What if a team is miles in front of fourth after a blistering start. They could even be ten points safe in the top four or even at the top. But have a bad run of injuries for a few weeks at the start of the Super 8s and then find themselves or even eventually finishing outside the four because they had all those points taken off them from the first phase. Imagine if it was us Duckie mate, we'd be fuming!

Those remaining games do matter, unfortunately for you they only matter to your opposition, but they still matter. But if you think any game against saints or Wigan etc doesn't matter unless there's a trophy involved that's a poor approach.

Your right BSW, but it's an idea she gave and I won't dismiss it. I can see the flaws in it but at least she has recognised the rift the concept created and has given it thought to try and address it.

Our games also matter to other teams. Imagine how Cas would feel if we give Hudds a beating in a few weeks, and imagine how we'll feel if the King brothers and Sandow have good games because they feel a bit less pressure and start to settle into the side after that.

FTV your post takes me back to the 80's 90's & 00's when I considered beating the Pies a good season. oh! Yes Pies and Saints in the 00's. After when the Gypies were pretty Shaat, without Meninga.
I'll call it a good season then when we beat Pies on Friday, if we don't.....SMITH OUT!

spot on mate..its our own fault we are in this mess,not just because we lost last night but losing at home to cas hull hudds. losig away to hudds kr widnes..hopefully next year some of the players that are still here may realise this..

Sky may ultimately sort something out. They call the shots and all they want is marketable games that attract viewers and advertising revenue. This year it's us, Hull and Cats to be cast adrift, next season there will again be 3 possibly 4 clubs in the same boat.

Our home games against Cats and Hull will look very poor on TV.

I would favour, League Leaders Shield awarded to table toppers after regular season. Then teams start with top on 8 points, 2nd on 6, 3rd on 4 and 4th on 2. 5th -8th on 0 points.

Every minute will matter to Saints when we play you at the end of the year.

So the minutes matter. It was not specific who too, for the pedantic posters.

A lot of this debate seems to be a reflection of years of clubs being rewarded for mediocrity and fans getting used to teams who have coasted, being in the mix with all conquering teams, 3 weeks before the grand final.

You really do need counselling..

At least the title of this thread has reminded me that i need to clean under the bed.

Let's for the sake of argument, say that we beat the Pies on Friday, Saints beat Huddersfield (looking less likely now than it should do) and Catalan beat Cas. Huddersfield 30 points, Cas 30 points, Wire 26.
After the break for the cup final we play Hull at home whilst Huddersfield play Cas. Assuming we win and Huddersfield win too (worst possible result for us?) then Huddersfield 32 points, Cas 30 and Wire 28.
If (by some miracle) results do go our way we then come up against Huddersfield whilst Cas entertain Saints. Another win and Cas turning over Saints (worst possible result again) then it's Huddersfield 32 points, Cas 32 points, Wire 30.
Penultimate week and Cas visit Leeds, Huddersfield visit Hull and we entertain Catalan. Quite possibley Huddersfield 34 points, Wire 32 and Cas 32.
Final week and Huddersfield entertain Leeds, Cas visit Wigan and we visit Saints. Should we beat Saints then there is every chance that we will end the season on 34 points level with Huddersfield and 2 points ahead of Cas.

I appreciate that it would take a dramatic turn around in our fortunes to win those 5 games, but stranger things have happened. We will have a bearing on whether the Pies finish in the top two and get a home semi final or have to travel to Saints (or maybe Leeds). We may be the difference as to whether Saints get a home semi final. We could make all the difference between Huddersfield or Castleford or even ourselves finishing in fourth place.

We're not down to 'dead rubbers' yet.

You haven't considered the points against us v Huddersfield. It's mathematically possible, it's odds of happening could also be worked out, Im not clever enough to do it, but it would certainly be greater than seeing Elvis alive, which strangely is only 100/1 and 1000/1 if you want to request him being seen alive in Tesco.

The odds will be available from Monday. I would expect Warrington wouldn't even have a mention and you would need to request it.

So if the team also buy into Mr Duck's dead rubber theory we could see some true cricket scores against us in the next few week. I just hope none of the players read this forum.

hmm some good arguments for and against the system...

But our Leader Tony smith says it best today on the BBC website....

we are playing for pride and nothing else.....!!!!! rlhttps://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-league/33929335rl

the super 8's is two rounds in and its over.....We have to settle for jumping for glee if we put a spanner in the works of one of the big clubs......other than that lads try your best...

"play for pride" thats the stuff people ridiculed Cullen for..... I think Smith can go for me..he's starting to irritate me a bit now.

and for those that thought I had a wires only stance on the system, How can anyone think that Hull Or Catalan (who came close to the second tier ) playing against Leigh, Bradford or Halifax Sheffield etc would have been good for the game......yes it would be exactly where they deserved to be because they didnt get enough points. but it would have set two big clubs back considerably.

we should not be making a bigger sub standard division...

Ironic. I wish we were playing for pride last Thursday night.