On paper, next year's team is better than this one

The team of the mid 90's was a better (on paper) team, just so happend wigan had the best team in their history.

Sinfield hit the nail on the head last night, with a salery cap in place you would be hard pressed to see a better side than the Leeds of today, both wigan & leeds would have been 5 or 6 players short in the 90,s had the cap been in place, no team could have afforded Hanley, Edwards , Gregory, Miles, Offiah, Skerrett, Platt etc under a salery cap. (although mincing Maurice Lindsay would have probably bent the rules)

Plus If the cap was in place then, Central park would not be a Tesco's.

I would even say its the best team of the super league era. Winning 3 Grand finals back to back, eclipses St Helens trophy haul over the professional period.

Off the field Bradford cheated us at Old Trafford in 2005. However on it they well and truly beat us even if it was for the controversial salary cap circumstances!

I took my 12 & 10 year olds to the game last night and on the way out i said to them "do you realise how lucky you are, I have been watching Leeds for 30 years and you have seen them win as much silverware as i have (almost)"

Surely this must rate the current era the most successful post war team

As an outsider I'm more inclined to agree with django. I thought the Leeds team of the first half of the 2005 season was the best team in terms of playing unstoppable offloading rugby, and I think it shaded the current Leeds side:



Mathers; Bai, Walker, Senior, Calderwood; Sinfield, Burrow; Bailey, Dunemann, Ward; Jones-Buchanan, McKenna; Ellis (McDermott, Lauititi, McGuire, Poching)



Had it not been for the injury to Senior and momentum just being eroded at the long time, that could have been a treble winning season for Leeds who really were fantastic at that time. 2005 for me was possibly the strongest season of Super League at the top of the table in terms of the quality of teams up there, but the pecking order chopped and changed through the season. You had a brilliant Leeds side who beat Canterbury and became World Club Champions, then you had a Saints team who gradually picked up discipline and momentum under new coach Daniel Anderson only to get injuries at the wrong time of the season like Leeds did. Hull were at their peak with Blacklock, Kearney etc in the team, and Danny Brough on fire. Warrington had their best season under Cullen and had good results against top teams and got Andrew Johns in at the end of the season. Then you had Bradford who were the inverse of Leeds, started off the season with injuries and no momentum but at the end had Hape and Vainikolo at their peak tearing everyone to shreds.



I would have loved to have seen the 2005 Grand Final being a fully fit Leeds team of their form in the early part of that season, against the Bradford juggernaut of late 2005, that would have been for me the best two individual teams in SL ever going head to head.

OK, going back to my post about the Leeds team of the period 68 - 73 ?



You only need cast your mind back to John Holmes' record of appearing in 19 finals (and winning 14), most of which came in the first half of his career.

Some good work on this thread.



You had me with Bev Risman or John Holmes at fullback.

Well, if you're looking at the 68 season onwards, Holmes made his debut at 16 and Risman was the recognised No.1 at that time. He played there in the '68 Cup Final for example.



History might have been a bit more interesting had Risman not retired through injury ....

The Leeds backs were poetry in motion at that time.



The modern game bears little resemblance. The two best bits of centre play yesterday came from Gidley and fooking Meli.

I'd say Saints 2006, us 2003 and now you lot 07-09 are the best three.



It's amazing how that quality has been there throughout three or four years, rather than 1 season of excellence like us and saints. I wouldn't put it past you lot to go on and do a fourth next year, maybe even the challenge cup eh ?

The '09 Leeds team has been built upon for 2010 and even the elder statesmen show no signs of decline if used carefully. Senior, Peacock and Leuluai appear to be having the times of their lives.



Worrying news for the rest of the comp.