It went exactly how I thought it would if im honest with myself.

Saints are a level above and playing with one half fit halfback and starting with Dwyer we were in a hiding to nothing really

Personally im proud of the effort in what has been a difficult season

Exactly. Agree 100%. Trust me Leeds are in a good position going forward.

Tough night yesterday and a reality check on where we are as a squad. This year has been really hard and so badly disrupted with injuries its difficult to make a clear judgement on coaching or players especially ones playing bust or out of position.
Our recruitment for next year with hopefully a prop and potentially a winger to come in looks to be in the correct place to move us to the next level.
Heres a few of my end of school report observations.
1. Fix the hooker issue as its the primary issue for our stalling attacking platform. For all his industry Dwyer has to go. Give Leeming a career highlights video of James Roby to study for the winter and integrate Corey Johnson.
2. We must get more minutes and game impact from our marquee players.
3. Don't let Harry Newman become the next Kallum Watkins lost in the centres dreaming of a decent pass constantly running into heavy traffic or tackling all night on the back foot. Fix point 1 will help.
4. We need more pace or thrust in the back 5. Even with the addition of quality halves do any of our existing players bar Newman actually hit the line hard. Be interesting to see how walker returns hopefully a bit stronger. Tom Briscoe has been a great servant but he looks half the player these days.
5. With a decent hooker and a full compliment of halves we need to establish a style of play and a varied kicking game. Both Saints and Catalans have clear styles of playing backboned by key players and have been the best teams this year by a distance. Thats why the youngsters like Morgue and Welsby can flourish as they are coming into an environment where everyone know there job.
Anyway roll on 2022 probably give us a 7 out of 10 this year and a well done for effort but hoping for a big step up in 2022

Good post, think Makinson and Percival are key to what comes later in the sets with Walmsley, they come off the back fence, at full speed, run straight and hard with very little footwork and Bend/Break the line nearly everytime. Compare that with Handley and Briscoe who have a hop, skip and jump approaching the line and are lucky if they're half pace by the time they hit contact.

Our attack with good ball is hopeless, i know people will point to our spine never being the same from game to game, and i get that, but id still be looking for a bit more cohesion and a bit more of a clue to what they're doing, admittedly you sacrifice any hope of structure the second you select Dwyer, who was, yet again, absolutely terrible last night imo. But the jurys very much out for me on Long and our attack.

Great comeback season for Newman but a game too far last night, wasnt his night to say the least.

Next seasons looking promising, some good signings already, desperately need another big prop which im confident we'l get, and maybe a bit more belief, think that was bit lf an issue last night.

Overall, we'v done well to reach a semi-final all things considered, short term future looks bright, long term future looks even brighter...So as infruriating as last nights performance was, lots to look forward to.

Saints were the better team, think if they had suffered with injuries like we have this year, would be a very different team though.....

That’s a fair and reasonable summing up. Full credit to saints they gave us a harsh lesson in rugby league in the first 20 minutes. Quick play the ball and move the ball quickly away from the ruck. Lomax constantly changes the point and direction of attack, coupled with an aggressive defence we were on the back foot all night. Looking at the saints line up it’s hard to find a weak link. Sadly it’s not the case for us.
Saints have done a remarkable job of assembling a decent team after the Cunningham debacle. Think agar has done a good job in difficult circumstances. Next season we should have the basis for a decent squad, hopefully some of the failures may be shown the door. Hope saints win the final chiefly because I like the style of rugby they play.

Saints look very very well coached. I’m looking forward to the grand final, it should be a cracker. The best two sides in the comp by plenty.

We’ve a lot of work to do to get to their level but we’re on the right tracks. We’ve bought well for next year but still a top player short especially outwide. Overall Agar deserves a pat on the back imo for this season.

Totally agree, the description "enforcer" should never be used with him.
Lets have a whip round for a one way ticket home.

Went last night. Dissapointing result, dissapointing performance, but you have to acknowledge a brilliant and ruthless performance from a Saints team who are right up with great English sides I've watched since I've been following the game. We will be stronger next year and the strength in depth at half will make a huge difference. I expect to see the journeyman who still make our seventeen out competed by new or younger players in 2022. Watching Roby last night painfully reinforced just why we need Corey Johnson to be a success. Fingers crossed that will happen. All things considered it's been a good year and just getting into grounds for games like last nights has been the highlight for me.

We were blown away last night, no different to what happened a couple of weeks ago.
Some on here were saying history wouldn’t repeat itself, well it did. Too many mistakes, we had ideas in attack and they walked through us like a hot knife through butter.
We need some serious surgery to get to the level of Saints and Catalans. No excuses other than we ain’t anywhere near good enough.
We need a top quality coach not the existing coaching team.

I was certainly not getting carried away with our performance at your place. Bald men fighting over a comb springs to mind. However we battled and fought for a well deserved victory . So I was pleased with that. Must admit the Wigan pack of forwards is the worst Wigan forwards I have ever seen. Just goes to show if you take your eye off the ball (no pun intended) you can soon slip down the pecking order. Saints have obviously put together a superb side . A lesson obviously to be learned that you can still assemble a decent team even under a salary cap. Plus the lure of the big bucks in Australia. Next season looks to be extremely interesting, should imagine Warrington will be in the running, saints look good for another season.
Not certain Catalan can sustain another successful season, hull kr might surprise a few. So us hull and your good selves have to up our game.

Whilst it’s a huge advantage to have a decent coach if the playing squad isn’t good enough then the coach can only take them so far. Just look at hull ,hodgson was the new messiah. Unfortunately the squad is obviously not good enough so failure was the result . We still have several players not good enough for a top four team. Sadly when confronted with decent opposition they fold.

Lots of spot on analysis on this thread I think.

Is this Saints side that good though? I dunno. I’m not sure they’re even as good as the side Leeds used to beat in the good old days.

I found last night difficult not because I thought we’d win, but because I thought we’d find the focus to at least be competitive.

But again we had silly decisions, poor discipline.. was yelling a bit when T Briscoe’s first-ish tackle resulted in 10 mins in the bin. This is a seasoned professional.

Missed tackle rates from Prior and Zane just not acceptable I’m sorry.

The reality was that we looked, for the second year running, like a knackered old cat that needed to be put to sleep. Next year should be much better, lots of positives going forward but we just have to continue to sign better quality players to support the youth.

4 or 5 players short for me.
prop, if not 2.
quality hooker is a huge must.
winger

Prop. Johnson is our big hope at hooker but he can’t be fully cooked in time for 2022z

Winger could be Tindall but likely we’ll find one either this year or to replace T Briscoe in 2023.

He needs to have a very big season next year to be retained at the club IMO.

he isn't blaming agar but as i saying at the start of the season he's as average as most of the team yet people are happy that we are not flirting with relegation and are playoff cannon fodder
of are squad at moment should only be newman , prior , mik , holroyd gannon poss tetevano johnson broadbent and we don't need an ava/king type we need a unit of walmsley / kassiano size

If we are bagging Zane and Prior we should throw in Mik too. Missed plenty and Saints front row crunched him. Could also point out that young Newman had a shocker with silly kicks and poor discipline costing us. These are two players we are talking about as potential marquee, but they didn't look like it last night. I still think they are both great talents but as fans we do seem to have a blind spot when it comes to our own. The overseas lads always get it in the neck when we don't perform, but it's a team game and collectively we were not good enough. Good news is that we have plenty of room for improvement and a whole off season to progress, and I'm sure we will.

Don't understand why Mellor and or King weren't playing last night , if they were fit . T Briscoe cold have gone back to wing , Hurrell as centre or don't bother playing him and we would have had more size . Doubt we'd have won but at least we might have put up a better performance.

I know mate but come on, Prior and Zane have 10 years experience on the young lads and are probably paid 2-4x their salaries too. Apples and oranges.

Plus in Mik’s case I don’t think he’s fit. I think they’ve rushed him back early from his injury because they knew we wouldn’t have any hope without him, even at 70%.

Newman’s confidence sometimes strays into over-confidence but he’s nowhere near his peak yet.

Get what you’re saying - there wasn’t any player I was totally happy with last night. Fair to say on the evidence of these 2 games against Saints all our players have things to work on before next season. Can’t stress enough how we’re hampered by 9, 6 and 7 being all over the place. Depressing thing for me was that we were we beaten down the middle too though.

and a full back , winnger , centre , prop , second row , lf



sts have evolved their side better over the years, certainly not as many past their sell by date as we have had for a number of years, much like wigan sed to without breaking the bank

Think Prior is just burnt out, Oledski just not fit and we new that was a risk, Tet is just poor and a massive disappointment, Bodene Thompson out played him last night. He turns his back into nearly every tackle then ends up on his back for a slow play the ball, he rushes up to make the big hit and mainly just bounces of, goes low drops of the tackle. Can we have Ben cross, Mark ONeil or David Barhill Back.

Newman should never have been in a position where he had to kick, that’s down to saints being dominant and our options at hooker and half back

Mik was clearly not fit I think your being a bit harsh on them

People putting a loot of faith into a player who as played hardly any Super League ir open age rugby and has a commitment/attitude problem, people making out he’s Danny Buderous. We have a really good hooker who is arguably our player of the year, made the dream team and had to play out of position. What more fo people want. If Leeming hets a full year at hooker he is likely to be in the world cup squad.

Agree with that. I’d written us off last night as soon as I saw Dwyer was starting at 9. When you’re attacking everything starts with the pass / scoot / jump from the dummy half. Dwyer’s distribution is simply not good enough.

Fair comment. He's overseen a much needed overhaul I'd agree