Leeds only win because everyone else is rubbish.

It's a new and interesting variant on the "Leeds only win because they bribe the refs" drivel you get from some opposition speccies on here.

Not defend the WCC and going out at home in the first round of the Challenge Cup were disappointments for me in 2009. The rest I'm happy with.

The WCC was an opportunity missed to do something no other club in the history of the sport has ever achieved. (In addition to matching Bradford's and Wigan's record in the event) That makes it important to the likes of myself just as much as winning a third championship is also highly important and significant.

Winning the WCC this season would have been a huge step forward granted, however failure doesnt (for me at least) represent a backwrd step either.

Similar with the CC. If this season we had completed a full hat-trick of available major trophies then again this would be a huge achievement, but I cant accept failing in this respect is going backwards.

Doing the double this year is for me a step forward and with the squad improvements for next year I can see us doing the triple maybe even the quadruple.

It's not the sole reason but it's one of the reasons.

Leeds scored less, conceded more (net -98 ) over the regular rounds after the addition of Salford and Celtic diluting the overall quality of the 27 fixtures.

St Helens faired worse by losing three extra matches as compared to 2008.

Leeds and St Helens remained the class of the field only less classy than in 2008.



The strength of the 2009 squad, better or not than 2008?

That afterall is my basic point in all of this and has been over the course of the season.

Player policy and retention at Leeds cannot be questioned by anyone IMO

How many Leeds academy lads have won GF in the last 5 years, 14-15?

Just looking at the game on Saturday, who was the last player in that team to make their Leeds debut?

Some players will move on thats just life, Leeds manage it far better than anyone else IMO.

I will stand to be corrected but havent both top 2 clubs LOST more games this season than in previous.

How does that square with the "rest" being so rubbish ???

2009 team achieved the League and Championship double

The round of the cup you go out in is irrelevant it's the opposition; we lost to a team who had not been beaten in the comp for over 3 years, I would have been confident that we would have won the cup had we had Warringtons run to wembley.

I do wonder if some fans would only be happy if we didn't concede a single point all season.

Read the thread again and you'll see that I've already stated that Leeds didn't move in that regard this season, though the weaker St Helens did. Even then St Helens also lost eight in 2007 while still finishing top. So your statement doesn't hold true in either case probably.





While I wonder if some fans are happy to see the biggest club in British RL finish as second best or worse in any comp they enter.

Same boot other foot.

Warrington's run to Wembley really does sum up the importance of the CC in comparison to the GF.

With Warrington's run to Wembley we would have won the final. Then suddenly would the squad have been good enough for TVOC?

Would those games have been games too far for the squads fitness?

What if a run to the final had injured Sinfield or Burrow?

No, I'll take what we have and be grateful for it.

I should.

That's why you invest in the squad during the off season to enable you to challenge on all fronts over the course of the season.

Are you saying Leeds can't or shouldn't aim to do the Championship and Cup double?

So you would of preferred Warrington’s season to ours?

I think G1 has stated on many occasion that he would rather win the cup than not but he sees the GF as the more prestigious.

More like it appears I may be the only poster expecting Leeds to challenge on both fronts. I hope the club management and it's players are more ambitious than some of it's fans.

What makes you think they aren't?

4 Finals in the last ten years (of which 3 ended in narrow defeats). IIRC a couple of other semi-finals on top of that. Apart from Saints, Leeds record in the Challenge Cup since their last win stands comparison with just about anyone.

Bluey has done great for you guy's , but next year he needs to do better in the CC to be called a Legend

You need to win it

It would be nice to win the CC. It's still a great bit of silverware (plus I might be able to make it to Wembley).

No not at all, I just understand that the others teams are also ambitious, apart from sign every player in the league I'm not sure what you think GH has done wrong.

Not really.

So if the top 2 teams have only managed to maintain their 2007 /8 levels then how have other teams diminished ????

The problem with the CC is it represents a step to far IMHO in terms of wear and tear etc on the players and a distraction from the really valuable competitions, whilst the one off WCC is just that a one off preseason "friendly"

The fans acceptance of Leeds' recent lack of success in that particular competition (rather than the clubs.)



The winning of the comp record would suggest otherwise with St Helens (5), Bradford (2), Wigan, Hull and Warrington all succeeding where Leeds have failed in the last ten attempts.

When you consider that 1999 is a one off Challenge Cup final victory in 31 seasons it relegates Leeds to that of a novelty winner along with other novelty winners such as Castleford, Featherstone, Halifax, Hull KR and Sheffield.

If we'd had the run Wire had we could have played our Academy in a couple of games.

But we didn't. We got, as Tony Soprano has pointed out, a team that hadn't lost in that competition in 3 years. We had to play our best team available to have a chance.

We lost. It doesn't mean we didn't want to win it. It doesn't mean I didn't want us to win it.

Like you I would take what we have and be grateful for it. And I will enjoy it because life's too short and Leeds have been too crap over the years to do otherwise.

Gary Hetherington was candid enough to accept my criticism. Whether you understand it or not I can just about live with.

So, if we'd managed to be lucky enough to be drawn against and beat York, Featherstone Rovers, Hull KR, Wigan and Huddersfield in a 5 match sequence would that really make any difference to your view about the ambition of our CEO and the strength of the squad?

He should have been steadfast in the view I expressed at the time and the view he and Mr Jepson are expressing now that this is a great, talented and successful squad.

He was appeasing knee jerk supporters during a rough patch for the club. He has to persuade idiots to buy season tickets, replica shirts and such like.

I have the luxury of being able to say our fans are morons and don't know what they're talking about. He doesn't.