I think rugby league has sold the soul of the Challenge Cup to tv as well & the matches are being played to fit BBC schedules. It would be much better back in May though. I am wondering if SL matches will be affected next year & by how much as a result of sky's new love in with American football, or is their sport just played in winter ?

October to January.


People say this about the cup, moving it back, do that and you'll have the complaints about it being a pre season competition again.

And you'll be getting into the wake of the easter double matches which causes problems.

By gum it is a short season & i suppose it is mostly played at night time in the UK anyway.

Get away there have been plenty already ... the season has almost a month to go and the top four are in place. Ive never blamed the RFL for our Form

but had it been a top 6 play off we'd be in with a chance as would Hull and Catalan..... we'd most likely get bummed out of the play offs at the first hurdle but at least we'd all be in with a chance....




I'm blaming the RFL because it was a system before it kicked off no one else does this ridiculous pantomime....have you actually sat in an office and tried explaining it to football fans.....?
And yes the sides in the top four have something to play for but their opponents havent. So i'm guessing its holiday mode, recuperation mode, dont get injured need a new contract mode for a whole host of players.... plenty of top four sides wanting a win and most likely strolling along in third gear and getting it....



we were in 6th position not bottom of the league...that should have been a position to fight....
after two games played it was almost impossible to qualify, after three we were out, thats less than half the fixtures of this mini circus league. Yes we are to blame for our results..... but the every second counts thing got on my nerves from the start it hasnt happened at all.
have the top four positions changed at all since the super 8's started....?? the bottom 4 certainly haven't.......its a shambles.


Address the quality of the league first not the style of the fixtures....... the RFL are the biggest juvenile halfwits ever to be in charge of anything. they couldn't run a school tuck shop........

last night ....38-42 with a dodgy try ....sums it all up for me....

Wah! Wah! My team's had a dreadful season and put itself in a position where it can't compete. The system must be broken!

Absolute tosh. Warrington lost 11 out of 23 regular season games, that's the one and only reason that the Super 8's didn't mean more to you and proof if it were needed that every minute matters.

As for the quality of the league, how are the RFL to blame for the fact that big spenders like Wire, Hull and Catalan are intent on going backwards? How is it their fault that Koukash's Salford experiment isn't working?

Next season go into the Super 8's within touching distance of the top 4 - as Wire should have been capable of this season - then win a few games and watch the top 4 change.

To me you're piling blame on the system that actually belongs with your coach and your players, as well as those in France and Hull. Mind you, you probably didn't like the top 8 because it didn't put Warrington automatically into the final, or the top 6 because Wire were never competitive.

The system is fine. Your team failed. End of story.

100% correct..if you heard cunninghams prematch interview he says this system is better than last years system and who evers idea this was should be patted on the back,,,

It'd be interesting to see who said Leeds didn't deserve to win it from fifth and who's cranky that we can't win it from sixth.

A bit more effort and application in home games against Cas Hudds and Hull and we'd be right up there.

I think the 8s are a great idea and will prove to be ongoing as they become more established year-on-year. I think we've finally got an good system so let's leave it alone for a few decades and strive to have more teams competing for the four instead of rewarding mediocrity by allowing teams who are losing as many as they are winning a chance to string a few wins together in the Play-offs.

well he would say that wouldn't he?

His team were bummed three games on the bounce at the start of the super 8's and their spot in the top four was never under any threat....

every minute matters...... except 240 minutes it would seem.....

but he`s right tho...last year being bummed for 3 games wouldnt of mattered a jot..now it does

Their spot in the top 4 was under very serious threat until they beat a knackered leeds side and Cas just lost out to Hudds, those two results go the other way and Saints drop to fifth.

I know that doesn't fit in with this dead horse t you're flogging, but it's the truth.

And if we beat someone else and someone else loses to someone else....We might have moved up a place too. ...guess what we didn't they didn't and its been a dead rubber from the go. ...

But ifs buts and maybes are always a good argument. .!!!

Good God man what is wrong with you? You said Saints top 4 spot was never under threat yet it demonstrably was. I can't figure out whether you're just stubborn or a complete cretin, I'm plumping for a bit of both.

For the final time, a dead rubber means tthere are no consequences whatsoever to the game. None of the top 4 have been involved in any of those yet. Fact. That Wire'sseason has been over so long is an indictment of your club, not a system that to just about everybody else seems to be working fine.

.
but you are you comparing 3 loses in a regular 27 game season versus 3 games in a mini play off league when every minute matters....that can't be right.

In 2011 we lost five games all year yes we could have lost three on the bounce but then we would have to go on a very very good run.to not drop off the top of the league...

I view the super 8's as an extension of the play offs not part of the regular season. .That's why I can't get my head around losing three on the bounce and have it not matter ..

.I thought we were trying to ramp up the quality of the end of the season. .its been hopeless so far

You still here....

I don't like the system can't you understand...I'm making my arguments. your the one using ifs and buts....and casual insults. .

..im saying how can a club lose three on the bounce and have it not matter. ...yet you still say its my clubs fault. ...

you can see from the challenge cup how Hull KR playing second division opposition affected them. ...

Weve made a long boring playoff system and a bigger sub standard division below us....

I'm watching the nrl play offs right now its an infinitely better system...

I also think it's a good system the top four had to maintain consistency to make the semi's and they deserve to be there on the seasons form with Saints having enough in hand to overcome a blip, had Huddersfield imploded as some thought they may then that could have let another team in but they kept their form, so yes some minuets counted some didn't but that's for the other teams to make the eights more competitive hopefully next season it will become just that.

Don't forget the drop in player quality throughout SL ,we have suffered with having to play so many youngsters , so have Saints & Wigan did for 2 years before they started to come good....Leeds maybe in a similar position next year . The old play offs didn't have so many kids involved.Get the A teams up & running & the youth production line started again & better quality players will reappear within the next few years.

I'm in full agreement with the flying buscuit.
The playoff structure is flawed in its current format.

The pre 27 was almost a total dead rubber affair as far as Wakefield were concerned too.

I don't think anything is ever perfect if it were we wouldn't have so many differing opinions, having a twelve team league gives us the problem of too short a season, the new super eights extends the season giving each team seven extra games with a chance to make the semi's, other than this system or something similar the only other way would be to make it a sixteen team League, I just can't see that happening for various reasons.

You were saying?

That's exactly why it's flawed. Pies didn't go full at it, and I expected Hull to be close.
Leeds today, they don't need a win. They are doing enough as they have been all season. When the result is meaningless, they rest one or two.
The only game that had any meaning this week was Cas v Saints and so it proved to show that.

gunna dis-agree with you my friend but leeds do need to win after all they are going for the treble

There is no glory in the hub and is officially not a treble. But I welcome your post pal.

by the way leeds are playing i dont think they want the glory of winning the league..do you think wembley has drained there tank

Of course they want the treble. Especially this season when teams have had to play well all through the regular rounds. Or are you saying wire fans and players wouldn't want to win all three????

It's not a perfect system but it's better than the last few years. You do actually still have something to play for- Wire have lost more than they have won and as a result are where they deserve to be- the final three games could mean you win more than half your games which I'm sure the players would prefer to see on the final table.