I am fortunate to be old enough to remember that the Challenge Cup Final always used to be on the second Saturday in May, the week after the FA final but this was suddenly changed in 1975/1976 to be the first weekend in May, I remember that because I always came home for my weeks holiday from my job in Kenya and found out that the Challenge Cup Final had been last week.

So a team who performed badly didn't have that much of a chance of winning anything. Shock horror. Surely we don't want to change the format to reward mediocrity?

All fans can talk about the messy PTB as all teams are guilty of it. Players will try and get away with as much as they can and all coaches attempt to come up with ways to slow the PTB down.

Just because Wigan are guilty of it doesn't stop me from complaining about it and wanting the PTB cleaned up. If refs constantly penalise (and by that I mean all season not just for the first few weeks) things like moving off the mark, holding down once the tackle has been completed, not playing the ball properly and hands in then coaches will be instructing players not to do it. One of the biggest differences between us and the NRL is our refs shout held and move and the players lie on for another few seconds, in the NRL the refs shout move and the players move as they know they'll get penalised if they don't.

Also, how often does the ref called "held" with the ball carrier standing, only for the tacklers to carry on and wrestle him to the floor - infuriating!

True, but most of us are not calling for a complete abandonment, just a return to the original 50% of income idea, without the later adition of the finite limit.

It was a step forward from straight top 8, top 5 knock-out format, which allowed Leeds to be called champions twice from 5th spot.