I remember standing at OT in '98....Nervous as hell, and wondering why we had to go through all this!
We'd 'won' the league already, but had to prove it again in a one-off match against Leeds - Who had already beaten us twice that season (IIRC?).
Didnt enjoy the game one bit and when the final whistle went, and we'd won, it was sheer relief more than anything else.
Had we lost that night, myself (and thousands more) would have felt cheated out of a title that we'd already won.
I completely understand why we've gone to a playoff system (and Yawnion has followed suit), but i'm just not sure that its just reward for a seasons effort?
There can be no doubt that (so far) we have been consistantly better performing than every other team in the league.
And yet, theoretically, even the Crusaders could ultimately be crowned 'Champs'.

I'm not confident that we'll go all the way this year.
Saints and Leeds should still justifiably be favourites in a playoff format.
We dont seem to do so well in the high-pressure one-off games - whereas both of those sides know exactly what to do.
Given the season we've just watched......Does that make them better than us?
The league table suggests not - But as OP's have mentioned, nobody will remember that.
Personally, i'd like to see the Prem playoffs back again and the title awarded to the team that finishes top (whoever it is). Perhaps the reward for winning the Prem Final, could be the spot in the WCC? Just to make it more interesting.
Aint gonna happen though, and a whole lot of fans have been brainwashed by the powers that be into believing that the playoffs are a fair and just way to sort out league champs.
Which it isnt IMHO.

I never in a thought we could win the league. To do it over 8 months week in week out, performance after performance, no i didn't think we could. I had us down for finishing 4th to be honest, but i knew we always had a chance in the playoffs, one off games, ref decisions go your way, injuries to opposition and you can win it. Especially with the new format meaning its a lot easier to win it from 4th. In cup football anything can happen. Its only over 4 weeks.

haha! been brainwashed have we?!!!

What you dont realise is that the top teams nowadays time their run for the end of the season. If you know the champions are crowned in the playoffs why kill yourselves in the beginning. We did that in 05 and look where it got us... nowhere. We did it again in 08 and were lucky enough that we had such a big lead when the playoffs suited a top 2 finish to recover. Last season we started playing with about 2 months of the season left and we have done similar this year with the 1 blip recently coming in the Cup Final unfortunately.

And cut the BS with this brainwash crap... this is the way its been for 12 years now. All team/players/fans know the format and how you are crowned as Champions and it seems the only teams that dont like it are you and Saints. We didnt b[ii[/itch and moan when the Lower ranked Bulls beat us in 05. We accepted it, as they were the comp rules.

Brainwashed. Such a shame.

'we started playing with about 2 months of the season left' what about the other months? I want to see the best all season, not for 2 months. Don't bend over and just accept it mate. Would you accept it if you did more work than anyone else in your job but didn't get your bonus because you didn't 'peak' at the end of the year?? That's BS.
I'm not surprised you didn't 'bitch' and 'moan' when you lost in 05! You hadn't even finished top you cheeky beggar!

Aye, but even if we had have finished top in Leeds we know it means nothing. No ones ever called us champions the 2 times its happened in SL. In fact when we "won" the LL Shield at Salford last season the Salford music man played we are the champions and it was rather cringeworthy.

The reason we dont try to peak until the back end of the season is because we know we can play at 50% for the first 2/3rds of the year and still win the comp. Thats just the way it is. If you dont like it go watch soccer.

And we still lost to a team that finished below us in '05. It hurt as we were the better team throughout the year but they beat us when it count. We accepted it because as I said, those are the comp rules.