I wouldnt say we were playing well. We've been very lucky with our run of fixtures imo.

just the way the fixtures have fallen, but we've battered the rest of the league since the start of the season so no worries eh (wire apart, obviously)

Can you imagine if formula one had a play off system? Say Alonso finishes first after a full season & Button finishes 10th enough to qualify for a final race and then Button wins it to be the best driver for the year. It wouldn't work.
Mixing a league with knock out works with champions league footy & american football because they have the strength and depth and the money to back the sport. It it also suited for expansion, and the champions league may probably create a european super league in a few years time.
It doesn't work with rugby.This is an important time in our sport, we need to sustain not expand. We've been concentrating on expansion for too long, its fools gold. The real gold is in the M62 corriodor for now.
I liked the premiership system, I enjoyed the 96 and 97 finals when we wern't at our best but we ended the season with a trophy and had some bragging rights. Those finals complemented SL and ended the season with a bang similar to a SL grand final. It was 3 good trophies with a relegation system and it worked.

Yeh but Saints where hardly running red hot against Widnes a few weeks ago. Still you pick up the wins and keep going forward.

I think the league placings are pretty much nailed down now as far as the top 8 go. I think Saints will finish above Catalan, but whether we can catch Warrington will depend on this game next Monday.

If we win it then I would expect Warrington to lose to Wigan too, backing up for a Friday night game. They then have London before the CC final, and London had a good result against Catalan, but even so Warrington should win it.

Huddersfield well, that maybe a CC hangover game Wire could struggle with and then they have Widnes last who for some reason have started to play better now they can't make the top 8 at all.

I give Saints 1 in 3 chance of getting 2nd spot.

IF the final eight were to remain the same and IF Catalans lose against Wigan in the first play off match. Who would they play in France in the second round?

Looking at the top 9 teams atm

1 Wigan 36
2 Warrington 33
3 St Helens 30
4 Catalan Dragons 30
5 Leeds 26
6 Hull 26
7 Huddersfield 22
8 Hull KR 21
9 Bradford 17

5 matches left, I can't see Wire winning two more matches than ourselves as I can't see them beating us at the HJ especially a week before the CC final. If Hull pull their finger out they could potentially be 5th. Also Saints and CAts could finish 2nd if Wire implode with the CC. Could be an interesting 6 weeks or so with regarding the table. FWIW I think it will remain the same top 8 positions maybe Bulls finishing 8th instead of HKR, but it will depend on what happens with the Bulls.

The highest placed winner out of 5 v 8 and 6 v 7.

neither can i, but that'll have something to do with us playing you two weeks before the final.

If you think we're going to implode, you really haven't been paying any attention to us this season, we've not been going hell for leather like last year, we've essentially got two teams that we roll out depending on that opposition, enabling us to rest key players.

We're not worried about blowing our wad too soon.

Hate to say it but I think you'll do the double (not bothered about you winning the cup, in fact I hope you stuff Leeds) but I am bothered about the Grand Final.
Wigan have been poor since the win at Headingley and it's going to take a massive turn around in form to even reach Old Trafford. In my opinion, the form we're showing at the moment, I can't see us holding on to top spot, which is gutting considering how well we've played for the majority of the season.

think 2nd place will come down to the game at screwfix between stains and wire.

It is 2 weeks before Wembley not 1 week.

Most of that is down to injuries, though, I feel. Not that the youngsters coming in have let us down individually, but our structures have suffered from not having a settled side.

You have taken one sentence out of a paragraph and used it in the wrong context. IF Wire implode then Catalans or Stains could. But I also said that the top 8 will remain as it is and I will be surprised if there are any changes in positions (like I said), if you think that means that Wire will implode then I'll let you think that .

The way I see the CC final it is whether Wire have an eye on the GF or not. If they play to their potential then Leeds won't compete on the other hand...

I have had to read this a couple of times to get my head around this. For arguments sake if the league table remains the same and again for arguments sake that Leeds beat HKR they would play Catlans in France, and if Leeds get beat then the winner of Hull v Hudds would play them. May be finishing 5th isn't so good!