Well they're not 'all-inclusive' are they? The current playoff format is for the top 4 teams only, out of 12. The salary cap at least helps towards each of those 12 clubs having a fairer crack at making the playoffs.

I don't see what the sport would gain from losing of it's biggest events?

there are only a limited amount of points available, if leeds and hudds get more points, someone else gets fewer, its going to be very rare, however 'even' the league is, for the 9th placed team to be getting much, if anything, more than 20 points, and remember, thats only 1.5 games under a .500 winning ratio. 1 every two games. its going to be pretty impossible for the 12th place team to.

Similarly its going to be very rare that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th in the championship arent going to get much if anything less than 30 points.

There are plenty of ideas for 'tweaking' the structure, but its tilting at windmills. For every upside there is a downside. The gap between the championship clubs and SL clubs is too big, so you increase the SC of the championship that solves that problem but creates a whole raft of new ones around affordability, player pool, and the competitiveness of the championship as a competition.

Reset the points to 0 and you make the first part of the competition boring and meaningless for most clubs, dont and the 2nd part is.

Eventually it will dawn that its just a bad system.

The argument for resetting the points for the final 7 games makes no sense to me, you're just rewarding teams for being inadequate. It makes the first 23 games meaningless for at least 5 clubs (this season - Hull, Wire, Saints, Wigan, Cats) as they have no need to try for 77% of the season.

If you're out of the running by the start of August, tough. You have guarenteed SL for next year, use the end of the season to work on building for next year - blood some youngsters, focus on some behind-the-scenes stuff etc. and next year look to be in a position to challenge for the top 4.

If we're just going to reset it so that "everyone has a chance at the end" - why not just sack off the league in full and play the Challenge Cup. That way everyone is in the hat, and noone can complain that "you were too good for us for 77% of the season and now we can't catch up". Imagine if in football it got to March and Man Utd are running away with the title, so they decide to reset the points to Zero. What an absolutely ludicrous suggestion.

Most sports which have Leagues with normal P/R, including our own (when we did have it), get to the final couple of months with a bulk of clubs with nothing to play for. It's the nature of League ladder sports.

As for the middle 8s - I can't see how this is anything other than a success. It's given the likes of Batley and Featherstone a realistic and attainable target - they're going head-to-head with the likes of Leeds which under both Franchising and P/R would NEVER happen. It's created excitement for clubs who perennially have nothing to play for. And Leigh are showing that if you build and invest in the squad then you can compete. And it ultimately comes down to a 1-off game for at least 1 of the lower clubs, which Bradford could easily have sneaked through last year.

Because for every team that goes up, one comes down with reduced crowds, reduced sponsorship and reduced payments for their finishing position.

Daft idea. But then again, in rugby league, that's nothing new.

Wakefield and Widnes were not good enough in the regular season to finish as close to top four. As a results, they are left with arguably meaningless games as a result of their own inadequaices, not because of the system. Cas are having a good go, fair play.

When the three leagues of eights was first mooted, I wasn't a big fan of it, still aren't, but leave it as its for two-to- three years at least.

Exactly.

I imagine Wakey & Widnes would both see making the top8 as reasonably successful, and despite the dead rubber matches, using the matches/time in the right way should help provide a platform for an even better 2017.

But that isnt interesting to anyone is it. thats one of the reasons Wakefield and Widnes struggle for crowds. Its 26 years since Widnes won a major comp, Wakefield have a yorkshire cup in 42 years. Pretending that being 8th after 23 rounds is not going to be mistaken for success by anyone.

We can't just keep setting our sights lower to pretend this is a success or even moving towards what we need to be a success.


Years ago, we looked at what other sports had done to move forward and we decided for ourselves what success looked like. It looked like competitive fully pro clubs, playing in front of 5 figure crowds, in facilities that befit a fully pro sport, with investment in to youth development and sports science, a thriving and vibrant international game, expanding to new areas, creating new player pools and growing the game. an expanded international club game, blue chip sponsors. We looked at that and said this is what success is, and it was ambitious and it was difficult but that is the standard the sport held itself to.

Now? Well post world cup we managed to go 2 years without a home test, we have been knocked from pillar to post in the WCC and have pretty much given up trying to be competitive in it, some clubs dont even bother with academies any more, and there is a good chance that next year Wakefield will playing in SL in a stadium with 900 seats and 5k total capacity. London are playing in a 3rd tier RU ground that holds 3k, crowds we were promised would rise have gone down, we havent reached last years sell out target never mind this years, have a league structure that has meant of 3 divisions, the teams finishing top of the 2nd and 3rd tier lost a total of 1 game between them.


Yeah if we give up any ambition for the game, any hope of making it sustainable let alone the heady heights of growth, if we ignore that results that were a cause for concern previously are now worse, we can pretend that a 6k crowd is something to be celebrated and that everything is hunky dory because a very small minority of clubs get a relatively small boost from a few isolated fixtures whilst everything else falls apart.

This still should be the destination, (unfortunately). The biggest problem with RL is the route we take and the people we rely on for directions.

Spot on.

Widnes lost 20-12 and 18-12 to Saints this season. Win both of those and they'd have finished the 23 rounds level with Saints on 24 points. Losing those games is nobodies fault but their own, not the structure, not the RFL.....Widnes'.

Last year Hull and Warrington you could see them using the Super 8's as good preparation for this season and without it they might not have made the jump up the table.

Too much of a "what can the RFL do for us" attitude with some clubs rather than a "what can we do for ourselves". It wasn't the RFL that made Widnes lose 12 of their last 16 games. Win 6 or 7 of those 16 games and even though that'd be less than 50% they would have started the Super 8's right on the edge of the top 4.

If teams want to be in Top 4 at the end of the season then they've got to start targeting Top 4 from the very first round, not target Top 8 after 23 rounds and then go "ooh it's not fair we can't catch 4th". That was probably Hull's failure last year that they then fixed this year.

Anyone except Wakefield & Widnes fans.

After years of misery, some fans (who have actually witnessed misery) do feel like it's a success.

Take your one rubbish season (THIS ONE) & try and imagine that's nearly as good as it gets, my success threshold is much lower than yours.

More clubs supporters have genuine excitement about the Middle Eight play-off's than what's gone before.

Sure, the Batley & Fev supporters don't expect their clubs to achieve promotion, but just that little bit of hope lifts your soul.

Last year when Hull made the middle 8's they had zero chance of making the top 4 from game 1 bit like Widnes and Wakefield this year. However it gave Lee Radford, Motu Tony and Adam Pearson the foundation to build on for this season.

They was able to sign real quality from the NRL in Pritchard, Manu, and Fanou as well the likes of Scott Taylor and Danny Washbrook because Super League status was already guaranteed by end of July.

Radford was also able to give more game time to the likes of Bowden, Green and Hadley as well as blood youngsters such as Naughton, Abdul, Logan, Turget, Downs and Fash once again because Super League was guaranteed.

These players stood up in an awful injury crisis but at least it showed Radders that taking 300k from Warrington for
Lineham and Westerham was pretty good business

Wakefield and Widnes and need more fans. They need new fans. Lots of them.

Call me crazy but i think they will be far more likely to find, far more of those new fans if they have some actual success once in a while rather than hoping to find them with the 'contextual success' of a mid table finish to the first part of a competition.

Indeed, that's the age old conundrum, but I don't see how a move to one up / one down, or franchising, will help their cause.

Anyhow Wakefield have got far bigger problems than an ignominious final third of a season.

Btw, how are you enjoying your sabbatical, is it a welcome change from S.L. domination?

No system can force those clubs to be a success. But some can make it harder. The 'jeopardy' of relegation in any format makes it harder.


it has limited novelty value. But its been a poor season quality wise throughout the league in my opinion, and now we are playing the worst of opposition, plus a couple of inferior sides. Its hardly burning with excitement. I think attendances will hold up on that novelty but i can't imagine many people all that interested in seeing us put 60points on part-time sides or games of the absolute awful quality that was HKR>