Can the RFL be accused of bringing our great game into Disrepute.

By devaluing the 27 round league structure it has now become a laughing stock to many fans, this is because most clubs are not treating the competition seriously enough. The problems as I see it are as follows:-

1. League winners not given the respect they are due for being the most consistent team over 27 round of competitive Rugby League.

2. The Trophy awarded is poor and does not represent the achievement (note minor premiership trophy in the NRL) and is ridiculed as "the Hub Cap".

3. The prize money awarded to the league winners is abysmal (£50,000 ?).

4. No main sponsor of Superleague, does this say something? When we can't get a blue chip company to invest in what is perceived to be a second rate competition.

5. No threat of relegation to under achieving clubs and no possibly for championship clubs being promoted to the elite league.

6. The top 8 team playoff is far too many and should be top 5 only as it was in the early years of Superleague, this format leads to mediocre clubs getting into the playoff, 1st v 4th and 5th v 8th makes no sense and gives an easier draw to the team finishing 5th.

7. Clubs are targeting certain games as bankers for points and are aiming for the 5th prized position.

8. Clubs are not playing their strongest team week in, week out.

9. Clubs resting players who would normally play if the importance of the game warranted it.

10. Fans who buy season tickets are being short changed by seeing games that lack credibility.

11. A team from outside the top 4 winning the Grand Final on 2 occasions.

12. The 2013 season has fizzled out into a damp squib due to teams not trying, they just want to peak for Grand Final playoffs.

Some of these issues must be solved immediately for next season but the 2015 new league restructure must address these problems otherwise our game will die.

Not entirely the RFL's fault. The clubs voted for most of those.

I don’t know who’s to blame, but your points are valid. SL is broken and is in need of total overall and fixing. One thing I would add is that not everything the NRL does is worth copying, let’s come up with some worthy ideas of our own. Oz burps and we say excuse me. I hate the words, mate, sheds, paddock, field goal, 5-8 in OUR game. Here’s a good old English one for them; b*llocks!

It's a forum, you can accuse them of anything.

It's only a laughing stock to some fans of the unsuccesful.

Respect from who? The clubs voted for it, they know the rules.

As with many sports the ultimate prize is the GF.

RL is skint.

Yes, sponsorship is very difficult in a recession.
Why would a blue chip company invest in a predominantly northern, working class sport?

Widnes.

The clubs voted for it.
It's always been the same.

See above.

See above.

Don't buy a season ticket. SL games are generally far more credible than some of the rubbish we seem to forget from pre-SL. Presuambly Wigan winning everything for 10 years was credible?

Other sports would be revelling in the battle against the odds for that. As a non-Leeds fan I thought it a fantastic achievement.

Rubbish.

The judgement is not guilty.

Lol same point repeated over and over there. Things need to change, and they are doing. Disrepute is way too strong a term, incompetent I'd agree with

There are issues with the game - everyone acknowledges it and to be fair the RFL and SL are trying to do something about it, there are proposals on the table re the play-offs and P&R. It is a major debate if these are the right things but at least there is some movement.

I strongly suspect that the RFL is waiting to see the outcome/effect of the World Cup on the game/interest.

Given Wigan are a successful side that clearly doesn't apply here.



The fact the clubs voted for it is completely irrelevant to the point made which was about affording the winners of the league suitable respect for finishing top after 27 rounds.



That also wasn't his point. He was saying the prize does't reflect the effort.



It could allocate more prize money to winning the league and less to either the CC or GF if it wished so being skint is also irrelevant.



Clearly not as other sports still manage to arrange it. Not sure if it has anything to do with how prestigious or not the league is but it certainly reflects badly on the RFL.



They have in the past.



They were given a license and so were not promoted in the traditional sense which is I am sure what the o/p was on about. Automatic P&R is nuts anyway between two such disparate leagues but clearly some people such as the o/p favour it.



Which is yet another irrelevant comment. Vote for it they may have done. That doesn't preclude anyone with half a brain cell being able to see it's inferior to the top 5 system.



No club deliberately aimed for 5th in the top 5 system if they were in a position to finish higher. So wrong again. There is no incentive to finish 4th if you can in the current system.



To which poorly made or irrelevant point are you directing us?



Another revisionist historian surfaces. I don't know how old you are but I was watching Wigan through that era and I can assure you league games against the likes of Wire and Widnes were epic encounters and there was never any hint that anyone thought ultimately the results didn't matter because the Premiership was the ultimate goal.



Given finishing 5th is preferable to finishing 3rd or 4th I doubt other sports would be stupid enough to come up with a play off format that left fans questioning the integrity of the system.



So you are saying teams aren't playing the odds at least to some degree and those who can are still chasing top spot?



The judgment is you will have to try harder.

this thread clarifies one thing..... Bernard manningham youre a tit..!!

It's what happens when someone previously banned uses an old alias.

It’s relative, the fourth most successful side in SL. The sniping and accusations have only really started over the last couple of years from Wigan particularly when they failed to reach the GF against inferior opposition.

It isn’t irrelevant. The OP is accusing the RFL not the clubs.

There can be only one winner which is a reflection of many things not just effort.
I
Why should it, the GF is the ultimate prize.

I agree it isn’t ideal and doesn’t look good, but no-one here as any idea what efforts the RFL went to, or didn’t, realise sponsorship. If they gave it away they would be equally ridiculed.

The RFL have decided, possibly admirably, they aren’t going to take money from tobacco or gambling, possibly even alcohol? There isn’t much else left that a number of companies see as attractions for working, northern folk. Unfortunatley it’s the number of people watching, it’s the social class they are perceived to belong to. Hence the sponsorship for yawnion or polo.

Which is yet another irrelevant comment. Vote for it they may have done. That doesn't preclude anyone with half a brain cell being able to see it's inferior to the top 5 system.
I agree automatic P&R is a road to ruin. My view is the OP was suggesting there is no way in or out. He was wrong IMO.

There is no evidence that any clubs aim for that. It’s made up by the unsuccessful.

I am probably a fair bit older than you and remember those epic games. Just like we will look back on some from current days with rose tinted glasses. I remember some garbage by terrible defences who wouldn’t last 5 minutes today (though there were some better players).

There is no evidence that any clubs aim for that. It’s made up by the unsuccessful.
Of course they are playing the odds, it would be amateurish not to. But I have not seen a game in thousands where a team hasn’t tried to win.

I don’t have to try, I am not making the accusation.

People get banned for less.

Yes they do but only if they are wrong.

Tbh he was not wrong.

I watched a meaning less game last Thursday when Warrington were hosting Widnes. A cert home banker and Wire batter.......Er hang on a minute I got this wrong!

All this negativity, c'mon it's Wembley week!