If they ended up with 18-20 very strong applications then there may be a good reason to expand SL to 16 teams like the NRL. Providing they would be good 16 teams, rather than just based off facilities etc.

Your second to last sentence was ultimately my point, MK showed no class flouncing around with his big fake cheque.....completely unnecessary and without any dignity for someone in a senior role within a professional sports club.

Thats my worry in many respects. There's still a question as to whether we have Super League-standard clubs in the Championship, or Championship-standard clubs in Super League.

I'd be reluctant to see SL expand too much as I don't think there is enough talent there to sustain a competitive league and drive standards up. I know this isn't a universally popular view (and no doubt people will argue that it's easy for a Leeds fan to say this - and it probably is), but it isn't necessarily a bad thing to make our top league somewhat exclusive.

And that's the point I was trying to make. It won't be through the current format. Nige & Co will be open to the delights of clubs with shinny coins to spend. Overseas money, another French team ? Even a team from Coventry with rugby yawnion money funding their bid.
Traditional clubs with the exception of the big 5 or 6 will all be looking over their shoulders.
The RFL are skint, and someone with the right funds available will turn their heads, ala Dr Koukash

At this moment in time, the only way to have 16 clubs in SL is to allow more overseas players. We don't yet or look likely to ever have the depth of talent needed for 16 teams

Reasoned words from Mr Cooke after MPG: www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/ru ... ons-571687

Reasoned words from Mr Cooke after MPG: www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/ru ... ons-571687

If it was straight P&R Hull KR would go up Widnes down. Other than the teams what would the difference be with regards player uncertainty which Cooke refers?

Would've been easy enough to just say it then eh rather than have a thinly veiled b1tch?

Ex-f*cking-actly!!! Jesus H..... ATEOTD, relegation is relegation regardless of whether it's the team that finishes bottom or whether it's the team that loses the MPG. Clubs have to rebuild and some players have to deal with new reduced contracts. For me, the team that finishes top of the league is the best and should be crowned champions(Cas) and the team that finishes bottom is the worst (Widnes) and fully deserves to go down.

Whilst the GF is a great spectacle it's just fundamentally and ethically wrong IMO, as is the MPG. All this BS about the MPG ruining livelihoods & mental health is just utter cr@p.

Ethically wrong??? Lol

Regards

King James

So If what you are saying is right then the Season effectively finished at round 23 which saw Cas top and Widnes bottom, Leeds 2nd Hull 3rd and Salford 4th.
So why is it that St. Helens seems to think they finished 4th and Salford fans know they finished 7th? Well maybe it was because the season didnt finish at round 23 but actually went to round 30.
Now in those extra 7 games in the middle 8s Widnes won more games than Leigh and if their points for the season in total were added together than Widnes had finished on 21 points to Leighs 20 points. So I think that you would find that Leigh had in fact been the worst SL side this season had fairly (according to you ) got relegated.

Much as it pains me to say it, as a Leyther, you are right 'Brenio'. Everyone knew the rules at the start of the season - i.e. the worst after 30 games could go down - and all agreed to them. We benefited from the system last season, so have to take it on the chin this time around. Having watched Widnes dominate and dismantle us THREE times this season, I couldn't think of a single argument that would say we were better than you.

We have got what we deserved - end of! Hopefully we can mirror HKR's tremendous achievement and get back in SL, stronger and wiser for this year's experience.

Think that you're conveniently forgetting that Widnes knew they were nailed on for the bottom 4 from quite early on so quite possibly "put their cue on the rack" to save themselves for the middle 8's. In the same way, Salford went all guns blazing early in the season with a small squad and paid for it when they knew they were safe in the top 8 because they were basically f*cked.

Get rid of the end of season top/middle 8's b*llocks and have straight P&R. Simples.

Cheers for that d1ckhead. Now jog on you tool.

Exactly, who started all this 'livelihoods/jobs/mortgages' crap, Peacock/Crabtree/Cockayne, that's who !
When it was Wakefield v Bradford in 2015 in the MPG, there was none of this crap. For example, any Leigh player who wants to find another club can do so, with either a SL club, or a championship one. I doubt their respective families will starve/have to move into a hostel...etc Unfortunately this MPG 'livelihoods at stake' is a snowball that is gathering momentum, and the RFL will return to licensing.

Jimmy Lowes started it all after the Wakey/Bradford game

The week before it we had carter talking about how Wakefield would have to sack everyone and go part time if they lost. Nick Scruton was the first to start talking about his mortgage if I remember correctly.

I personally said it's a terrible way to decide who goes up, down or stays where they are and was accused of sour grapes.

I still stand by that. That was after talking to Wakefield fans after that match too. It was a horrible experience for all concerned and I haven't seen anything since that changes my mind.

Agree with every thing you have said its utter crap and needs binning

I'm all for binning the Million Pound Match but not for the reasons mentioned above. For me the sole factor of why it needs binning is because in theory a team finishing 9th in SL can be relegated through it which I think is stupid. They have done enough during the season to stay up. Hell, the only thing different between 8th and 9th is points difference and yet they could still be relegated.

For me the whole livelihood thing is nonsense. Relegation has been part and parcel of sport for years (I am aware that NFL, NRL etc don't do it). But it has been part and parcel of this country for a long time. IIRC, since SL started Castleford, Hull KR, Leigh, Huddersfield, Salford, Halifax, London and Bradford have all been relegated at some stage. The losers of the Million Pound matches have pretty much retained their squads as they would any other year. If they were that worried, they would perform better on the pitch. Will teams make the same argument regarding livelihoods if they finish bottom and are relegated that way? Probably will do.

I do agree that Promotion and Relegation should be included especially considering that we have more teams now ready to fight for that spot (London, Leigh, Toronto, Toulouse). Than we have had for years. However I don't think the Million Pound game is the right way to go about it. For me Widnes should have been down. Hull KR up.

In a weird way...... I do like the 'concept' of the Qualifiers as Championship teams have to be able to compete with the bottom SL clubs at least. Which means they have some idea as to how strong they are against the lower SL. In the past we have seen the promoted side go back down within a year or two so this Qualifying system does help in that respect.

So, by that theory somebody finishing 8th shouldn't have the chance to be crowned champions then? Can't have it both ways. If it's OK for 8th to have a crack at playing in the Grand Final, then it's OK for 9th to have a chance of the Million Pound Game. It's only the same thing - to get to Old Trafford you have to give yourself the opportunity through the regular season and then prove you are good enough when it matters. The MPG is no different - if you are not good enough through the regular season then you have to prove you are good enough when it matters. Only my opinion

There is a huge difference between the two comps though, with the points being re-set for the middle eights. Warrington finished nine points above Widnes, yet received no benefit.

The car crash which is the M.P.G. is o.k. if your not sat in the car.

They receive the benefit of an additional home game, exactly the same as the top 4 in the Super 8's. Whichever way you implement P&R there is going to be some that agree and some that don't. It could be argued that Leigh should have been given a year dispensation, as 1 year in SL isn't enough time to build (without a doubt they have the money man/resources to build if given the chance). Fairly impossible to implement that though if you want P&R. So, is P&R the right way to go? Or do we return to Franchising/Licensing and look at building a stronger SL, maybe with more teams being drip fed in over time? Whichever system is used there is always going to be people who can argue for and against

I always thought one up, one down with the promoted side being exempt for one year would be a pretty decent compromise.

The difficulty with licensing/franchising is that you have a number of established clubs who, in theory, could be jettisoned against a promise on a shiny brochure, proclaiming huge crowds masses of income and shiny new stadia and those entrusted to pass judgement haven't been that good at making those calls in the past.

Going back to the MPG, the analogy by Devils Advocate (about a car crash) is bang on.
It's compelling viewing but, to deliberately decide a clubs future over 80 minutes every season is wrong and it would be better to decide over the full season.
It's strange that the top 8 use the points amassed through the season, to decide which is the "best" team but, at the other end, the first 23 rounds count for nothing.

You said that players would very likely find work elsewhere but, their contracts either carried on or became void at the end of the game, not to mention all of the other staff that work at these clubs.

Under a "normal" promotion and relegation system, a "doomed" club usually has time to make plans for their future but, not in RL.

I'm not sure that I agree with you here Wrencat, the two teams weren't promoted or relegated based on just 80 minutes, they had each played a full, if disjointed set of fixtures to arrive at the decider. Distasteful and distressing it may be as the season culminates in a very public one off, gladiatorial contest but their previous encounters did count for something, they didn't arrive by chance.

You could also argue that as soon as you are in the middle 8's you have time to plan for the future, Plan A stay up/stay down, or Plan B get promoted/get relegated. I know that you said "normal" and a simple bottom down/ top up situation might be fairer and more clear cut, but, there's no saying going into the last day of the regular season that the day will finish as it started?