You can even make a case that finishing at the top is hindering teams.... That week off doesn't seem to do the team any good during the playoffs. Teams always seem to come back from that looking a bit rusty and off their game. It seems to stop any momentum.

Club call and the ability to lose a game are a pretty big advantage. If clubs can't use hose advantages to make it to the final they shouldn't really blame the system.

Not sure about the week off. It should mean a team is fresher and more likely to be injury free but it can also stop momentum as you say.

I enjoy the play-offs, some great games and Leeds did exceptionaly well to win it, but because of the play-off's the weekly rounds were boring, we didn't go for it and i suspect Wigan won't make it a priority next season, the big clashes are rarer with this system.

Don't know exactly but:-

1998 - 2012 - Play Off system
1974 - 1997 - League Campaign (oh, and the entire sport had to be bailed out by a TV company towards the end of that period. In fact, so significant was the bail out that we had to change when we played the games)

I know we used to have a play off in the 70s because we talked about it pre match on Saturday - apparently we were the first team to finish top who didn't win the league. Don't know how far back that went but there is a long history of using play offs to determine the champion in Rugby League.

I take your point generally though - we've survived on a simple league campaign before, we could survive again. Maybe. However context is everything - one of our biggest clubs nearly died the other month. Don't think we can safely rely on the fact it used to be OK to have a league campaign as a reason to just use that moving forward.

The competition is set up the way it is ... and will be so next season. Leeds played the system (again!) and won the game that we all knew in February would decide who would be called 'champions'.

I don't agree with it, and the farcical end to the season was embarrassing for all genuine RL supporters (ok, maybe Leeds fans think the system is great, but it's not the 'who' were champions that's wrong, it's the 'how'!). Over the last few weeks, many teams were fielding, shall we say 'less than full strength' teams, to jockey for position, with Wire securing a top 2 spot, then basically forcing Wigan to finish top, whilst Leeds did just enough throughout the season to finish either 5th or 6th to avoid an awkward first PO game It made for a complete mockery of the league itself.

I do have a season ticket but the worry is, once we (or any team) has won 15 games, then they are almost certain to be in the playoffs ....... so why should they risk injury? And I definitely don't want to watch reserve players acting out what effectively become 'friendlies'.

Unless they change things very quickly, 2013 may well be the season that the RFL, in their greed to build up the importance of the GF over the league, wreck the income the clubs currently generate from the regular season!

That's my worry in a nutshell

Has a recent previous poster has pointed out the game was virtuallly bankrupt, prior to the introduction of the current GF play offs system in 1994, and without the SKY bailout the game would not have survived under the old league system

Yes it might well need tweaking a bit but the current league + play offs is the only viable system in this SL era

honestly cudnt see wakey winning it..whatever happens with a system therell always be someone who complains...just put the top 8 in a bag and draw them out..and put more meaning on winning the league..if you win the league to me you are champions

It wasn't the introduction of the play off system that saved Rugby League it was the Money from Sky.

Who, in turn wanted the introduction of play offs so the most important game of the year was at the end of the season and there was no danger of the last few weeks of the season fizzling out.

Equally the RFL and clubs wanted it as it was additional revenue and publicity that the game wouldn't otherwise get.

Finally, there was a view that first past the post league format meant players were ill prepared mentally for the pressure of repeated crunch games over a number of weeks and that this was one, of a number, of reasons why the Aussies were ahead of us internationally. At that time we'd shown for 10 years that we had the players that could raise intensity for single games but the Ockers always had the mental toughness to win the series.

Yes they did want the introduction of the play offs, i don't dispute that, but the play offs themselves haven't been the saviour of the rugby league, (in fact attendances have been poor for the play offs) it was the cash!

I disagree. Why is a system that risks turning 27 of the 30-31 games a team will play into glorified friendlies and potentially turning fans off, the only viable system?

Despite being the second best league campaign in many fans living memory, I found this regular season incredibley boring. Even our traditional double over Wigan and beating Saints in St Helens for the first time in what felt like forever mean't very little. I knew before the season started that we would finish in the top four, probably the top two. Despite being a season ticket holder, I actually missed one home game (Bradford) because I simply couldn't be bothered going!

It is not Leeds fault. They do what they can to win the Grand Final, whether their league position is deliberate or not is immaterial. They did what they had to do, and I accept that doing it from 5th twice is an amazing achievement but the playoffs, and Leeds acheivements in particular,does the game as a whole no good whatsoever.