Quote ="BigRob" I would also say that I don't think its a co-incidence that both Leeds & Saints have both looked tired, sluggish and slow for large parts of the season and I think it's to do with having been consistently at the top for 6/7 years with little to no rest.
From 2003 - 2010 (SL regular rounds & playoffs & Challenge Cup games)
Saints - 275 games played (9 finals, 1 WCC)
Leeds - 271 (8 finals, 4 WCC's)
Wigan - 268 (3 finals)
Bradford - 256 (4 finals 2 WCC's)
Warrington - 251 (2 finals)
Hull - 251 (2 finals)
There isn't much difference between Leeds & Saints and Wigan but when you then take into account that Saints have played in 9 finals and a World Club Challenge and Leeds 8 finals and 4 World Club Challenges compared to Wigan only 3 finals I would suggest that continually playing in those big games has taken its toll over the years. And when you compared Saints to Hull or Warrington, Saints have played nearly an entire season extra since 2003. That has to have some kind of effect.
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That certainly would explain why Quins, Wakefield, Cas and Salford looked so full of energy and fight last year and won so many games. Oh, hang on.....
