Fair point.

Please re read my post after they lose next weekend.

I don't get the "this game is meaningless" thing. Granted you don't get eliminated when you lose but,
Win and you're one HOME game away from Old Trafford with the a week off to prepare whilst your future opposition have to play the previous week.
Lose and you have to play at home against probably Leeds or Wire (both more playoff experienced that Hudds) and IF you get through that you then have to go away again, possibly to the same team who have just walloped you.

If you were a coach which scenario would you prefer?

The format might be flawed, but some of the teams attitude and effort shown on playoffs game is the bigger flawed. You can't just blame that it's "no elimination" tonight. It was elimination in 2012 when this same Hudds team travelled to Hull and were equally as dire as tonight. Hull returned the favour in 2013 shipping 70+ in a game where you lose and you're out.

Leeds don't like playing Huddersfield and I expect they'll make hard work of it next week like they did at the same irrelevant stage of the play-offs a few years ago.

Wigan V Leeds and Saints V Warrington in 2 weeks time is when the real stuff begins.

The game was meaningless to wigan, but not to huddersfield.

So the season finally kicks off in 2 weeks time!

Same reason we struggle to attract sponsors, fans don't have the disposable income to spend or even if they do they lack the sense to save up for the knockout games the same way they would for a season ticket.

Agree our top 5 system was spot on.I couldn't believe it when NRL switched from the mcintyre(?) System which i think had a fair rewarding system for a top 8 format.Moving to what we have now is a mistake imo but given the quality of their top 8 it doesn't quite look to have as many flaws as SL.

ARL switched from a Top 5 system to a Top 8 system in 1995 because the comp increased from 16 to 20 teams when Auckland Warriors, Perth Western Reds, South Qld Crushers and North Qld Cowboys were admitted.

I think they even had a Top 10 play-off one season. I'm sure Canterbury reached the Grand Final from 10th! Wonder what repercussions there would have been had they become champions from that position?

The decision to expand to 14 teams in Super League in 2009 was lunatic asylum stuff. The prime movers and shakers in favour of franchising created 2 extra places which provided the necessary majority required to rubber-stamp all the bollox.

The game has suffered ever since as the rewarding of mediocrity and the levelling down of playing standards have gone hand in hand. It could take years to repair the damage. Some clubs need to re-educate themselves on what sport and competition is all about because many have just been collecting their guaranteed licensed Sky money and tossing it off/going through the motions for years.

I would agree with you on the last four. But I reckon it will be Saints v Leeds and Wigan v Warrington.

Reckon Saints will fancy Leeds at home rather than risking meeting them at Old Trafford again

*Edit: In fact, we would be the lowest ranked team left in that scenario, so even more chance Saints would choose us over Warrington!

Not sure how Wigan do their tickets, so I apologise in advance if they already do this...but I think RL clubs should be looking at more modern options for ticket sales, such as buying tickets via an App or printing your own tickets off.

The KC for example has electronic turnstyles where you scan a barcode to get in, but to actually buy a ticket you are still stuck with going to the ticket office, ringing up or using a clunky online shop and getting them delivered.

yes that doesn't account for the 10k or so fans missing last night, but I think some fans see buying a ticket in advance or on the day a bit of a faff and watch on TV instead.

also the RFL need to get rid of the rule where the clubs can't do promotions for playoff games (as the revenue is pooled) Wigan's marketing team were capable of getting 20k in the ground the other week (with season ticket holders included of course) so why restrict them when it comes to playoff ties?

Wigan have had a print@home ticket system for the last couple of seasons now. They also offerred a £7 discount to ST holders, which brought adult tickets to between £14-18.

The bottom line with poor attendances in the POs is the PO format is too long, and people don't want to buy tickets for 3/4 extra games when they've been getting in with a ST all season. It seems barmy on the face of it, but it's understandable. There's also the fact with the CCSFs and CCF so close to the end of the season, people have to pick and choose games and week 1 of the POs when you know you will get another game is probably the lowest priority.

Wigan have had several 7/8/9k PO attendances since this current format was introduced, when our weekly round average attendance has been 14/15/16k. I've hated this system since it was introduced, and it's shocking it's lasted for 6 seasons when it's so blatantly obvious the fans haven't bought into it. Even if they felt they needed to keep the POs as 8 teams, there were much better ways of structuring it.

People can moan all they like about the incoming structure, but it is a lot better than what we have currently. And at least only one SL game won't count on a ST, and it will be a simple 80 minutes away from the GF knock out semi-final.

On the marketing front, the way the revenue from the play-offs is pooled probably has something to do with it.

Every penny that Wigan took last night (once costs are covered) goes into an RFL pot, not the Wigan coffers. It then gets pooled with the rest of the play-off gate money shared amongst the 14 clubs. That means that for every £1 that Wigan took over the turnstyles (after VAT), they'll see just 7.14p.

For individual clubs to justify that marketing spend, their ROI has to increase by a factor of at least 14, which means that if Wigan spend as much resources in marketing last night as they did the Leeds game, they'd need a crowd of 284,000 to achieve the same return on investment.

It begs another question - where is the commercial reward for earning a home play-off?

Maybe because the top 8 is a farce? It's possible for a team finishing 8th in the league to be crowned champions yet the team finishing top of the league are forgotten about by the time they've taken the LLS into the dressing room.