This season's form? As a whole, or the last 6 weeks? The playoffs don't start in 7 weeks. The top 8 league games do.

It's an interesting stat. It's as relevant as referring to the entirety of this season rather than the last month or so.

Yet it seems to be replicating last season's dip alarmingly.

I'd agree to a degree though Singleton, Sutcliffe and a much lesser extent Ward look to have hit a bit of a wall form wise recently. Of course, if you want to ignore the last 5 or 6 games they haven't, but that would be silly.

brilliant post. only thing I would add is surely the coach, sat high up, should see a change of plan is needed and implement it. he is just as culpable as the players

There's a limit to what you can do as a coach once the team crosses the line. You've got maybe five minutes at half time to reorganise and reassess the position and make tactical tweaks. You can send messages on to the field during the game, but it still needs the players to put those into action.

At half-time on Saturday, you'd probably sit there and think that Leeds have been on the receiving end of a couple of sucker punches as regards the Burgess and Williams tries. No alarm bells ringing as such.

Where it started to fall apart was in the second half, and with the experience on the field someone should have been able to see that plan A wasn't working and make adjustments on the fly.

Play offs, super 8s, whatever. You know what I meant. We're aiming for home advantage in the semis/play offs whatever you want to call them.



Going back 10 years makes interesting reading too, it's equally as pointless.



And the year before and the year before that etc etc etc.



Yeah..... except Sutcliffe hasn't played for 3 and was dropped after one quiet game, Singleton hasn't had many minutes and Stevie Ward hasn't really dropped off at all.

I didn't know whether you were confusing the top 8s with the playoffs. I still don't. We don't get |"home ties" per se in the top 8s. We play some home and some away. We want a home tie in the playoffs but that is much farther than 7 weeks away, which is what you were talking about.

We lost to Wigan last week who two weeks previously were beaten by Hull KR who we beat the week after.

I'd argue a bigger frame of reference is a better indicator than short term form.


I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me. You mentioned those players as a positive. I pointed out they had started well this season but their form had dipped. You seem to agree Sutcliffe had a poor game and has been dropped. Great example of positive form.

Sorry I meant we're aiming for home advantage in the semis, so we need to be top or top 2 going into the super 8s really which is 7 weeks away.



I agree but... a year? When the squad was different and Leeds were clearly focussed on the CC above anything else.
I still believe we'd have reached the GF too, if not for that ridiculous last 10 seconds at Headingley.



Jeez if we're writing players off after 1 poor game then where do you want me to start...........

Speaking of which, the exact same scenario happened at the Magic game. Hardaker managed to squeeze over the line to avoid a drop out in pretty much the same spot next to the corner flag. Watkins passes the ball from the PTB, yet I've not heard no complaints about it being a stupid move that no other player would make, simply because on this occasion the receiver caught the ball.

what was the score at the time, how long was there left in the game? Even you are not comparing the two plays as being of identical significance in their respective games!!

If it resulted in a knock on and a Wigan try and they eventually won by 2 points do you say it's ok because of the match time or do you slate it saying it ended up costing us the match?

Think it'd be the latter.

Would MCGuire have given away a stupid unnecessary penalty again?

i think we are trying to go "better"

at this rate we could easily drop out of top 4 going in to the last 8

We looked knackered again, slow PTBs, slow line speed in the middle, and school boy errors. I don't think Cas were great, some of their defense was as poor as ours but, they pounced on our errors. You have to make the opposition work for their points, and we're just not doing that.

i cant see us beating saints or wigan in next few weeks. on current form hull have a gimme to next round =/

i really dont understand why we are playing so terribly

2 wins from last 7 in league. Just not acceptable or good enough several players are just not good enough and neither is the coach, big changes needed in off season.

It does feel depressingly like last season, bright start followed by an accelerating decline. Cas are a good side and we have some key players out and a short turn around, but to lose at home with such a lacklustre performance especially defensively, does not inspire confidence for the end of the season. Still get those key players back, get our first choice 17 out and this could all look like a blip.

Cas are a poor side devoid any real talent. If McDermott can't beat this lot with the squad at his disposal no wonder he has a constant stream of critics.

With this performance, Brian has earned quite a bit of criticism tonight.

And yet when those of us on here were saying to rest, rest, rest for the Wakefield game we were shouted down and McDermot encouraged to select the strongest team available.

Simple as - we played a tough game at the magic weekend and lost players to injury and fatigue, put the entire first team out against Wakefield and then did the same on a short turnaround for what we knew would be one of our toughest home fixtures. To be successful you have to take risks, and the risk worth taking was putting out the second team last weekend - exactly as we did against Bradford and London last year which by the way worked perfectly, as we won the Challenge Cup.

We have the benefit of a 9-day turnaround now and the emphasis has to be on starting well, tightening up the defence and getting the ball wide. It's all very well having the best outside backs in the league but if our decision-makers are constantly throwing short balls inside and never getting us out of the central 20 yards of the park we aren't going to be scoring tries.

Lastly, what the hell was the point of benching Sinfield? He came on and dragged us back into contention, giving us field position and a kicking game we'd woefully lacked in the first 40.

It's alright saying "get the ball wide" but when the players in the middle aren't gaining quick ball, it's not going to make much difference.

Injuries haven't helped either, and we didn't have much choice against Wakey, but to play whom was available, but Cuthbertson, Ward, and Peacock look in dire need of a rest.

Doubt you were shouted down in reality. It was pointed out that we really didn't have anybody else to pick against Wakefield due to injuries.



Sinfield dropped just two games before the CC game vs Hudds.

Dropped to the bench just two games before the CC game vs Hull. (Maybe not picked at all if we'd have had more numbers fit)

Again the CC rears its head on this teams focus.

The quicker we are knocked out of the Mickey Mouse cup the better.

I can see why 35-year-old Kevin Sinfield was on the bench rather than playing 80 minutes twice in 5 days. I can't see why he was brought on for Aiton not Burrow.

Getting a team to focus solely on the games that aren't included in the season ticket price. Classic Hetherington.

Because Aiton looked absolutely knackered, thats why.

I was way too p!ssed off to post on here last night...
That was the worst loss under McDermott in my eyes. The bloke is an absolutely ****ing moron. Using just one sub during 52 mins of play, when the side is effectively playing a 2nd Easter, that I just cannot get my head around. Burrow starting over Sinfield and staying on the pitch was equally as shocking.
McDermott will never get sacked by GH, we need a petition of 20K+ signatures and be banging on his door.