a lot of people are talking about how over the past 2 weeks we have looked very tired and they were playing on empty , but considering the good fortune that we have had this year with injuries and the fact that we've been able to rest players in games , i find it really hard to believe that we've looked so tired. i really would have thought we would have been one of the fitter teams come this end of the season..

thoughts ??

We looked uninterested not tired, there is a bit of a difference. The body language last night was shocking from the first minute and there was a serious lack of desire to defend properly. People can put it down to fatigue, but i am not buying that.

I don't think it was fatigue. I think it was a great start by Huddersfield and us not being in the best of form. Hence, they beat us. Easy to work out really. No lack of interest or anything like that. That is insulting to those players who risk their health every week.

Teams peak - we did that at Wembley (which I count as a blessing). We know we can beat Huddersfield, as this season has proven but they started superbly, hopefully for them they are peaking around about the next game or 2!

I honestly don't for one minute believe that those lads run on the pitch and think 'oh I can't be bothered today'. No way. Sadly a number of factors worked against us; post Wembley come down, defeat at KR, long season without a break (injured players do actually get a rest when you think about it), super start by Hudds.......

all these points are sensible,no way can anyone use the tired phrase as leeds have played more games than us and still are in it,just put it down to one of them things its happened team as had a good season lets just look forward to next year.

For me poor mistakes cost you dearly.

Huddersfield played well, we didn't. Far too many errors, end of story. What all our Trolls seem to have conveniently ignored is that we've had a fine season and have retained one of two major trophies in the game.

Boooo

Do you not think it could be the 'Saints factor' [size=85Eddie Hemmings[/size [size=50tm[/size?

You 'strutted' into Knowsley Road the other week for the first play off game. The fans were confident, the coach was confident and the players were ultra confident. When King scored the second try you looked dynamic, dangerous and almost unbeatable. There were certainly no problems with peaking too soon or tiredness at that point.

From the next hour you were dominated by Saints and once again lost a game against a team you, on paper at least, should be more than competitive with. I remember reading Matt King last year when he admitted that once Saints get in front all he sees is a brick wall. He's relatively new to the whole thing so for the likes of Wood, Briers etc who have been there longer it must be quite a psychological barrier. The 'hoodoo' is purely mental IMO and the spirit in the dressing room at Knowsley Road at the end of that game must have been pretty low. You had gone into the game as favourites in a lot of people's eyes, Saints had another untried halfback pairing, it was all set up for a Wire win. They would have known sitting there that they would have to return there and win if they were to progress, something they couldn't see themselves doing.

Would that not cause the deflated mentality that Warrington seemed to approach the game against the Giants with? The cold, rainy night with one of it not the smallest crowd of the season probably didn't help either.

what doesnt help is Monaghan being switched from Hooker to Half Back. Things went down hill then. All the good things he was doing from Actign Halh Back went out the window....

That was a big mistake. Note we started to play better when Monaghan reverted back to Hooker on Saturday....

I think you looked tired. You are the only team to play every weekend this year arent you?

Thats no excuse. The lack of injuries at Warrington meant every player could be rotated. A lot of the main players were rested for the Quins game post Wembley if I remember rightly.

You cant rotate and rest players at the business end of the year. Also didnt Harrison pull up in the warmup? That could have disrupted things.

How dare you suggest that. Don't you know that clarke is one of the finest members of our squad? The reason he is on instead of myler is because he is much better in defence. For evidence of this just watch the first two tries conceded on saturday.

this ^


it was fine for a one or two off in the cup, but doing this has completely changed the way we've played for most of this year, there were a couple of moments in the second half where half breaks were made and players were looking round for support, thats where myler would have been shooting through, and scaring the bejesus out of the defence, even if he didn't get the ball.

So you blame it on Tony Smith? He made a mistake that cost you a shot at OT?

monaghan at half back is a stupid idea. clarke has been good on his return and deserves a plce but is not in the same league as monas at hooker. we need myler to partner briers as he offers more in attack. if he saying he not playing myler as he will be targeted , then every team are going to target him and there's no point in spending that monay or having him on the cap. monas at hooker myler partnering briers let clarke and higham fight it out for place on the bench.

not entirely, we do look knackered, i don't agree with any of this swagger crap you've come out with about us turning up last week,

but if you look at how we've played this year, there's been some constants.

Monas being a threat at DH, which has been aided a lot by myler continually pushing through, being on the shoulder, (usually getting knocked on his off the ball but not getting a penalty for it) that causes confusion in the defence, people don't get back quick enough into position there's delay in markers getting set and its from that monas does his best work, not scooting and pinching cheap yards but getting up and then running at the line, we've not seen of his scything show and goes for ages now.

a la the semi final last year.

I agree, we completely went away from how we had been playing for the first 3/4 of the season or so and served us very well to accomodate Clarke.

We lost all the creative imput that Monaghan was having in the earlier rounds of the league and cup by putting him at half back. As has been stated, Clarke was playing well but no where well enough to oust Monaghan from his best position. I would say play that game again with Myler starting and just having Clarke or Higham on the bench things would have been different.

Another thing that popped into my head.....did we really miss Harrison that much?

Vinnie was pretty diabolical in the first 20 especially where Harrison would have been steady and reliable in defence.

I'm not sure why we didn't play Clarke at 7 if Smith didn't want to expose Myler. Monaghan should never play anywhere other than 9.

We were not tired just outplayed by Huddersfield in the first half and lacked ideas. When we were on the comeback we did not look tired then did we?

how did you think clarke played on saturday?

Ahem.

Last weekend was our first missed and our season started earlier than most.

Only 1 week earlier

Not wonderfully.