He who pays the piper.. and all that!
Too be fair, even the Premier League is, too a degree, subservient to the whims of Sky/TNT, and that competition has way more clout than Rugby League.
Without the Sky money RL would no longer be viable in its current set-up. We have no choice but to tug our forelock and fall in line with these sudden decisions unfortunately.

Premier League's way of handling it would have been to have the trophy at Wigan as they start the day in 1st. Having a helicopter made for great TV that time Hall won it for Leeds but then again it'll be wild winds at burger van land in September

You use words like Dobbins as a adult and can’t spell “they” so nobody will really be bothered what you think.

Even SKY havent been able to break the Premier Leagues insistance of final day games kicking off at the same time. But then again integrity of the league went out the window years ago in SL with loop games. Rovers extra win against us could stil be the deciding factor for example.

You missed the n off ”an adult” stones and glass houses etc.

Aside from the stuff they’ve won in the last decade though, the choker narrative isn’t typically applied when they go close - because of all their previous success. Like when Leeds made the GF a couple of years ago and lost, that wasn’t widely seen as bottle. Maybe it was applied to Saints when they lost 4 GFs in a row, although they may have won a CC during that period (cba to check).

The bottle thing is just to try hide how ingrained the advantage of the dominant teams is and portray their achievements as representing something more meaningful than competent use of greater resource… oh yeah, and to intensify the disappointment of our rivals - there’s so little to celebrate in SL that solace in others’ misery is entirely justified, imo.

super league needs a new winner, whether it be us salford or wire, the game has gone into an SPL, premier league esc with total domination/lockout from saints/wigan and getting very tedious to watch at the backend of the season

i think alot of people pay lip service to the GF as we always know the outcome

One of the major aspects of Leeds SL success was that they were able to bury their long perceived 'bottlers' tag (around 2004) which had stuck to them for decades. Hetherington and T. Smith were able to alter the mindset of the entire club turning them from perennially falling short, when there was a trophy on the line, to becoming serial winners and in so doing became one of the clubs expected to win when it matters most (2017 GF against Cas being a case in point).

I guess it shows it is possible to take that path, although no other club in the SL era have managed to replicate the feat, with Wire and ourselves being the prime culprits in failing in this regard.

As for the 'solace in other's misery', I would agree, it's become the refuge of the rest of us! I try to avoid it as I'm not, in general, overly keen on personal negative traits (I wanted Cas to triumph in 2017 for instance once we had lost to Leeds the previous week) but there is a certain warm comfort in feeling that someone is no better than us in the final reckoning. This of course becomes particularly prevalent when the team in question is your chief rival! However distasteful it may be, as a personal trait, it is difficult (if not nigh on impossible) to avoid it when said team in question has been 'the enemy' since your schooldays!! Old habits die hard and all that!

I guess from our perspective, we may as well take 'solace in other's misery' (if that does indeed come to pass) seeing how we have been wallowing in our own personal misery from the moment this season kicked off back in February!

Our sport definitely could do with a new winner, just to break the stranglehold that the big boys have had on it, but as Kr and fc fans we'll never accept that it could be the other team, maybe its banter, maybe for some it's more hatred, but we just can't accept the other team doing well.
Wigan are big favorites to do the treble and rightly so, but there's teams that look like there closing the gap, and SL needs that. Warrington and Salford and obviously us big dogs look the most likeky to sneak something, personally as a Rovers fan im happy to be competing in these games rather than challenging for wooden spoons.

I'm being honest. I hope the DOBBINS win nowt.

Great play off game between the Cowboys and Knights. Chuffed for Clifford

I agree with 99% of your post, but I can’t help myself picking on the the 1%! It is one of my personal traits that I should maybe try to mend… but probably won’t.

I think it showed it [iwas[/i possible. 20 years on, the structure feels deeply different, more fixed. Maybe it is my age. I’m young enough to have got the memo that this isn’t the 60s, 70s or 80s anymore, and the principles that applied then no longer do. But also old enough to have adult memories of the entire SL era.

Quite right. Take your pleasures where you can! Feel free to imagine me crying into my chips if/when Rovers fail to reach/win the GF.

Theres actually been more variety in RL finals then most realise. Only Londin and Wakefield havent been to a CC final at 'new' Wembley. Theres only Rovers, Hudds, Leigh, London and Wakfield who havent done a grand final (though before you point out ours was distant history now)

The problem is teams taking that final step and winning. Catalans coming closest a couple of years ago. Id be happy with maintaining the status quo this year however...