That is not a problem IMO because if all teams can go out in the 1st week then it makes no odds if you finish 1st or 8th. That totally undermines the league season and the whole idea if a playoff system is that it is not a simple knock out format but a format that rewards higher finishes in the league. No offence but if you really think this then you have not bought into the idea of a play off system because it really is different to a knock out competition. Or should be.

The best system by far is the top five system. In the top 5 system only one team goes out each week until we arrive at the two finalists and any team who wins it must beat all the teams above them to do so. There is therefore an inherent sense of fairness that at least a side finishing 5th has some moral right to claim the championship.

This also has the advantage of making the league more of a factor and muddling along in 10th place hoping for a late surge to make the 8th is not an option.



This system means it does not matter if you finish 2nd or 7th.



This is knock out competition in essence and once the champions were decided makes all those who are secure in the top 7 have a bunch of meaningless games. With a top 5 system each league position further up you finish gives you more reward.

The biggest mistake the RFL made was moving away from the top 5 system to the simplistic top 6 because if I recall correctly they thought the top 5 system was too complicated for fans to understand. Given we seemingly have disenchantment with the top 8 system its about time the bit bullet an reverted to the original top five, educated the fans about it and kept the person who I think came up with these changes well away from it.

Dave

good point, and one the RFL might take on boaed and revert back to a top 5/6 system.

i also think these extra games were introduced to put money in the RFL kitty.
well it isnt working.

maybe less games , but meaningful ones would bring in more fans , alogside a more realistic pricing system...ie a tenner all round for adult season ticket holders who have attended all year and deserve summat back for their loyal support.

gf prices can be left alone.

I think it works round by round, so for the first round all 4 attendances are added together and the proceeds shared, after certain costs are allowed for. Good for Wakey, not so good for us....

Ah the penny has dropped, cheers

I disagree. The team that finishes 8th will not be there by accident. They will have played a standard of rugby that places them in that position. I think the system as it is now is sufficiently difficult enough to eliminate the 8th placed side (I doubt Catalans will get a result at Hudds). If we take Catalans as an example, should that side end up winning the championship as some fear, they would have to have beaten Huddersfield, Leeds and St Helens; none of which in front of their own fans. The way I see it, it gives the smaller clubs a chance at extending their season but they will not make any great waves. If they do (which I believe may happen once in a blue moon) they will have beaten teams of a calibur and be deserving of the title of champions.

In any case, this animosity towards the 8th placed team is objective. Had Wigan finished 8th, would we not want to get to OT and win as we would not have deserved to be there? (Although judging by the attitudes of the usual doom and gloom merchants on here, I suspect that wouldn't be far from the truth)

I have read the majority of this thread with utter disbelief.

The play-offs are the culmination of the season. Wigan should be delighted to be even in them the way they started the season off, and for a game, that is make or break to the season, then the ground should have been sold out last weekend. It was a pathetic display of support.

7pm on a Sunday I would say is a great time for a match.
What exactly does it clash with ???? Nothing I would say. There is absolutely nothing better to be doing on a Sunday evening at that time, and it will clash with very few people's working schedule (which for the biggest game of the season so far, if they didn't take off for it anyway I would be amazed).

People are using kids as an excuse. Well surely for kids of a resonable age, getting them home at 9.30pm as a one-off isn't any major issue. Even if it is, again for the biggest game of the season, then a babysitter would be found.

After reading this thread, I'm not expecting many to make the trip to Craven Park on Saturday, when in reality you should be able to sell your away allocation twice over.

clashed with one thing. the sky sports football schedule. end of. i'm sure it would have been a 3pm kick off if it wasn't on sky but obviously as all play off games are televised then there was no chance of that.

Indeed. If United had had their allotted amount of injury time, we would have played at 3pm. As Fergie is the timekeeper at OT, we had to be pushed back to 7pm to allow United to score

Is it so difficult to comprehend that for example in my case, my totally non rugby interested daughter had been promised by her father to spend some quality time with her. A promise that was made when I had no idea if Wigan would make the playoffs, and what date the match would be if we did. I'm sorry but there's no way i'm letting my daughter down for anything on this earth mate, and if you think people should then there's really nothing further to be said.

Also for those with young children, getting them back at 9.30 pm when they have school in the morning can actually be a big deal, as they sure as hell aren't going to goto sleep quickly after all the noise of a rugby match. It's also not magically easy for a lot of people to pull a babysitter out of thin air, even if I hadn't have promised my daughter, I could not have got a babysitter on Sunday anways.

Please let the judemental rubbish stop, or are you suggesting that you must either goto all the games home and away or none at all?

Yes everybody feels it was a poor crowd, but that's up to the RFL to look into the scheduling of the sport in general - it was clearly done with an eye to Sky rather than attendances at the matches.

Steve Ella's Beard:

Yes, it is hard for me to comprehend. The play-off dates were known weeks ago, so you knew it was possible for the Sunday slot to be filled with Wigan's do or die match, and there was guaranteed to be two nights of that weekend without a Wigan match, so plenty of opportunity for that quality time. I doubt whatever you did with your daughter (on a school night) was anything you couldn't have done any other night of that week, and you going to the rugby on that night wouldn't have mentally scarred her for life.

BBFL:

Maybe not from my own parental experience, but I can recall that my parents took myself and my brother to night football matches on schoolnights, without it causing us any harm. One night in particular I can recall was in January in the mid 90's, an FA Cup 3rd round replay at then Premiership champions Blackburn, which went to extra-time.
We wouldn't have got back to Hull till at least 12.30am, if not later. I would have been 14, and my brother 9 at the time, and he is still functioning perfectly well to this day following that.
Kids are far too molly coddled these days. They can't be up beyond 9-10pm for a one-off, what tosh.

And from this point the usefulness of your contribution was over....