Leeds lost at Wigan 24-22 the week after losing the 2005 CC final, beat Wakefield 13-12 the week after losing in the 2003 final and beat Salford 42-16 the Tuesday after losing the 2000 final. Last time they won it in 1999 they got hammered by Saints the week after.

Although I think we're clutching at straws a bit if we're relying on Leeds and Wire having Wembley-itis. Added to the fact that neither of them are there yet.

(It's Sunday morning and I'm bored

)

Good work Shirl



What about Warrington the week before

Shirl is trying to take Mrs B's job by the look of it.

Longy will be back for the Leeds game anyway, Agar said he could be back 2 weeks ahead of schedule so that means the Wire game.
Would much rather he missed the Wire game, as long as we beat Crusaders the Leeds game will definitely be for 4th. The only thing on the Wire game would be whether we're in 4th or 5th going into the final game.

I hope it isn't to premature for long, Then it could be career ending.

You could say that. You could also say that quins are 2nd bottom while leeds have won the last 3 grand finals

How does going to wigan instead of leeds save on travel?

I never said we'd lose to leeds, you said we may the week before the play offs. I said our best chance of beating them is after they've taken a battering from wigan, rather than us taking the battering

If we beat wigan, IF, then do we go straight to the GF or has that changed?

No it means we would go straight through to week 3 and the semi finals 80 minutes from Old Trafford.

At home aswell i think?

Not sure because the top 3 could still get through to week 3 so technically we would be the lowest positioned team in there.

Not if two of the final four finished above us. Also remember the top placed team can choose their opponents.

So for example beating Wigan away in the first week of the play offs would probably still mean an away trip to a top 3 team 2 weeks later?!?!

No we would be the winners so we would get home advantage a week off and wigan would have to play away

Thats alot to ask after beating the top of the table.

But if we beat Wigan and Saints beat Wire then surely us and Saints progress to week 3 with home ties against the winners of the games between the losers in the top 4 Vs the Winners of 5th - 8th. Just by the fact we wouldn't have lost a game when the others have should see us at home. With Saints choosing there opposition because they finish higher in the league.

No

The 2 games 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd winners will go through to week 3 and will have a home game. The higher placed team of the 2 winners gets to choose the opponent from the 2 remaining qualifying semi finalists.

Spot on

That's how i see it too. It suddenly looks do-able!

Ah OK. That sounds more reasonable!

Easy peasy

Scary thing is, we might have to play Wigan twice in two games to get to OT!

Lets concentrate on trying to finish 4th first before we worry about play off games

I know i wont give it a thought till at least the 15th of August when i get back from my hols

Finishing top and losing the first play off game actually makes getting to the Grand Final quite tough compared to the old systems then.

Where would the fun be in that?