could be an idiot?

must be pretty hard to call forward or not some times for refs to be fair, given they are rarely in line with the flight of the ball, and so many passes are "flat" in this day n age.

yeah. I have no real complaints and Silverwood didn't cricify us (for a change)

I'm even more hopeful of success this year. We can be that depleted and that stagnant and stillcome out with minimal damage.

best bit was in the second half when hood knocked on and silverwood gave interference at the play the ball penalty..... then panicked and changed his mind to offside.

yeah that was a good one

Like I said, it's a harsh penalty but I see it given all the time. The only thing different in this case was Silverwood didn't spot it at the time and the VR gave the penalty instead.

Personally I'd like to see that rule reviewed, but as it is, if that's going to be given as a penalty in-game by the ref as often as it is being done, then the VR should be giving it as a penalty as well.

By asking a simple question?

That actually made me laugh.

how many fingers am i holding up?

11

Leeds were no great shakes either tonight, thank you very much.

Both teams made bad mistakes. Both teams gave stupid penalties away. Both teams had tries ruled out by the video ref. Both teams had tries given by the video ref.

Ultimatly home advantage was probably the difference. Take exactly the same game and play it at the HJ and warrington win by 8 points instead.

In that situtation you'd be posting wire won because they were the better team, not leeds lost because they played poorly.

PENALTY..... hands in at the.....erm.....OFFSIDE

This is the first start to a season in two that leeds have had a relatively full squad.I firmly believe in 2010 if not for having to switch players about with so many injuries ,they would have won the title then as well.Did westwood get away with much today?You see what could get to your team this year is pressure,by that I mean games that mean something,and if you dot win this years title it could be "all she wrote"

i think the two teams were very evenly matched tonight...both will be firmly in the mix come the end of the season.

I do believe that last seasons league winning/no grand final display has changed the mentality of the whole playing ethos.

Last season i think we would have approached tonight's game very differently..... you could see last season that the players really wanted to top the table... and it won us nothing.

of course we will want to win every game.... but tonight something just wasn't there in terms of intensity.

And I, and my bank balance, believe differently.

Definitely, and that's what's so encouraging......We played at about 30% against a Leeds side at, more or less, full strength, and we come up 8 points short.

Tonight's game as been one which both sides will take positives from, but, in the long run, I think most observers will be noting how different Wire will be with Monaghan and Hodgson playing.

I've said before that all the top sides have 3 or 4 key players who are crucial to a side's chances.....Have them all fit and firing and they will go close to winning trophies -Lose 2 or more of them and you are shafted.

Leeds without 2 of Sinfield, McGuire or Burrow?....Wigan without 2 of Tomkins, Finch or O'Loughlan??....you get my point?

Am I right in thinking that Wire have only won 50% of Super League games without Monaghan since 2010 (which is when I think he moved to hooker permanently)?

From an outsider looking in I'd say he's as important to Wire as Roby is to Saints and I don't think Micky Higham is anywhere near good enough as a replacement. I know he got man of the match against Bradford and he does made some good runs and can still read a game well but he just doesn't seem to step out of dummy half and make himself a threat and he just can't control a game like Monaghan. He also isn't a livewire attacking player like Burrow, who can be dangerous without being a natural hooker.

When Higham left Wigan the difference was noticeable with Riddell. He wasn't anything special as far as Aussie hookers go but he could control a game and be a real influence from dummy half. It looks like Higham is a bit of a weak link.

'Champions'

I thought that Warrington didn't help themselves with their handling and deserved to lose.
There wasn't much in it however.

There are players that muck up in a serial way and there were a couple playing for the Wire tonight.

They are great in the clear, but panicky when it's tight.

Myler needs an invitation at times to go forward when he receives the ball when he's fairly static.
He dithers.

He didn't play well and neither did Atkins.

The rest of what you say is right about Monaghan but the stats on our form without Monaghan are wrong. Since Monaghan joined in 2008 he has only missed 9 games of which our record without him is won 7, lost 2. The only other game apart from today we lost without him was at Hull KR a couple of years back.

As we're on Monaghan stats check this out:

At Warrington he has started 50 games at halfback, won 24 lost 26 (48% win rate)
He has started 58 games at hooker, won 42, lost 15 drawn 1. (72.4% win rate)

In the NRL he started 54 games at halfback, won 25 lost 29 (46.3% win rate)
He started 44 games at hooker, won 28 lost 16 (63.6% win rate)

At the beginning of the season I told a Leeds supporter friend of mine that I thought we'd be unbeaten until we went to headingly and we would probably get stuffed as Leeds went all out to show who are "the champions". This week I actually said to the same friend, that I thought Leeds would still edge it but only by single figures. Am I disappointed...YES, Am I surprised...NO. AM I PANICING.....NOT A CHANCE IN HELL.

Will be great to have Monas back but i thought Mickey Higham played really well tonight. Early days. Our completion
rate was terrible, especially in the first half, on another day we would have won- even with that completion rate.

Usually I'd be dismayed with a performance like that. But I feel fine. We were very poor against a Leeds side who didn't even play well themselves. But it makes no difference whatsoever because until the season has finished and the extra bit starts in September very little of what anyone does from February to August matters.

We lost it, Leeds didn't win it.
Leeds lost 10 games last season including two spankings by us.
This game is irrelevant, which from a RFL point of view should be worrying.