So, the distraction of the WCC has passed and it's back to the usual. Last Fridays game was one of the quickest I have seen for a while, and if Leeds can play anything like that again against the Saints, we should come away with the win. We all know it's unlikely though and we find ourselves against a Saints team coming off the back of a good away win against the Bulls.

For me, Saints away always seems the toughest place for us to visit. No matter how poorly they have played leading up to a home game against us, they always manage to turn it on just in time to make us look stupid. Ill be interested to see how Peacock is after the best game I have seen him have in a couple of years too.

My prediction is, an error filled game and either team by a try or so.

We surely can't play as badly gain there as we did last season. There's still some gaps in our side so a win would be a bonus IMHO.

Nathan Brown doesn't know where his first home win will come from but you can tell him recent history strongly suggests ..... it's going to be this Friday.

Leeds have lost on their last five visits to St Helens (including their season at Widnes) and on four of those the win was alarmingly comfortable from a Leeds point of view : by 28, 8, 21, 26, 40.

I'll still be tipping Leeds in the prediction comp but only out of mis-guided loyalty.

If we have no further injury worrys id line up like this..
Watkins
Vickery
Keinhorst
Moon
Hall
Sinfield
Mcguire
JP
Mcshane
Moore
Jjb
Delaney
Ablett

Burrow
Kylie
Ward
Clarkson

I think we'd be best utilising Burrow off the bench for the simple reason he'd have a better chance out of DH after the 1st 20 plus it should boost Mcshanes confidence to get a start and he would give us a stronger start distribution wise from DH imo.
Up front Moore would get us the quicker ptb we miss without bails and Jjb would do a stint there when either Ward or Clarkson come on.
Achurch and Kirke miss out for me because i dont think either would add anything to the pace of this game or the impact Kylie brings even for only 10/15 minute spells.
Griffin obviously has no future here ,Bailey is injured as is Hardaker and Bjb i think that's the best way to go with the lads we have available even allowing for Mcshanes nightmare short involvement last week i think we'd start stronger with him at 9.

Saints will be up for this,but I have a sneaky feeling for once after a WCC leeds could be be on the verge of a good run.There you are Ive put the kybosh on it

Looking at how Saints lined-up against Bradford in the backs,

Lomax
Gardner
Turner
Jones
Meli
Wheeler
Wilkin

and if it's still similar come Friday then perhaps actually maybe swap Watkins and Vickery around. The FB isn't going to get his worst test from the opposition kicking looking at that and the threequarters match up we could overpower them

Hall vs Gardner
Moon vs Turner
Ablett vs Jones
Watkins vs Meli

Target that matchup and exploit exploit exploit

......................................

In the forwards, drop Achurch for Moore, keep Ablett at centre because Ward played so well.

Leuluai
Burrow
Peacock
Ward
Delaney
JJB

Kirke, Moore, Clarkson (bloody use him), McShane (don't be afraid to directly interchange with Burrow if need be)

Mcdermott already said at the weekend that the players are hurting from Friday, and it will take some time to get over it.

He will stick with the same tired players no matter what.

I will be surprised if we come within 18 points on Friday.

Yup, I reckon a win at Saints, folowing on from a WCC, could be regarded as a bigger achievement for Leeds than actually winning the WCC. If you see what I mean.

Saints were pretty decent first half on Saturday and very ordinary second half.

Not sure which way the result will go. Either down and a big thumping by saints or a point to prove and we get a result.

I think it's time that mcshane got a starting role with decent game time. Make or break time for me, think he needs to start performing or go, but would like to see him given decent chance to prove himself either way

Anyone fancying sharing a taxi back to the coaches post game? Looking forward to going, but man am i not looking forward to that yomp back.

This is will be an intriguing encounter,after playing against several of the worlds best players last Friday in a high intensity match we should be on top of our game. My only fear is we may have drained too much both physically and mentally from last Fridays game.

Man up. Its not that far when drunk.

Are you coming then?

Should be. Hopefully get an early bolt from work. Otherwise im gonna have to do official and TBH, dunno if I can go back to that now.

The more I think about this game, the more I see a big Saints win. I just can't see us being up for it. I think Saints will race away in the 1st half and it'll be too much for us to pull back

Sadly but truly that is the difference between SL & NRL, would you (or the Storm fans) be saying that about their next game? If it were a regular season game for them rather than probably another pre-season game.

Exactly. We classed the game Friday night as a fast paced game compared to the SL. There were 274 play of the balls in our game. The day after in the Dragons/rabbitohs trial game there were 278. When the season comes round it steps up more. When the Playoffs come round it gets even faster. The difference is, our playoffs are a similar speed to what their preseason is like. Until we get a smaller league with the player pool we have, we won't be able to get anywhere near their intensity.

Keep that coming over the season, it'll make for interesting reading.

Sadly they aren't readily available here as they are on the Aussie stat sites. Ill do a ptb count myself on Friday just for comparisons sake though.

Always the life and soul of the party eh Johnny?

Wooooooooooooooooooooo!

And I wasn't on about doing it at the game



It's on sky so it should be easy enough to do when I watch the replay

It must be a Pudsey thing.

That's why I had to get away .... you can't keep burning the candle at both ends forever.

Not sure what other options he has tbh

There is now a coach park directly behind the North stand at Langtree park, so you have about 100 metres to walk too and from the East terrace.

If the coach park gets full. Then coaches queue up along Mcmanus drive post match, which means you will have about 30 metres to walk.


I hope this doesnt tax your athletic ability too much

I'm really looking forward to Friday night, the problem is I've said that every time we've played at Saints in recent years and come away majorly disappointed. I don't know if the players are just paying lip service when they talk about a "massive improvement" during the regular season, but for me it better look like starting on Friday night when I've once more shelled out and dedicated time and effort to follow the lads. Saints have injury problems like us, I'd expect a full blooded, mentally switched on performance should take us closer to the 2 points than in previous seasons.