Its still 27 friendlies that eventually people will cotton onto and stop going. They will realise their players suddenly don't have 'that edge' that makes them play better and give us outstanding games in the regular season. Why people are happy for this continue i will never know.

What if every GF winner in the future is too good to finish 5th? I bet there are not many teams in history that have become Champions with a 58% winning record throughout the season? Leeds could statistically be the worst Champions of all time. Again it doesn't encorage floating fans to become Season Ticket holders.

Halifax won it from 7th and Dewsbury have won it from 8th. Dewsbury winning it from 8th caused so much uproar the RFL changed the rules so the best team from start to finish became the Champions and not the playoff winners.

Your missing the reality of the situation Dougy ,this happened a few yrs ago.
Bradford and huddersfild selling season tickets for peanuts,wigan St holders bringing 6 mates for £30..

Everybody else hold your hands up and tell us what ridiculous deals your clubs are doing to distort attendance figures.

Try watching Championship RL, if you think games dont have any meaning

Not Super league europe LTD though Dougy

I'm not trying to be clever - i'm worried about the future of the game.
I don't think there was a single oustanding game between 'the big 4' this year in the regular season as they all know it doesn't matter. I want the RFL to do something to make it matter. What if all the big clubs 'did a Leeds' and didn't try for half the games? We would watch garbage for 27 games. You could argue it may have already set in this season.

LOL which were these games that Leeds weren't trying to win in the regular season, it's frankly ludicrous to suggest they picked which games to show up for. They were just inconsistent simple as that, the thing is they know how to play at this end of the season.

So you think the level of intensity in sl is of the nessarsary requirements?

You can't honestly believe that Leeds tried their best in every game? Surely they would have finished top if they had.

what would be interesting would be to see a league where the top team is declared the champions. That would give us a great regular season and a reason the buy a season ticket.

Not really. Following your logic, teams in the bottom half of the table wouldn't sell any season tickets. After all, why should they fund 27 "friendlies" when they stood no chance of being champions?

Why should we do away with the playoffs when it is the default position for how the rugby league champions are decided?
Is it ok for the 2nd placed team to win the Grand Final?

A team winning from low down the league and with lower win %age than Leeds doesn't seem to have ruined the NRL.
If you're that concerned then maybe you should implore the team you support to stop so regularly choking in the playoffs. Wigan got home advantage, a week off and the choice of who to play and still couldn't manage to beat such a "poor" team. If Wigan can't stand that intensity then they shouldn't be crowned champions.

Laughable post. Personally, I pay for my season ticket at London because I love rugby league. And I love watching games of professional rugby league. My team won't win the league but even though we had a terrible season I still had some brilliant afternoons when we picked up 2 points.

Clearly only winning interests you. Get a grip.

Not for the first time you've demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of sport generally and the Leeds club in particular. You appear totally ignorant of the amount of pressure the players were under during that disastrous midseason spell, the amount of abuse McDermott was, once again, getting, the discussions being had at the top of the club as to how to solve it, the repeated player heart to heart meetings discussing how to turn around the disastrous form.

You also completely ignore the fact that that hellish run totally ****ed up any thoughts Leeds might have had of gaming the system in their favour just as Wigan and Warrington did. Because it meant, once again, that Sinfield and Peacock just couldn't be rested because, unlike Shaun Wane, McDermott couldn't risk anything like that in any game as playoff qualification was constantly on the line.

Claiming in any way that anyone at Leeds planned or enjoyed the poor run, aimed to finish fifth or was pleased in any way with what happened in the regular season is typical Pie eating delusion. But then a fair proportion of your support base appears to have become completely unhinged in recent times so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.

British mentality displayed to its fullest. Well done!