If you're going by a team knowing it's fate well before the end then nearly every system is 'flawed' or you keep the Top 8 playoff system in which the very same posters complained rewards mediocre teams.

Which do you want?

Yes, the RFL will fire off sound bites about games selling out etc. that's marketing for you (thought you knew about that with selling hotdogs at NZ games?). What exactly do people want? For the RFL to downplay the new format and say we'll only see minimal difference the first year?.....Then you of all people would criticise them for downplaying and not marketing the sport properly.

If you were in charge would you go for the tag line "every minute MIGHT matter.....providing the teams placed 7th/8th do enough in the first 23 Rounds"......yeah very catchy and likely to pull punters in.....hell but at least you could say to yourself you were accurate in case Hull FC couldn't qualify for the Top 4 with 2 games remaining,

We had a top 8 playoff system that people complained was too generous.

We now have a Top 4 playoff system peopl complain is too harsh.

What we've truly learnt most from the various systems is that some RL fans are miserable 'insert swear word' who just love to complain about anything.

I'd never have retreated north to the heartlands and pulled up the drawbridge once we passed Coventry.

The only excitement in our domestic sport this year is who from Wigan or Saints will play Leeds at Old Trafford and if Leigh or Bradford might get the chance to replace Wakefield.........now, take a second here......go to google maps and draw a encompassing circle around those places on a map! Come sponsorship renewal time. I see brains faggots being a front runner.....

This system was designed to make it look like the RFL were forward thinking but I see nothing to change the dominance of the top 3 and I see nothing to get us away from a pay as you go sponsor!

That's not a dead game - Salford could still finish in a play-off position when they lose to Widnes and
HKR, if Wakefield win their last two.

'"

Why should ever minute matter?

It's sport. It's a league. Why are we so worried about teams having their season ending early?

Would you all prefer the Grand Final to feature all 12 teams - perhaps league position could determine how many players you get to play or something.

Most other sports are secure enough in the quality of their product to realize you don't need to force a 'meaning' into every game for supporters to both to go and watch their team.

Do you really think that the regular season has been more competitive, why ?

It's pretty much the same, first of all with all clubs trying to make the top 8 (which in reality is a nailed on top 6 and then 5 clubs vying for 7 &
This is just the same as last season

The RFL may well get their dreams to come true, with the possibility of Bradford gaining promotion to SL but, they will be back in the "qualifiers" next season which wont really show any real progress.

Even though my club, Wakefield, would have been relegated. we should have 1 up 1 down, which would truly reward the club that finished top in the Championship.

It would be interesting to hear what the supporters of the Championship and Championship 1 supporters think of the end of season games.

What we are getting, despite the fact that there are some decent match ups in "the qualifiers", is contrived nonsense so that Sky has something extra to broadcast, which will increase the gap in quality between the top 8 SL clubs and the rest, which isn't good for the game over the longer term.

As a very long suffering Salford fan (I can remember the days before the Watkins / Hesketh / etc. era), the mid-8s have been anything but dead rubbers. With a defence against Halifax and Sheffield that could be used to strain vegetables, and the Bradford game memories (I've yet to meet a fellow Salfordian who can bring themselves to discuss the game), we are very worried. Very.
Wakefield have been dismissed too often : they could still suprise many. Leigh have blown a gasket but, as been pointed out above, their failings will be to their advantage next season. Halifax and Sheffield have impressed me. They should be able to utlise their experiences well next year. The HKR games have allowed Dixon to get over his Wembley woes and show he has bags more talent than some neutrals said after that cup final. The HKR team have done well.
So the upper school 8's look like someone v Leeds final : but most fans I spoke to in June were saying that. I doubt any arrangement could have altered that.
Give it a chance.

I do not know if this new structure is good or not but for me living were i live now down south, I have been able to watch more games on sky thanks to the sky sports extra I am now hoping they do it at the start of next season in stead of waiting till the splits its been greet for us x northerners

Seems like a lot of effort to create and then solve a problem that doesn't need to exist.

Doesn't that apply to any system?

The whole point of this system was that 'every minute matters' yet here we are before the end of the season saying that not only was such a thing an impossible aim but a bad one as well. Not only can 'every minute matters' not be achieved it would be a bad thing if it were

If tickets are more difficult to sell on short notice it seems pretty dumb to put in place a system which necessitates the selling of tickets at short notice doesn't it.

Agree. Too many people determined not to like the system regardless.

There was always the possibility that the RFL could have implemented a successful change.

You have set up a weird false dichotomy that our options are either down playing and not marketing the sport properly or making unsubstantiated claims.

There was the option of success, see the NRL for an example.

The NRL are in a significantly stronger position than the RFL, and it's not to do with the league system.
Due to their position in Sydney they get a cracking TV deal so they can afford to run and financially support 4 of the 16 NRL clubs.

They also get significant government support, for instance in the building of the new $21m Rugby League Central. Two thirds of which was paid for by central and local government.

In Leeds we don't even get a development officer part paid for by the Council anymore.