Judder Man wrote:
Because you are Cherry Picking why 11 out of the last 12 years to remove a further team.
Wigan-Saints-Leeds have won the LLS and Grand Final this decade, newcomers Warrington, Huddersfield and Castleford have found it very difficult to keep form right up to the end of the season. My own theory is that if a club hits league leaders spot early in the season they have a natural winning mentality to stay there whilst at the same time quite a few clubs try to raise their game to knock the leaders off their perch.
If a team puts in a lot of effort to finish top of the league its takes a lot more mental pressure to raise their game for the play offs and you really need quite a few big game experienced individuals in the team to do that.
I think that the difference is far more fundamental that you are stating.
For clubs such as Huddersfield and Castleford, who are not used to winning silverware (something that my team is still dreaming of in the SL era), they have focused on finishing top of the league, rather than winning the main prize and to some extent, perhaps thinking that finishing top was "job done".
If you compare this to the way that say Leeds and Wigan went about their business, their focus, even before the start of the regular season, was on how to reach and win the GF. Different preparation and different mentality.
Saints appear to have learnt from their "failings" of last season but, when it comes to the play offs, those that have been there before and won the GF are at a huge advantage over the newbies.
THe same also applies to the latter stages of the Challenge Cup and generally, it is the sides with recentish cup success that will win the Final, Catalan being a notable exception to that rule, although McNamara has plenty of "big game" experience, which will have helped.
Leeds, under McDermott, were excellent at peaking for the play offs but, more importantly, having the belief that they would win, something that you have to credit McDermott with.
