To be fair thats what the playoffs are basically meant to be but Sky would just change it to how it is now so it wouldnt work sadly.

Its basically the same as it is now except we would be trying to rebrand and it would just end up like it is now.

If the only reason non-rl fans don't follow the greatest game on earth is because we have a complicated but fantastic end of season play-off then there is no hope. We used to have a top 8 Premiership, it wasn't a patch on the GF.

Are we basing our play offs on the ozzie game? The ozzie have a play off system because they dont have a wembley challenge cup final. We do. So why copy the ozzie system who are trying to make up for not having a wembley final?
The old top 8 premier was best, it was still drawing in large crowds at old trafford in 1997.
3 decent trophys in a season, SL Challenge cup, SL premier cup, sl championship
Winning all 3 would create a SL grand slam.
Funny how people still mention the SL double, not the treble, its obvious the league leaders trophy is nonsense.

The best way to get it changed would be for us to win the GF from 5th. Would soon be changed

Teams will be scared to finish top from now on. The super league may end up like the eliminator race in the olympic cycling, where its a disadvantage finishing 1st and an advantage sneaking in 8th in the last week. Wiggins could give us a some strategies on that

Ok so i'm sad and did a basic maths equation on the current system and i was surprised by the result. I'll show later what i based it on but this was the conclusion.
5th is the second most advantageous position behind 1st

In order of most advantageous
1st
5th
2nd & 6th joint
3rd & 7th joint
4th & 8th joint

This is based on the worst possible outcome for each team.
Giving 1st place a score of 10 working down and giving 8th a score of 3.
Adding the points up, and lower the tally the easier, 5th came out second.

Any team that plays against 1st gets 10 points.

So opening round
Wigan 7 points
Wire 8 points
Saints 9 points
Catalan 10 points
Leeds 3 points
you can work out the rest.
Then you work it as though you may play all the rounds.

Crowds, Saints V Wigan finals at Old Trafford.
1992 33157
1993 36598
1996 35013
1997 33385

This could all be sorted so easily all they need is 2 titles "League Champions" instead of leaders and "Playoff Champions".

You'd think it was rocket science but it really isn't.

Sure a Hull v Widnes final got a 40-odd thousand sell out. Think it was when OT was being redeveloped and capacity was restricted.

I still maintain that the GF impacts on the Test attendances. Since the GF was introduced we've barely had a Test crowd over 25k. Prior to the GF we had an Ashes in 1994 with crowds of 40k, 50k, and 70k.

Getting rid of GB and the Ashes - another RFL brainwave!

We need a 26 game league season intermittent with the Challenge Cup games. Top of league is Champions, the top 8 then playoff for the Premiership trophy. Then have an Ashes, a Tri Nations or a World Cup.

crowds at Wembley
1985 99K
1987 91K
1988 94K

by your logic the challenge cup is now officially a failure

i've said that before, we have 4 champions in golf per year, 4 champions in tennis. Why not 2 in RL?

Only problem is, which Championship would be continuous from the last 115 years?

Would the 'League Championship' be our 20th title or the 'Playoff Championship'? Or if we win both are we on 21 titles????

Just being Devils Advocate

I would say that the League Championship would be the one that counted towards that record and the Playoffs would be a new competition. I mean pre-summer rugby we had loads of competitions we had the league, Regal Trophy, Challenge Cup, Lancashire Cup etc.

So I really dont see why theyre worried about dilution or anything and the playoffs would still be a big thing so Sky wouldnt lose anything and they could make a big thing about the "Race for the League Championship" too which they dont make about the race for 1st place. Plus they could keep their crappy "race for the final playoff place" or whatever they called the thing for 8th place.

I did not imply anything, just stated facts.

Yeah I would go for that, or just Champions, and Grand Final winners, like we have with Challenge Cup winners / holders, and you’re right it’s not rocket science but they’ll never see the blindingly obvious with their heads buried in the Sahara desert.