What a shambolic performance. But we were 'on' in training all week apparently.

We will never have a team that good ever again, nobody will, the 2007-2009 side that won 3 in a row is arguably the best side collectively in the history of the game. That side would have wiped the floor with this saints side.
That said we have another great side in the making and were not quite there yet

Concerning that pretty much our first choice pack got battered by Walmsley....again

Well... At least my "second" team are in the GF, too bad there'll be bugger all by way of support for them at OT. Let's hope for another Maloney masterclass. Cheer on the Catalans!

Totally agree.
That's the concern for me tonight.
Our first choice pack - that many on here say is the best in SL, got blown away by one man.
Plenty to sort out still before next year.

Painful as that performance was, it was necessary to give us an honest benchmark.

Roby was better than Leeming and Dwyer combined tonight, even at 85 years of age.

Lui tried but as expected we had nothing from half back really and the pack failed to lay a platform anyway.

Thought Holroyd did well when he came on, way too late.

Penalties early second half killed us - although T Briscoe’s was pedantic and L Briscoe had a sneaky hand in from Roby.

Im not overly concerned Walmsley is the best prop in the League and he eas playing on the front foot all game

Mik was clearly injured aswell, Tetevano needs a big year next year though

Granted Hurrell is leaving but leeds had 2 marquee players playing nowhere near that tag and rarely have since either arrived.

Yep - our first choice pack right now would be Mik, Leeming, Prior, Mellor, Martin. Tet with Smith, Holroyd on the bench.

We started with Dwyer at hooker, Donaldson in second row and Thompson (who was OK) first reserve.

Mik isn’t fit to my eye and Smith went off injured again.

So not quite our first choice pack still - but there is no doubt we need another Ava/King+ type big body in there. Next year add Bentley and maybe even Johnson, plus some more time on Mik, Tom and Cam (and Gannon / Walters) - we won’t be far off.

It's a shame the season ended that way, but perhaps some perspective? Saints are by far the best team in SL. They were up for it and played as well as they have all season. Yes, we were off, but credit to Saints for a defence that didn't allow us to gain any momentum and sapped our energy - and would have probably have worn down any other team. We have some young men who look like they could develop into great players and recruitment has been good for next year. There are some short memories on this board. Credit to Agar and Sinfield for tackling the rot and getting us to this point from the shambles after Furner's departure. There's been some excellent recruitment and with another quality signing or two, we could compete well next year.

Does his coaching extend beyond a very basic game plan?
Using the one that beat Wigan was never ever going to work tonight.
We were found wanting on a number of levels tonight and I wouldn't say agar was blameless.

Have to say we looked completed clueless tonight. You’re right a similar team and plan to Wigan just didn’t get off the ground tonight.

I ought to say well done saints as well, they were hot and would have beaten any of this year's sides tonight

Looked like a long season caught up with us tonight. Forwards were dominated all night. Thought walmsley should have been man of the match. The week off deffo helped saints. Their line speed was brilliant whereas ours was (again) non existent. Tetevano hasn't seemed to get going this year at all but hopefully he will next year. Need a prop who can regularly gain meters to give the new half backs a platform. Good experience gained though for the likes of Newman Smith holroyd etc. Loosing like this could be better long term than winning

Agree about the platform for the HB’s but we still have the same ‘problem’ we’ve had for a while and that is decent, accurate, crisp passing from the hooker. Dwyer for all he’s eye catching to the crowd with all his darts..a lot of the time he’s like a headless chicken and doesn’t give the pass to the HB when they want/need it and if he does pass it, you are never sure whether it will be behind them, over their head, looping down to their boot laces etc...yes the darts that work are great and you can’t fault his effort but jeez he messes up a lot of our attacking structure. He must be very frustrating for a HB to play with at times

Best team won on the night. Well played saints. Still hope Catalans beat them next week though.

Saints have a great balance of forwards and backs, who are equally strong, and makes them so dangerous. Their pressure in D was immense all game.

For us, I think Prior has been overplayed this season, and has lost form towards the end. Mik also isn’t fully fit, so I’m not worried about them. Zane needs to be there or thereabouts for man of steal next year to justify his signing. He was awful in first 20 mins.

We desperately need leeming back to hooker, with Dwyer only playing 20 mins max, as his passing is so poor.

Their three-quarters also showed why, in my view, a gun outside back is as big a priority for us for next season as much as a prop.

We’ve got a young side with loads of potential, and have overachieved this season. Shame to get hammered in the final game, but done well overall.

Also, how bad is Kendall. I think only Tom briscoes tackle as worth a sin bin.

Good post and agree with most of that. A good outside back would be very very welcome next year. We’re also a decent prop light

Dwyer is best used as an impact sub. Hopefully with 3 fit half backs we will start Leeming with dwyer on bench

Our pack has some good players but it was never going to be enough tonight. Tetevano hasn't played enough to properly click with the team, and Oledski clearly hasn't fully recovered from injury. As a bunch of individual names the Leeds pack looks fantastic but that Saints team is a well oiled machine that has been playing for each other all season - they are on another level and rightly so.

I think we did pretty well with only Lui pulling the strings, but we obviously need the extra investment in the halves next season. I have big concerns over our backline. I'm not too sad about Hurrell leaving - he's not a player for intense games like this (ironically he's going to Saints). No qualms about L. Briscoe leaving - but we need players with more clinical abilities and pace to boot. Newman needs to stop reading his good press and be a bit more composed more often - he can be a greedy player at times; not convinced he should be given a kicking role, and he didn't need to pile on after Lui had legitimately battered Grace. I'd like us to sign a Marcus Bai type of winger - a proven finisher with a bit of pace and power who just gets the job done. Handley also looks like he's desperate for some R&R - long covid?

Agree that Dwyer was found out tonight, but arguably he's had to play too many minutes with Leeming in the halves. Hopefully Corey Johnson will get more game time in 2022!

Roll on next season.

Ive never said he was blameles in this game just that he’s not to blame for the club’s recent poor seasons flirting with relegation.

He’s done/doing a good job weve just come up short this year.

Totally out played out muscled and out coached tonight.
Saints were very good all round and we were very poor.
Our pack was well beat by the Saints pack and their backs out played ours.
We had Lui as our only threat and I thought Smith went well for the time he was on the pitch.
As for distribution from both Dwyer and Leeming it was nothing short of abysmal.
We were flattered by our win against one of the worse Wigan teams in a long time.
Decent winger and prop required along with a new coach.
Thanks Richie but time to move on.
Wrt Tetavano I do think he has had to curb and adjust his tackling technique and that might be influencing the way he is playing.
Prior also poor tonight.

That game against us last week gave a false impression of how Leeds were shaping up going in to tonight IMO. We are an absolute joke and it was basically a bounce of the ball which stopped it finishing 0-0 (I’m presuming the ball isn’t in the same spot at 6-0 to go 8-0) I think a lot of people felt it was an impressive result but I certainly didn’t think it was an impressive performance, simply because of how dire we are.

Every side in this league really needs to wake up. Saints are head and shoulders above everyone and aren’t even as good as they were when Holbrook left. That means teams have not progressed at all and if anything, they’ve actually gone backwards. The lack of intensity in teams play is astonishing. It’s a given that you should be supremely fit and should be able to go hell for leather for 80 mins. Teams looks so shocked by Saints intensity.

Went to the game tonight and it was disappointing.

For all the talk of Walmsley, don’t get me wrong he is a quality prop, however he goes on the back of two or three quick play the balls from Grace, Percival and Makinson. At no point did we control the exit from Saints, they made easy meters over the first couple of plays, had us going backwards and we then cannot stop Walmsley etc.

The things we need to work on for me are:

1. A better kicking game - hopefully a fit Gale, Sezer and Austin address that issue
2. We need more from Myler/Walker, handley and briscoe or another winger in the first couple of sets. We are steady but we lack pace and we rarely get quick play the balls to allow Mik, Prior, Tet to come onto it without heavy line speed coming at the. To me we need another winger and I hope Walker can get fit and give us some zip from full back next year.
3. Better line speed - I don’t know if this is purely coaching or that players are gassed as we rarely get a quick play the ball in early tackles. I think this is a coaching issue
4. A more cohesive game plan, we do often look out of ideas, appreciate we have a hooker playing half back but we seem to have one shift play wide and that is it. I would hope with Gale, Sezer, Austin and Leeming at 9 with Walker/Myler at full back we can have more options moving forward.

Overall I think we have to remember how tough we have had it this year. We have done well to get to that game and we weren’t good enough. Saints are a better team than us this year. We just need to make sure we continue growing and improving and putting ourselves in a positon to be more consistent over a full season.

One step too far tonight and showed we are still a bit off at being a consistent contender for a Grand Final again, however I think 2022 will be the year we hopefully & finally turn that corner and should be there or there abouts for Grand Finals. With Sezer & Austin coming in we have genuine Spine that can lead us too a Final. The players need a rest after a strange year with injuries & covid and then get a big pre season in for 2022. I'm already looking forward too our 2022 just want Catalans too do Saints over next week and keep our 3 GF in a row record. We'll done too the players & staff and everyone at the club again this year. MOT ALAW.

Did the game go any differently to how anyone expected it to? Saints are just different gravy to the rest.

The tactics of kicking early to make Walmsley as ineffective as possibly was right but we missed too many tackles, made too many errors and just couldnt handle them. They was on top of us all night.

Been a season of great effort and pride from the team. Weve faced real adversity and got to wiithin 80 mins of Old Trafford. We all know we should be a better team next season but to topple Saints, who are a very very good team, will take some doing.

We are heading in right direction as a club tho i believe.