Or you can go on and win the Grand Final from pole position. Crazy idea.

Sorry but thats not at all the impression I have. It only emerges (almost) every year after we win the GF (again)

I have said this on the other boards... For every winner there are 13 losers.

Why should finishing 1st or 2nd give those teams any automatic right to contest the play-off final.

The league is designed to decide the order of contest for the right to play for the title of SL Champions and is therefore deemed to be a minor trophy,

The play-offs are not a new and funky format these days. Everyone is well aware of how the title is decided. More teams need to follow Leeds' brilliant example of getting the job done in the play-offs.

If Wigan are so good why did they not beat us in the play - off, after all they had home advantage . I am becoming tired of this myth that it is easy to win the grand final from fifth place. We had to overcome Catalan in France and then travel to Wigan for a game we were expected to lose.
The simple fact is by and large we are a damn good team with some battle hardened players in the squad.
I will wager that it will be years and possibly it will never happen for a team to win back to back wins from fifth position .

Exactly. Champions win when it matters.

It would be interesting to see if there was the same sense of 'injustice' around these boards back in 2005, when a Bradford side who were similarly inconsistent for most of the year overtook us and Saints to take the title.

I read a thread on totalrl it was "when is a team called great"and one post said "despite leeds wins in the GF Leeds can never b called great because unlike great teams like Bradford!Wigan!and Saints! Leeds have never blown away top teams in games"I anwsered about our scoring average in 2004-2005 and of course 2007 Grandfinal.Couldnt make up some of this make believe.tell the bigger the lie ,the more they'll believe it

Exactly.

This team is special.

I hate playoffs deciding the Champions, it's so untraditional. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_(rugby_league)

I hate playoffs deciding the Champions, it's so untraditional. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_(rugby_league)

To me it's the system that's wrong or perhaps the value of it.
League winners should be held in higher esteem than what is effectively an end of season knockout.
I've no complaint with Leeds domination in recent years in the GF, it's the system and they deal with it the best clearly.
The thing is I don't see them as the best team in SL over the last couple of years certainly and that to me devalues the competition as a whole.
I think the game needs a re- think.
As for Wigan, I think they thought they had a divine right to win this year and after the comments attributed to Wane and Tomkins regarding the McGuire incident and their smug delight at his ban, I was beside myself with joy (well as much as a wakey fan can be) when you kicked their back doors in, in the semi!!!!
The thing that does confuse me is this, Leeds fans will say we are the best because we've won (and its hard to argue with facts) but how many have been calling for the coach to go over the last couple of "great" seasons?
This would never be the case if Leeds were actually winning the league.

The problem with the SL play offs is the context of a weak league. If the bottom 6 were any good then an intelligently coached team like Leeds couldn't get away with picking and choosing which games to turn up for... If the crappy SL clubs in heartland areas developed their local talent and stopped p!ssing away their money on buying their side this 'problem' would solve itself in time.

Until then, someone is going to have to give Wigan an explanation of the system they are playing in which uses shorter words and bigger text. Maybe some pictures might help: a gorilla holding a hubcap and crying...

I personally think that if finishing top of the league was the way of deciding the champions, this group of players would have done it more often.

You can't say that finishing top of the 27 rounds is the sign of a better team, when that is not the measure of the champions, and so different teams place different emphasis on coming top.

Tortoise & Hare springs to mind

Why reward stupidity? Part of winning a game is understanding of the rules.

What did Wigan have to do to get to the grand final this year, iirc it was win 2 games at home against 4th then 5th in the league.

Leeds had to win against wakey at home, then go to the south of france then away to the "best" team in the competition and then face wire in the final.

I think we played 4 more games than wigan this year so managing our resources is what we have done well again

Said it before & I'll say it again - we play far too many games in a season, the elite players in this country are flogged. Does anyone seriously think any team can perform to that level consistently over 38 games? I certainly don't think it's possible.

Therefore, in some games a team will be below par, in some games well below par. It's inevitable. So which games is it preferential to be below par, league fixtures, challenge cup fixtures or playoff fixtures? It's a no brainer really.

The system has been in place for 15 years, and will remain in place. I'm a traditionalist to be honest & would prefer a 'first past the post' system, but there's no point crying over spilt milk. The times they are a changing, and let's be honest the quality of recent Grand Finals is a fantastic way to close the domestic season - and is getting RL good press.

So, jealous Wigan fans, deal with it!

Do you mean league leaders shield winners, Leeds are the League winners

Held in higher esteem by who?, wigan can have an open top bus parade or print it on their shirts if they want