Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:34 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

I honestly don’t know why you are struggling with the concept that hard and easy are relative concepts.

Like in the context of Basketball players, 6ft is small, because relative to most basketball players (who are much taller) it is.

Saying something isn’t hard (which you also did, which is what I was responding to when I put that, you then backed away quickly from that argument, which I allowed you to do Here: among other examples) Is the same as saying something is easy, saying something isn’t hard enough, says it is too easy (like something not being wet enough, means it is too dry).

So now you understand relative concepts, maybe you will understand what you said, and also why you weren’t being as subtle as you thought, and just how obvious your bitterness was to me and other people.

Christ on a bike! So, I make a specific reference to the Week 1 fixture 5th v 8th and say that 5th didn't have it "hard all the way" (you know, by playing 8th at home!), that they "had it hard but not hard enough for their league position" and you respond to that by saying I was pretending "Leeds had it easy". Sorry, I just can't take you seriously.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Wed Oct 10, 2012 5:06 pm  

TheElectricGlidingWarrior wrote:

Christ on a bike! So, I make a specific reference to the Week 1 fixture 5th v 8th and say that 5th didn't have it "hard all the way"

1st had it really easy though didn't they - 4th then 5th at home. For a champion team that's a piece of mickey surely.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:57 pm  

MjM wrote:

1st had it really easy though didn't they - 4th then 5th at home. For a champion team that's a piece of mickey surely.

Should be, but they obviously weren't capable of peaking at the right time.

Did they misunderstand the concept of the competition?

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:47 am  

Surely a league placings deciding the champions is as flawed if not more flawed than playoffs.

Lets say Leeds and Wigan are fighting it out for top spot, Leeds play a full strength Huddersfield one week, then Wigan play them the week after, difference is Huddersfield are in the challenge cup final the next week and as they have no chance if becoming SL champions they play a weekend side resting players for wembley.

Now how is that 'fair'.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:44 am  

Peter Kingsley wrote:

In the CC once the 2 teams get to the final they should play out a league 22 games home and away to see who finishes top because ''da best team is the team dat finishes top'' aint that right dougy?

WOW

Its called the Challenge CUP
Cup competition = Knockout
Winner stays in, loser goes home.

There is an issue if teams finishing the regular season in a lower position consistantly win the GF but, for now, we should just congratulate Leeds.
They beat Wakefield (h), Catalan (a), Wigan (a) and then beat Warrington in the final.
They certainly deserved to lift the trophy, whether we should decide the champions by having an end of season play off is a different matter.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:13 am  

I can't be bothered to go through all 24 pages, but surely there's no point in having a playoff to decide the champions and then complaining when a team placed 5th win it?
I don't like the current playoff schedule, but Leeds beat 3 of the 4 teams that placed above them in the league (away from home). The only team higher up that they didn't beat were Saints and, let's face it, they've never worried about knocking them out before.
In the majority of years, the GF winners have been from one of the top couple of places, we've had two years (out of what, 13?) where a team has won it from 5th, but this happens to be a group of players that, even before their 2011 victory, had achieved a pretty special record. As long as they've got Sinfield leading them and can manage to get Peacock taped back together for the final, they'll continue to impress on the big day.
Don't deny the achievement, or indeed the romance of what they've done over the last 6 years. To do so would make you look like a bitter, whinging, sore losing misery guts.
Its other teams jobs to take the trophy from them. Saints, Wire and Wigan have all beaten Leeds plenty of times in the weekly rounds, but fall short on the big day. You can't tell me that Leeds "just aren't trying" during the weekly rounds.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:47 am  

Offside Monkey wrote:

Its other teams jobs to take the trophy from them. Saints, Wire and Wigan have all beaten Leeds plenty of times in the weekly rounds, but fall short on the big day. You can't tell me that Leeds "just aren't trying" during the weekly rounds.

Very true.
Would it be fair to say Leeds struggle to get themselves up for the "less important" weekly rounds though? The pressure of a do or die situation seems to improve their performances 10 fold.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:16 pm  

The reality is it means nothing for the weekly rounds. We've had 15 years of the grand final and on only 3 occasions has someone outside the top 2 won the competition.

Teams will still try to finish as high as they can because if you finisng in the top 2 you have - 2 home games to get to the grand final with a week off. If you finish lower it is more tricky.

Finishing in the top 2 will be still be the main priority for title challengers and that will give them the best chance of winning the competition.

Leeds have an exceptional record in the grand final, it's the same spine that won 3 grand finals on the trot, an unprecedented achievment and they've managed to overcome the handicap of a lower position to win the trophy again. They are worthy of the tag champions.

Top 8 is too much, but we have what we have and that's the way it's going to. It's nowhere near as detrimental as people are making out.

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:27 pm  

Amazing how the people can be negative about the 5th placed team winning the competition while at the same time people can be negative about the competition being too predictable (in fact, if I could be bothered to search I am sure I would find people who have expressed both opinions)

Re: What does Leeds' victory mean for the regular season? : Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:32 pm  

For those employed:

If you were paid based on your performance in just one month of the year, would you struggle to work your hardest for the other 11 months?