Quote: tb "You are aware that we had play-offs before the Australians even had rugby league?'"
Quite correct. In the early days of Rugby League when travel across the Pennines was a major consideration, most games would be played within the same county with very few being played inter-county. This gave an imbalance of fixtures - look at early tables which contained 30+ teams who only played 30-odd games in season - which was resolved with the use of the play-off system.