Thought it was a great advert for Rugby League and the best team won.
Thought Hall`s no try in the first half should have stood.
Your forwards seemed to tire in the second half and our defence was imense and stopped you playing your usual classy game.
Myler was probably your best player and Hill kept managing to get the offloads in.
Fitting that at least you won the CC this year and it has been a pleasure to watch you throughout the season.
I can not believe we have won it again from 5th but we have a class squad with plenty of self belief.
Hard luck and well played.

Westwood was not even half fit, never mind 100%, so there is some excuse for his showing, but I agree that Briers was found wanting tonight.

To be honest, I didn't think there was much between either side - Neither pack ever dominated, the main difference was that their key player (Sinfield) turned up at his best and ours (Briers) didn't.

Also, having just got back from the game and not being up on all those vital stats, I'm pretty sure I'd be correct in saying that Leeds had a significant territorial advantage....From my viewpoint, Leeds always seemed to have possession in the 'danger zones', whilst for us, our possession often seemed to be just bringing the ball from our own half and were never able to pin Leeds back enough.

The best team won, but I never thought I'd say it, because until tonight I've never been won over by him, but Leeds without Sinfield would be pretty hopeless - He really was that important to them tonight.....McGuire, for all the hype, is very, very average and Burrow is just a bit of a one trick pony.

Overall, there is obvious disappointment, but I'm glad we were defeated by a superior side, and not any dodgy decisions by the officials....Two good sides on show, one great player performance, unfortunately he was in Leeds' colours.

shouldnt you be out celebrating you boring =#FF0000EDIT

=#FF0000Use that word again and it's a week off for you too

Wigan won the Championship in 2010 btw so they have a cup win and a GF win in that four year spell.

But commiserations for tonight. Although you suffered from a bit of sloppy defending here and there I think it was that dropped ball that killed you. The worst one was by Waterhouse. But it's a miserable feeling which you will get over just about in time for the next one to come along!

I'm absolutely shattered by that result tonight and I'm not gonna pretend otherwise. I walked out heartbroken on 78 minutes (yeah I know, not a true fan), jumped on a train to Oxford Road and straight to Manchester uni to see Gallows, and even an hour of very loud punk rock only managed to offered brief respite.

I'm devastated and feel no shame in admitting it.

I'm actually not that gutted. I would have been gutted at this a few years ago but now I feel like we've been in four major finals, won three, lost one. Federer, Djokovic lose Grand Slam finals every now and then you just have to take it with dignity.

We have done well this year and you can't complain about Leeds winning today, they were the better team.

Last year was much more gutting than this but overall nothing has ever come close to the disappointment (for me) of losing the playoff to Hull in 2005 with Johns in our team, that was the worst ever day for me as a Wire fan.

The disappointing thing for me is that Leeds didn't need to play that well to win - much like our finals against them

Warrington definitely didn't reach their peak but maybe that's because Leeds didn't let them

Briers sadly didn't show up like I wanted him to. Even though I'm a Saints fan I would have loved to have seen him put on a great show in the biggest game of the year

I disagree. That was the first in a quartet of lows for me, the others being Huddersfield 2010, Leeds last year and now tonight. As each time we have got that little bit closer before being kicked in the teeth it has got that little bit harder to take too.

If I'm honest, although I did expect to win that Hull game, and believed Andrew Johns gave us a slight chance later on too, I didn't REALLY expect us to beat Saints, Leeds or Bradford and consoled myself with that. Similarly with Huddersfield 2010, yes I expected to win that game, and I had a dream of ending the hoodoo in the final game at Knowsley Road the following week, I knew that in all probability yet another defeat to Saints would have been on the cards as it was for Huddersfield.

Last year and this year were different from those two. I genuinely believed we could be champions and we aren't. And that hurts more than anything that has gone before it.

I endured years of Warrington mediocrity, but in truth defeats didn't hurt as much back then because they were expected. The concept of actually winning trophies was laughable, so failing to win them made very little emotional impact. I just turned up, watched the match, enjoyed a couple of pints and went home. Wins were obviously more enjoyable, but defeats were shrugged off and quickly forgotten about.

Now they hurt. Big time.

Yes, we could win it next year, or the year after. We could even find ourselves in a decade from now in a Leeds type position of winning six finals from seven appearances in nine seasons. On the flip side though, we might not win it at all, and the desperation to simply do it once is getting harder and harder to take with each passing failure to do so.

Gallows punk rock



Yeah right.

Paul Wood tweeted he's sitting in hospital as I speak having treatment for a ruptured testicle, oh the glamour!
Briish Rugby League, best game in the world played by the best sportsmen in the world, and I'm glad I'm lucky enough to have been born into it

I like Wire fans especially after the 2011 cc final .I thought their fans were most gracious,and I have even made friends with some of them,but after Wembley there was some unsavousy behaviour from some Wire people ,banging on coach windows etc.Thats how it goes nowadays

This.

Getting to the grand final itself was the major hurdle to overcome. We lost because of a lack of experience on that stage (whereas Leeds have it in bucketloads). We are still learning as a team and this was just another step on the ladder. Within the next five years we'll reach at least one more final, if not many more.

How does this thing of having to lose a final to learn how to win one work?

We didn't have to lose a Challenge Cup final to learn how to win one, we got to three and won them all. Leeds have lost six so how many do they need to learn to win one?

If we had beaten Leeds last year in the playoff but lost to Saints in the Grand Final, could that have been the difference that got us the extra 2 tries today?

In 2004 a young leeds team played their first grand final against an experienced bulls team. They won!

So this thing of having to lose one to win one isn't true, it's just there for consolation because losing the 'first one' is a b*tch. Losing it isn't so bad when you've had recent wins. But the first one, it's a kick in the nuts.

I'm okay about it really. We didn't deserve to win.

The game was very poor for me. Neither team played well, we just knocked it on a lot and offered Leeds good field position.

If either team had turned up at their best they would have trounced the other side. Leeds were poor-ish, Wire were shyite.

In 2009 we were fortunate enough to have played Huddersfield, who had a similar lack of finals experience themselves, so that helped us get a grip on the occasion. Leeds, on the other hand, haven't won the cup since 1999, and repeated finals defeats can take their toll on a side. Likewise, their repeated grand final victories allow them to be in their element when another final comes, as they know how to handle the occasion perfectly. For me, it is similar to our own hoodoo against Saints; after one win, we were subsequently able to rack up several.

Can't agree with this......It was a good, tight game of rugby, between two well matched sides. The only difference being Kevin Sinfield.

Put simply, if you were giving marks out of 10 for each player's performance, 33 players would have got 6 or 7 out of 10, Sinfield was a definite big 9.....None of our players raised their game to the level needed to win a Grand Final, or more importantly, Leeds did not allow us to raise our game.

First rule of Rugby League tactics is to stifle the opposition, if you do that you are 80% there.....We didn't stop Sinfield and it sadly told.

Wewere just trumped by a more enthused, more experienced Leeds side. Sorry pal, but I have to disagree with your assessment there.

To me the Wire didn't play thebest we have seen but Leeds didn't allow us and credit to them for what they have achieved. Soreline wise the game was balanced until the last 10 mins when they pulled away. So a tight intense game, but to say Leeds were poor and Wires were , sorry have to disagree.

You just have to read threads from neutrals and they were calling it a brilliant, immense game best GF for years etc.

Were were there, just not good enough.

Thought Leeds were pretty good and stifled Wire when they needed to. Leeds were more composed on the day and won the battle up front over the course of the 80 mins.

Very disappointed because if we had played 10-15% better the game was there to be won. Apologies for the cliche

The long journey home commences sat in Manc airport and thoughts of my next live game on Boxing Day.......

I feel more disappointed today. It must be a delayed reaction. I've been thinking about how close we were to winning the big prize, it really was within our grasp if we had had one better 20 minute session of rugby. Just watching the end of game montage on Sky and thinking it could have been Adrian Morley lifting the Super League trophy, Briers and Westwood coming up to the fans with the trophy at the end and us double winners and assured of a place in history as one of the greatest.

You never know what will happen in the future and if we slide back down next season, players retire and TS leaves we may yet end up looking back at this moment as the closest we got to ever touching the SL title. For many years we looked back at the Jonathan Davies era and missing out on the title to Wigan on points difference as what might have been.

I guess all of us that are Wire fans these days have to be thankful to Simon Moran, Tony Smith and the great players that have worn our jersey, Briers, Morley, Westwood, the Monaghans, Hodgson, Carvell, Waterhouse, these guys have given us something we haven't had for years which is the chance to enjoy a quality set of players play good rugby and have great spirit and pride in the jersey. They have allowed us to have hope of winning the title. Next year will probably be the last chapter of this era of Wires so lets make the most of it and appreciate them and maybe they'll do it.

Maine Road challenge cup semi 1989. Nothing will ever come close........

Now i was just talking about this game, talking of tension at a game, this was the scariest game i've ever been too, i was 10 years old and remember being terrified after the game.

I'd agree with 90% of this. Except I thought Myler played one of his best matches in the P&B and was a constant threat down that left edge. He was our MOM in my opinion by some distance too.

Still gutted, just about to go back to work and it sucks that it can't be corrected til next season. Kicking game and discipline was off, I think both teams made too many errors. Unfortunately as we do, most of them came in our own half.

Congratulations to Leeds. Deserved champions.