Taking solace in other teams misfortune now. Oh dear, has it really come to that?

Oh, not solace. I was very happy. Warrington have played the best rugby league all season and so deserve to be winners. I thoroughly enjoyed their display of quality rugby and that it was at your expense made it extra special.

Our attacking play was at times, god awful. For most of the season it's been this way, we've played the same attacking stucture and the same plays for 3 or 4 seasons now, and it's been found out. For most of the year we've relied on individual brilliance to score points, when these individuals have an off day we're screwed!



Other than that, the apparent lack of desire got to me. Most people dreamt of playing in a challenge cup final as a kid I'm sure, they get there and seemingly don't care. I didn't get it, if you can't get pumped for a game like that then why bother?!

Did u get ur money bk from the hotele and ticket u booked pre-semi btw

TS knew what Leeds were bringing to the party, had a game plan in detail to expose Leeds weak errors and the players delivered it to the letter, compare that to the Leeds plan (if there was actually a plan other than turning up), it was in essence a coaching masterclass.

Is that the same Brett Delaney that's blown hot & cold all season and who's defensive effort (i.e falling on his backside in a comedy fashion) was the route to Wire's first try ?

Wonder if the Pakistan Cricket fixer had anything to do with our display yesterday?!

All season we've been looking at the stats after each match, and saying "Jesus Christ, what would Leeds do without Peacock?". Now we've got our answer.



Kirke, Ablett, Clarkson, JJB are currently all pretty mediocre players (Clarkson will get better, JJB has got worse), but can all do a job for the team if they've got better forwards around them. What they can't do is do a decent job against a good team when *all four* are playing. That just makes a mediocre pack. Do Ali and JP offer more, and allow the players around them to play better? Of course they do. They're proven as our top-two big-game forwards. Peacock was a big loss, but where was Ali?



The non-performance of the backs and even Sinfield has to be put in context of mediocrity of the front five. McGuire, Burrow, Senior *tried* to create things, but with no go-forward or speed at the pay-the-ball to create space. I thought Burrow was very good in a way, obviously targetted on defence but not letting anyone down there. Smith also turned up ok.



Warrington were excellent, and Monaghan, Westwood and maybe Mathers could have challenged Briers for MoM. Even if Leeds were playing well, there would have been no stopping the two tries scored from Lee Briers kicks (well, we could have not given them field position), especially the second one which was outstanding skill by Hicks.

First of all fair play to Warrington who did a great job on us yesterday. They just did the basics so well from Briers through to a dominant pack. Tony Smith tactically was well ahead of Bluey on the day.



I thought is was over when Keith kicked for field position. Not knocking him though as he showed on well on attack. Rather this highlighted our lack of tactical nouse on the day. Once the Warrington pack got on top it was always going to tough.



Gutted with the result as was hoping for a closer game. I can take defeat as have been to many CC semi's and finals in 80's and 90's, but was shocked how we could not get back in the game on Sat.



Was impressed with Wembley. Lot better organised than the old wembley with better leg room and view, and no waiting at the toilets on bars. Long coach journey back though after that!

Lacking structure, incohesive, poor defence, missing key players, poor decisions and a little bit of bad luck. It pretty much summed up our season.



Well played Warrington and congratulations to Tony Smith, as a team they were very deserving winners of the trophy.



As for Leeds, it is very difficult to see anything but, the season ending with a whimper.

You were doing so well until you proved my point with your last comment.

Agree completely. In the second half yesterday as Warrington were off-loading, moving the ball wide, playing with skill and flair, I thought: "I remember when we played like this - it was when we were coached by Tony Smith!".



We were out-played and out-coached completely and the scoreline flattered us - Smith's try should never have stood for a start. I fear that several Leeds players' careers are going/have gone backwards and are skill levels have deteriorated. McClennan's forte is supposed to be motivating but that seemed missing too yesterday. Omitting Lauitiiti was a terrible decision - I feared as much when I read the rumour on this board on Friday. We have two forwards (Eastwood and Lauitiiti) who can bust holes and create chances: one was needed as an interchange prop so the other had to play out wide. I acknowledge Clarkson's form and potential but to have him and especially Ablett (who has missed the last three matches) above Lauitiiti was a poor call. It left us with three grafting second-rowers but no-one who could make something happen. As poor a decision, if not worse, than omitting McDermott from the 2005 cup final.



Frankly, winning the cup or Grand Final would have put glossy papers over the cracks of what has been a disappointing season and we can't use injuries as the excuse for all the mediocre displays. You could count all the times we've played well for even 60 minutes of a game on the fingers of one hand - and we've played 32 matches. If we win on Saturday we'll finish 4th - our lowest position since 2002 (also 4th); if we lose (and Huddersfield beat Catalans which I would expect them to) we'll finish 6th - our lowest since the dire 1996 season (10th). And all this with what Hetherington rightly described as the best squad we've ever had.