Melbourne have been so good. every year they are excellent. This year I think they will do it.

For the cowboys to make it this far after just sneaking into the 8. Hell of an achievement.

No we scrapped it because once you got to 6th, 7th and 8th there were generally blowout scores. The crowds were down as I guess people didn't believe they were watching KO football as the top sides would beat the lower sides comfortably.

Similar story with Canberra...

Really?

5th would play 8th and 6th vs 7th so two would be gone before they faced a top side. Leeds won from 5th twice, Catalans got very close from 8th in 2009. Wire & Catalans reached the SF's from 5th & 7th in 2014.

You only have to see the reaction when Cas won the LLS and people were going on about how it's wrong that they might not be champions if they don't win the GF, one thing if 2nd place a Leeds beat then, if a team came from 7th or 8th to beat them in a GF people would be going crazy.

Correct but the first round of games saw a drop in crowds as those teams could lose and then play the lower ranked side in second chance which they generally won comfortably.

Just look at the teams who have reached the grand final under the last system and now and you see the same sides over and over again.

Whether Castleford finished 1st or if it was 8th in the last system it's a breath of fresh air seeing someone new reach the Grand Final. The more sides we have that have a genuine chance of making it to the final by hook or crook the better.

Looking at a lot of SL play offs in recent years the biggest problem has been the complete lack of gumption/desire shown by too many teams once they've got there. For all the problems with the system, this year in the Super 8s most teams have at least had a bit of a dig.