first can I congratulate Leeds on winning the vase, but in the weekend papers there was a quote that summed up the whole problem for me, the quote was from Brian Mcdermott who stated:

"we had to dig deep for 4 weeks"

so that really sums up the season, for 4 weeks Leeds dug deeper than anyon else, so I congratulate them on that.

IF we are going to stick to a top 8, this would be a far better playoff system:

Week 1:
winner to final, loser to week two:
1v2

Lowest placed loser eliminated, winner to week two:
3v8
4v7
5v6

Week 2:
Highest placed loser vs lowest placed winner
Highest placed winner vs remaining team

Week 3:
Remaining two teams from week two

Week 4:
Final

Well done! Enjoy the Tea Tray. However, you are missing his/her point. They are saying in a first past the post competition Tony Smith wouldn't rotate his teams as he did and would have comfortably finished 1st. I agree with him/her. But it isn't a FPTP competition as we all know and teams and coaches ,including Smudger, are aware of that.

But he said Warrington were the most consistent but they weren't as that would mean they had finished 1st not 2nd.

And he doesn't take into account that wane wouldn't have rested that many against widnes in that situation so we would probably have won that one.

Blueprint for next season (team) pick which games we need to win in the weekly matches so we get to a playoff place (not too high up because the top four play each other, and though they get another chance if they lose they would also lose momentum) rest your best players for most of the games, and be careful during August, don’t want to many injuries and big name suspensions. By the way, why is it that Cats lose and go home for another chance, Saints win go home lose and they’re out?

Blueprint for next season (fan)don’t bother buying a season ticket (far too many meaningless games)pick and choose the games to go to derbies, CC rounds, big team games. We know it’s less cash for the club but at least we can get a chance in the silverware dept. Like the people who know say, what’s the point of being top if you don’t make the GF and miss on being champs and losing out on a shot at the top of Oz.... H G Wells is alive and well..
I hope this sh*t never happens!

Do you have a better system? given that the RFL won't shift from a 'top 8'

it would be two weeks off btw

It's 2 weekends off which is almost 3 weeks.

P.S. I don't have the answer. In fact my alternative gave the league winners the same length of time off.

If it has to be a 'top 8 system' then i'd have the following

1th vs 8th
4th vs 5th
-------------
2th vs 7th
3th vs 6th

Winners play each other in both sides of the draw, very simple imo

Works in the majority of every other sport in the world without complaints, you lose against the 8th placed team then you don't deserve another shot/to reach the next round! Knockout competition in all games

And yeah you win on the Friday of week one, it's 3 weeks later until you play the grand final, so I wouldn't be in favour of it.

My perfect thing would be a Top 3 playoff system, winner through to grand final, 2 vs 3 to qualify, not the biggest money spinner for Sky I guess but then the regular season becomes meaningful!

Why not make winners of week 1 (Leeds & Hull in this instance) and losers of week 1 (Wire & Cats) play midweek?

Gives Top 2 the advantage of a home game with the winners of those games then getting the "Standard" rest period of a week.

5/6/7/8 would be severley disadvantaged as even if they win week 1 they then have to go to losers fo week 1 i.e Wire/Cats in this instance and even if they win that they have to play 3 days later against the "Fresh" teams away from home.

Would that provide enough incentive to finish Top 4 & even more so Top 2?
Brings intensity to the league games as finishing 5th or lower has a serious affect on your play off chances.
Brings intensity into Week 1 for the Top 4 as losing that game would have a serious affect on your play off chances i.e playing 3 games in a week before playin the final the week after.

My preference would be for the old Top 5/6.

PS

None of the above is in anyway a dig at Leeds as I believe they have done remarkably well to win it from 5 twice and IMO played the cards as they were dealt at the begining of the season.
IMO if the system was different there's nothing to say that they wouldnt have played those cards equally as well and won it again (Inc if it was a straight Top=Champions argument) irrespective of the system used to determine it.

It is you who is missing the point as far as I’m concerned! I’m not saying that Wigan should be champions this past season they are not, Leeds are by way of how the SL is played now. All I’m trying to say is the playoff structure is killing the weekly rounds making them virtually redundant for most games. If it were run like football FPTP, I like you have no idea who would have been champions, I DON’T BLOODY CARE! All I want is to get back to every team wanting to win every game no matter what part of the season it’s played in. Keep the playoffs, just change the structure and stop calling the winners champions, and bring back P&R in some form. ALL I WANT IS ALL OF THE WEEKLY ROUNDS TO MEAN SOMETHING AGAIN! But it seems for some people it’s asking far too much.

Top 8 and rewarding the team one game to the final, minimum you have to give the top team is a week off, that week off though could be what kills you.

So it's either straight knockout from the off or try to finish 3rd and not have a week off.

Straight knockout is simple

1v8
2v7
3v6
4v5
then the highest seed always plays the lowest seed for the next round, the advantage being you always get a home game and it's always against lowest ranked.
Forget two bites of the cherry.

--this--

You should apply for a job at Red Hall

So based on this year (in theory)?
Rd. 1
Wigan v Wakefield
Warrington v Huddersfield
Saints v Hull
Catalan v Leeds

Semi
Wigan v Catalan
Warrington v Saints

Final
Wigan v Warrington

Makes sense I suppose. I would like to see the league winners get a week off at some point though. It would give the teams something to play for in the season.