are you also taking into accounts the decline in attendances ?

As a Leeds fan, I should be in agreement with that I suppose...

If Bradford or Wigan were to scrape 8th with a 50:50 record, they would then have to win three consecutive away games before a GF at Old Trafford against a rested Saints/Leeds (most likely). Get through all that lot and you can make an argument for them as the top performers of the year.

Funny now Saints fans who loved the play-offs in '99 seem to have gone off it of late. And Bulls fans who weren;t so keen have come round to it

BTW Bulls vs Wire had plenty of meaning in it yesterday thanks to the extended play-offs. Go back to first past the post and then it's meaningless.

I think clubs need to get round to making each game a contest worth winning in its own right, regardless of what impact it has on the rest of the season.

I think you might be missing the point. Some people may be looking at the league table and thinking: "uh-oh Saints are peaking too early and will get turned over at Old Trafford again. If it weren't for the play-offs Saints might actually win something from SL instead of having to settle for the CC". Again.

The whole league is asleep this season. How many classics have we seen on Sky? How many competitive games have we seen? How many games can you say were honestly played at full intensity?

The vast majority of games I've seen this season have had the atmosphere and flow of a friendly. The players don't want to know because they know there is nothing to be gained from it.

Eh. That's more likely to be down to the two extra clubs than the play-offs. We had play-offs last year and every year since 1998 so why would the league go to sleep now? Or are you on a wind up?

I don't mind the play off system, but only when the fixture list is inconsistent to justify them. Otherwise, you might as well have regular league champions...

That said, isn't it ironic that as soon as the league became somewhat more interesting; Saints winning in '96, Bradford in '97 - it was reverted back to play-off's.

Imagine these last few seasons with Leeds and Saints vying for top spot with five or six games left. Oh well...

The Playoffs are good, but there should be massive benefits for winning the league.

In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that the league winners should qualify automatically for the final.

It's a joke at the moment, and as a Leeds fan, I am more than happy to watch us plod on for an inevitable second place finish. I don't even think about Saints.

With the gate and Sky money from that we'll all have to go semi-pro.

I like the play-off system. You have to be consistant enough to qualify and then good enough to beat those equally consistant in an all or nothing gorefest.
......traditional too!

Or in the case of this season's Top 8, mediocre - which I think adds merit to original poster's message.

Weird thread

No problem with the play-offs, big problem with the format.

If you finish in the bottom half of the league, you have no right to be anywhere near the play-offs. Such a format is not far away from "everybody gets a trophy".

The playoffs may need looking at. But 12 games? Don't be ridiculous.

If a team finishing 8th manages to make it all the way to the GF and leave victorious then in my mind they bloody well deserve to be champions.

As an aside, which match has more potential in terms of intensity;

Match A – Team X v Team Y, 8th and 9th respectively, are battling it out for the last play off place.

Match B – Team X v Team Y, 8th and 9th respectively, are playing in a match which decides who finishes 8th.

But that'd be the case if 6th played 7th etc.

I thought it was too many when half of the league qualified for the play-offs; now you can have a mediocre season, finish in the bottom half of the table and still qualifies. It cheapens the whole concept of it being considered an achievement to qualify for them.

They should have in theory stuck with the top 6, however, that would mean teams giving up and having nothing too play for earlier.

The more teams in the play offs the better i'm just not a fan of this you get too choose your oppo rubbish.

Indeed. It's even worse when you the consider possibilty of being crowned Super League Champions even though you finished in the bottom half of the league!

in theory, as the league gets closer and closer there will be less of a gap between 1st and 8th so in the future finishing 8th might not be such a bad position.

The rights and wrongs of the number of playoff places available is very much a matter of opinion, but the comparison was between a league with a playoff structure succeeding it and one without.

I feel the intensity of a match is not diminished by the presence of the play offs. Without relegation, a play off position is the only thing more then professional pride which should install a bit of drive in the players to compete to the best if their ability.

Take the play off out of the equation then your left with one or two teams with something to play for and perhaps yes, the games involving those will no doubt be very hard, but the rest of the league will subconsciously take their foot off the gas and play out the campaign with one eye on the following season.

It needs looking at but I can't think of how really. leeds have been at sea most of this year because the league fixtures dont matter. 1st spot with a guaranteed GF spot would certainly add to the intensity however.

But the more teams you allow in, the less the regular season games mean. You can have an absolutely horrible season and still get in. It doesn't reward effort like it should.

My initial post and title probably shouldn't have been about scrapping the playoffs but more about changing the format as its terrible in its current form.

Super League needs fewer games that mean more. How this happens is up for debate but something has to be done. The sport developed with the Sky money but has now stagnated and we've been firmly overtaken by club rugby Union. How long do we trudge on like this before they do something about it?

SL this season is just so utterly dull and lifeless. Is this just me that thinks this? IMO the reason is that there are so many playoff places. All the decent sides know they need nothing more than an average season to be, there is no incentive to go all out every week and attain a high placing, it's all about gearing yourself to do as little as possible so you are fresh for the playoffs.

the top 5 system really meant that each place higher in the table gave a definate advantage to the team involved.

The current system doesnt really do that - at least the 2008 system didnt, where there was no big advantage between 1st and 2nd. They need to devise something that involves 7 teams and gives proper benefits to every team higher up the league.

But.. but it's competetive????