Superleague going to 12 teams 2015

Quote: DaveO "Holding back for the playoffs

The current system DOES lend itself to that sort of thing, because you can finish less than half way down the league table and still have a chance of being champions. I'm sorry but reducing the number of teams who qualify for the playoffs will definitely change the mentality of the weekly rounds. In the last few seasons Leeds have won the POs from 5th position in the league, and we rested a lot of our star players and lost the majority of our games from July-Sep to let a big lead in the table slip, eventually finishing 4th but still won the GF. If there's a genuine advantage for finishing higher in the table then tactics like this become obsolete.

Quote: DaveO "Most NRL players do not take part in SoO and so no you cam't argue there is little difference because of the SoO.'"

I wasn't trying to claim we don't play significantly more games than the NRL do, I was saying that there won't be more games for the SL teams than there are now. The poster I quoted incorrectly stated that the NRL has 22 weekly rounds, when it's 24, and the players who will be playing in the end of season internationals will more than likely feature in Origin, so it is relevant. Nobody ever said the aim of this new system was to reduce the number of domestic games in the SL season to make our players play a similar number of games to the NRL players.

Quote: DaveO "I don't see how it is. It has not solved the issue of what happens to a current SL side if they drop out of the top 12 in terms of salary cap and players wages. Are they always going to be considered a SL side from a salary point of view so can maintain a £1.8m salary cap? Or at some point are they going to have to adopt a reduced cap level a and so rip players contacts up? If it is the latter all this does is kick the issue of moving between pro and semi pro down the road.'"

Difficult to comment on stuff that hasn't been announced yet. I agree that the SC stuff is one of the major points that needs sorting though. Isn't the 2nd tier SC going to be £900K?

Quote: DaveO "There is also the issue of the play offs themselves. Though it has not been announced a lot of people seem to think it will be a simple semi-final/final set up between the top 4. If so that isn't a play off but a simple knock out competition with even less of a link to the regular season than any play off format we have had previously.'"

The link is the positions you have qualified in. The higher you finish in the league, the better you're chance of reaching the GF. The POs don't need to be 3 weeks long and include 8 teams, a lot of the 7 games after the split should be played at PO intensity to either qualify or cement the highest possible finishing position. The current system has killed the incentive to try and win the league, see Danny Brough's recent comments.

Quote: DaveO "For me the new format is a case of the tail wagging the dog. Yes P&R between a pro and semi pro league doesn't work but this new system is little different in reality. It gives some championship clubs a potential path into the top flight but instead of being based on criteria besides where you finish in the league you can progress regardless.

Licensing was a far better approach but was just badly administered and I can't see why any of those clubs that went into administration under licencing would not have done so under this new system either.'"

I think it is the opposite. I was all for licensing at the beginning, as I thought it would make the lower teams get their act together. Two license periods down the line and the promise stadia of Wakefield and Castleford are nowhere to be seen, Bradford and Salford have nearly gone bust, Crusaders have gone and London are nothing short of a complete shambles. It's clear that something needs changing. The top flight is being reduced from 14 to 12, and then a further 4 could drop out if they don't perform on the field. Licensing didn't force the lower end SL clubs to buck their ideas up, but this might. Meanwhile fans of the top teams get to watch their team play in more intense games against better opposition instead of seeing them put 50 or 60 on teams without breaking sweat.