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.

To be fair the standard of education, health service, general council services,tax collection,border controls,banking, driving & road surfaces, public transport,town centre shopping facilities,mainstream television, music, politics, pubs/nightclubs, haydock races and life in general have all deteriorated since the credit crunch. Relatively speaking rugby has maintained some semblance of equalibrium and stability and given the chance could rebound into a great sport again. Lets face it, football cannot improve, it has monopolised most of the money and its standards have declined since the sugar daddies and gangsters got involved.

The change to a top 8 league structure is a step forward, but it still ends up with uncompetitive fixtures. Wakefield finished the regular season with 20 points and realistically had no hope of overhauling St Helens who finished with 28 points. Wakefield still have 20 points.

I would prefer a top 6 league format where they all play each other once, then move onto the semis and the GF. The bottom 6 can join the top 2 in the league below (as frankly 3rd & 4th in that division are only there to make the numbers up), with the top 6 playing SL next season. With that type of format, the post-season split would be a lot more competitive.

The Challenge Cup final should be moved to the last weekend in May, and if we must have a Magic Weekend, that can be on the early May BH.

The football play-offs are the last weekend in May so Wembley is unavailable.

I am fortunate to be old enough to remember that the Challenge Cup Final always used to be on the second Saturday in May, the week after the FA final but this was suddenly changed in 1975/1976 to be the first weekend in May, I remember that because I always came home for my weeks holiday from my job in Kenya and found out that the Challenge Cup Final had been last week.

What some of you guys do not realize is that if no Salary cap existed you would have a super league of around 4 teams as every other club would have gone bust . Regarding the so called cheating and messy play the ball area we are on the correct board to discuss that as some would say Wigan have been a major player in the advance of both of these

Not sure how a Leeds fan can talk about messing around at the PTB without a bolt of lightning hitting you... #JustSaying