Warrington 'the form team in Super League' shipping 40 points at home to Wakefield.

Wigan's 'fabulous attacking structures' get them a grand total of 8 points against Bradford.

Cheer up lads, everyone else is e too.

You take a look at the next 2 rounds of SL fixtures too and it offers much optimism from Leeds point of view if we do the expected job against Bradford and London and get 4 from 4 points.

Wigan have the very short turnaround of Sunday to Thursday and play the inform and confident Salford. Followed by a tricky trip away to HKR.

Warrington having lost 2 on the trot go away to Catalans. Followed by a big match against Castleford.

Saints play Hull away who showed much more life this week against Cas and Saints have Walsh now out for the remainder of the year to add to Lomax and also Hohaia misses the rest of the regular season. After that they face a Wakey team going well.

Cas will stroll past London next week but then have to go to Warrington away.

Hudds got back on the horse today but face a tricky test away to Wakey.

By the time Round 24 is finished we could be sitting pretty and with Saints injury problems then that fixture doesn't look as daunting in Round 25 regardless of whether we make Wembley or not.

If I was making a prediction now, I'd back us to take the LLS, Wigan to take 2nd from saints on points difference, Huddersfield to overhaul Wire for 5th and Cas tying up 4th place.

Widnes look horribly out of form, so i'd back HKR to overhaul them with Wakey narrowly missing out on the final day.

So I'd put in for a top 8 of:

1. Leeds
2. Wigan
3. St Helens
4. Castleford
5. Huddersfield
6. Warrington
7. Catalans
8. Hull KR

It's definitely making the top 8 race more intriguing since it began imo.
We can still slip up ourselves though as we've seen against Wakey and in past seasons.
Although top spot would be nice for me the biggest game is the CC semi we have to be as close to our best as possible because irrespective of form I'm sure Wire will be hugely confident given their CC record against us.

(34) St Helens - Hull FC, Wakefield, Leeds, Warrington, Huddersfield

(32) Leeds - Bradford, Warrington CCSF, London, CCF (TBC), St Helens, Wigan, Hull FC

(30) Wigan - Salford, Hull KR, Widnes, Leeds, Warrington.

(30) Castleford - London, Widnes CC, Warrington, CCF (TBC), Bradford, Wakefield, Catalan.

(2icon_cool.gif Warrington - Catalan, Leeds CC, Castleford, CCF TBC, Huddersfield, St Helens, Wigan.

(2icon_cool.gif Huddersfield - Wakefield, Widnes, Warrington, Hull FC, St Helens.

Just looking once again at the remaining fixtures and the teams below us have a few matches against each other guaranteeing some dropped points for the teams currently placed 3rd-6th. With our comfortable points difference over the others (barring Wigan) then top 4 will be nailed on with 4 points from 4 against Bradford and London. After that will hinge on the final 3 games vs Saints, Wigan and Hull.

2 wins from 3 should get us top spot,
1 win then maybe 2nd/3rd
0 wins and 3rd/4th

We must not take for granted the game vs the bulls which is just what Wigan did.

I think the recent tough matches and close finishes will have been good mentally for the youngsters who may well be needed to hold their nerve in the playoffs.

The return of Burrow and JJB (and both in good form too) is a real boost and I expect Sinfield's enforced rest will have him mentally and physically ready too. We must use the Bradford game to continue our improvement and get back that steely defence and keep building our confidence.

Nope we shouldn't, but I think that had a lot to do with Wigan having to play again on Thursday vs Salford. We'll have a full 7 days and Bradford will have the shorter Sunday-Friday turnaround vs us.

Interesting.

From that, warrington have the toughest run in, with cas the most favourable. Wigan and hudds in second behind cas for favourable run in.

Very hard to make an accurate prediction but based on the fact theres no CC for them to worry about, there's a reasonably favourable run in (in comparison to others) and a superior points difference I'd say wigan will finish in the top 2.

The priority for leeds (besides the CC) should be securing a home tie in the playoffs and so a top 2 finish.

It'll be a squeeker based on that run in though.

The points difference is no longer something we can rely on, and saints although they have lost walsh have a good record at headingly. Then we finish with tricky games at hull and wigan.

You would like to think we would beat bradford and london and not suffer an upset, and then beat saints on account of 'home advantage' and no walsh, which hopefully would be enough (based on other teams dropping points in other games) to secure top 2.

Can't ever remeber a run in as tight as this.

Wigan forum are now saying its a conspiracy because we Always get a longer turnaround.I only looked on there to see their reaction from todays game and lo and behold

TBF whilst Sky have a say in some games regarding which are on tv then all clubs have a certain say in when they play their home games and some prefer Fridays and some Sundays.

Those on the Sunday always risk a short turnaround whilst at worst playing Friday you'll have a 6 day turnaround to a Thursday game but more likely a full week to Friday again.

Granted when you're the away team like Wigan were (and Cas were when we faced them on a short turnaround at the Jungle) then you can't really change it but is that anybodies doing apart from the team who arranged the game? Did they ask Bradford if they could've played it Friday instead?

It's quite good for Leeds to mostly play on Fridays. With a large chunk of our away games inevitably on Sky (thus usually moved to Friday too) then you'll mostly have a 7 day turnaround throughout the year. Don't actually think this is why we have our home games mostly on Fridays as I believe it's more to do with better corporate gigs attending or something along those lines but it does work out better for us I believe. But their isn't anything from stopping others from following suit as it's not like Sky demand anybody play on Sunday for tv reasons.

It's also worth noting how certain teams perform in "big games". Having a tough run in is one thing, but failing to take advantage of "simpler" games is also problematic for some sides - you'd expect the top 6 to be in a similar order to the "top 6" table yet currently:

[size=100[code
Win Draw Lose Pd Points
Saints 6 0 2 45 12
Huddersfield 5 1 2 14 11
Wigan 4 0 5 21 8
Leeds 3 2 4 2 8
Castleford 3 1 5 -20 7
Warrington 2 0 5 -62 4
[/code[/size

It shows that whilst Leeds are about average in those "big games" they have avoided far more banana skins than Huddersfield. It should be a very interesting run in

Whilst a "Top 6" league table does bare some thought, we've already seen Saints thrash Warrington and Warrington thrash Saints back so I'm not sure this particular year we can take much from that.

I think all the teams near the top are quite closely matched (compared to 07-09 when Leeds and Saints were miles ahead of the rest) so it can just be a case of facing teams at the right/wrong time. Would Saints be 2 points better off had HKR stuck with Sandercock a week longer for example? Without injuries surely some results would be different.

Nothing I've seen so far this year in terms of play has pointed at any team being clear favourites over any of the others when the playoffs arrive. The only piece of clear evidence I've seen effecting the playoffs so far is that Saints will have to do without two main men in Walsh and Lomax.

The top 8 looks to really have kicked in......just as we're about to scrap it.

Problem with some RL supporters is very short patience.

During the top 5/6 era people complained that the GF was mostly just 1st vs 2nd and the playoffs were meaningless as the teams in 4th and 5th had no real chance of reaching Old Trafford.

Skip ahead a few years and 4th and 5th win it and people complain that the top 2 don't have enough of an advantage in the playoffs.

Except we're not scrapping it per se, just changing the reward you get for being in it.

There was nothing wrong with the 5 team play off IMO.it should be that with a 12 team league 1 up 1 down.not overly convinced by the new structure but am willing to see how it goes and give it a chance.

Plenty of interest left on the end of this regular season though which is nice to see.

But we are really. If the 8th placed team can't mathematically make the top 4 after the super 8 stage they can't make the GF can they?

Totally agree with this. All it needed, as quite a few said a couple of years back, was to reduce to 12 clubs in Super League, and this is what we would have had each year.

The new format will be a dead rubber for a lot at end of the season, after the split.

Wigan always have to blame Someone, it's a culture wane has introduced to the club. Anybody in the top 8 could take them out home or away and it's getting to them lol on and I believe Cas have had the most short turnarounds

Haven't done the research on it, but I would be surprised if after 23 rounds the 8th placed team has ever been 14 points behind the 4th place team very often, if at all.

Even if it was 6 points, it still means you have to win three more (assuming your points difference is as good) than the 4th place team over just 7 games. And four of those 7 are away from home. Of course you are also relying on 5th, 6th, and 7th, not doing aswell also. Next week is the 23rd round of this season, and the fourth placed team is likely to be 11 points ahead of the 8th placed team. Not going to happen is it really?

If the 8th placed team want to reach the Grand Final under the current system, they have to win three consecutive away games against higher ranked opposition. How often does that happen?

I thought the discussion, as pointed out by Gareth, were that things were improving further down the ladder. Therefore what happened previous isn't really cut and dried. However, the point is that top 8 Is top 8, and once there all in with a chance. Now it is only top 4.

Just to highlight this further. I absolutely hate the idea of bonus points scoring, yet it appears likely that this will be brought in next year under the new structure.

Had that being in place this year, we would go from a likely 11 point gap under current scoring by round 23 between 4th and 8th, to a 16 point gap. Again highlighting how pointless those end fixtures are. The 8th based team would have put everything into avoiding relegation, and nothing to play for come the extra 7 rounds.