William tells us this is the most competitive league around and their play offs feature teams more closely matched with solid defences.

How is it then:

The average winning team score is 30 points and the average winning margin is 17?

Today's elimination semi was won by 28 points with one team scoring 40!!

Very competitive - really!!

It's not that different really. Watched 2wks of it whilst I was in Oz. The only difference is that the Bottom of the League is more Competitive than than ours throughout the Season.

How dare you question the oracle of RL, for shame. But since you make an interesting point here are some stats since the 8 team playoffs were introduced in SL in 2009.

2009 Playoffs
SL - Winning team avg. score - 23.2........Losing team avg. score - 11.1........Difference 12.1 pts
NRL - Winning team avg. score - 29.6.......Losing team avg. score - 13.1........Difference 16.5 pts

2010 Playoffs
SL - Winning team avg. score - 28.8........Losing team avg. score - 14.6........Difference 14.2 pts
NRL - Winning team avg. score - 26..........Losing team avg. score - 12.7........Difference 13.3 pts

2011 Playoffs
SL - Winning team avg. score - 37..........Losing team avg. score - 13.3.........Difference 23.7 pts
NRL - Winning team avg. score - 25.1......Losing team avg. score - 11.7.........Difference 13.4 pts

Total Difference over 3 years is SL ........NRL

So i'd hardly call 2.2 pts more a game the massive difference people make it out to be in terms of NRL being more of a level contest, especially when we've had some 'rabble' teams included in the SL Top 8.

If you only include the semi's and the GF, you know when only the very best should still be left and all rabble has been elimnated then it looks like this,

SL - Winning - 25.8...Losing - 15.1...Diff. - 10.7
NRL - Winning - 25.7...Losing - 11.1...Diff. - 14.6

Also the more consistant teams have reached the GF over here
SL - 1st v 2nd, 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 5th...average of finishing inbetween 2nd and 3rd to reach the GF
NRL - 4th v 8th, 1st v 6th, 1st v 6th...average of finishing inbetween 4th and 5th to reach the GF (yet SL rewards mediocrity so much apparently)
Only once has a team outide the top 3 made the SL GF, whilst in the NRL 4 of the last 6 GF teams have come from further back than 3rd place.

Strange how William is absent from this thread!! Today the Storm win by 28 and Leeds win by 7, The Storm score 40 and Leeds score 27!!

He is either in denial, or double checking the figures, or working on a magical response. Probably all 3.

Come on Jeff haha

When making comparisons, it always makes sense to compare like-for-like situations.

The 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons weren't like-for-like play-off situations because the NRL employed a different system during those seasons... 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5... which is more likely to produce blowout scorelines. This is the reason that SL wouldn't dare adopt that system for fear of 70 or 80 point hammerings.

Therefore, the only like-for-like comparison to be made (notwithstanding the ridiculous club call) is in 2012. The data from this year is incomplete so far, but the latest figures are as follows...

2012 Playoffs
SL - Winning team avg. score - 37.8........Losing team avg. score - 12.6........Difference 25.2 pts
NRL - Winning team avg. score - 29.6.......Losing team avg. score - 12.6........Difference 17.0 pts

HTH

But SL have had these 'meaningless' loser gets a 2nd chance games where 1 team usually doesn't bother (probably the reason why SL is 2.2 pts higher and not lower than the NRL) so in a way the SL's system is more of a disadvantage to its own figures than the NRL's.

No amount of posturing by yourself will change the fact that you're making a non like-for-like comparison between two very different play-off systems... though I will credit you with the bold attempt... unlike Mr Paradise who is well known for establishing the crudest of comparisons from the most limited of data sets. Perhaps he'll employ you on minimum wage or workfare at his ailing company instead?

HTH

I see the NRL keeping up the tradition of having close semi's and GF's after today's 32-8 win for Canterbury. Massive congratulations to the NRL for adopting the SL system though as it's given them only their third 1st v 2nd GF in the last 8 years (hence rewarding the more consistant teams like SL usually does), but when you consider that the previous 2 were won by scorelines of 40-0 and 34-8 then perhaps that isn't a good thing.

The average points difference in NRL semi's and GF's has now jumped up to 16.7 compared to SL's 10.7

Feel free to keep me entertained with your non like-for-like comparisons

And congratulations to Canterbury on reaching the Grand Final after several seasons of not even finishing in the Top 8... they finished bottom in 2008... such is the unpredictability of that competition. Good effort from Souths too given they won a qualifying final for the first time since 1987. I considered them the only whipping boy NRL rabble club but not any longer.

I do believe the SL season finally kicks off next week. Oh, it'll be Wigan, Saints, Warrington and Leeds again