We can barely go a few seasons without dillying and dallying with the format. Now the widnes chief exec, owing to the fact his widnes team just a game into the super 8's basically have zero chance of making the top 4 because they weren't good enough in the 23 rounds previous, feels that after the 23 rounds all the super 8's teams should go back to zero points.

I can see where this is going. After a few seasons where the teams in the top 4 (not the order) is decided pretty quickly in the format they'll decide to fath around with it and it'll get modified. POssibly like he says going to zero points, or maybe a seeded extended knockout format all the way from there to GF. Who knows they might start doing 2 legs to it like in the champions league knockouts.

In about 10 years they'll decide licensing is the way forward and bring that back.

Sometimes it feels like a change of format is what manifests when people feel the game is stale, this freshens it up and adds an unkown factor to compensate for the staleness. If the competition was vibrant changing up the format wouldn't be considered.

Isn't that just going back to the top 8 Premiership that we had pre 1996 ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_Premiership

Isn't that just going back to the top 8 Premiership that we had pre 1996 ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_Premiership

I'm not sure why in RL some clubs feel it has a divine right to be in with a shout of winning the SL until the very end, despite their clubs performance during the year. You don't get the chairmen of middling Premier League clubs like Stoke moaning that they're too far off the top after 80% of the season. They know the format before they start.

If we go with his suggestion, the last few matches for Hull, Wigan, Catalans, Warrington would've been pointless too.

We had it before where a team could finish in the bottom half and still make the playoffs, rewarding mediocrity.


Unfortunately, until we have more than 7/8 strong clubs, there's not a lot we can do with the format.

The whole point of this format was to make every game count.

If points got reset for the Super 8's then teams who were comfortably on the top 8 with 4-5 games to go would take their foot off the gas and defeat the point of the concept.

A way of evening it out would be to start the Super 8's with the top team starting on 8 points, second on 7 etc to the eighth team receiving 1. But why disadvantage a dominant team this way?

the early season form teams can be pretty much guaranteed to be in the top 8 by Easter - kind of defeats the principle of "every minute matters" to give those teams 4 months of pointless games to keep the likes of Widnes happy.

Widnes could always be a little bit less ?

What a complete idiot.

What would be the point of the first 23 rounds if we all started on 0 points?

If Widnes had won more games they'd be in contention instead of languishing well away from the top four.

The sides higher up have earned their advantage, so starting from scratch won't work.
I do think the points gained against the bottom 4 should be removed though. In theory the top sides will have done better in these games so it may serve to tighten the table up a bit.
Mad idea (not thought it through so probably seriously flawed)...why not allow the 1st place side to select their 4 home opponents? Then the 2nd place side, then 3rd...could that work?

Didn't Lee Radford suggest something similar last year? I'm guessing he'll have changed his mind.

Whatever the system, there will be always someone complaining. The franchise system had promise, but a lack of enforcement, and no reward for the championship winners. This current system could see the team that finishes 9th in the regular season relegated when the the 12th placed team stay up, not probable, but possible.

Not sure about Radford but my FC supporting mate was very vocal about resetting points last year, doesn't seem too keen on that idea now, not sure why.

This pretty much.

Even if the points were reset, Widnes would have little chance of finishing top 4 because they are simply not good enough when the top sides step up at the business end. They have done well to get super 8s and avoid the possible MPG, mission complete.

This is a problem that was pointed out when this was dumbass system was first suggested, middle SL sides are very very early in the season only playing to be in either a competition they cannot win or a competition they wont lose.

And its all very well saying Widnes have 'mission complete' but there is more than a quarter of the season left and we have 3 of the top 8 out of the running, two of the 8 looking massively out of their depth with an aggregate score of 120-24 against.

this is system that the clubs didnt want, was forced upon them, that the players massively didnt want, isnt attracting fans as crowds have fallen again (and will fall further due to leeds being in the middle 8s, this is a feature of the system, not a bug) it should go along with Nigel Wood.

The one thing that is a little strange here is that, we are happy to take away any advantage gained from the clubs finishing 9/10th and 1st & second in the Championship (by re-setting the points to zero before the start of the middle 8's and jeprodise (theoretically) a clubs top flight status but, are happy to set the top 4 clubs (almost) before the Super 8's start.

The simple question is, what do we actually want from the super 8's ?

Of course, none of this would matter if we just played an even number of rounds, with a balanced fixture list and declered the top club as Champions.

The proposed change would certainly liven up the Super 8's

Equally, in theory, we could have a club in the Championship finishing 4th and gaining promotion ahead of the club that finished top.
Leigh have proved (again) that they are the top club in the Championship and in most other sport's, you would say that they have earned the right to be promoted.

The current system is just a gimmick and has done little to improve anything. Indeed, it way well prove to be a white elephant.

IF the sport is so determined to have the drama of The MPG, why not just go for a winner takes all, one off game between the bottom club in SL and the top club in the Championship ?

Is this the same James Rule who was banned by UK Anti Doping for covering up drug use by players at Hull FC (Gleeson?), trying to tell others how the game should be run?

First past the post! That is all.

I made this point last year. The top 8 isn't strong enough so you end up with teams who finish 6th and below basically playing for nothing come the super 8's.

Every minute doesn't matter as these teams cannot make the top 4.

Should the points be reset to 0? Probably not as yes teams would take foot gas once top 8 confirmed.

But the current format doesn't work either at the top of the bottom.

I honestly wouldn't mind seeing a straight top 5/6 in a straight playoff series.

As for the bottom. No championship team will ever get promoted under current format.

That's the hard truth

There will never be a league where every single team is in contention until the end, that absolutely ridiculous. Teams like Widnes need to focus on getting better so they have a chance rather than crying about the system. We already have the salary cap which is slowly bringing the top teams to the quality of the bottom teams. Now those same teams want the competition changing to suit them too.

Unbelievable.

As Bilko pointed out on Twitter, imagine if Leeds had scraped into 8th and then the points were reset.

Was he as vocal as your chairman when he wanted a 10 team league a few years ago? Hasn't mentioned it lately, not sure why.

It's simple:
If a club wants a shot at trophies, they need to focus on improving on-field performances rather than trying to manipulate the rules.

Would have made it interesting though

and we have already embraced a system where the top club in the league doesn't usually become Champions.

Only used on a small percentage of seasons

I'll admit I don't particularly like the system. Button the same time changing it every couple of years won't get us anywhere.

Half agree with him, reset the points but give 1st, 2nd and 3rd some bonus points. Finish first get say 6 points to start.... Second get 4 and third gets 2. Plus it does reward the best as they get 1 of only 3 domestic trophies on offer.