all season .. ??? Leeds played 39 games in all competitions winning 27 games including 2 out of 3 major trophy finals

A success rate of almost 70%.....worthy champions indeed.

-what- for the game-i think not

It was fine for Wigan in the 90`s to buy success. Now that was bad for the game.

For Leeds to do it without cheating the salary cap is remarkable. We should applaud such success.

If someone offered me Wire to finish 5th and win the final i'd take it, so can't see his people can begrudge Leeds, if Leeds want to make getting to the final as hard as they can for themselves that's up to them.

It makes us better people if we just stand up, applaud Leeds, say well done and you were the better team, because they were.

there is no point in the league games apart from making sure you win enough to make the top 8. i doubt they will change anything but they need to as its becoming abit of a joke

'The play offs should be top 4' - Convenient how the play offs should stop at the team ABOVE where we finished. Leeds were not as bad as people were making out in the season, either. We finished one loss behind third place - just 2 points. What would be said if we finished 4th and won - something which could easily have been possible with just one more try/goal in a game this season? We should have a Top 3 play off system? Or should we just not have a Grand Final at all? Simply crown the league leaders champions and leave it at that? I DO agree that more should be done to make a big deal out of the League Leaders shield, but the 2 are not opposites, we can make a fuss over the league leaders as well as being proud that our game has so much depth that the league leaders aren't automatically Champions - that there is that amount of competition.

Wire were a more consistent team than us over the course of a season - and Wigan more consistant than them. If you'd won yesterday, would you agree that you weren't Champions, either? Pressure is a much bigger part of finals than many people realise, it's not their fault that they handle it better than others. I'm 100% sure that no one at Leeds tells them to finish fifth then go to the Grand Final - we'd all love more wins during the season. For people saying we purposely play worse/rest players during the weeks before play-offs and finals, I ask what Wire did the week before Wembley?

It's a shame that, despite how good we are in the play-offs and final, it's boiling down to 'Well they finished fifth, they don't deserve this'.

Spot on last night’s result was a body blow to rugby league. If the powers that be don’t change it Leeds will play out the next season in the same manner and aim for fifth again making a mockery of the weekly rounds. Now it’s worked for them twice my fear is that other half decent sides will try the same strategy.

Why would they 'aim' for fifth? If what you're saying was correct, why do we bother going to fifth? 8th would do the same job for us. And if it were as easy as people are making out, why are we the only team to win outside of the Top 2? Some of this stuff is just ridiculous. It's not our fault that the teams who finished above us don't have the depth/stamina or experience to win in the big matches.

Oh you have taken last week hard

I know it must be tough for you - seeing Wigan fail so spectacularly to achieve what a champion team should achieve in at least getting to the Grand Final (or any final for that matter). Warrington overcame their demons in getting there and were to a degree unlucky last night. Wigan though fell flat when it mattered and, as such, were completely unworthy of the title champions.

Yes because i would have preferred us to play both Catalan and Wigan away, give your head a wobble pies r us.

The thing is we have 5 decent sides in SL, they also happened to finish in the top 5, on their day they all beat each other.

If i was in their shoes i'd probably be more proud of the heart they've put in to those games and to show so much character than some of their previous wins when they topped the table.

Great determination and mental strength they show each year. I actually think they have found a flaw in the system.

Wakefield, Catalans, Wigan

is a much easier route than

St Helens, Hull, St Helens

I know people will bring up the week off but that isn't always a big help. I'm not sure how they got there last year but think it was Hull KR, Hull and Wigan.

You say that but in theory it could have been just Saints, Saints final
and they would have been home games.

Still two massive games and I'm not sure the week off actually helps.They still do amazingly well to beat the teams they do in the final and show the grit to win it. The playoff system is flawed slightly though.

If the players at Wigan and other teams obssess as much as their fans about finding "easy" ways to get through the play offs that might explain why they aren't champions. This isn't meant to be easy.

A tad dramatic body blow for rugby league.

In its history RL has predominantly used a play off system. Leeds beat 1/2/4/8 to get to and win the final, hardly an easily route

So going to the hubcap winners home ground is an easier route?

........And fail? They finish 5th, leeds finish above them and knock them (them as in wigan) out at headingly on the way to the title as they 04, 07 and 08?

leeds won their way to the final, then won the final, they're champions, well done to them.

Still bitter and twisted I see.

The solution is to cut the number of teams and therefore the number of regular rounds in the league.

The 2 play-off semis and the final have all shown the potential and quality available in our game.

but to expect the eventual champions to play at that level of intensity over a possible 36 - 40 games in a season is just unrealistic stupid.

Leeds have just sought to garner their resources and to play to win the maximum number of trophies available and NOT the maximum number of games.

If the Wigan management cant see that simple truth then they will win what they deserve.

I don't like the playoff system, never have, never will. But it's here, we all know the rules before the start of the season, and it turns out that Leeds are the master of being able to do it when it really really matters (so long as the Challenge Cup isn't the prize) so well done and fair play to them.

It does leave me thinking though, is it really worth spending well over £200 on a season ticket to watch 13 qualifiers that, at the end of the day, mean very little.

If I'm going to be honest, if Wire had of won yesterday I would be revelling in a brilliant system which extolled excitement. I wouldn't have said that yesterday, clearly, just after the final hooter, and I was moaning about the play-off system along with the rest. Today, in the clear rational, cold light of the next morning, you just have to say "well done Leeds, astonishing to have won it from 5th again, you deserve it. - see you next year".

Then cut the number of teams to 10 and therfore the intensity of weekly rounds and cut the play-offs to top 4.

The condition is that clubs will need to raise the ticket prices as well. Is that going to happen. I think not so, the current system is a compromise and we just have to get on with it.

Embarrassing thread that oozes sour grapes from many. Leeds have achieved a stunning feat by winning it from fifth twice. It gives credibility to the play off format because it increases belief that getting into them really does give you a shot at the championship, rather than just give you the opportunity to play a match against a team that finished above you that you will routinely lose and exit the play offs with no real point participating in them in the first place. How on earth is that bad for the game?!

I do think the play offs are overblown and shouldn't have eight teams or second chances, but that's a separate issue. What Leeds have done the last two years is outstanding. Bad for Warrington? Well yes, it obviously has been both times. Bad for the game? Not a chance.

Last year Leeds beat positions 8 (h), 4 (a), 1 (a), and 3 (GF).

This year they beat 8 (h), 4 (a), 1 (a) and 2 (GF).

That is very very impressive no matter what way you look at it, and a lot more exciting for the sport than the possibility of one team simply running away from the rest and crusing to the title as the rest give up half way through the season as so often happened in the Wigan era of dominance that coincided with first past the post.

Leeds are champions and 100% deserve to be so. I just wish it was us.

correct pal. I've no problem with it at all. In the 1972/73 season we topped the league yet it was a play off format that crowned 8th place Dewsbury champions...

imagine how ed off we were the following year to finish fifth and win the playoffs but it was changed to top of the table being crowned champions and the play winners getting a secondary trophy.... (due no doubt to a side from 8th spot being called champions). its good job the internet wasnt around then eh....?

And I dont need to remind Wire fans how inmportant our 1986 Premiership win felt (and is still thought of today). We were crap all season sacked our coach and Les Boyd and Tony barrow rallied the team for the the last 8 games of the season finishing in fourth spot beating widnes Wigan and Champions Halifax.

We wouldnt have argued one bit at being called Champions ...........would we???