Quote Clearwing="Clearwing"Would this really be that different to a football team losing a group game in the world cup and going on to win the tournament? I don't follow football very closely but haven't heard it said that that particular system makes the sport look silly.'"
Unfortunately I don't follow football at all so can't comment on any formats they use generally but in your tournament example I'd imagine the group stage is clearly defined as the precursor to the knock-out phase. You have one - gap - then you start the other. SL should have that with the Regular Rounds - gap - play-offs.
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Quote Clearwing="davetrin"TVOC mentioned an outsider looking at our sport .If someone asked me to explain how the play-offs worked I would obtain a piece of paper and a pen and say, sit down and make yourself comfortable ,this is going to take quite a while to explain.'"
I'd also open a bottle of wine at the same time as that may become neccessary.
There have been a few examples over the weekend that highlight how confusing our play-off format has become even for those in touch with the game.
1 - After Wigan defeated Les Catalans, Barrie McDermott said to Brian Carney that Les Catalans -
=#0000BF'would now play (if my reckoning is right) either Wakefield or Leeds.' I can only presume he felt the need to drop in the bracketed part because he's confused by the format. Clearly he was because there was no possible scenario that would have sent a victorious Wakefield to the loser of the game he'd just watched. It simply couldn't happen.
2 - The BBC kicked off their Play-Off coverage to the nation with an explanatory graphic that was incorrect. 1 - It had Hull V Huddersfield as EPO 1 and Leeds V Wakefield as EPO 2. 2 - The graphic incorrectly showed in week 2 the Loser of QPO 1 playing the winner of EPO 1 - which if both home teams had won couldnt possibly happen either as the week 2 fixtures depend on highest to lowest rankings. I'd exclude Tanya Arnold's voiceover to the graphic from criticism, as that I think, sounded correct - although obviously the two elements (sound and vision) contradicted each other. Following the graphic week 2 will now see Les Catalans V Hull and Warrington V Leeds ..... really?
3 - On Channel 5 Friday, Eddie Stobart's special projects manager Neale Burdon (preparing for the start of SL 2012 with fifteen trucks being sent to the launch at Old Trafford) stated that last year's Champions were Warrington.
So with elements of the sports two broadcast partners not appearing to understand the format or a representative of the sports title sponsor not grasping the difference between league leaders and Champions what chance is there for an outsider of the sport (and no doubt many within it) understanding the process.
I've always thought of League as the simple version of rugby - one you could explain the basics of quite quickly and that allows novices to watch or indeed play the game quite quickly. The play-off format flies in the face of that and is a nightmare to get across and within no time I find myself starting to question my own understanding of it.