I'm gutted we've missed the playoffs even though we had little hope of progressing very far.

I'm struggling to work out how to politely express just what a stupid non sequitur this is.

Perhaps I can put it simply: Association Football is NOT so popular in the UK because of a recent change of system in RL. And to even pretend that the changes in RL have somehow stopped RL challenging the popularity of Association Football (because it was on the cusp of so doing until those changes) is just delusional idiocy.

And, as has been pointed out, plenty of Association Football teams have spent chunks of a season with little to play for. But don't let facts get in the way.

i don't think that was the point he was really making, more that the pyramid structure of association football is a factor in its huge success(not the only one obviously), the fact that the little clubs have a clear path to the top and something to aim for keeps people turning up week in week out because as clubs like wigan athletic proved, with the right ambition and a bit of luck you can make it all the way from bottom to top. Put it this way, if when the premier league was formed they'd said 'we're shutting up shop' and took away promotion, do you think the game would be just as strong now?
Its not that what RL does affects football, rather that football has shown the way in how to be really successful and we should be looking at this if we have any ambition to really, properly grow the game here. Its no use pointing to leagues such as the NFL and NRL because its a different culture here and the benchmark has been set for what people want, it really couldn't be any more clear.
And yes there are massive gaps in on/off field level between some of the leagues but part of this is self inflicted and rather than just saying 'X club will never be able to compete with the likes of Y and Z so they have to stay where they are forever', how about the people think about how we can help and improve the game at ALL levels and bring clubs up in standard so that one day we could implement a full pyramid structure to our game and not have a true sport rather than a handful of artificial leagues

That is part of footballs strength, it's other being its easy to play and understand. But that pyramid structure can only exist when there is a good amount of comparable quality clubs to make up a league, and not a monstrous gap in quality between the leagues.
Football has the Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two, with a decent Conference underneath. Every single club in the football league is full time, That's 90 full time clubs. Plus a 24 team Conference Premier. Of course there should be a pyramid structure with P&R in between those leagues. In RL we have 14 full time clubs. Some of whom can barely function as full time clubs. There is a huge gap between the first and second tier. The sport simply isn't strong enough to support a full pyramid structure like that of football. The Wigan Athletic example is a poor one, as it wasn't ambition that got them in the PL, it was Dave Whelan's money. The same way Steve O'Connor's money got Widnes into SL.
If there were enough full time clubs to support it I'd happily have P&R, but at the moment we can barely fill one league, nevermind 2 or 3.
But having a full pyramid structure in RL at the moment is like football having direct P&R between League One and Northern Premier League Division One North with no steps in between.

So the answer to the problem is?

Attempt to expand the number of "real" full time clubs. Which is monumentally difficult in a sport with little money and limited nationwide appeal. The expansion of grass roots teams and leagues is a good start to what needs to be a long term project.

Talk up and promote the game. Be positive and enthusiastic, and get people to matches. And there we are, back to the beginning of the thread

Plus results are less proportionate to the relative skills of each team, underdogs have much more of a chance. In RL mostly the right team wins, often by a healthy margin.

Yep, with a big effort and a bit of luck a Championship or even League One team can hold a Man Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea/Man City to a draw.

In RL the winter weather used to be a good leveler. Maybe the 5m rule was also another parameter keeping things from getting out of hand? I remember games not being inevitable that a higher division side would automatically thrash a lower league team. But then, Saints did thrash Carlisle and Trafford Borough by 100+ points in the late 80s and early 90s.

Yep I think you're right, but the the biggest thing that has widened the gap has been full time professionalism. There are only 14 full time pro RL clubs. In any sport there is a wide gap between the pro clubs and the semi-pro clubs, be it football, Union or RL.

So WYSIWYG isnt WYSIWYG because WYSIWYG is Graham. So should it be WYSIMLG (What You See Is Most Likely Graham)?

20 years of Premier league

Winners

Man Utd
Blackburn
Arsenal
Chelsea
Man City

5 teams in 20 years

Rugby League
16 years of Super (dooper*) league.

Saints
Bradford
Wigan
Leeds

4 teams in 16

I'm seeing the massive difference

*must add this when talking with fans of lower league teams who don't have an ounce of jealousy in them.

How?