and you've got a team that doesn't play for 2/3 weeks going into a GF cold.

... can't have it all ends up. We didn't exactly look sparkling in last years play-offs having finished top did we? For all our squad rotation this year we're still carrying players less than 100% and patched up going into the most important game of the season. Bet TS would have killed for two weeks off to regroup and get troops fit.

nah, last thing you want to be sat around not playing, its been shown in the past when 1/2 had weeks off, they then struggled, you dont want a week off before a big game, you need something to harden you.

With a 10 team league i suppose you could make it work but only just.
27 games
9 home
9 away
9 neutral to help grow the game, we could have 9 magic weekends across the country?

I can't see clubs agreeing to drop from 13 homes games to 9 per season, plus if every third week fans have to travel to Cardiff, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leicester, etc it wouldn't take long for the novelty to wear off and those crowds plummet.

That's were the marketing bods (new decent ones on a better salary) try to get locals in to the games.

The NRL is unbalanced. 24 rounds between 16 teams.

How about 13 home and away games each with one neutral (magic). The extra fixtures, play each team once. Magic weekend to have 1v2, 3v4, etc from previous season. Location for the rest of the extra fixtures are decided by a random draw before the fixtures are announced, each team has 4 extra home and away games.

Teams may end up with more easier games at home, but that's the luck of the draw. League positions mean nothing anyway in the grand scheme of things when it comes to a playoff system that decides the title.

Old top 5 playoff system.


As Tony has said before, you can have as many rounds as you want, we make them up anyway (aka magic weekend).

Although I agree, the introduction of "battle" before "harden" might have helped? OOOERR Missus

I happen to get quite excited by the play offs, QUITE excited.

To be fair I was only trying to make Yed's idea a little more realistic as 9 neutral games would hit teams too much in the pocket.

Something has to be done. IMO it's reducing the teams. How the league format would change would take a fair bit of thinking though. I know others want 2 divisions of 10. Some just want P&R back.

Back on topic, the playoffs should not be rewarding mediocrity. Anyone who loses more than they win should not be competing for the title. This isn't a dig at Wakey in anyway, they knew the rules, played by them and earned their spot.

I would say top 6 based on a 14 team league. Problem is, probably only teams in 1-8 only have a realistic chance of making the playoffs with a 1/3 of the season to go leaving the other 6 with nothing to play for. Maybe 2-3 of these still trying to avoid the wooden spoon but 3 teams season would be over by round 18 unless a miracle occurs. And no, I don't want P&R back to keep the games alive in the basement battles.

It'd never happen, but I do think the 12 team, split after 22 rounds, league would work very well, especially for Sky. Not only do they get the huge last 10 rounds (imagine a mini league of Wire, Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Catalan and Hull with 3 televised games every weekend for example), but they also get the battle to get into the top six which would start around round 18 or so.

Admittedly, after 22 rounds the bottom six would have little to play for, but that's not really that much different to how things are anyway. Perhaps something could be introduced as an incentive for the bottom six whether it be prize money or even first pick of any OOC players at the end of the season.

True that. I'm sure we've all had the same "Surely the champions are the team that finishes top of the league? How can it be someone else?" conversations countless times down the years.

That's probably one reason why they don't generate interest from more casual sports fans, because most simply don't like the concept, then when they hear the complexities of how the fixtures are worked out it just sounds over complicated and daft.

I think the play offs need to stay, but I would favour a system where every game is a knock out with no second chances, which would in turn also guarantee no repeat fixtures.

Exactly. You explain the fact that we don't plat first past the post and then have to try to explain and/or justify why a team that loses in the first round can still win the final. (and why we have two sets of semi finals as I had to explain last week)