So at the moment top players could face around 27 league games plus up to 3 play off games giving a total of 30 games without factoring in the Challenge Cup Under this proposal that will increase to 32 I think - 23+7+2. I wonder what the players think of it.

The title of this thread is Boycott Superleague 2015!
Why on earth would I stop watching the game and team I love?

We all need to get our heads around the new formula, but to suggest that we Boycott the 2015 season is liking a Turkey voting for Christmas or cutting your nose off to spite your face.

I have not read the new formula but I have read on the BBC that League points accumulated prior to the Play Offs in some way count during the Play Offs, which could mean that it will be more difficult to win SL from 4th or 5th. This should make regular season games even more important.

Boycotting something that hasn't even happened? That must be a first. RL being innovative, again.

I think Super League 1 teams are going to come into CC one round later.

Having tried to understand the farce that will be the new format, I would summise it in the following way :

The playoffs have playoffs that includes league points depending upon which playoffs your team is playing-off in.

All we need now is for the Circus to be an announced as the new SL sponsor. This is based upon our game being run by Clowns.

So will the season ticket only cover 11 home games then ,with the seven fixtures in the play off league of 8 having to be paid for ? That won't go down very well.

Do we still have the magic round?
If so, when?
If so, they have to make sure this extra fixture is as fair as they can make it
Look at the nailed on fixtures of Wakey v Cas and KR v FC, if there is clear daylight between the teams during the season then it's unfair if one drops into the middle tier based on that one result in which they played in a mismatch.
The 1v2 and 3v4 format would have to be adopted.

I'll be honest the format neither bothers me or confuses me and I'm sure clubs can think of new ticketing strategies to suit the system.
Probably a similar system to the ones the Broncos are adapting to for 2014 that Barnet FC use.

Start of season

A.1
A.2
A.3
A.4
A.5
A.6
A.7
A.8.
A.9
A.10
A.11
A.12

B.1
B.2
B.3
B.4
B.5
B.6
B.7
B.8
B.9
B.10
B.11
B.12

Two leagues of 12 all play each other home and away like and normal league, at the end of this those that finish in postions
A.1 to A.8 are top tier
A.9 to B.4 are 2nd tier
B.5 to B.12 are third tier

-------------
Top Tier keep the points they had, then after playing each other once the top four teams go into a semi final of 1v4 and 2v3.

That is easy to follow
------------

2nd tier play each other once but they DONT carry their points over as obviously one set of teams were winning more than they were losing and vice versa.

They start from scratch and they are playing for league position in the next season, the right to play the big boys with the bigger crowds.
Top 4 play in the top 12 league A.1 to A.12 positions
The bottom 4 play in the bottom league of 12... B.1 to B.12

This is how the promotion/relegation happens, it's technically a playoff promotion relaxation league.

you following?
----------------
The 3rd tier are playing to not get relegated out of the whole system, the bottom clubs dropping out of the whole
A 1 to 12
B 1 to 12 system


it really is easy to understand and the more I write the more I'm swayed into liking the system.
It means that if someone rich comes in and fancies buying his home town team, he doesn't have to worry about franchise criteria he can just pump it straight in and potentially compete with the big boys, Fax, Fev, Leigh..remember Barrow having money, they have an easier path.

I just hope ambition and pocket size are realistic and ambition doesn't get bigger than the pockets.

Im all for the Circus

but Clowns running the game ,





we do enough , I would want extra for that , unless you want to a Clown ?

In terms of the making regular season games more important part of it, this solves one part but not another. You need to be in the top 4 at the end of the season. Nobody will be doing a Leeds and winning from 5th.

However if you're in the top 4, the only advantage to coming 1st or 2nd is that you get a home tie in the semi final. There is no more 'week off' and no more 'second bite at the cherry'.

As to whether it still pays to do the whole tactical rotation thing, resting players, this depends on how strong you are and how much of a cushion you are likely to have above 5th. If you're the type of team that's likely to come 3rd or 4th, and you drop a couple of games in the first part of the season and are running 5th when the league splits, bear in mind you are having to play catch up in the final rounds against other top 8 teams, there won't be the easier teams at the bottom any more. So it makes it slightly harder to catch up if you're outside the top 4 at the split.

But for the strongest couple of teams in the league, it will probably still pay to do the tactical rotation. Generally there are about 10 to 14 points between the teams that finish 1st and 5th, so if you're a team that under normal circumstances would finish top you have about 5 to 7 games slippage over a season. I've used the historic 10 to 14 point margin because although you could argue that under the new system with the final rounds being played just between the top 8 it may be a little tighter, there's also a chance that over the past few years the teams that have finished top have dropped a couple of games through squad rotation anyway so otherwise they would have been even higher ahead.

Where the real criticism will come in is if we have a situation where the club finishing top is 8 or so points ahead of the club finishing 4th (as often happens), and then the club finishing 4th wins the playoff semi final away from home: boom, the league leaders are out. This is the same thing that happens in the rugby union Premiership and it gets criticised.

And whats the incentive to finish top rather than second? You play your playoff against the team finishing 4th rather than the team finishing 3rd.

Overall I think in terms of changing incentives the main changes are:

- teams that finish 9th-12th have the incentive of fighting to stay in Super League, whereas currently they have nothing
- teams that are in the 3rd-6th type of spaces will be fighting for top 4 spots, wheres previously they were guaranteed playoffs in a top 8
- there will be no more easy first round of playoffs (or week off) where some teams get to play 7th or 8th ranked team

What it doesn't address is:

- there is no extra incentive for finishing top rather than second
- there can be a large gap in points over the league table between 1st and 4th, and 4th only has to win one playoff semi final away from home to knock them out
- in the end it all boils down to the last two weeks of the season and who is fit/in form versus who isn't

No playoff system is perfect but this is a system that incentives teams to play rather than coast