At first I didn't like the playoff structure. I thought that the team that finished top deserved to win.

However, given the asymmetric nature of the fixture list this is not possible.

What should remain though, imo, is a massive advantage to the team finishing top with a general reduction in that advantage for teams finishing 1-5 or 1-6.

Six is the absolute maximum position that a team should qualify for the playoffs from, and it should be very very hard for them to do so.

I agree and I don't know why they changed it.

Oh yes I've just remembered, more games = more gate money = more profit.

Probably so that Wigoon could get into them

C-

See me

The P/o set up this year is ridiculous IMO....

taking last years scenario.........
we would have gone to saints as 4th place and probably lost.... Then even finishing in forth place, we would have been afforded the luxury of losing but remaining in the play offs!!!!! and more still would have just been one game at home(or widnes ) away from a final eliminator.

Lets for arguments sake say hull kr win through in week one, play them and your back to in what essence is a final eliminator against leeds or saints (which if 'picked' by saints, you actually have an added advantage in that you've already got a tactical insight into them cos youve played them two weeks earlier)?!?!

So all you have to do to get to a final eliminator is beat one mid table side at home!! and in the process of the play offs you can actually afford the luxury of LOSING your first game even coming 4th!!! Ludicrous IMO but typically RL!!

compare to last year or the year before when you had to beat 2 top sides one home one away just to make an eliminator!!! in the top 4 now, each team roughly has the same chance of winning (which could actually work in our favour, but still PATHETIC!)

Its always hard to justify anything other than a first past the post system anyway, but at least the old top 5 could be argued with some effectiveness, that every team had to beat every team above them at the very least to become champions!!!

To win from 5th you would have to beat 4th, 3rd/2nd, 2nd/1st away...followed by 1st/2nd at Old trafford!!

I hope the Play offs reduce the RFL to a laughing stock this season and the top 5 is brought back in...only playoff system that ever made sence

I don't agree with the top 8 play-off. They didn't go far enough.
There should be a top 14 play-off:
1 v 14
2 v 13
3 v 12
4 v 11
5 v 10
6 v 9
7 v 8
The team that wins with the widest margin gets a bye through the next round, while the other six play in 3 matches, the best winners of the first round having home advantage.
The last 4 would then play in the semis with once again home advantage given to the 'bye' team and the best of the other 3.
The final needs no explanation.

The top 5 was the best sytem.

Failing that, the top 8 should be the NRL method or not at all.

Top 5 (only through gritted teeth) ....purely to maintain interest and cash flow, it does nothing to enhance the integrity of the sport.

Provided everyone plays everyone else home and away.....from Feb through to Aug/Sep....you've had good luck....bad luck...injuries and suspensions ....dodgy decisions for and against....and so has everyone else, and after all that, if you finish top of the pile..you're the best !

Earlier poster was out of order saying Halifax won the league in the mid 80's when there were other teams who were better.....Drivel....if they'd been better ...over the whole course of the season....they'd have finished in front of them ....but they weren't ...so they didn't.

Seem to recall a discarded Colin Whitfield featuring for Halifax that season, and kicking them to a vital win (or was it a draw ?) at CP in that season.

Stevo was captain, I think.

Some very valid points, although tarnished by it coming from McManus, as he has been on the receiving end of two defeats and smacks of sour grapes.

The question I would pose is when it was a "normal" league, when was it actually exciting? We all get to tune in to see whether Saints can beat Celtics at home to make themselves certain of the title, or whatever? The top 6 was no different to the top five, as even with the six, a team at sixth would still have to play all the team away from home.

would EM be saying this if it was saints, who had finish 2nd and went on to win the grand final, other then the other way round?

I see peoples point and i wouldn't disagree with the whole credit should go to top of the league.

But we had that at the very beginning of superleague and sometimes you will end up with the season finished with 6,8 games left, plus most teams will know there not going to win anything half way through a season, making half their season meaning less also, which then cancels out some of the points made on here.
By having not just the likes of leeds and saints but the other teams something to play for it makes the competition better in general.

Look at the premierleague, they have the top team as champs, but even they had to introduce european places and give the cup competitions extra incentive so that half the teams in the league didn't just gave up. Added to that they have relagation which superleague no longer has, giving teams extra incentive to "play". Yet we all moan that its boring and over with half the season left with simlar problems as superlegue that only 3/4 teams will ever win it.

Without the play offs you would irradigate some of the best games we get e.g. Bradford v wigan. It also means when catalan, huddersfield etc get into the play offs it creats an underdog feel to games which fans, neutrals etc enjoy. Also only one team outside the top 2 have ever won the league, so from past years you can actually say the most consistant teams have been crownd champs, without getting ride of the hope that maybe, just maybe one year someone outside of the top 2/3 might get there.

What's changed there? Fourth and below remains impossible.

I think the captains of all the teams should play a game of musical chairs, the winner becomes 'Champions', I have forwarded this suggestion to the RFL and it is being considered !!

the RFL should have a top-14 playoff, that will keep interest going through the season especially with no relegation ..