i don't think he is a Leeds fan.

Rather than trying to make things complicated, how about a 14 team SL, everyone plays everyone home and away plus Magic weekend. Top of Championship plays off against bottom of SL for promotion/relegation (MPG). Top of SL goes straight to Old Trafford with 2nd, at home, playing 3rd to see who plays them for the Title. This would also then create a few extra weekends during the season so that the Challenge Cup could be structured better and also give more time for the England Elite Training Squad to spend more time together on these weekends 'off'. Yes it reduces the amount of games, but not by many and I think there are a few too many games played anyway. The real issue with increasing though is 'do we have 14 clubs strong enough to compete in SL'? At the moment we have 10 current clubs that are/could be strong enough (I'm excluding Salford and Widnes as they have had enough years trying and still failing). Out of Toronto, Toulouse, London, Leigh, Featherstone, Halifax and Bradford (controversial, but look at the crowds they still get), which 4 could potentially compete in SL with the correct guidance, structures etc..

My only problem with the 8’s system is that it’s too many games (7th/8th not still being in with a shot at this stage isn’t a problem at all).

The number of games I believe is why the on field product is struggling. Teams look knackered, players playing half fit because another 6/7/8 of their teammates are already in the stands. Drop it down to 27 games and start the season 3 weeks later at the end of February rather than the start of it where most matches are poor and take a lot out of the players because of the poor weather conditions.

An extra 3 weeks to recover from all the injuries and wear & tear of the previous season, 3 extra weeks to work on fitness for the new season, 3 extra weeks to work on individual and team skills and setplays.....all these I think would see an improvement in play on the field.

^^ I agree Printer. Yes, some clubs will say they need the extra games for revenue, but the counter to that is that if they got more people through the gates then it would counteract that. Clubs need to take responsibility to get more people through the gates on matchdays and not rely on away support. Every SL club should be able to get at least 6000 (as a conservative figure) home fans on game day. Having a better product on the field by reducing games should play its part in increasing attendances. 27 games is plenty in a sport as physical as ours.

It always should have been 2 separate competitions.
With the league leaders Shield going to too top team after 23rds.
Then the 8's all points should be wiped. With the top side starting on 7pts; 2nd on 5ps, 3rd 4pts, 4th 2pts. The bottom 4 0 pts. Then do the 8's.

Wasn't it the clubs who wanted to maintain this number of games when they voted in the current system ?
Any reduction would see a massive drop in income for the clubs and last time I looked, there weren't many who could afford to lose much income.

Was this the vote decided on because 2 clubs were bribed?

Obviously there are a lot of posters on here that do not fully understand to concept of the super 8`s otherwise they would not be posting some of the tripe that they are.

We split at round 23, all teams know this - It comes as no surprise that if you are in that bottom 4 that you will be in the middle 8`s competition with the top 4 of the championship - This is the reason the split happens, so points for these teams are reset and the middle 8`s can be played.

The top 8 in Superleague carry on as they were... Yes it is called the super 8s, but in actual fact there is nothing different? No points get reset, 8th position don`t all of a sudden have a better chance than they did before to make the actual play off games (In the top 4). What would actually be the difference with the top 8 not splitting at round 23 and just playing there remaining fixtures? There is no difference? I see the argument behind scrapping the 8`s structure as a whole but this post is just pointless?

What a load of rubbish, we won when they were the rules. It isn’t ironic that I don’t think we should go back to that system.

It is however ironic the number of fans who talked down Leeds 5th placed Grand Final wins and even claimed Leeds weren’t real Champions, and then go on to say they are in favour of a top 5 or top 6 play off.

Only if those clubs don't increase their revenue from the fixtures that they do have (not to mention generating more non-matchday revenue).

The focus should be on doing more with less, not flogging our talent and diluting the quality of the product.

But of course, that sounds too much like hard work, so we'll continue as we are.

Would it be a massive drop though? At the moment teams either get 14 or 15 home games based on position come the split.

A 14 team league playing home & away would give you 13 so only a loss of 1 or 2 games. And these 1 or 2 games are one that they complain they struggle to sell anyway because of the short notice of the 8’s system.

13 home fixtures known from season start
or
11 home fixtures from season start with either 3 or 4 short notice home games.

Shouldn’t be that much of a difference in income in the end.

I see the Wakey fans on this site and others plus Facebook are moaning yet again.

No, not about referees as usual, but now bleating about the Super 8's being 'unfair' on the likes of them as it's gives clubs like their own no chance of getting into the top four.

I thought with them getting a result yesterday they'd have a week off from their usual crying but obviously not.

Their persecution complex is getting embarrassing.

After the last few dummy spits it really is. I think maybe a new hobby would help convert all that pent up frustration into something more productive.

You're making all that up, aren't you?

I think you'll find it's fans of other clubs on the VT asking what the point of the Super 8s is when teams who are currently in 5, 6, 7 and 8 haven't really got much to play for.

I can't see a Wakey fan moaning on here about Wakey's chances. My comments were about the team who finishes top. I'm happy to be in the top eight.

Missed your target there Jonno. Need to try harder.
We are all more than happy to be in the 8s.

Tough ! If the teams from 5th-8th had put up a fight to be in contention for the top4 then the format would not be a problem. Besides a team can still go on a terrible run and Hull could pip them to fourth.

Plus for the teams in the top4 every week is important. Each team will want home advantage and especially to not go on that poor run of form I mentioned.

Plus I’m sure the teams in 9th-12th would love the opportunity to play in some meaningless games for a couple of months! After Wire’s dreadful showing last year, I would be. We’ve gone one better and have a good chance of top4.

But that just shows how poor a season the rest of the teams have had when injury hit Wigan are second, a team from last season’s Middle 8s are third, and injury hit Cas are fourth. What on Earth have the rest of the league been doing that they aren’t in contention for the top4 when 2nd 3rd and 4th have all lost seven games! It’s not the format’s fault that the rest of the league can’t keep up with three just about over-average sides who’ve lost seven games each are out of contention for the rest of the league.

Besides, Hull Wakey Cats and Hudds’ chances of getting into the top4 are all bigger than Burnley Everton Leicester and Newcastle’s chances of getting into the Premier League’s top6 with ten games to go. So what’s the big problem? Do you think Force India, Haas, McLaren and Torro Rosso have any chance of getting into the F1 Constructors top4? Even from the start of the season?

And here’s me thinking every game was to play for the win!
If you are talking shiny things then It’s impossible to have a system where every team has every game to play for. - perhaps we should do like they do in primary schools and give every kid a trophy!
Football dont bother with these silly gimmicks so why do RL. Most of the sides have “nothing to play for” in the leagues but it’s never been an issue for them.
Catalan and Huddersfield have no realistic chance of making the top 4- but I reckon those in the top four would least want to play these two teams at the moment due to form. They could well have a bearing on who finishes second and gets a home tie.
If folk are wanting something to play for at every opportunity then they should take up bingo instead of going to the game.

Jonno, I've been a member of this site for years, plus I'm on the Wakefield facebook group plus various other RL facebook groups and I really can't see what you are claiming. Wakefield fans are just delighted to be safe in Super League, finishing 5th after the next 8 rounds will delight most of us.

You really are obsessed with Wakefield and it is not a nice complex and we are all tired of it. Why don't you just get over it and talk about rugby in general?

And you're still moaning about Wakefield

Most Trinity fans are just happy and a little shocked at just how poor FC were, not too many moaning about it

Sick of players crying about losing their jobs in this format. You have 23 rounds plus another 7 to avoid the threat of relegation. If clubs have to 'tear up' your contract because you're too expensive that's their fault not the formats. Could you imagine someone working at Tesco's or at a solicitors getting 30 chances to save their job?

Have you never seen the headlines of "fat cats" getting several £100k when they are finished.

You dont mention that RL players may be on a 3 or 4 year contract worth X and then make commitments to say, buy a house or, car etc and because their club gets relegated, regardless of how well that player had performed, said contract becomes void and it's off to the job centre ??
Of course, you can argue that they know what they're getting into but, that knowledge wont pay their bills.

In football, assuming that a transfer isn't agreed, the players see their contracts through (at the agreed rate) but, in League, the contract goes up in smoke.
Maybe, this is something that the parachute payments should go towards but, it makes for an uncertain future for a significant number of players.
Using your Tesco worker analogy, they too could lose their job but, those with fixed term contracts would be paid out
(Mind you the £8.50 / hr workers would just be dumped and replaced).

I still like the super 8s. The teams at the bottom have a certain amount of angst whilst the team in 8th may still have some chance of reaching the top four. It is far more than they would get under a simple one up one down system. Dead rubbers start much later in the season. The problem is us fans refusing to make arrangements at relatively short notice. Fans of other sports do not seem to worry. Several of my workmates had complicated schemes to get to see Liverpool in the Ukraine involving flying to Georgia and renting transport whereas we have problems with the Pennines.

Your mates probably didn't have to explain to the wife and kids why they decided not to go on holiday with them or cancelled the family holiday.

I've flown over 15,000km's this year following the NZ Warriors.....just saying like.



Hull FC to St Helens....is a 400km round trip.......about 2 hours each way. YES........time off work etc is hard, but if you're a fan of RL, you're a fan of RL.......you get there!