Its a joke a team finishing 2nd can win the league, never mind 8th.

As happens in many major team sports these days.

I don't really have a problem with the idea that someone finishing anywhere other than first can win the competition (we're all used to that via various world cup qualifiers, qualifying stages for the Champions League, and getting into the Champs League without winning the domestic competition).

An 8 team playoff does seem a little premature at this stage though, while we still have the balance of power in relatively few teams.

and tht's where you're wrong. Football fans are not our target market, why would we want to draw in a bunch of drunken violent thugs?
People who don't understand/like our sport don't understand/like the playoff system, sucks to be them.

Anyhoo, whatever anyone thinks of Rugby League, we've a long way to go before we reach the depths that Formula 1 has just reached.

Don't know what's worse. The actual act or the lies and deception that followed.

You didnt witness the Championship relegation fight then

It might not take too long though, we have got Leeds choosing who they want to play in a fortnight.

Or the fact that no meaningful punishment has been (or ever seems to be) handed down for the various offences we've seen over the last couple of years. So, are we really bothered about how our competition is perceived by comparison? I'm not.

The way it seems to work in Formula One is very similar to the way rugby union got through it's 'scandal'. Pick out one of the parties involved and craap on him from a great height e.g. Flavio Briatore and Dean Richards.
Everyone else of note walks away relatively unscathed.

How anyone can compare that with a new playoff system is beyond me.

indeed

As a massive RL fan I hate the play offs, they are the most over complicated pile of garbidge, try explaining them to casual fans, like people at work who maybe watch the odd game on sky! The play offs are farce, the present format makes our game a laughing stock. Why can't we have a nice simple easy format? I want nothing to do with them in the present format.

If people want the game to grow, then it's the average casual football fan who is the target market.

Like it or not.

How exactly do you come to that conclusion?