4th?

Yep. The heady heights of 4th. Fortunately it will be a lot easier to do because most clubs only aim is to avoid relegation. So we will go back to putting 60 points on half a league full of antipodean journeymen and looking back fondly at a time when mediocrity was something the game achieved rather than reached for.

Licensing has gone, fortunately franchising will be back in a few years when the middle of the game is destroyed and full of clubs with no way of moving up and only the utter destruction of falling down. Fortunately my club will be in that top part moving further and further away.

Apologies I was forgetting about Sa.

But yes, last year we had Lancaster, Logan, Hadley, Tyson Wilson and Abdull make their debuts. He also released McDonnell in favour of Shaul and gave guys lot Bowden more game time.

I have many criticisms to level at Radford, but I am confident that he will leave overseas players out at the expense of youngsters if required. If all the clubs in Superleague did this then the number of overseas players wouldn't be such an issue. But unfortunately some coaches will choose imports in their 17s regardless of their form or ability.

Which clubs out of the current 12 have no way of moving up. You've got Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Warrington who will be there regardless. Then there's Huddersfield and Catalans who I don't think will win anything but are more than capable of breaking into the top 4. Then there's Hull and Salford who are in no way interested in simply avoiding relegation and I expect both to significantly improve. That leaves Hull KR, Widnes, Cas and Wakefield who, mainly due to their size, will struggle to ever break the top 4 consistently, but they aren't awful teams by any stretch.

Pretty much listed them for me. Add in the exacerbating factors of loss of funding if relegated, the difference in attendances in the super 8s and the unattractive proposition of being in the lower part of the top 8, getting beaten by the top teams in a competition you cannot win and it is a top notch recipe for a separation between the top clubs and the rest, and the likes of Hull, Huddersfield, Les Catalans, Salford etc will very quickly change their focus to avoiding relegation after anything but a good start.

Mid table sides will be looking at either fighting tooth and nail to get in to a competition they would mathematically be incredibly unlikely to win and risking injuries and suspensions which if they don't get into that top comp would put them at greater risk of a catastrophic loss of funding and visibility. Or they give up trying to make sure they get in to a comp they can't win and simple make sure they avoid that catastrophic loss of funding.

I would bet hull fans would strung Adam Pearson up by the docks if he insisted hull go for it, finish 9th and go into 'the qualifiers' (which arent a qualification comp) with a squad decimated by injuries and suspensions.

I do see where you're coming from, I just can't agree with it. In the old days of top 5/6 playoffs with one up one down, after half a season you were left with 5/6 teams who weren't going to win the comp. Then with 5 to go you knew relegation was between two clubs, so you effectively had 4 or 5 teams with absolutely nothing to play for come the end of the season.

Under the new structure I don't think we will ever see a team win it from 8th, but it's still a worthwhile prize because you don't have to enter the middle 8 minefield, not to mention the financial benefits. With the possible exception of Wakefield, I don't think 8th is beyond anyone.

The top teams have to keep going because even if someone has top spot sewn up with 3 to play they will still want to carry over every point they can get. Ok the bottom two or three may rest players if it becomes impossible to make the eight. But you seem to be assuming that a side in 9th or 10th after 8 games will just give up and start preparing for the Middle 8.

As for Hull. Well put it this way, if we finished 9th it would be seen as a miserable failure of a season. Even if we went through the middle 8 undefeated.

NON-FED/Kolpak
(1) Ken Sio
(2) Justin Poore
(3) Michael Weyman
(4) Neville Costigan
(5) Josh Mantellato
(6) Maurice Blair
(7) Albert Kelly

OVERSEAS QUOTA PLAYERS
(1) Ken Sio
(2) Michael Weyman
(3) Justin Poore
(4) Maurice Blair
(5) Albert Kelly

Show me where we are breaking any rules?

hull kr arent breaking any rules, its just a shame its going this way again, looks like the relegation coming back in is the main factor.

oh they made another signing today... local lad from France.

It's hard to disagree with anything in your post but, it will be incredibly difficult for clubs in the lower third of SL to get into the top 8 on a regular basis which will likely be detrimental to these clubs over the longer term.

Of course, for the current championship clubs (including Bradford and London), there is the golden carrot dangled on the end of a long stick for them to aim for, although with the prospect of being in the qualification league the following season, life will remain perpetually difficult.

1 up 1 down between the top 2 divisions would be both fairer and simpler and the stronger clubs will become ever stronger, making it difficult/impossible for the bottom third to ever catch up.

and under the new structure very quickly 1, then 2 clubs will be too far away from 8th and they will have nothing to play and an active incentive to rest players. Then another 3,4,5 clubs will be looking at a table where they are far too far away from 4th to actually win it and they are back to the choice of risking it to get in to a comp they can't progress from or playing it safe and making sure they avoid catastrophe.

Those are worthwhile prizes, but are they worth risking going in to the qualifiers under-strength for?

i think teams expecting to be about 7th or below will start preparing for the middle 8 before the season even starts. Its too big a risk not to. And if you are 10th after 8 games then (unless you are one of the big 4) you will start preparing for the middle 8 in earnest. Again its too big a risk not to.

but not close to as miserable as if you finish 9th and dont win a game in the middle 8. Falling to the middle 8 is a setback but it is recoverable, falling from the the middle 8 is a catastrophe.

When the reward for success is minimal, and the punishment for failure catastrophic, you focus on avoiding failure, and avoiding failure becomes success.

Please accept my apologies Jean. I didn't expect the sheer volume of stupidity in some of your catch here who seem willing to forgive the hook and instead who are jumping straight into your keep-net. Congratulations. Magnifique!!!!

Leeds would develop nosebleeds finishing as high as 4th, but that's the minimum target for them next season. They'll no longer be able to toss it off only to be rewarded with a home play-off game and a realistic shot at the title in exchange for regular season-long mediocrity.

Licensed mediocrity is dead - six seasons of franchised crapola from top to bottom finally binned - long live the P&R revolution!

You make some very valid points, but whilst most clubs will have a contingency plan should they finish bottom 4, I just don't accept that professional clubs and players will throw in the towel and settle for just not dropping out of the middle 8 when 7th and 8th place is a possibility.

I also think it's a stronger league across the board than you give it credit for. After 18 games it's quite feasible that a team like Huddersfield or Hull or Salford will be outside the 8. These are good teams capable of beating anyone on their day. Are they really going to put the cue on the rack and say, we can't win it now, let's rest players for the big game against Doncaster in a couple of months?

Also less fixtures and the absence of an obvious whipping boy will tighten the table up. There's no reason why, with say, 3 or 4 fixtures to play, all 12 teams won't have a chance of making the top 8. I also think that the financial benefits alone make it a risk worth taking.

You would think they would have learned by now wouldn't you?