Are you going to send back any of the EIGHT league titles that Wigan won prior to 1973, where the RL Champions were decided via a Championship Final (see also Grand Final) and NOT on league positions ?

What about the legitimacy of those titles then, where you won the Championship Final, were crowned 'Champions', but didn't finish top of the league ladder during that particular season ....

If you want some simple, easy to follow system, why not go watch Wigan Athletic or someone .... Everyone knew the rules at the start of the season.

I don't have a problem with the current system which is designed to increase the competition not only at this stage but throughout the season. I have always felt that the team finishing top deserve to be Champions but if we are to have a play-off system, which I like to have for the end of season excitement, I thought the top 5 system was the fairest.

Fair do's to Saints and Leeds they have played well at the right time and taken their chances. It will be a good game next week. Not sure who will win.

Well said Admiral. The Rugby gods have spoken.

I'm not a fan of this myself, but teams are starting to play for the end of the season, this is how it is

All major sports decide their elite champions via an initial qualifying league then a playoff system

Wendyball believist fans tend to conveniently ignore the fact that all their major trophys are decided this way, be it the world cup, European championship, Copa America, European champions league etc etc.

I dont recall people complaining that England didnt really win the world cup in 1966 because they didnt even need to qualify for the competition.

True champion teams and individuals rise to the occasion. Wigan showed in their challenge cup win that they are made of the right stuff being Wire and Saints. Unfortunately they didnt have enough of it to go that extra mile and win two major finals.

Everyone knows the rules before the season starts so its no good whinging now. There is nothing between the 4 teams and the games this weekend have proved that. Good luck to Leeds and Saints next week.

I know everyone knows the rules, and I think that regardless of what's happened I still don't particularly think it is correct to award the winners of the GF as the champions. To me if you have been most consistent over the whole year, then you should be crowned champions. I think Warrington shoudl be crowned champions this year, but such is the way our sport works.

I know how it works, I've known the rules all year etc., doesn't mean I have to agree with them.

I'll put my hands up my first comment was wrong. I think whoever finishes first should be chapions, and more needs to be made out of it. I just don't like having the playoff system, as you don't need to push all the way for first, when you can play on half all year and finfish in the playoffs, then push at the end of the year and become champions.

The problem is when Saints were finishing top the league for 4 or 5 seasons on the trot, sometimes we didn,t win the Grand Final. A lot of the older Wigan and Wires fans on this forum said it not about finishing top its the play offs that matter. We seemed to have turned full circle on here in that 1st and 2nd place now matters.
Don,t forget the play off results have now relegated Wire and Wigan down to 3rd and 4th place in Superleague rankings.

You still have to be good team to win it.

I can't speak for the older generation, however my views aren't just because Wigan have been knocked down a peg, that doesn't make a difference to me. In the years Saints finished top, but lost the GF etc. they should've been named champions in my eyes.

I'm well aware, and Saints outplayed us today, as Leeds arguably outplayed Wire yesterday (didn't watch the match, so going off the score and what I heard), however, should Leeds win the GF next year, can they say they are the true champions and best side of the year? In my eyes, no.

Wire and Wigan have been the best two all season but then there's the play offs. It may seem odd that 3rd and 5th are at the GF however they won the games where Wire and Wigan didn't. That's the play offs.

What does appear to be happening now is that the club who wins the C Cup do not do well in the play offs. No cup winner has won the GF since the C Cup was moved to Aug Bank Holiday weekend. Wigan are just not the same team since winning the cup. Wire won the C Cup twice then the wheels fell off in the play offs.
The test of this will be to see how Leeds do next week. They, like us, have not had a week off and their 80 mins will be interesting. They were superb last night v Wire I have to admit.

Wire and Wigan might have been the best teams in the leahiue all season. Saints and Leeds have just proved they are the best two teams in the play offs. As many have said, we all knew the rules before we started so we'll continue to go with it.

Too be honest top 8 play off is a farce, 1st place has never deserved the recognition of this achievement. The RFL are basically saying your last 3 play off games has much greater value than the 27 league games. Top 4 is just about acceptable, can you imagine the day when an 8th place team who has lot 3 times as many games as the league leaders will become Superleague Champions.