And to have those fist 17 on the pitch more, the games missed through suspension and injury have been just unbelievable. I'm sure (I hope) next year our season will get off to a much more competitive start.

Any valid points you did have you just shat on with that last one, what a load of sht, if ever there were an example of loser mentality, that's it. The experience last night will be invaluable in this teams journey which will see them achieve success I'm sure.

I thought we were a 30% chance of winning yesterday but we just weren’t good enough in key moments. Missing Sezer was huge for us and we’re effectively running with one decent prop (Mik).

Lots of positives this season. For me the crux is getting rid of some dead wood and making a couple of astute signings to freshen things up. Very interested to see the likes of O’Connor, Walters, Holroyd, Edwards, Sinfield etc impact on first grade in 2023.

So another key point is that the RFL needs to sort out the disciplinary process bc it has been laughable at times
this year and is really turning fans off the game.

We all recognise the need to protect players’ health but they’re doing it wrong.

Also need to improve standards in refereeing somehow: part of that might be some re-interpretation of some rules which are too complex - or introduce a little more common sense. Agreed with Rohan Smith’s comments re. offside for example.

That is absolutely key. Regardless of incoming signs we just have to do better in terms of getting key players on the pitch. Newman played less than 25% of games, Fusitua less than 50%, Sezer about 50%, and Holroyd a big fat zero. If all of those had been at around the 70% mark chances we'd have been round about top four all season, not having to perform miracles to make the six.

I thought Leeds were absolutely dominated yesterday and the score line flattered Leeds.

That said, they have some very talented young players they can build a team around

Something that stood out watching Saints last night was their intensity and speed over the 80 minutes in both attack and defence. We know their outside backs get them going (but thought we handled them well), but the speed of movement from Welsby and Lomax is far above what we have. They change the point of attack before the defence even get chance to realise what's going on. And their defence just stifles teams.

We had our moments to really make it a game, but didn't take them, but I came away immensely proud of the team. Showed enough last night, and over the previous few weeks to show we'll be battling at the top next year. For the first time in ages, it feels like we are moving in the right direction.

Someone said that Saints haven't had a drop like other teams. They did when Cunningham was coach and really fell away, but they addressed it quickly. It's taken Leeds far too long to get a proper coach in place and he's got players on contract he'd probably like to move on. But we've got the makings of a good squad, just need some Bielsa type additions (who are better than the players they're replacing).

But discipline has improved since Rohan came in. So has defence and our attack actually started to score points. Players have improved individually and hes given young players regular games like O'Connor and Walters. An unexpected trip to OT to finish the season will be a huge experience for our players. Hopefully Smith gets to bring his coaching team in.

You’re coming across “the era my team was dominant in was the best”. I watched some of the most competitive games from the early 2000s recently. Yes you had Farrell and Sculthorpe throwing haymakers, but you would have thought the ball was a bad of soap, and if the teams would have spent half as much energy defending as they did fighting it would have been a much different game. Two of the tries in 2004 Good Friday just had Long running straight through the middle with no one even close to him.

As for next year onwards, yeah, I’m currently feeling confident going 5 in a row. Getting Dodd back into our spine will be huge, and I’m very interested with the 1 or 2 signings were likely to get to replace Grace. But I don’t agree that means the attendance will necessarily be lower. As has been put elsewhere after watching the game on TV, it’s the premium, neutral seats that seemed to have the biggest gaps, and I suspect that’s cost of living coupled with people buying WC tickets. No WC next year will likely see them return. Obviously another Catalans appearance will make it tough to match this years but otherwise I don’t see any real reason to be negative about the attendance or the upcoming season. Leeds and Wigan should be both right up their competitively next year, it’s absolutely make or break for Warrington with the transfers they’ve had this year, and if Tony Smith can’t turn Hull around, then there really is no hope over there.

When you look at the money that can be earned be a youngster/ academy/reserves etc.. in rugby league it's just not enough

You basically have to be obsessed with rugby league to hope to make it to super league before you can make a modest living as a sportsman

It's not good enough..
The salary cap should be raised to whatever the top clubs can realistically afford.

The SC issue is tricky. I think everyone knows we can't compete with NRL to even keep our own players,nevermind entice a half decent player to come here.

The problem is where does that cash come from?. Individual teams could certainly invest and promote better but that can take time.

Probably unpopular opinion but I think we need to drop to 10 team franchise system to split the money between less clubs and give security to grow the squads and not panic buy to avoid relegation.
We then need to look at other stuff on how its calculated with home grown / marquee etc etc and the overall limit itself.

Any changes have to be sustainable longer term. I dont think there is a silver bullet but we do need change.

A few thoughts.

Firstly congratulations to saints. Pretty much better across the park. If we had to lose I'd rather we did it going down swinging in the way we did. At least we walk away knowing that the rubbish during the build up didn't affect the outcome.

I know there's a lot of optimism but I suspect next year might look like a step back rather than a step forward. Our end of season has been a fabulous turnaround. Even the most parochial saints fan would admit that some of last night's goal line defence was good, hurrells try excepted. That epitomises what Rohan has brought to the group. Is it sustainable through an entire season? No. Or if it is, I've never seen it done. We need reinforcements otherwise we'll only see a toll in injuries and suspensions arising from the desperation needed to halt bigger, stronger men.
I also question whether our spine has the quality needed to lead us to the big prize. Big question marks over 6, 7 & 9 for me. Good enough for a top 4 side, definitely. But title winning? Given it's what we have, Smith has to elevate their collective level. Which in fairness he may be able to do, given thi will be his first preseason to work with them. My worry is that next season is a reversal of this, i.e. start like a house on fire only to fizzle out like a damp squib.

Despite immediate concerns over next year I remain optimistic. The end of this season has seen players and fans alike regain their pride. I've been to a lot of grand finals and while I've heard victorious fans make a lot of racket, I've not heard fans of a beaten team equal ours last night. That has been brought about by the players, good, bad and indifferent, and the coaches. It's been a memorable ride.

Are you saying you don't think Morgan Gannon is a SL quality player

At 18 years old too

I think Leeds still have some big questions over the hooking role. Leeming's a good attacker but doesn't allow the team to play with as much control as when O'Connor is on the field. His defence is also questionable at times. O'Connor looks a great prospect and a better defender but as we saw last night we lacked a bit of forward momentum with him on the field (albeit without a second proper half-back). Not sure that starting with O'Connor and using Leeming in a Dwyer-esque role from the bench is a long term option, but not sure O'Connor is the kind of player to bring impact from the bench either.

I think it all depends on wether Corey Johnson fulfills his potential

We've got two reasonably good hookers ahead of Johnson, and I'd expect O'Connor to get better with a preseason training in the role. Johnson might not get too many games, and its up to him to take the game on when he gets picked.

Next year will be interesting. If we have Sangare and Holroyd available we may see Smith change the defensive tactics. The 'rope-a-dope' quite passive defence he's used this year was a lot to do with the lack of size up front - we can't hold bigger teams so its better to let them make yards but hold the defensive shape. The problem is as we saw in the GF, a quality attacking team will beat you more often than not. The way to stop Sts attack is by being better defensively across the field, starting in the middle by actually stopping them making easy yards.

Our attack would look very different as well if we had Newman and another strike centre. I agree re the halfbacks, although Sezer looked pretty good toward the end of the year. Another worry with them is they seem pretty injury prone - Austin missed 8 games and Sezer 14 - and our only real backup is still very much a kid.

We do have issues with the squad still - Dwyer, Sutcliffe, Thompson, Briscoe, Mustapha are going but we still have too many who aren't quite good enough or are injury prone, or both. It might take another year or so to get us out of the hole we were in, which was far deeper than GH and co seemed to realise until halfway through this year. At least it looks like we are getting rid of the right players though.

For me issues with the spine are less about quality and more about depth and availability. Especially if the plan is for myler to be first choice fullback and Zak one of the centres, we’ve seen it only takes Sezer or Austin to be out to prompt a reshuffle. As good a prospect as young Sinfield might be I don’t think he’s ready yet and would benefit from a loan. Likewise Tindall, although his performances back end of the year were admirable I think he’d benefit from playing every week.

Converse to that I’d like to see Edwards get a gig as first choice back up centre. Johnson is the interesting one, wasn’t he one of the first new contracts signed after Rohan arrived?

Aside from Prior, who has already confirmed he is going, we also have Sezer, Austin, Tetevano, Fusitua, Bentley, and Walker (I can't see another club coming in for him) out of contract for 2024. Potentially a lot of cap to throw around, but also a huge motivation for those players to get on the pitch and deliver consistently.

I often think having having more teams (same as nrl) and less games would be ideal but money wise it just won't happen anytime soon.

Maybe their tv deal in nrl has a lot to do with the wide gap financially?

Dropping down to 10 could be a little too drastic.

It's so frustrating. The game just doesn't seem to have grown at all does it. The comp and players really deserve more.

Roby should be spoke about as bbc sports personality of the year. But I doubt he will get a mention.

The profile of the game and players is hugely important to attract the next stars but I don't see what has been done in the last few years to remedy that??

The only one I would keep out of that lot is Bentley.

Saints are really classless in victory (especially some of their fans)

Did any of the players or coach give credit to Leeds after the game?

Hard to disagree. Sezar is a very good player, but doesn’t seem to have the heart for it. He’s the Joe Bugner of the Side, (there maybe better RL examples)

based on what? having a couple of injuries?
i think based on the play off game against Catalans alone it shows he is up for it

Academy lads beat Saints 26 - 22 after extra time. Sounds like an epic game.

Yes they all did, they were also very complimentary of what Rohan Smith has done in a very short time. Think it was Lomax who also mentioned Bateman taking out Sezer to miss the final.