He's only played whipping boy tennis player rabble on his way to the final, hasn't he?

Had to admit to a laugh at that one.

Ah, do you follow Tennis attendances too?

I wonder if there's a tennis equivalent of William, harping on about the days of wooden racquets and how the Scandinavian game is far superior!

If you measured the game in drama and excitement it's up there but regards quality, i think a championship side would have gone into the changing rooms thinking, well we were garbage today.

Defence from both teams for the majority of the game was good, both teams in attack though made school boy errors, dropping the ball when your not even under pressure?

I think part of Wire's performance tonight could maybe be down to thinking this would be a walk over with some of your main guys out, i felt we overplayed when it isn't necessary and looked disorganised. To say Leeds deserved it was also an incorrect statement, 2 lucky tries. A draw would have been a fair result. I was entertained but that's the only thing i'll take away from that game and if we show up at the Hudds game playing like that then it's definitely a new name on the cup this year.

To Harrigans 'ashamed' comment, a bit strong, it's definitely the wrong word to use as the defence was quite good tonight, a more appropriate word if i supported Leeds would be 'disappointed' with the team on that last set

His last kick was awful. The last thing it needed to do was go dead in goal and give Warrington the chance to get all their forwards behind the ball and start centre field. He kicks that ball up in the air then Warrington waste 2 -3 tackles while their forwards get back behind the ball, if he kicks it over either touchline or just wide and in play then Warrington have to move the ball to the middle of the field.
And when will a team move some quick players to marker when it is obvious that a drop goal is coming? Peacock chasing? Come on.
The Leeds set previous to the kick was truly abysmal as well - Clarkson running 25 yards sideways before firing the ball at an unsuspecting teammate directly behind him stationary summed it up.

its an even simpler game if you go watch it in the pub with some mates, sit back and enjoy it without pretending you;re some pseudo analyst.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Good for me.

Great entertainment. Some poor ball carrying, some poor decision making, some gifts for tries...but my god was it entertaining!

PMSL

Spot on

Could not have put it better myself. One of the major differences IMO was Westwood - brilliant hard nut forward. I was impressed with the young lad Foster, who was not at all afraid of getting stuck in...and BJB had his best game for a long time that I can remember.

I don't pretend to be some all knowing analyst. I just say what I see. Some people don't like it, others agree with it. I don't care either way. This is a discussion board and I post my views, as do you.

Whoa steady on Murray doesn't come from Leeds.You onl insult Leeds like that

Bit over the top. It was a bit scrappy, but the intensity was good and to suggest that either side wouldn't have stuck 50 on a Championship side is either over-stating the standard of the Championship or just being disingenuous.

You miss my point, i'm saying that if two championship sides had played at that same levels, dropping ball as often with as little pressure as those mistakes were made under, they'd be disappointed with their performance.
Both teams didn't play well but the fact that equalled itself out kept the game exciting. If either team had played a higher championship side yes we'd have won the game but it wouldn't have been a whitewash at that standard.
You can't argue that the quality was good on Friday, it was way off both teams high standards

It wasn't peak performance, but I'm not sure it was quite as far off as you think.

A lot of the more structural aspects of the game were pretty good from both sides. I think some loose execution at times (and more in passages than the whole game) let it down a bit. But no, obviously it wasn't Grand Final stuff in quality terms.

Although that said, it acquired a big match feel at times, which was pleasing as that was the first time a lot of our youngsters will have experienced that in senior grade, which will have beena good learning experience.

Sutcliffe looks like he's played SL for 10 years, and I was really impressed by how well Alex Foster kept his head up after a slightly shaky start.

For me Sutcliffe is more of a McGuire than a Sinfield

He drifts in and out of the game, I've been very impressed with him so far, hope it continues

If I was ultra critical I thought he could have got a lot closer to the sticks on friday and those 2 points could have won it

Bloody good point, and you said it at the time.

As mentioned on other threads I thought more of our senior players should have stood up in this game.
JP again ran his blood to water.
But as for Kirke and Burrow they were both well below the standards our youngsters should be aspiring towards.
Burrow like Sinfield and McGuire until they got injured has had one good game in ten which for Leeds is simply not good enough.
Despite the SKY commentators trying to big (pardon the pun) Burrow up he did nothing special at all on Friday.

With Burrow, he didn't play particularly well, but I think you have to allow at the moment that he has been instructed (at least it seems that way) to look after Sutcliffe also. I am not saying I agree with that game plan, but it does appear that Burrow is trying to take pressure of Sutcliffe, as well as lead from the front, as well as call the shots, as well as meet the expectation of his own game.

I am not a big fan of Burrow, but everthing does need to be taken into account when forming views.

That may well be the case.
But the fact Burrow not only is trying to keep the opposition guessing what he is going to do next which is becoming predictable now.
He also keeps his own team mates guessing what he is going to do next even when we have a 2 man overlap.

.....and cover dummy half when McShane frequently can't get there.

I missed the Huddersfield and Widnes games but Burrow was excellent prior to those.

Smith will be worried about playing Leeds again in playoffs.

He likened their kicking game on the night, to the one that lost them the Grand Final last year. We won them at HQ and narrowly lost against them with a vastly under strength team. Smith will know that with more bodies back the chances of Leeds 'doing' Wire again looks likely. What will frustrate him is that they are playing poor against us in last few meetings. If Leeds face them in the play-offs Wire will know what's coming and that is a massive mental hurdle to get over.

As for Leeds, we matched them in a sloppy game and all we failed to do was bring the 2 points back. For a team that is likely to have their best league finish in 3 seasons doubt it will worry them too much.

As others have said, any criticism of Burrow on Friday needs to be tempered with the fact that he was trying to play as both half backs and at times dummy half as well.

Little disappointed the way Sutcliffe faded out of the game in the second half. Seemed to spend most of it lurking one in from Watkins on the right hand side rather than as a pivot.

Warrington will be surprised if they play that badly again this season and get away with it. Too much lost ball, too many forced passes, too many kicks not finding the mark. They will have to up it significantly for the playoffs, and I don't doubt that they will.

The question is whether Leeds can - in the short term at least, injuries and all - lift to a much higher level than the one they were at on Friday.