I hate agreeing you but you are right on this. When we've lost this year I've come away from the ground thinking it doesn't really matter as we know finishing top means very little unless you go on and win it as well. Walking away from Saints the other week, it felt strange as usually I'd be really gutted for losing to that lot but because of how things have planned now it was just another game. If we played them in the playoffs though and got beat by them to get knocked out then i'd be gutted, as you say it shouldn't be like that.

But Wire have also lost with their first choice side out, and struggled to beat Wigan A and Leeds A. There is nothing to suggest they're going to come good. Indeed, the Cup semi showed clearly they're not the team they were. That was a dire performance last night, and on that form they'll lose to Saints and Catalans away. And they've resigned everyone for next year!
If I was a Wire fan, I'd be saying to myself "we weren't trying, it was meaningless" over and over again in hope rather than expectation.
In our case, we have 2 world class players who transform us as a team, but at least when they play we have seen that we are a class act.
Finally, well done to Wane. We beat a decent side in the Cup.

Oh come on, Widnes beat themselves in the cup. Seriously, they waved the white flag almost from minute 1. They really went for it yesterday.

Maybe. Though maybe they were under pressure out wide because of pressure in the middle. I simply don't buy into the - they're rubbish when we best them mantra.

Do you seriously think Warrington wouldn't have put a full 17 out and pulverised them if that was a cup game? The away game where we beat them by a point is a fairer comparison, but even then it was earlier in the season when league points take a bit more importance. They are 11th for a reason.

Dear oh dear. How self deluding can anyone be??

You love it

As I've said before I think the Super League fixtures are important.
Or, should be far more important than they are now.
That's why I've also been banging on about a top three play off.
1st to the GF, 2 v 3 for the other final place.
Winning the SL would mean a great deal then. It would also raise the standard for the top four or five clubs in SL who think they should be at OT for the GF.
Fourth or fifth wouldn't cut it, not good enough! Only the top three would have earned the right to a play off place for the GF.
Like I also said before, two season tickets cost me as do away games so they do mean something to me.
I do know I'm on my own here.
27 games of Super League meaning nothing to the majority of fans?
That system surely is not just mad but absolutely barking!

As fans every game matters (or at least it should) but it's difficult to be as passionate when coaches are coming out in the papers and saying they don't care where they finish and are quite clearly playing weakened teams when they have the opportunity to rest someone. Would they rest players if the league placings mattered? No. Would Wire have sent a weak team to London last year the week before the CC if they HAD to win? No.

I agree with your playoff idea. I've said plenty of times that the RU top 4 format works well because we'd have the likes of Wigan, Wire, Saints, Leeds, Catalans, Hudds and Hull FC who could all finish top 4 knowing every slip up could cost them dear.

I agree. Make every game important. Make being the best something to be proud of, not just a stepping stone. I try to get non-league-supporters to watch games down here, and how can they be impressed by our sport when it's clear some teams don't care if they lose?

i love agreeing with you, and i do here

it's a silly sport, or should i say the league format is nothing short of silly

It always your year? Who's year is it then?

It's not the year of the wolfs thats for sure!!

I wonder when the last round was when Wigan, Warrington and Leeds all lost?

just like the last four, it's always our year