Why? Surely the onus is on clubs to balance their priorities. If they are unable to do so surely this is their fault.

I'm still here fatso (some of us do wash and shave ya know), but not for much longer... I've got a grass roots game to attend you see

This isn't the Premiership of Chavball where there is no Salary Cap and the rich clubs can field different teams according to balancing priorities Shag. Not that such luxuries helped Arsenal much this season did it? Bwahahahaha

Quite

The super league is the be all and end all now, what with the grand final and all the razzmatazz that surrounds it.

Who really cares about leeds v workington?

The games in the early rounds are non events and as such get low attendances. Interest grows when it get's to quarter final stage but even then it's ''well if we can't win super league we'll have that'' kind of situation.

Arsenal's objectives were to win things. Read what the players have said in recent weeks about how dissapointed they have been and how they have blown it.

Arsenal failed this season, if you want to delude yourself go right ahead.

Of course the players are disappointed, it is every player's desire in every sport to win things. This is not the same as it being the club's objectives for the season.

Should we hope leeds to get knocked out early so they can focus on SL, and pray they don't have their annual season end of slump?

..(though the last time we got knocked out early in 04 we managed to carry our form through)

Or should we concentrate mainly on the CC as our best chance of silverware?

I agree. It's something I've supported for some time.

I love the cup the excitment waiting for draw etc you dont get that in play offs or sl.
Super league is a joke anyway why worry about losing 1 game cause it doesnt matter anyway just play well in 6 games at end of season.
Hence why saints had no threats of putting out a acdamy team to play catalan.
I just been watching a very enjoyable game of rl involving a nl club and sl team lot better than most of games of super league this year.
If leeds was in the nl it'd be all we'd be talking about playing super league teams why take out the lower teams chance to play big guns.

If anything the cup shows us what we need to do to develop the lower leagues which rfl ignore and make no effort to help them.

I think the role of the CC going forward ought to be primarily about promoting the game outside SL. As a result I'm certainly not in favour of scrapping it. And making it pre-season would simply lengthen the season.

I'm not sure that at the moment the rules allow for teams to intentionally field weakened sides, but IMO SL sides should be allowed to do that in the CC. That way if a SL side decides to concentrate on the Cup (e.g. because they may be at best mid-table) they can choose to compete and field strong sides. Alternatively, a side scrapping for survival/top spot might choose to field a virtual Academy side. I guess it would end up being like the League Cup then - some top names getting knocked out early, one or two SL sides fighting for it, and possibly one or more heavyweight sides involved at the final stages.

An alternative would be to force all SL sides to field a minimum number of U-21 players (i.e. outside the 20:20 or whatever the system is now) - say 5. That would have the benefit of giving first team games to a number of youngsters but with perhaps enough star players to keep the gloss on the comp for lower league sides.

I know this isn't ideal as non-SL fans would want to watch top SL sides against their team, but it's probably getting towards the time that a decision was made en masse by SL, and not individual teams, and if it came down to it, I'd rather lose the CC than weaken SL.

What about a handicapping system?

For example a NL2 side gets between 40 and 50 points starts depending on their finishing positioning.

NL1 sides get between 20 to 30 points start.

The only problem you would have if don't get one of the top 4 clubs getting to the final you will have a half empty stadium?

Say Wakefield v Huddersfield final - 50k max.