I would get rid of sky goone commentators and out two apposing fans do the commentary like they do do on the fan sin in football , would be much entertaining than Stevo and Eddie

I've no problem with the salary cap, but it should be increased by 2-3% per year.
Keeping at the same level year after year does lead to the quality reducing.

Spot on. The ptb is a farce. I used to laugh at RU rucks and mauls and now we have wrestling, cheating, JC impersonators and players just oblivious to the PTB rules

Most if not all sports that use a play off system do so because they have an uneven season. (everyone doesnt play everyone else or play some teams more often than others).

I would challenge people to find sports that everyone plays each other the same number of times and has play offs. I think Union do, but not many others. Have done with magic (make it a cup weekend, either quarters or the round of 16) and then have fptp.

Including the biggest and best league in the pro sport in the world, Premiership soccer. You have never seen the Premiership (or as it used to to be 1st division) champions decided by a playoff . The country champions in cricket are not decided by a playoff either. So two of the biggest pro sports in the UK are not and never have been decided by a playoff and in my opinion that is big reason why many RL fans in the UK finds the concept pretty alien. Who gives a monkey's what the rest of the world does?

Playoffs in sport where geography isn't an issue (as it was in the USA before air travel made it less so, so they needed regional conferences) are simply a product of the marketing men and TV executives who think they can milk more out of the sport at the end of the season. There is no logic that says playoffs deliver a better or fairer result.

The RFL hold a big responsibility for the decline in the sport. First in their eagerness to promote the playoffs and GF concept they actively belittled the league and the challenge cup going as far as not even offering a trophy for the league in the early years. I don't think it has ever recovered from this as year on year we hear complaints from fans that the league is worth little more than friendlies or they are just qualifiers . This also has a lot to do with the format. They got it right at the start with a top five system as out of them all that was the one that meant it really was worth winning the league and if not finishing as high up as you can. They threw it out and instead left us with formats that made it far too easy to win from lower down the league. Leeds winning it twice from 5th was not a great achievement, it was just a huge sign saying the format of the competition was wrong and winning the league didn't matter a jot.

The Super 8's are hardly any better. Half the teams in it this season have literally been there to make up the numbers. Nothing else and of course the preceding twenty odd league games doesnt really matter as soon as you are confirmed in the top 8 which can happen quickly.

Ultimately you cannot get it out of many fans heads the playoffs mean the only games you need to watch are the semi-finals and finals because even if you go to the rest there is no guarantee you will be entertained. Some late withdrawal or other of a star player etc is always a risk. A typical response to this is they don't understand it is all a build up to peaking at the right time and this is a skill in itself but they do understand this - they just realise what that means is there are twenty odd games where any number of them will be chalked off as not that important.

Second the RFL's "whole game approach" is totally unrealistic. I am sure they think because Leigh are promoted the concept works but this ignores the fact that the relegated team will see people literally out of job! I don't just mean the players some of whom will find another SL side but backroom and admin staff as the clubs budget is literally halved. This might be less of a problem if the game was awash with money but the idiots in charge didn't even put the TV rights out to tender so it isn't and they have spread the money far too wide. If you want P&R you need far more money and if you have not got a lot of money you can't afford the luxury of P&R unless you want to revert to semi-pro or even amateur status across the board. We were on the right track with licenses and Widnes are the proof of that but no, the RFL couldn't leave it alone and canned it because they weren't competent enough to administer it.

Thirdly the international game has been neglected in favour of the club game with far too much energy expended on promoting things like the magic weekend and expanding the world club challenge instead of the international game. In part that was due to the move to summer putting an end to touring sides playing club sides (very big occasions at Central Park those) and full test series played alongside and it also meant few top flight players guesting for clubs here or our players doing the same down under. That used to raise complaints they players were knackered but the game coped and it led to a far more interesting sport. However ultimately those in charge have proved poor custodians of the international game.

As others have said the structure of the academy is rubbish with it restricted to U19's. The scrapping of full reserve A teams, then the various restrictions and restructuring of this part of the game have always seemed to be driven by one G Hetherington of Leeds. He bares a lot of responsibility for this and I think I am right in saying when Wigan and other sides have tried to get a reserve league going Leeds were not interested. That is criminal for such a big club so it is not just Nigel Wood the sport could do with putting out to pasture.

You will notice I have not mentioned the salary cap specifically and that is because provided it is large enough and is flexible enough to allow players to earn money from their position in the sport without it counting on the cap as happens in other sports that have a cap it needn't be a hinderance. The reason ours is a problem is it is too restrictive and not large enough because as mentioned above the RFL's lack of brains in not putting the TV rights out to tender and then spreading the cash to thinly.

We also don't know how the relatively poor wages on offer for the majority of RL players compared to other pro sports is simply diverting young talent away before it even plays the game at senior level. I doubt we will see the sort of fanfare that greeted the signing of a young Shaun Edwards again with the kind of cash in offer these days relative to other sports.

I think the game has many problems including the format but if you look they are all self inflicted. If that doesn't mean it is time for those running it to be fired off I don't know what does.

1. Format
The play off format is all wrong, how can it be good that Wigan, Wire, Hull and Saints will end up playing each other multiple times through the season. Add in the Magic weekend and teams can end up playing each other 5 or 6 times in a season - just wrong. Then you have teams who finish fifth and below and end up playing a handull of matches at the end of the season and the play-offs which have no meaning to anyone, again pointless. The regular season does not help - you lose a couple of games - so what as long as you finish in the top eight or even better top four there is no problem about how crap the previous games or dropped points being important so there is no incentive to perform in every game.

2.The actual play - the PTB is a joke (refs can't agree on policing it some do some don't), and don't get me started on players wriggling and bouncing around to try and win penalties (last nights match the Hull winger Fonua did it every tackle, wriggle bounce and moan at the ref instead of getting on with the game). Endless video ref replays slowing the game down, more coaches (alleged water carriers) on the pitch than players even when it is freezing cold! Too many average players lauded as being top stars by the sky muppets.

3.The salary cap has been done to death on here - but if it can't even be raised in line with inflation over the years then there is something seriously wrong.

4. For me the lack of academy/reserve grade is killing the game and is one of the biggest reasons for the slow decline of the professional game, it is no co-incidence that the slaughter of this level of the game has perfectly matched the declining basic skill levels in the supposed top tier of the game (and then we wonder why the Aussies walk all over us in world club challenge/internationals...when it is patently obvious their basic skills/game skills are so much better).

Sadly I do not see things improving as the same tired faces with no ideas or imagination are running things and turkeys do not vote for christmas.

Interesting. Assuming he started watching as a kid, he watched the championship decided by a 4 -16 team playoff until 1970. Long before Sky had even been conceived.

Players cheating all the time has ruined the game for me, coaches calling his players honest, no they aren't! nearly all the basics have gone out of RL, it's become very boring I used to be able to watch a game over and over again not any more,once is enough!

Wouldnt say it was brought in to end Wigans dominance, if anything Wigan dominace had already come to and end when the cap was introduced, although you could argue it may hve held them back in regaining dominance , but would say Saints and Bradford would have a stronger argument for that , it was brought in to stop clubs being foolish with there money , even Wigan overspent and where pretty much bankrupt , I thought it was a pretty good idea at the time but have come to the conclusion that its damaging the game and the standard of the sport, Super league this year has been horrid to watch and we are no closer to the NRL and continually shooting ourselves in the foot when given the chance to catch up.

As bad as wigan are playing this year I still think they will win the GF.

I agree with almost everything else but not your assessment of the format.

In the absence of additional clubs and the player pool to support them the choice is between ending the comp weeks ago or playing extra games against our closest rivals. I've enjoyed the Super 8s and think there's been some great games so I don't see how the sport would benefit from dropping them. I'm not fussed if the last game against Wire was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th time we've met; it was a great game. Better than playing an uncompetitive game against a bottom of the league side.

As for there being a handful of matches that don't mean anything. That's sport. You will never, ever have zero meaningless matches unless you keep artifically resetting points every time a team falls too far behind to be in with a chance of silverware, and all that achieves is to make the preceding games pointless.

"So long as you finish in the top 8" - that's simply not true is it? Every team was wanting a top 4 finish. getting to the GF from below there is pretty tough now. I for one certainly wouldn't have been happy finishing 8th. Would you, really?? Finishing in the top 8 merely gets you a chance, but not a very good one if you're in the bottom half. teams really need to finish in the top 4 to feel in any way comfortable and to do that they need to make almost all their previous games count.

Dropped points do matter. Ask any team that missed the top 4 or even the top 8. Yes, losing a game here and there can be brushed off, especially for the top teams, because by and large you've won plenty and your close opponents are also likely to lose one or two, but the further into the business end of the season you get the more those points matter both for position in the top 4 and for a chance at winning the shield.

That's true. Cas are a good example: they've played as good footy as anyone at times this season, but a few poor results left them with next to no chance of making the GF. And you have to say, rightly so.


Much as I can agree with some of the criticisms of the current format, I did say when it was brought in (as did many people) that we shouldn't keep chopping and changing every other year, having made a change we should stick with it for a decent period.Somewhat reluctantly, I have to stand by that.

The Hull winger last night , Fonua is it , was embarrassing trying to get penalties , these refs need to penalise it then the coaches might tell them to stop it , mind you most of the refs are useless.

The suggestion the cap was brought in to level teams or end Wigan's dominance is wrong. It was originally brought in to try and stop clubs spending beyond their means which is something we did too. The cap Brought in by Maurice permitted clubs to spend a percentage of their income on player wages with no upper limit. The greater your income the more you could spend. It was later changed to be a flat cap for all teams regardless of income. In reality the cap has gone up when you take into account the marquee player and reduced cap values for home grown players and those that have been at a club form10 years or more. I agree it need to be looked at butt with the lack of income coming into the game I'm not sure what the answer is.

For me the biggest problem with the game is the play the ball. There is so much messing about from all teams it got ridiculous. It needs sorting for the start of next season. It will mean a lot of penalties, something I'm sure there will me many complaints about but the RFL need to instruct the refs to persist until the players learn. Adopting the second ref to police the PTB would probably be beneficial, certainly in the short term.

I also think the disciplinary guidelines need sorting too. I know many complain about inconsistency, a lot of that is opinion based as to how bad individuals think an incident was, IMO the dicplinary are consistently soft and bans across the board need increasing.

The PTB is easy, allow the ball to be ripped out regardless of how many are in the tackle. Make it the ball carriers responsibility to hold onto the ball. This way there are no penalties (stoppages of play dependent on the refs mood) if it comes out you play on.

If I remember correctly, in the first season of Super League clubs like Halifax were spending c90% of their income on salaries trying to compete. Think the initial salary cap was 50% of income or £1.2m, which ever was higher. (Alledgely, some clubs may have continued to operate with salaries at £3m+, (excluding any Club Shop salaries), for a few seasons)?

I agree that the current cap is too low and doesn't allow us to compete with the NRL or RU. This needs to be reviewed, but in line with sensible financial operating practices that ensure we don't have clubs folding.