dragging wigan heavily into it

Yeah, Salford and Leeds confirmed in top 8 today, but not us yet.

wigan needs 2 more wins possibly 3. they are away at hudds, widnes, and catalan and home to warrington and leeds.

they couldn't could they?

So. A couple of weeks have passed. We have won 2 and are now mathematically safe. Warrington continue to be terrible, Catalans not much better. Is anyone going to put their hand up and admit what a ridiculous knee jerking thread this was (and I'm not neccessarily refering to the OP)?

But surely you must be including the OP or are you worried your cuddle crew membership may be cancelled?

Are we? Can't Catalans catch us?

I am including the OP. But there were plenty of other daft comments.

I will however hold my hands up and say I worked it out wrong. I thought it was now assured since the clubs below us have to play eachother. But I think there is one very specific outcome:

We need to lose every game (obviously).
Warrington now can't catch us.
Catalans need to win every game and overturn a 200ish PD.
Hudderfield need to win 5/6 but lose against Wigan.
Wigan need to win 4/5 but lose to Catalans.
Saints need to win 3/6 and two of their losses need to be against Hudds and Catalans.
Wakefield need a win from anywhere.

Or in short. Theres more chance of me winning the euromillions two weeks running.

Indeed. *Alarming*

It was a huge overreaction to a few poor performances. It was possible in the same way that possibly Oxford might suddenly take league 1 by storm and beat Toronto 50-0 in the promotion final. It was never going to happen.

You wouldn't be saying that if the wigan and Salford games had gone as most people had expected.

Perhaps not. And I definately wouldnt have been saying it if we were 0 wins from 17. But neither those things happened did they. And "most people" can speak for themselves.

And if we did lose Catalans would have still needed 4/5, the chances of which are slim.

They've got Steve McNamara on board now though.

Tbf I think thats a good appointment.

I know some sports fans like to be pessimistic but how could any Hull fan seriously think they were in danger of the Middle 8's a few weeks back. Until the last 2 wins you could've been in danger of sliding down a few spots to around 6/7 and making a top 4 spot hard work but the bottom 4 are well off points and performance wise. Hull have been a bit Jekyll & Hyde this year and put in a few awful performances (as most have) but never looked like they'd go on a long run of bad form.