fully agree and I'm a Salford fan.

For those who follow such as Leeds, Wigan and Saints, it's easy not to understand that many clubs are there by grace of some owner. If s/he walks away because of losing such as the MPG and its funding, decades of support becomes irrelevant. Many clubs' fans are aware that RL is a poor monetary investment.
Those thoughts were very much in my mind for most of that game.

So for me it was not a spectacle or entertainment but traumatic. I do not want to experience it agains.

Where did you finish after the 7 middle 8 games ?

Would getting rid of the MPG really save fans the ordeal though? Obviously Hull KR fans would have had it a lot easier, but surely Salford fans would have had pretty much the same feelings going to sudden death games v Fev then London in rounds 5 and 6 of the middle 8s, knowing they would almost certainly be relegated if they lost either, barring big upsets elsewhere. As it happened, when they lost to London they knew they would have a second chance.

"Where did you finish after the 7 middle 8 games?"
IN THE PUB

This system isn't perfect, but none is.

Overall, I think it is worth sticking with.

Most of the alternatives suggested have been tried and binned for reasons that would still apply if they were brought back.

The MPG is a horrible way to be relegated, but is there a good way? And it isn't the underlying reason we went down.

The problem there is more with relegation rather than how it is 'achieved'. The only way that can be avoided is by denying a club like Leigh an opportunity to play in SL. Or now a club like us having a shot at getting back up.

A couple of great posts MR. Whilst it's not nice to down, by whatever means, everyone deserves the opportunity to come up, as I subscribe to the view that we are one game

Would you see the bottom of league 1 relegated and the top amateur side promoted

Now theres a good point

Automatic p&r kills the game

It's terrible for all the clubs involved, including those chasing promotion

We had a decade of comparative growth and stability and an improvement in the overall competition

Now it's just a race to avoid bottom & that just benefits the top 4 clubs, just like it has since 1973

P&r failed for decades and it's failing again

No, the NCL is amateur, League 1 is semi-pro/pro. Plus half the clubs in League 1 are there with a view to expanding the game, so it makes sense that we need to artificially keep them in there for now when in reality the best NCL clubs are better on the field. Besides that, Siddall, Leigh Miners etc don't have the facilities to deal with crowds they would potentially get in League 1.

If that was how the league structure was agreed then, there is no problem.
If there are only 2 or 3 "professional" leagues then, the bottom of the last tier would "only" get the proverbial wooden spoon.
However, IF the system was 1 up 1 down or, promotion/relegation through a play off game, so be it.
As others have said, there is nothing worse than getting relegated (apart from going out of business) but, the alternative is to create a closed shop.
There are of course arguments for having a "franchise" based top flight and this may be a good thing (especially with "expansion" clubs like Toulouse and Toronto in the comp) but, for now, we have promotion and relegation between the leagues.
Is this the beast system for the long term good of the game, who knows and the lack of a long term strategy is criminal but, to relegate a pro club into an amateur league and visa versa clearly wouldn't work.

So what you are saying is that there is a gap between those two leagues in things like club size, facilities etc that would make it hugely damaging for the team going down and often hugely damaging for the team going up

That's a little circular isn't it? Whether we have it or not its merits would be the same.

No doubt happy that you still had another chance