OP, your use of statistics is laughable. You have presented no valid evidence suggesting either that the league is becoming more competetive , or that it isnt.

If you want some statistics that acually tell you anything about the state of the league as a whole, maybe try looking at a time period longer than 3 years, this isnt nearly long enough to assess a proper trend. especially when the first year you look at was the disasterous first season in SL of the Crusaders - this with the fact that you mainly compare top with bottom, obviously would massively skew your results) If you are looking at a small enough time period, and if you pick your starting and finishing points carefully enough, you can find pretty much any trend you want

Compare the standard deviation of league points gained by the teams throughout each season, rather than cherry picking certain positions and comparing them, then deciding this must be representative of the league as a whole.

Looking at points for and against over the season doesn't tell you anything of importance, i suggest comparing the standard deviation of the points difference of each team, for each season, again rather than assuming cherrypicked results are representative.

Cas being a perfect example.

In the 1st 13 rounds of the season Cas lost 4 games, 1 of which was by more than 2 points.

In the 2nd half of the season Cas lost 9 times, 5 times by margins of 30 pts or more and a further 2 by 20 pts or more.

In the first 13 rounds we had on average 3 or 4 players missing through injury. In the 2nd half of the season we had upwards of 8 players missing each week.

Thanks for the feedback. I’m not sure why you have to describe my post as ‘laughable’ when I am only trying to generate some healthy debate. I didn’t actually ‘declare anything' by the way, I thought there was evidence for both the for and against argument

What is it about the internet makes people so obnoxious (or maybe you are like that internet or not)

No.

"The business end of the season".

"Pinnacle of the sport in this country"

Two nils in two games...

Catalans and HKR played 27 games each in the league and ended up three league points apart and a for and against difference of 43 points. Let’s not say that the Super League is uncompetitive just because of the scoreline tonight (although I do agree that a review of the play off’s is warranted to see if top 8 in the play off’s is too many)

You have to include in that the number of home games Cas had at the start of the season. It was something like seven of the first nine were at home wasn't it? That's going to influence the scores as much as squad depth because it's harder to get results on the road.

The original poster provides us with some valid Statistics which indicate the improving competitiveness of the
Super League.

Regardless of this since the start of SL in 1996 only four teams have won the Grand Final Bradford, Leeds, Saints and Wigan and only one other club outside of these four clubs, Hull have been in the final. No different this year then.

From that perspective theres no evening up of the league at all.

And yet we have clubs that finished 3 rd and 5 th in the final , however a top 8 play off is quite ridiculous in a 14 team competition

That's just one measure of competitiveness and because it only measures the winners it is hardly a comprehensive way of measuring competitiveness.

Maybe the fact that 5th beat 1st and 3rd beat 2nd in the semi’s to reach the Grand Final is some evidence of a more competitive competition. I know that Leeds and Saints are the same names as many previous finals but you would have got long odds on this Grand Final only a couple of weeks ago