Sorry, but anyone who can't turn out for Wigan v Wire in the second game of the season is pathetic, and no excuses cut it (unless they're ill).

You know what I mean.

The sad part about the lack of interest in the weekly rounds is that the crowds will still be appalling come play off time because the format of that is all wrong.

Scrap the 8 team system for a 5 club format which will automatically place more importance on the weekly rounds. It will also ensure all play off games mean something and that the top placed sides will gain a deserved advantage(Leeds will actually put some effort in before September).

Easy fix but the RFL and the clubs who annually finish between 8th and 14th won't have it.

But it's no more relevant to winning a major trophy than the Westwood testimonial 2 weeks ago. It's more if less a jazzed up friendly

That's an excuse. If what you say was true, every play-off game would be packed, but if anything their attendances are even lower.

The recession is most likely the cause of a slowdown in ticket sales.

Thanks for your OPINION.

Very broad minded of you.

Okay ... I'm sure the recession has NOTHING to do with it, and everyone is waiting until September before they start watching Wigan RL again.

What nonsense.

As I said, if that were the case, the play-offs would be a sell-out, but the very opposite seems to be the case.

Call it narrow-minded, but no Wigan fan who fails to support his team in a game like this purely because he's sulking about a silly play-off system is going to get my sympathy.

Notes on all of the above...
Leeds did not have the best squad in Super League. Ben Thaler handed them a win Catalans away, Wigan had stopped playing two months earlier and would have won comfortably with the man of steel. The Warrington final was the only convincing performance.
Everybody is skint. Everyone has always been. I can't see what is different now? If anything early season games should be better attended as no one will have paid for a ticket in months?
If people are waiting for the playoffs why do we have poor crowds at playoff games?

In my opinion, which everything I post is- I ain't controlled by the man, ending the season as we did will cause people to stay away. We ended the season with top players either absent or under performing. We've since lost 5 top players and signed "promising" replacements or promoted younger players.

If you were a casual RL observer there is nothing in that to get your bum on one of those seats and you probably expect a hiding on Friday. Only by Green/Smith performances becoming the talk of the town, by Liam Farrell being talked up as the best forward in the league and Scott Taylor knocking someone out cold do you counteract the negativity. You don't do it in an un-televised game against Salford.

They could win 50-0 or lose 50-0 and it won't matter a jot to who wins the major trophies. That is my opinion on why it will be a poor crowd

If they did I don't think they intended to. I really do not think they set out to play the system and have two poor league seasons with the idea that was going to help them win a GF.

If what they did [ihas[/i changed the fans views it is not their fault but the systems fault making it too easy to win it from 5th.

I regard the regular rounds in much the same way I do non-title bouts in boxing. Ok, no prizes are handed out but they're just as capable of providing decent contests, demonstrations of skill and commitment, sometimes far more so than the more meaningful occasions. Depends what you're after, I guess.

Revert the playoffs to five teams by all means. We'll never know but I reckon Leeds would have won the last two years under that system too, given that they travelled to the league's top team in each season and came out on top.

Would Leeds have won it if it was a top 4 system? Would they have tried harder to make top 4? If so are we not being served an inferior product because top 8 is too easy? Therefore fans are not bothering with reg season games?

People only ever give opinions on here, but we don't all share the same opinion which is why there will be disagreements. I doubt it will ever proven whether your position or mine is the correct one - and hopefully the eight-team play off will be done away with before this foolishness gathers any more pace. But if it's 20-21 on Friday night, with five minutes to go, I wonder how many will think the result doesn't matter then.

The teams are not preparing for this match as if it's a jazzed-up friendly. Only fans - SOME of them - appear to have adopted this attitude.

I've still seen no explanation from you as to why many play-off games and even early rounds of the Challenge Cup are very poorly attended. By your definition, those fixtures should all be sell-outs.

Maybe, but under a top 5 system it would be much more difficult, having to work harder to ensure a top 5 place initially, last season they would then have to play Catalans, Saints and Wigan / Wire all away to reach the final, whereas they had the relatively easy 1st round against Wakey at home (HKR home the previous season). In fact when they won it in 2011 they did so without beating the second-placed reigning champions all season.

There is much more to a top five system than that compared to the top 8. In the former you [inever[/i get the luxury of a home tie and certainly not against the 8th placed side. The top 8 also means some fixtures are impossible so they managed to avoid playing a side who finished above them. Top 5 is a much harder competition for 5th compared to top 8 and not just because it makes it hard for 5th but because it's easier for the top side who, amongst other advantages, do not have to play harder fixture in week one (v 4th) than the team placed 5th who get 8th. Whoever dreamt up the top 8 format we have is an idiot.