It was an Oscar speech with a sting in the tail.

Kate Winslet would have been proud of the way Kevin Sinfield thanked his team-mates, the fans and – most importantly – the sponsors as Leeds luxuriated in Grand Final glory.

But then he delivered the killer send-off by also dedicating their success to the moaners and haters who had given them pelters during the season.

You could understand Sinfield wanting to get his point over as publicly as possible. Turn the clock back a few months and the Rhinos were being criticised as the worst Leeds team for years.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but let’s not beat around the bush. The Rhinos were bumbling along mid-season.

After Catalan inflicted a third straight loss in July – two weeks after the Bulls had triumphed at Headingley – there was a real feeling that Leeds might miss out on the top eight altogether.

How would that look if one of the sport’s genuine powerhouses were not involved in the play-offs? How indeed … But that proved a turning point. The following week Leeds “nilled” Hull FC and lost only once more in the regular season.

After Wigan toppled them at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final, they were not beaten again.

Leeds peaked at exactly the right moment while long-term pacesetters Warrington and Wigan crucially ran low on gas.

A six-match winning run culminated with that thrilling come-from-behind victory over traditional Old Trafford bridesmaids St Helens.

In lifting the trophy, Leeds wiped Bradford’s name off the record books as the lowest-placed team to take the big prize.

The Bulls had finished third in the regular season when they won in 2005; Leeds were a distant fifth this time.

So much for the old adage that the league table doesn’t lie.

Those critics who dismissed Leeds at the height of summer will now question the legitimacy of the competition’s structure.

And yeah, eight teams going through is two too many. Just look at what happened to the two Hull clubs in week one of the play-offs.

But the success of Leeds has underlined the excitement of the play-off system. The way the Rhinos burst from the pack made it a fantastic climax to eight months of combat.

So what if the “minor premier” champions Warrington did not finish with a trophy in their grasp?

They were not the best team. The best team, by definition, are the one who stayed the full distance.

In America, it’s common to see the winners emerge from the chasing group.

The current Super Bowl champions Green Bay Packers only sneaked into the play-offs last year as a final-day wild card. So they had to play every sudden-death game away – and stormed the lot.

New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, who had the best records in the regular season, were nowhere to be seen come the showpiece. Green Bay, like Leeds, timed their run to perfection.

Vancouver Canucks bossed ice hockey’s NHL from week one – until they fell apart to Boston in the Stanley Cup finals. Again, the winning Bruins had struggled to make the post-season.

In baseball, the hot favourite New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies are already back home flicking through the holiday brochures while the World Series race continues.

The sides who accelerated down the final straight have overhauled the two who dominated the marathon 164-game schedule.

In the words of Lenny Kravitz, “It ain’t over til it’s over”.

For rugby league, a fifth-placed team eventually topping the pile is not a reason to knock the play-off format but embrace it more.

The sight of Sinfield giving the detractors what for from the winners’ rostrum is the best possible advert for the competition.