I don't think the RFL are going to move away from a top 8 system unfortunately, especially given the NRL has adopted the exact same system this year as opposed to 1v8, 2v7 etc.

Personally, I think a top 8 system would have more credibility if there were 14 competitive teams (ideally 16, but that won't happen for some time imo). As it is at the moment we know that come September 2013 the top 4 will more than likely be Wigan, Wire, Sts, Leeds/Catalan/Hull, which perhaps explains a lot of the apathy for the regular season. There's just not really anything to play for.

In an ideal world, letting the LLS winners into a 4-team WCC would be great - an RL Champions League. Unfortunately the Aussies just don't take it seriously enough for it to be a viable option. If we were going to go ahead with this plan, I'd rather have it at the end of the season so that the squad that won the respective titles actually play in the thing.

I also think expansion needs to be persevered with. Not in the sense of plonking a team in a random location and hoping for the best, but taking advantage of the resources on our doorstep. Teams should be encouraged to widen the net with regard to youth development and supporter recruitment. While places like Liverpool and Manchester may not have a widespread appeal for RL as they do with football, the RFL or the clubs themselves should be getting in to schools and showing kids there that there are more sports than just football!

You should be able to add Hudds to that list given their squad. So half the league competing for the top 4 - how many other sports can hope for that? You could name the top 3 in football without a doubt. That's really killing their attendances.



True. Apart from pride. And winning pay. And because that's what they are trained to do.



I agree, which is why they already do it. But it costs money.

That's everything sorted then?

Whether the whole Premier League system is competitive or not, using your football analogy, would anyone accept a team coming say 12th after 38 matches played home and away and plotting a course in an elite knockout competition with second chances for higher placed clubs if they lost their first matches, or teams fielding weakened teams to artificially lower their positions to get a better draw being crowned Champions....

If you are suggesting teams are deliberately losing games to finish lower then you are off your rocker. Any coach with any sense is going to spell players & if they do that against better teams where there is a good chance they are going to get beat then so be it. I remember a Wigan coach doing it & getting a 44-0 stuffing at Cas, ask Kris Radlinski if, on his debut, they went out to get beat.

Back to football, if there was such a competition, if a mid-table club such as Fulham came from 12th to win it the whole football world would be in raptures. I would expect bitter, paranoid whinging from the fans of Chelsea & Man Utd though.

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Would you blame them? Yes, it would be a great achievement for Fulham, but United and Chelsea would be a bit peeved that they'd spent 38 games busting a gut to finish as high as possible, to end up with nothing but a hearty handshake and a "Back to football, if there was such a competition, if a mid-table club such as Fulham came from 12th to win it the whole football world would be in raptures. I would expect bitter, paranoid whinging from the fans of Chelsea & Man Utd though.'"

Without doubt coaches rest players and tinker with team selection based on the opposition and up and coming/following fixtures. Apart from spreading the load I accept that it gives a coach the opportunity to test some of the younger lads/fringe players and doesn't have to be seen as some part of a conspiracy theory of throwing games. However, that doesn't mean that the current system isn't open to that "paraniod" thinking in fact it almost promotes it, particularly as the business end including the Challenge Cup is taking place in a final 6 week period more than likely involving the same teams.

Why don't you think football runs the same competition having seen the light and what a spectacle GF day was? Why are they not thinking ooohhh we can have some of that? Apart from they don't need to from a revenue stream/TV money point of view they might just think we'd have to be off our collective "rocker"?

Supposition aside, if it was a football thing then I could see a situation where the Champions are the Champions and the final Champions League place goes to the winner of a play off series to open up the reward beyond 4th place. If one of the top 3 win the play off then the highest league position 4th gets the spot.

We could do something similar with an expanded WCC series if we could get interest from NRL and some £££/AUS$

Football doesn't because it doesn’t need to, though the Champions League is a glorified play off where a team not finishing top of its domestic league or CL league can win it. I can see it changing in the future though. If a European Super League of the greedy clubs is established an end of season play-off would be too much to resist with the potential income streams.

The clubs voted for the current system, if they can’t play the system to their own advantage they have themselves to blame, not the RFL.

I would love an expanded WCC. It would, providing we were competitive, be almost too good for our biased media to ignore. I would be all for our clubs resting their best palyers in readiness for it.

I think you have answered my case perfectly well, so thank you.

Why don't you feel that football has to follow our lead? May be because it has got its product right? May be because paymasters Sky can sell a set of fixtures throughout the whole season as games that matter rather than the regular rounds descending into some 27 week warm up for a 6 week end of year frenzy, (it will only get worse IMO)?

The football 'play off'/Champions League is a separate competition. City won the Premiership and are called the Champions Chelsea didn't usurp them because they won the Champions League because it is deemed to be a better competition. when Liverpool last won it they weren't even the best team in Merseyside.

I'm not blaming the RL as such, just looking for a fairer reward/acknowledgement for a seasons' work. I'm not a Wigan, or Leeds fan, but, congratulated them heartily on their successes this year

Personally I think a play off format in the PL would be a great idea. Maybe its because my team arn't in the PL but I find it for the most part pretty dull. The quality of the teams from top to bottom has got worse over the last 2 couple of years and when you consider the amount of money that gets thrown around in the English game its a bit of a shambles England arn't the dominant nation at club level or internationally.

I have a passing interest/intense dislike of other sports, but apart from football they all seem to be regularly re-inventing themselves or introducing new competitions - cricket/yawnion. I haven't a clue who the league winners were in either of those last season but was fully aware of the media frenzy around their respective cup competitions. Interestingly, & I am not sure there is any relevance, but both of those sports appear to have a select bunch of players who never/hardly ever play league games, being reserved for international duty as that is the big money earner.

Hadn't half our team played for Great Britain the day/week before hence the changes? Don't think it was done out of dis-resepect or the like. I'm sure it was forced.

You're right it is irrelevant, let's look at centrally contracting RL players to an international team to play against whom?

No disrespect to the World Cup and the teams in it, but, seriously how many competative teams are there at the moment, would Austrailia and NZ fancy going down the same route?

There isn't a market for it surely? Not even on planet tigertot

You sir, are a right Charlie.

English Clubs haven't done too badly on the European stage over the years. In fact, in the last eight tournaments there have been seven finalists including three winners, one of which are the current holders, not a bad return?

Perhaps the national team is being hampered by the money getting thrown around at foreign imports? Something we need to be aware of?

I said the quality of the teams in the PL has decreased accross the board in the last couple of years, as has the quality of the English teams in the CL. Citeh have spent nearly half a trillion and can't get close to qualifying for the knockout stage, Chelsea have been exposed this season in the CL, and Man U didn't get out of their group last season. Yes English teams have done very well in previous years, but it seems clear to me the quality of the English teams involved is decreasing despite the millions of £££s being thrown around.

I'm not convinced the weakness of the national side is down to the amount of imports playing in the PL, even when English clubs dominated Europe in the 70/80s England were still pretty gash.