That must really hurt to say.

At least the bottom 4 must be pleased that they don't have to sell hospitality packages for the Middle 8 games. Isn't that what we were told was the reason for scrapping them.

London have have caught a bit of luck with Hill being banned.

Next week will be a real test at home against them but if Warrington get complacent.....

The 3 x 8 structure was a joke when it was launched and thank the lord its been consigned to the scrapheap.
The battle for the wooden spoon (or avoiding the trap door to the Championship), looks like being the tightest in the SL era and one of the tightest ever.
7 games left and 4 clubs "level" on 14 points.

As for selling hospitality packages, it must be a hell of a lot easier when you know how many games you have and who they are against and with the battle for a play off spot warming up nicely, there wont be too many "dead rubbers" before the end of the final season.

Huddersfield and London currently look the two clubs in most peril, although a couple of decent results could change the look of the league quite quickly.

Salford and those just above that bottom 4 group SHOULD be ok. Even if a few of those 4 teams get on a roll I can one of them possible only 3 from 9, which would leave the likes of Salford and Wakefield & Catalans too only needing 1 win or maybe 2 from 9. As poor as Catalans have been lately it’d be a surprise to see a losing streak go on for a full 9 games more.

Salford will be fine if they win their two home fixtures vs Hudds. Which btw if we’re to have loop fixtures can we not space them out better. Salford vs Hudds at AJ Bell twice within a few weeks. Likewise Leeds vs Catalans at Headingley, Wigan vs HKR, Hudds vs Catalans all played twice several weeks apart coming up.

Depending on how much consistency any of the clubs can get.....and looking at the season to date, it won't be a lot, 20 Points might keep you up........but IMHO, London will need 22 to survive.
As for Catalans....they look bereft of ideas at present. I wouldn't be stunned to seem them remain winless from now on

Catalans do look bad at the moment and are on a 4 match losing run. But if they don’t win again this season that would take it up to 13 games in a row winless...which seems a bit of stretch really, when teams go through a bad patch they usually go 5/6/7 games without a win before landing one. Think they’ll find one or two from somewhere before seasons end.

I agree London’s point difference looks like meaning they’ll need an extra win than those around them.

7 to go before they equal the misery FC faced last season.

Too right,wouldn`t want to go through that again in a hurry. Proves it can be done though.

The argument that clubs can't sell hospitality for M8 games was a convenient excuse from clubs that just wanted the eights scrapped and to blame someone other than themselves for their poor commercial performance.

There are lots of reasons why clubs weren't selling tickets / hospitality for M8 games - the lack of 'notice' on who and when they're playing was way, way down the list.

You may be right that, it was just one of many reasons but, there is absolutely no doubt, particularly at the bottom of the table, that, knowing when you are playing and who you are playing against, makes it far more straight forward to promote games and sell "tickets".
The biggest issue though was perpetual uncertainty and the spectre of relegation, especially when wanting / trying to sign players.

Not quite the same for any of the bigger clubs that found themselves down there but, a huge problem for the smaller clubs.
Any player who believes they are of SL standard, is unlikely to want to sign for a club that may be relegated or, they will want a "premium" contract for doing so.

Then add clauses.

There are undoubtedly good reasons for getting rid of the eights (and for getting rid of relegation all together in my view), but that doesn't excuse clubs using the structure as a lightning rod for their commercial failings.

I've called out Carter in the past as he is someone who made this argument, yet between the fixtures becoming public and his first home game, there were 16 days. If you can't sell an event in 16 days. the short notice is the least of your problems.

Are you saying that Carter had suggested that this was his ONLY argument against the format.


The absolute uncertainty for half of the top flight, plus 4/5 clubs in The Championship is the reason that the poxy system was scrapped and NOT the "short sell" on games towards the end of the season.
Why you need to be the big man for paraphrasing Carter and "calling him out" I've no idea but, as long as it makes you feel important, crack on.

Aren’t contracts null and void if a club is relegated so therefore not a problem for any player to leave if they were to be relegated.

No, as I said in the rest of my post, there are lots of good reasons why the eights were scrapped.

But lets not overlook that it was a convenient excuse for clubs who wanted to deflect attention from their own poor commercial performance. Carter, whilst not alone in this approach, was very vocal in arguing that the M8s made it "impossible" (his word) to sell tickets and corporate packages for the latter end of the season. It's only right that such arguments are questioned and shown to be the nonsense that they are. I personally find it quite baffling that people are so happy to take the official club line without question.

No problem for players leaving but, the window for getting a gig in SL will be somewhat smaller if you wait fo relegation to be decided, especially during the 3 x 8 period, when every club will have their player roster completed and this still doesnt get over the likelihood of players signing in the first place, if their intended new employers were in the "relegation" league.

Clauses such as?

Void if not in SL? Well, that just means you then have NO job as opposed to a Championship job, given you've left your old club, and they have likely covered your departure.

The irony is that, mathematically, apart from us or Leeds being 2 points adrift at the bottom, half of SL could be on 18pts in a couple of weeks with 7 games 2 go. Almost a middle 8s in its own right.

Indeed
Just like the original MPG Wakey v Cas, these things are far better when they happen organically and less frequently, which is precisely why that particular game was such a talking point.
Sport shouldn't be contrived, as this tends to make any build up seem false but, in RL, "we" keep searching for the silver bullet, when in reality we just need decent advertising and promotion.
If ever there was an example of this, just look at the Women's World Cup.
Last time around, hardly anyone was interested but, given huge exposure and 24/7 media coverage and suddenly "everyone" is interested and you have to say that whoever is driving the media has done a fantastic job.
I know that it's already huge but, the 6 nations is similar, with the BBC going into overdrive when it comes around.
The big question is just how "we" can receive the same kind of exposure and promotion of our sport.

With the "product" that we have, with some of the finest athletes on the planet, the game should be an easy sell ??

With any format you get close seasons and not so close ones. Someone (May have been that idiot Rod Studd) was going on about this Premiership title race between Man City and Liverpool and saying this is proof that we should have a first past the post system in RL, whilst ignoring that 12 months prior Man City we’re out of sight by December and the whole second half of the season was a stroll.

Next year we could have 1st and 2nd neck and neck all the way to Round 29 but a team cut adrift at the bottom by about 8-10 points. Just how it goes buybacks first sight of unclose race and people start skating the system. One of the issues many had with the 8’s is that the teams placed 6th-8th at the start of the Super 8’s were too far adrift and people were trying to come up with solutions to solve this instead of the obvious ones that teams there should’ve done better to be closer to 4th....a number of clubs had a poor mindset of “we need to be in the top 8 after 23 rounds” instead of thinking they should be top 4 after 23 rounds. An attitude/approach of just doing enough to survive but then blame it on others when you can’t thrive....as is so often the way with too many SL clubs.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Wigan at Old Trafford again this year

Saying this Catalans have now lost Sam Moa and Baitieri for the remainder of the season so makes their life harder.

Most teams talking about getting this or that player back from injury soon but reality is at least one or two clubs in the fight are going to suffer some more injuries in the remaining games and they could be crucial losses.

I was thinking the same.....they've quietly crept up the table and seem to be in a bit of form.....I can see them winning all but 1 of their remaining fixtures.....HKR twice and Wakefield Twice as well as Catalans, FC, Castleford and wire.....only Saint's will beat them IMHO.
The fact they have HKR and Wakey Twice in such a short space of time shows the lunacy of these loop fixtures.......HR both in Wigan on a Friday night does nobody any favours!

4 points off Hull in 3rd, if Hull get to Wembley (and losing a few league games either side of that that often happens to teams) then Wigan could only have to go from 3rd which is definitely doable. They might not look as strong on paper as previous years but their players know how to win at Old Trafford which we’ve seen is important over the years.