Rugby League has had 75 Grand Finals to decide the champions of the sport in this country, most of which were long before the modern era. It is not a modern thing, it's not a Sky thing.

Only 46 times in our sport's history have the champions been crowned by winning the league and I hope that figure never gets higher.

All three of our championships were Grand Final wins:
1948, 15-5 v Bradford
1954, 8-7 v Halifax
1955, 7-3 v Oldham

We only topped the league ladder in the last those seasons.

Being consistently good over the whole season is one thing, playing in a high pressure situation in front of big crowds (and a huge crowd for the final) against the other most consistent sides over the season, is another and proves you're the best imo.

On the ticket sales front, according to the rl website, you can no longer buy tickets on the website as they have sold and the only way to obtain them is at the Old Trafford shop. So hopefully a good sign attendance wise.

I imagine this is due to systems and processes, rather than due to the level of sales.

Ordered mine last Tuesday and been to OT this morning to pick it up, open from 10am, didn't want to be in queue's before the game
No queue and nowhere to park, but being an old fart a steward let me park near the railway bridge and then I could walk over.
Ticket guy said it normally gets busy about 4pm for people picking tickets from the ground
I'm in the SAF stand, near where I was when we lost last time, but higher up this time.