And including 2 of the same teams

In theory you would think that 9th or 10th would be the target for the extra home game in the 8s unless they are so cocky to think that that advantage won't matter cos it's 'only' championship teams.

If none of The Championship clubs gain promotion this time, there may be yet another change to the current format, unless it was designed to keep all of The Championship clubs in the lower league.
You have to say that Leigh deserve their shot at the big time and their motivation will have increased but, if anything, the bottom 4 in SL look stronger (by comparison than the 4 SL clubs that contested the middle 8's last season.

if no teams change league after the middle 8s then the rfl will have to give up on this stupid system and revert back to one up one down for the 2017 season

well said

Idea to replace middle 8 if decided its s failure.

Bottom of SL goes down, top of championship up.
Next bottom in SL plays second in championship....... two legged tie

3rd and 4th bottom and 3rd and fourth in championship simply lose revenue from any future games......... unless

To avoid any yoy-yo effect, any promoted championship side has a 1 year exemption unless they finish bottom (bottom automatically goes down). They will be replaced in the play-off by the lowest ranked team not exempted.

Might sound complicated initially but which new system doesnt. Mean the penalty for being REALLY crap is relegation, whereas the penalty for being "only just good enought to stay in SL again" might be a playoiff for survival.

After 2 seasons? Give over.

So how's it going to work with toronto?


The only thing the system has made me smile about is Hetherington pushed for this and now it's smacked hin in the face

Only thing that will beat that will be leeds relegated but it won't happen as all championship clubs are still too far behind superleague clubs

While I'm not the biggest fan of the super 8's, whether a team gains promotion or not it needs to be given a lot longer before a decision is made to change yet again. The franchise system was scrapped too early, before we could really tell how effective it was going to be.

Having said that, if we were to go to a new system, I would like to see promotion/relegation every other year, with a decent parachute payment to the relegated team, and the parachute payment awarded to the championship winners in a year there is no promotion.

Hetherington wanted licensing. He did not want this. This is a halfway house system.

But even though I'm not in agreement with it, any system should be given far longer than 2 seasons. If the Championship teams can't win a one off game to get promoted then they need to improve. The new funding enables them to compete with the bottom end of SL now.


As for Toronto well, if they get to the Championship and then get promoted, firstly it'll prove that the system can allow movement between the leagues and then they'll either be exempt like Catalans were or will be subject to the same rules as everyone else.

So in reality if the championship sides get exempt for one season it's possible a team that finished 6th would have to play a relegation play off not likely it could happen but possible it was a good idea until you put in an exemption