Having worked hard all season , fonished top of the table , which shows you are true champions . Then lose it to the Rhinos , well i think that makes a mockery of the season really .
And this is not sour grapes to any Rhinos fans out there ! . There are a great talented side . But how can they be crowned champions , when we finished top of the table , after working hard all season to get there , and then not allowed to be called champions .

Scrap the playoffs ? ... Too right , the sooner the better .

...never gonna happen. RL has always been better when you win the championship in a winner takes all battle against the second best team in the comp.

Here's a mad idea, what about some kind of handicap system to fully reward the final league placing of the teams?

Perhaps something like the lowest place team gives the highest placed team a start equal to the difference between the number of league points they have each accumulated over the season plus two?

So, using current league positions/points, 1st v 8th, Saints would get home advantage plus 14 points start from Hull (26 - 14 + 2) in the first round of the play offs.

That might make things a bit more interesting..........

Still not right though .

Simple. That's how sports work everywhere else in the English-speaking world. Australian leagues use playoffs to determine their champions. So do American ones, New Zealand ones and Canadian ones. So did English RL for most of its' history. Using playoffs to determine the champions rectified the bizarre scenario of naming a champion, then having playoffs for a secondary trophy (aka the Premiership). The fact is that English RL has always had playoffs, and under SL they put things right again. The Grand Final winner is the real champion in my eyes and always will be.

Ive seen lots of good games this season.

People who are knocking things are probably doing so because the sport is comparatively speaking at saturation point re tv coverage.

Certainly compared to the past when we were fed TV scraps and had to taste them like it was our last meal.

The only thing i will say is that the entertainment value will increase with more quality players in the league. Hopefully with the fine crop of young halves coming through in the league that will stir things up a bit.

I've personally never understood why this country has such an aversion to playoffs. Rugby Union fans hate them and Football fans won't even entertain the idea of having them. Many countries have at least one high profile championship game and until the SL introduced the Grand Final I felt that we were missing out.

Back on topic I don't think that having 8 teams has lead to any significant reduction in intensity compared to previous seasons. Teams in the top half of the table know that finishing in the top four will give them a better chance of reaching Old Trafford and the teams at the bottom know that they still have a hope of making the 8, and still theoretically having a chance of winning the SL title.

Would it really

The English have cup competitions, culminating in a final. Other countries, such as America, and Australia do not.

Cup competitions are to make the second half of the season more interesting for those teams not likely to win the league.