and under the new structure very quickly 1, then 2 clubs will be too far away from 8th and they will have nothing to play and an active incentive to rest players. Then another 3,4,5 clubs will be looking at a table where they are far too far away from 4th to actually win it and they are back to the choice of risking it to get in to a comp they can't progress from or playing it safe and making sure they avoid catastrophe.

Those are worthwhile prizes, but are they worth risking going in to the qualifiers under-strength for?

i think teams expecting to be about 7th or below will start preparing for the middle 8 before the season even starts. Its too big a risk not to. And if you are 10th after 8 games then (unless you are one of the big 4) you will start preparing for the middle 8 in earnest. Again its too big a risk not to.

but not close to as miserable as if you finish 9th and dont win a game in the middle 8. Falling to the middle 8 is a setback but it is recoverable, falling from the the middle 8 is a catastrophe.

When the reward for success is minimal, and the punishment for failure catastrophic, you focus on avoiding failure, and avoiding failure becomes success.

Please accept my apologies Jean. I didn't expect the sheer volume of stupidity in some of your catch here who seem willing to forgive the hook and instead who are jumping straight into your keep-net. Congratulations. Magnifique!!!!

Leeds would develop nosebleeds finishing as high as 4th, but that's the minimum target for them next season. They'll no longer be able to toss it off only to be rewarded with a home play-off game and a realistic shot at the title in exchange for regular season-long mediocrity.

Licensed mediocrity is dead - six seasons of franchised crapola from top to bottom finally binned - long live the P&R revolution!

You make some very valid points, but whilst most clubs will have a contingency plan should they finish bottom 4, I just don't accept that professional clubs and players will throw in the towel and settle for just not dropping out of the middle 8 when 7th and 8th place is a possibility.

I also think it's a stronger league across the board than you give it credit for. After 18 games it's quite feasible that a team like Huddersfield or Hull or Salford will be outside the 8. These are good teams capable of beating anyone on their day. Are they really going to put the cue on the rack and say, we can't win it now, let's rest players for the big game against Doncaster in a couple of months?

Also less fixtures and the absence of an obvious whipping boy will tighten the table up. There's no reason why, with say, 3 or 4 fixtures to play, all 12 teams won't have a chance of making the top 8. I also think that the financial benefits alone make it a risk worth taking.

You would think they would have learned by now wouldn't you?

I think the O/P must have just started knobbing a bird from East hull , talk about a love in hes knee deep up their back passage

He hasn't got the time, he's always watching NRL.

Oh yeah I forgot , my bad

Hull KR have had very few players in recent years, who speak with an English accent. It's legendary, has it helped them...NO, even when there was no relegation from SL, they should have been 'building for the future' with local youngsters, it's not like they were buying overseas players to win silverware













, and to think folk used to ridicule London Broncos' ! What a pathetic club Dull KR are.

That comment was vicious and uncalled for.

What Hull KR is doing, and its coach Christopher Chester in particular is doing, is making carefully targeted purchases from abroad in key positions -- hence the cultural diversity -- while leaving other positions for local talent. It could turn out to be a brilliant strategy. The strength of Albert Kelly's legs will determine whether or not Chester and Hull KR have hit the jackpot.

TERRY ONCE AGAIN LET IT GO it's eating you up inside

Just think how many we'll have come 2017

I agree you 100%. P & R has never benefited British Rugby League.

I have arranged some counselling, with Dr George Fairbairn....I need closure. Thanks for not being abusive towards me.

Well, it's fair to say, no relegation certainly benefited Huddersfield.

actually, I think them going down in 2001 was the making of them.....being kept up artificially did them no favours at all.

I think you have confused ken davy's millions with relegation. Ken Davy deciding to spend money on them has been the making of Huddersfield

spot on.

the years of being the whipping boys and finishing bottom of SL those years was awful, we lost a generation of fans, alot went over to bullmania and leeds.

we were relegated and rebuilt the club, been upwards ever since through hard work and the dedication of ken davy and good coaches like tony smith and nathan brown.

the lost generation of fans is proving hard to get back but if you compare crowds with what they were in the 90's when crowds were in the hundreds we have come a long long way.

If we are that multicultural maybe our song shouldn't be Red Red Robin anymore. How about Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin?

The turning point for Huddersfield was appointing a good coach in Tony Smith. It set the standard for future coaching appointments.

Not that simple. If you don't believe me, ask David Hughes

That might be a good start.

Indeed.....
So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day [size=200[udespite of all your losing[/u.[/size

And relegation is a destructive mostly catastrophic period for the relegated clubs. If you don't believe me ask Widnes, or Cas, or the multitude of other clubs who still haven't recovered from it.

Huddersfield didn't keep finishing bottom because they weren't being relegated, they were relegated because they weren't spending money and having to merge

If Huddersfield weren't relegated but Davy still invested and still brought in the names he did. Huddersfield would still be where they are now. If Huddersfield are relegated and Davy spends nothing, the probably don't exist right now.