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.

I highly doubt it would ever happen, but it could, which is not right. You should NOT be able to finish in the bottom half of the table, yet get a chance at getting to Old Trafford. I think that's just not right. Top 6 at a push, but I think the playoffs, if anything, should be top four. That way I think we would see more competition at the top. Plus, if you changed it to bottom two relegated, there would be competition at the bottom as well, to ensure you keep your Super League place.

Actually Saints beat Huddersfield in the challenge cup on August 26 2006 and then went on to win the league and the grand final against Hull in the same year. For what its worth they also won BBC sports personality team of the year.

we all know the rules at the start of the season but i agree the top 8 does not work how about a top 5, the side finishes top goes straight to the final and then 2nd v 5th 3rd v 4th and the winners play to meet the team finishing top although the top side would not play for 3 weeks ! i think the original format was ok but not the last 8

What you're mostly missing is I'm saying this from a team that finished 2nd so it's not like its because we got knocked out as it would be wire who were champions anyway.
It wouldn't be so bad but it's more than half the league in there can you imagine football or whatever being decided by a 14 team playoff system?

I don't disagree with playoffs I disagree with the titles given out for league leaders and the gf

I know you probably blanked it out, but Saints in 2006 won the challenge cup final in August, then the league leaders shield, and finally the grand final. Losing only four games all season, with those games being lost by 1,2,3 and 4 points.

It therefore can be done, but you have to be a special team, which is how it should be. Its also why Saints ended up the BBC team of the year.

Doing the League and cup double should be something that occurs once every Preston Guild, it should not be something that is easy to attain.

The crazy thing about the playoff system is that had Warrington chosen differently I feel sure the GF would be Warrington V Leeds.