Someone's not confident about the playoffs then.

It's only cause Saints ar'ses go in the final.

The Super League Championship is decided by the Grand Final. Has done since 1998 (and historically, of course.) HTH.

It does.

The Grand Final system means that the Champions are likely to be one of the teams that has performed most consistantly over the season and who can also win the big one-off matches.

I may be being cynical here but if Leeds had finished top last year and Saints had won the GF, would you have made this post?

They do.

This argument ses me off.

Only association football uses the 'first past the post' system that is supposedly considered normal. Virtually every other sport uses a combination of league and knockout to decide their champions.

And what exactly is wrong with having a 'grand final' to mark the end of the season? It's far better than a team winning the league with a few matches to go, which makes the rest of the season pointless.

I think the team which finishes top of the league has proven itself to be the strongest, most consistent, team over the season and deserve to be called Champions. However, this has only ever been in place in RL for around 10 years in it's entire history and the play-off system is the games traditional method of choosing who the champions should be.

It does keep the interest going for everyone else, and can create a very exciting climax to the season. Unlike Soccerball, there are no major European Championship places for a top 4 finish. So I have no problem with keeping the play-off system as a method of choosing the League Champions.

its amazing how the post was made after being beaten by hudds. Someone is scared by what could happen in the play offs.

The SUPER LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP should be given it's own title to show it for what it is. Historically the Champions were always the team that finished top after playing each other home & away, ie they'd finished top after all the fixtures.
After the regular season, came the PREMIERSHIP, since knicked by SKY and renamed as the top 6/8 playoffs, so there is all of the SuperLeague years as history. Nothing when compared to all the history of TGG.
League fans, who know the history remember how to workout who are the true champions before we break off for the close break before we start all over again.
I,too, would like to see the winners of the sl play-offs being given their own name----and maybe even a GRAND FINAL RING as winners of SL last 4/8 - afterall they've nicked stuff from Aussie and Premiership so why not put their heads together and come us with something original!!!!...... grannyfan Cindy

Why come up with something 'original' when the Playoff/Grand Final concept works so well?

Maybe we should have a game of University Challenge instead of a rugby match to decide the champions. That would be original.

I stand to be corrected - but prior to 1973 we always had a playoff system to decide the champions. for 20ish years we had a first past the post sytem - the rest of the time we have had playoffs

as already stated, football is pretty much the only team sport in the world which has first past the post system to decide its champions.

While we're at it, why don't we guarantee that one of the "big four" appears in the Challenge Cup final.

Perhaps we should decide who the SL champions are by using this method1)12,000 capacity stadium

2) 10k average gate

3) Average gate that fills at least 40% of your stadiums capacity

4) A turn over of 4 million or more per annum

5) Solvency

6) Top 8 finish in each of the last 3 years

7) A reasonable junior development in the last 3 years

8/ A stadium meeting the standard of a premier sporting competition...in accordance with detailed criteria

9) Geographical location

10) salary cap


All decided by an independent RFL committee of course.

Near enough, the first 10ish seasons were first past the post (although about half of them were county leagues with no national champion) and they used first past the post for two years in the early 60s when they had 2 divisions, but yes playoffs is traditional not first past the post