Following Castleford's crushing victory over Leeds back in March, few could have scripted the season that followed. Or that the Rhinos would recover to win a place in the Grand Final.
Thursday 5 October 2017 20:08, UK
"He who doesn't take risks never gets to drink champagne" is an old proverb I learned this week and one that feels very appropriate with Saturday's Grand Final in mind.
I'm not sure if the winning team will get more joy from spraying champagne or drinking it? But I do know that winning the trophy will involve risking passes and offloads.
If you'd managed to get Danny Boyle, Richard Curtis, Mike Leigh and Simon Beaufoy together at the start of the year and asked them to write a screenplay for the coming Super League season, I'm not sure even they could have scripted the drama we've seen to date?
Nor the final we've got in store on Saturday night?
Could anyone have imagined when the hooter sounded in Castleford at the start of March, and them registering a 66-10 win over Leeds, that both teams would meet again in the Grand Final seven months later?
For Leeds, it has been a remarkable recovery. I doubt that there was a single person in the away team dressing room that night who thought they'd be walking down the tunnel at Old Trafford on Grand Final night.
Sport provides us all with fun and enjoyment, but it often provides us with inspiration too.
And the Rhinos' recovery from that crushing defeat should give us all hope to try again, whatever we are doing.
The league table shows a 10-point gap between the two Grand Finalists after 30 matches. But that gap has been narrowing steadily over the last two months for a few of reasons.
Everyone knows that the Tigers have scored the most tries this year. But probably, not everyone is aware that during the seven-game Supers 8s phase, the Rhinos scored only one try less than the league leaders.
Their ad-lib attacking style has found a winning rhythm. Leeds try to run the opposition ragged, forcing teams to chase them from side to side, usually after an offload to the likes of McGuire, Moon, Parcell or Burrows.
Much of this begins with an offload from Adam Cuthbertson - one of my favourite players in the country. He makes the game fun to watch and I can't wait to see him on Saturday.
After the opponents' defensive line has been disrupted, the quicker players take-off towards the sideline, asking their team-mates to run some different attacking angles while waiting for gaps to appear.
For the opposition facing them, it's not simply a case of defending, more a case of decision-making on how you are going to defend.
Do you hold off and wait? Or come in and close the play down? That's the question that Leeds have asked of their opponents each game. It is almost impossible to rehearse defence against this style as the defenders don't know who is going to get the ball or which direction they are going to run.
In contrast, the Tigers try to stretch defences to breaking point. They use the full width of the pitch better than most teams. Especially in their own half of the field.
I would say that they've been more successful than most at getting their forwards passing to their backs. They do it with greater accuracy, over greater distances, and lock in more defenders and by doing so, create space out wide.
Moors, Millington and Sene-Lafao do this particularly well. They rely on the voice and the vision of Luke Gale to direct the team into areas of the field where they can isolate defenders and create an overlap using their speedy full-back.
After playing and losing four times this season against Castleford the big question for me, and the big question ahead of the Grand Final - is whether Leeds have learned from these defeats?
The history books show that Leeds have won the Grand Final six times in the last 10 years. That's impressive. And the experience must give them an advantage of sorts over their opponents.
One of the hardest challenges for Castleford to overcome will be the walk-out onto the pitch and the wait before the kick-off. It might only be a few minutes but it can feel like a few hours for nervous players.
If you lose your composure at this time, very often you lose the game. Feeling nervous before an appearance is normal. But being nervous during an appearance could prove fatal for your team's chances.
Can Castleford handle the pressure? Most of the Castleford crowd won't have seen their team in a game as big as this before and you could sense their anxiety during that incredibly tense semi-final with St Helens.
However, if I'm asked to tip a winner, then the season began with a convincing win for the Tigers and I think that it will end that way too.
So now I want to finish where I began, but this time with a Winston Churchill quote this time about the true value of champagne.
"In success you deserve it and in defeat you need it."
Good luck to both teams. I hope it's another great game and I'll send a bottle to both dressing rooms.
