No matter how bad the performance was yesterday. The squad are still part of the greatest squad in recent years, in the clubs history books and have walked the league this year. We lost out in a knockout game, but there’s no shame in their efforts this year.

Only morons would suggest such a thing.

Of which there are plenty of on here.

Calling the Grand Final "a knockout game" isn't the best way of avoiding the 'sour grapes' tag.

All finals are knock-out games, by definition. Doesn't stop them from being the final, or the most being important game of the season, or crowning the champions.

It always makes me chuckle when fans try to disrespect the grand final. If winning some measly, poxy, one off game was so easy, and such a poor measure of being a champion, why do so many teams find it so hard to win?

League champions are usually the team who garner the most points over a lengthy season.

The fact that as a sport we reduce the league to a sideshow and elevate a one off Cup game to decide our champions shows how weak and unmarketable the game is.

Can you imagine the invincible Arsenal team of 2003 finishing 30pts clear of Liverpool in the Premier League and then losing to them in a one off game at a neutral venue so Liverpool got the Premier League trophy?



It’s a joke and completely devalues twenty odd rounds of fixtures. And I’m not a Cas fan.

It's only like the New York Giants finishing with a 10 win, 6 loss record in 2007 and beating the unbeaten New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. RL has gone with the American sports way of determining who the champion is.

RU do it and 1st have often failed to win the final and the NRL do it. In football in the lower leagues they have playoffs, why not just have the top 3 promoted? Why let 6th place have a chance if they finished 12-15 points behind 3rd?

If football didn't have Champions League and thus their own race for the top 4 and it was only 1st place or nothing then I wonder if they'd still have first past the post. That teams can finish 4th and enter a CHAMPIONS league and can be crowned champions of Europe without coming close to winning their domestic league like Livetpool in 2005 is questionable.

If you really think about it, the US sport comparison doesn't hold water as the competition is made up of teams that don't play each other home and away, you know like in a League?

The NRL also do it, and nobody seems to think it devalues the best rugby competition in the world. And of course British RL have traditionally done it for the great majority of the years in which the sport has existed.

In fact, it's not only the traditional way of deciding champions in our sport, but also so widespread as to be completely unremarkable to fans of other sports.

The whining and crying is pathetic. When Saints won the hubcap and then didn't win the GF, thank the Lord so few of our fans made such a song and dance trying to rewrite history.

It's bad enough to be losers. It's worse to be bad losers. Especially after being hammered in the most one-sided GF of the last 20 years. Enough with the self-serving nonsensical whining. Leeds are champions.

Everyone who advocates FPTP usually compares it to football as if there's only two sports in existence and RL is the only one with play offs. They also tend to be the same people who come out with things like "Why should I buy a season ticket if the rounds don't matter as they're just about qualifying?" Well using the football analogy there are teams in the Premier League who know full well at the start of the season they are highly unlikely to win anything or qualify for Europe but are also highly unlikely to be relegated. Theoretically then you could say their entire 38 game league season doesn't matter, but their grounds are invariably still full.

In most cases with people I know it's Warringtonians saying it too, yet they support a team who between 1991 and 2009 won nothing and between 1994 and 2011 didn't challenge for the title under any format. Did those seasons just not matter then or did those people go to the games (I know full well that they did) because they enjoyed watching their team and still do.

A ridiculous amount of unneccessary whinging goes on in RL circles.

Nor do our teams play each other home and away. Christ on a bike, it's one thing to ignore the historical fact that we traditionally decide RL champions on a Grand Final - as well as in 19 of 21 seasons since we went professional - but it's just beyond a joke to ignore the present. Our teams don't play each other home and away. Magic weekend means the teams don't have identical fixtures.

Any other facts you'd like to ignore in a desperate attempt to pretend we live in an alternative universe where Cas are champions?

Thanks Roy but did I say that anywhere in that post that Cas are champions? I think you'll find that I said that the US sports model wasn't a good comparison, the posters own scenario of a 10-6 Giants beating an unbeaten Patriots team in 32 team competition says it all really

I'm also fully aware of the historical fact also and that we have a skewed set of fixtures so why don't you calm down a little

sorry if I mistook you for a Cas whinger. It’s my fault for following Rod Studd on Twitter. He’s like a ferret down a rat-hole, and just won’t let it go.

Ha ha no I'm a Warrington Whinger, so whilst my sympathies may lie with Castleford and the way their season has ended, speaking from bitter experience we all know the rules of engagement at the start of the season....bit of a thread drift from Zak maybe not a bad thing

Where did I say there was?

I was referring to that performance last night, they are so much better than that. Yes Leeds played well, all through the team they played to their full potential, Cas, for whatever reason didn't & it wasn't all down to Leeds playing stellar finals rugby.

I never mentioned "shame" & neither am I stupid, just strangely disappointed they didn't give it a go.

This poster has never been wrong to my knowledge with all things concerning Castleford and is the only poster I look to for answers.

Poop beat me to it

Fyi the most 1 sided final ended 31-6.
Rod Studd isnt a Cas fan, if he does your head in so much don't follow him.
Generally speaking it's been more neutrals who've moaned about the concept not so much Cas fans.
Most Cas fans were pretty damn excited to be appearing in our first grand final in the super league era. We lost, we move on. 2 finals in 3 years after not appearing in 1 for 20 years I am hopeful we will tick a W off in 1 sooner rather than later.

Confirmed failed a drugs test after the Super 8s game vs Leeds on 8th September.

Whoever was in charge of issuing the notice, why did they wait until 2 hours before the 19 man squad was due to be announced for the Grand Final? Abysmal timing and probably could have been announced weeks ago.

Is this how it always works? How come Zak could play in the games between the failed test and last week?
He played a key role in Cas' win over St Helens in the semi final even though he'd already tested positive for a banned substance?

Results obviously weren't in by then, other wise he would have been banned.

UKAD waiting nearly a month is incredibly poor form though.

Maybe we should be thankful for that as we wouldn't have got to old Trafford without him.

It was mentioned on another forum, given that some said 4 year ban, could it be a performance enhancing drug rather than cocaine as we're assuming? I don't know if the answer is in the language of failing a drugs ban. Would they refer to a PED as a "drug"?

So? If he failed on Sept 8, it should not take almost a month for them to decide to inform him of a failed test.



You are aware that the D in PED stands for drug, right?

As far as Cas are concerned, indeed. I suspect I might think differently if I was a saints fan though.