Not all true. The table does lie. The teams, players, clubs and coaches all know that the comp is not decided through who finished top of the table. They all know the situation. Would Wane really have rested players for the Widnes game if the title hung in the balence? Not a chance. It is a sad situation we are in that teams don't care about losing games in the regular season. You have to peak for the end of the season and that makes all the difference, Leeds timed it to perfection somehow last year, they would not of had the regular season they had if the champions were crowned by the top of the ladder though.

But do you really believe that Leeds did that?

That is the spin they tried to put on it afterwards, IMO.

The likes of Eddie Hemmings constantly referring to Leeds as 'the Champions' has got an unreal ring to it when you look at their current positon - hanging on by their fingertips at the bottom of the top eight.

Leeds were massively helped to their title win last year by Wigan switching off after Wembley and Warrington running out of steam (not for the first time).

To suggest that the Leeds coach, through some stroke of genius, was happy to sit at mid-table for half a season, lulling everyone else into a false sense of security, and then suddenly striking at the eleventh hour is a bit daft, I reckon - firstly because McDermot is not a genius, secondly because it would be a ludicrous thing to do.

Anyone who doesn't think that trying to win every match is the way to go is taking a big risk with their season.

I don't believe Leeds timed it at all. It is just the way it panned out. No club can afford to lose as many games as they did in the regular season as part of a plan because despite the fact people keep banging on about how unimportant the league is, it is what generates the majority of the clubs revenue and pays the players wages. If clubs were as indifferent to the league as you imply then fans would just stop going, stop buying the season tickets and may as well just turn up for the play offs.

Leeds wont get to the GF this year IMO. What they did last year was freak and as you say, due to us and wire running out of steam at the end of the year.

Remember saying after 15 minutes of the wire game after wembley our season had finished the week before - we were out on our feet and spent- we actually lost as many games in the last 5 weeks of the season than we did all year.

Lessons have been learnt last year from both us and wire and both clubs are rotating their squads well (apart from Widnes when it was overkill!), to avoid any burn out, and ensure both teams are fighting fit come the end of the season. Wire have learnt theres no point in putting 50 and 60 points on 5hyte teams only to run out of gas at the end of the season - which was why they rested players against salford this weekend as we have done in the past.

The more I think about it I cant see those errors being made, and in reality cant see much past a Wigan v Wire GF this year as both will be fighting fit come the end of the season regardless of the challenge cup. Leeds wont get a sniff, and only the Catalans and Huddersfield will have an outside chance of stoping wigan and wire from getting to OT this season IMO.

i would say Cats need to finish in 1st or 2nd as they are not as good away from home

I think Huddersfield or Catalans will win the CC and the other one will win the league shield. With Wigan v Wire at OT, with a Wigan victory

.

Huddersfield or Catalans to top the league at the end of the season?

If you're serious, you might want to get down the bookies - You'd probably get decent odds against that happening.

I can only really see Wigan/Wire at the top, Saints/Huddersfield/Catalans 3rd-5th.
Not sure of the exact order of the 2 groupings, but that would be my guess.

Leeds probably 7th-8th.
But maybe that's their plan this year - Try to set a new record for winning the knock-out comp from the lowest possible position.

It makes me laugh when they are constantly referred to as "champions" by Sky, as whilst it is technically correct, they were in fact the FIFTH best team in the league last year, and just got on a lucky streak in the end-of-season cup comp.

Winning the title last year may even have been counter-productive for Leeds. It meant they had to stick hold of Brian McDermott.

7/1 for Hudds, and 10/1 for Catalans to do it.

Which would be about right imo. I think both will fade away as the likes of Wigan, Warrington and Leeds raise their games.

I dont see why this should be the case both will be strong for the rest of the season i think

Don't fancy Huddersfield to sustain it, but Cats at 10/1 to top the league's not a bad shout IMO, when they are effectively running joint top, and have a game in hand at home against a poor hull side, and are unbeaten in france. With Wigan, Saints, Leeds also still having to go to france...you'd have to make them favourates to win those in the heat of summer.

On top of that, looking at their remaining fixtures, I can only see two potential losses for them away from home, against possibly huddersfield and wire away, with potentially a third coming from one of the hull clubs. Add on to that I would be extremely surprised if any more than one of Leeds, Saints and Wigan manage to beat them at home (fingers crossed we're the one). That would leave them with only approx 5-6 losses all season - Cant see them slipping up against any of the other clubs so that would make them pretty decent bets for top spot IMO...may just have a little flutter at that!

how did we run out of steam? we lost v leeds by a last minute penalty? funny how people change facts to suit an arguement!

Wigan ran out of steam more than we did. There was this myth created that Warrington were head and shoulders above the rest of the league last year because we won lots of games by large margins but we only finished a point ahead of Wigan and Wigan also won the Challenge Cup, then they deflated badly in the playoffs.

We smashed Hudds in the first play off and then lost a tight arm wrestle game to Leeds, there wasn't exactly a decline in form towards the end of the season because after the Salford loss in June we won 13 or so straight before that narrow loss.

What I wonder about last season is what would have happened if Leeds had beaten Wigan at Wembley. Both Leeds and Wigan played the same number of games so should have been as tired but why did Leeds finish so strongly and Wigan peter out...? I wonder if psychologically the Cup winners relax a bit, the edge comes off after you have won it? I wouldn't have been surprised to see Wigan come back with a vengeance had they lost at Wembley and defended their SL title.

whoever wins the LLS is always told by other fans that 'it doesn't matter' and 'it means nothing' but secretly... We all enjoy winning it. any silverware is good silverware. Especially for us wires, Christ knows we've waited long enough!

Okay, I'll change it:

Wigan running out of steam after Wembley, and Warrington choking (not for the first time).

I wouldn't say I 'enjoyed' winning it. It's nice to finish top buut rightly or wrongly it means nothing.

Look back through my posts from 2010 and you'll see I said something along the lines of "lets just pick it up, say thanks, and get on with winning the big one"

You ran out if steam because you didnt play up to the standard you had set yoursleves throughout the season. If you had played as well as you had through the season that game would of been won by Warrington by a good few points imo.

We never looked the same after the challenge cup. Them two playoffs games against Saints we made a lot of cock ups and looked a mess.

Leeds CC Run :
Crusaders (H)
Harlequins (H)
Hull (a)
Cas (N)
Wigan (N)

Wigan CC Run :
Barrow (H)
Bradford (A)
Wire (A)
Saints (N)
Leeds (N)

(Plus a WCC match too)
You could argue Leeds had a tougher match in the final though



Joking apart, I do take your point, though I do think we ran out of steam more than any other team last season.

We are always regarded as the big chokers or the biggest bottlers... i would say Saints are worse than us... i am aware they can actually make it to finals but 5 times without winning? come on I'd say that is worse...

I'd prefer top if it wasn't for club call, 2nd spot seems to be the most advantageous in the current set up.

Saying that top 8 is just plain stupid, rewarding mediocrity.

Top 8 s an absolute joke , it's called super league and 8 out of 14 can go to the play off s , it should be made as hard as possible in my eye s . As in top 4 and 12 teams max

the only reason we have a top 8 is to make the last 8 weeks of the season mean something for a few teams around 6th to 10th. Without there being a top 8 only 6 teams in the league have something to play for (ie those 6 who would fight for a top 4 spot) This is because 8 of the teams can perform to levels of mediocrity as they know it doesnt matter as there is no threat of relegation. This scenario will continue until all teams can raise their own revenue income to enable them to spend up to the maximum cap limit.

At the end of the day, it wasn't really a jab at Warrington. I was trying to explain why I felt that last year two relatively mediocre teams contested the Grand Final.

As we approached the end of last season, I don't know anyone who didn't confidently expect either Wigan or Warrington to at least appear in the final, if not win it.