That is exactly what is wrong with our game. Instead of trying to impove the top end by 'forcing' them to increase the intensity for 27 games and have to finish top, we concern ourselves with average sides so they have 'something to play for'
Salford would have to aim to improve season on season, until eventually they can keep their level of performance so high over 8 months that it outstrips every other team and they finish top and are crowned champions.
There would also be the Premiership playoffs to play for and the Challenge Cup. Average teams could always target cup competitions - a bit like Leeds this year.

Spot on. Having to be better to win is better for salford than having the 8th place spot ever will be.

Its called my opinion.

Maybe instead of changing the GF layout as it works well at publicity the sport and giving extra excitement at the end of the season, they should change the top of the table winner’s shield to something that means more. Like a new cup, making it worth more etc, so those who finish top get some credit and honours they deserve, and the GF can still add the extra excitement at the end of the season.

In part, I agree. I think that the team who comes top should be the Champions. It doesn't matter what I think though because the rules are the rules and we all knew them before the Wire Hudds game at Cardiff, so complaining and moaning when teams work the rules to their advantage is just pointless. Maybe we should have done that so we didn't burn out??

If we won the GF next week you're telling me that you wouldn't refer to us as Champions ONCE throughout 2012? You wouldn't attend the WCC as a protest that we shouldn't be in it (slightly OTT perhaps) and you wouldn't sing 'Championees' or buy any merchandise that says 'Champions' on it? Sorry, but I don't believe you.

Every serious Rugby League and NRL fan in the world know the play offs decide who are Champions.

Grow up and stop fecking whining now you've lost.

Us losing makes no odds as my opinion makes Wire champions not us.


And as the other posts on this page say I ain't against playoffs I just want it to be separate to the league. It should be 3 comps CC winners, League Champions and if necessary Playoff Champions (though i prefer winners like the CC Cup)

I don't buy that champions stuff anyway and I would but only to join in. Just because it's not the way I would like it's the way it is so we would be champions and it's good for the team to sing it to them.

A sport can decide a play off system is how champions are decided if it wants but it needs to have a good reason for doing it and it needs to come up with a credible system. I don't think the RFL has either at the moment.

Back in the 70's we had a 30 team league but only played 34 fixtures so a play off was the only way to decide things. We then moved away from that to league winners being champions with a home and away fixture set and that was clearly the fairest way to decide that kind of league format. Two different league formats and two different ways to decide the champions and at both times in our history I think the fans supported and understood both concepts because of the way the league was structured.

Now the only just justification in terms of fairness to opt for a play off to decide things is the one extra fixture for Millenium Magic which is something else I have never agreed with and in any case its only one game and does not have enough baring on matters to warrant a move to play offs alone.

However the fact it is not logical to decide things via play offs does not alter the fact that is how we do things now so you can't claim to be champions by winning the league.

So my biggest gripe is the current format. It is rubbish. The best illustration for this is what I mentioned in the poll thread. Whoever wins the GF will not have beaten either Wigan or Wire, the teams finishing 2nd and 1st. A play off system is supposed to be just that, where teams [iplay off[/i against each other to decide matters. What we have now is a glorified knock out competition which allows teams to reach the final without testing themselves against all the sides who finish above them. It lacks legitimacy for that reason IMO. If we want play offs a top five system is the only credible one for a league the size of ours.

The other justification for a play off system is supposedly marketing. That in itself is disturbing because it puts sport into 2nd place and I don't think fans over time will support a system that does not have its roots in sporting achievement but commercialism instead. I am sure the RFL will say the fact we have two teams outside the top 2 contesting the final shows how strong the game is and that this will make it commercially successful but that is ridiculous. What it shows is the format doesn't favour the team finishing top enough and they would rather have a format that can deliver less predictable results than one that favours the achievements of the top sides particularly the one finishing top of the league. It should be nigh on impossible for them not to get to the final and for a team finishing 5th to do so should be an epic journey (as it would be with a top five system). I think the poor crowds of the previous rounds show the fans do not like the current system or place any value in it.

Still one day Nigel Wood will retire and we may get someone in charge who realises that commercial success in sport comes off the back of a well structured and meaningful sporting competition not systems designed to randomize who gets to finals!

wow, just wow.

i wonder if we'd have had a similar thread to this in 2007 had Wigan reached the GF.

As regular as clock work eh plop joe?

Don't recall many wigan or warrington fans saying the playoff system is wrong as Leeds twice beat St helens when they were no where as good as Saints throughout the season.

I didn't experience the previous playoff system and was brought up on the champions being those who won most league games. Like most things, what you experience first will always be the one that seems the best or most fitting. I prefer the league leaders to be champs (work hard over the season, each match counts, teams have more options to build towards future seasons) but as a Saints fan who has sucked it up in recent years, am looking forward to yet another visit to Old Trafford..... hopefully we will continue to play well and win this time.

We knew what the system was at the start of the season and so from that point of view I don't have a problem with it. Good luck to Leeds and Saints in the GF.

The current system is designed is maintain interest throughout the season but if we are to have a play-off system then I prefer the original top 5 system. If a team wins it from 5th then they deserve it under that system as they will have to beat all 4 teams above them and all away from home. Under that system Warrington would have had a 2nd bite of the cherry which I think they would have taken.

A majority of posts from Wigan fans in this thread reeks of ‘we didn’t make the final so how do we lobby the RFL to make it easier for us next time’.

If you can’t beat St Helens on equal terms then you want to put as many barriers as it takes until Wigan can beat them. So some of you probably want to bring in a system where Saints would have to play Wigan until Saints lose.

Finally Wigan had a fantastic cup run prior to the final and we don’t see you moaning about the randomness of that competition like some of you are with the play offs. I’m sure that Wigan have had easy cup runs before and doubt you moaned about them then as your moaning about the super league play offs now.

If you are going to change things, then surely a starting point is to ensure that each team plays each of the other teams twice (home and away).

Then again as that has little impact on the playoffs, then who cares?