Mate - you're being a n0b. Just shut up.

Well sorry for being a realist and not having my head in a fluffy cloud of fairytales and make-believe.

I will always attend the CC final regardless of which teams are in attendance but to honestly believe that Leeds have fighting chance is simply unrealistic.

Leeds are in with a good chance of winning. Yes Wigan are favourites, and if play as they have done a couple of times this season, then they will. BUT, no one knows, Leeds might want it more on the day, and we could all be in for a big surprise.

This is Wembley, on Cup Final day, and although Wigan are an excellent team generally, the "occasion" can get to even the best of players sometimes, and Leeds have plenty of experience of big occasion games, while Wigan's young squad has not much apart from a Grand Final in 2010. This is not the one sided walk in the park for Wigan that many folk are predicting, and Leeds's players desire to exorcise a few ghosts from Wembley 2010 means that they are going to be well up for the fight this time.

Just like in 2010 they wanted to exercise ghosts from 2005....when they wanted exercise ghosts from 2003............when they wanted to exercise ghosts from 2000.

The point being, we have a crap recent record in cc finals. Added to that, we're playing wigan who are historically a bogey side for us on these occasions.

Exorcise

True enough, our recent record in Cup finals is truly rubbish, but that has to end sometime, and I just have a gut feeling that this year, of all years, in the season when Brian Mac has taken so much stick from us lot on this forum at times, that a cup win awaits!

Call it fate!

Adrian Morley believes: www.code13rugbyleague.com/2011/0 ... t-wembley/ So why can't we?

Adrian Morley believes: www.code13rugbyleague.com/2011/0 ... t-wembley/ So why can't we?

Exactly!

Of course they have a fighting chance FFS.

Wigan are obviously favourites given the form they are in, but if they are that superior to us how come they've not beaten us out of sight in the two meetings so far this season?

For those of you old enough to remember , this season is very similar to the 1976-77 season. Then we had a coach , Syd Hynes , who was not doing very well in the league and the critics were on his back. Only a continued run in the Challenge Cup appeared to save his job. A view shared with critics this season surrounding Brian McDermott. The season ended with a glorious , against the odds , victory against a heavily favoured Widnes team. The devastating events at Salford a few weeks earlier , where our scrum-half , Chris Sanderson , was fatally injured an a tackle in the game galvanised our team to win the cup. While we're not mourning the untimely death of one of our own this time , we are a team galvanised by the mood of the so called fans and experts who are , again , writing us off.
Keep the faith and support our team at Wembley to a glorious victory.
See you at The Torch before the game and after for the post match celebrations

That's a very upbeat decent post, with past reference and not just blind faith. Good job.

Some may call it blind faith I suppose, but I prefer to think of it as believing that this group of players seem to be able to produce an inspired performance when most are writing them off. It's one of the things that has made supporting them so enjoyable for me over the years. The highs, the lows, it's all part of the game isnt it really?

Yeh you're right, might as well just not have the final and just give Wigan the trophy eh?

I take it you're conviently ignoring our 2 matches against Wigan this seaon then as otherwise you'd have to believe we have 'a fighting chance'.

We'll see, and I hope I'm wrong and will probably have my previous posts regurgitated and ridiculed if we do win.

Although I promise not to use the phrase - "I told you so".

Are you for real?

Did you think Wigans opponents back in 98 had a fighting chance? You know, when lowly Sheffield went down on that famous day and brought the cup home?

Isn't the problem that a lot of fans fear a flogging like last year? If we had been playing well most of this season (and given sides other than Wigan a run for their money) people might feel more confident. As it is we scraped through the semi-final unconvincingly against a poor team that was under-strength itself. So I do understand some people not wanting to go through it all again.

Having said that, if I were still in England I'd be there, albeit more in hope than anticipation.

Rather than just disappointing Wembley sales I wonder if this will feed through to disappointing 2012 season ticket sales up Headingley Way?

If it does who will be to blame, surely not the fans.

I think Leeds should be worried, i've heard many saying they won't be getting a season ticket this season after all the poor home performances shown this year. The challenge cup sales could be an indicator of fans current feelings towards Leeds.

People want to see a winning and successful team..

.. so clearly everyone's going to get on the Leeds Carnegie bandwagon for this season instead

I've been supporting Leeds since 2000 and have seen them lose 4 CC finals out of 4, spending 100s in the process but no way will that stop me attending my 5th with the odds heavily on a Leeds defeat again. The die hard fans will all be there but the 10K or so bangwagoners that every big team takes to the finals just won't be there for Leeds this time. And quite frankly they can all get f'cked as far as I'm concerned.

Well said.

I couldn't care less how many we take. It'll just make the "I was there!" feeling all that more special should we pull off a win.

There is no doubting that we are MASSIVE underdogs, and rightly so based on form, but to say that we "don't have a chance" is ridiculous. That group of players can beat anybody if it clicks on the day. They haven't become bad players overnight. Any team containing Sinfield, Peacock, Buderus, McGuire & Burrow ALWAYS has a chance. It is as simple as that.

You see, I'm feeling quite torn. I do think we've got a chance, and I would be gutted if I don't get a ticket sorted and we win. Except we'll have won, which will cheer me up...

I resent the implication that I'm a bandwaggoner though. I have 22 years' service, including 6 losing cup finals, 3 finals as neutral (much less nerve-racking), 1 losing Regal Trophy Final, 4 Grand finals (2 of which we lost - didn't go in 2007 and 2008 because I wasn't in the country) and many years of home and away supporting.

The more I think about it though, the more I think I probably can't justify going to both the CC final and the 4 nations game at Wembley. And I haven't been to test match at Wembley before, whereas I have been to 9 CC finals, 5 of which were at Wembley.....