I agree with your last sentence but I can't help but put forward the excuse that we are quite low on key players at the moment.. Saying that, I think we only needed Ratch playing for us to win that game. Here's hoping he's overcome his illness for Saturday and Toby King can cover for Evans.

I don't know what the NFL know, but, one thing I do know is that we can't model our structure on theirs, 30 plus teams, a number one sport for TV playing across a continent fully franchised by big $$$ backers with someone waiting in the wings to take up the slack should there be a failure or a better offer on the table.

As it's a great idea, we could divide our 12 elite teams into 3 Conferences West, East and Central top two go through automatically plus two Wild Cards (the highest placed runners up) to give an 8 team play off system top get to the SuperLeague Bowl a OT....

I've no idea no idea what the PDC is and you've half a point with RU and the ARL, but, would their models be any less successful if the operated a Football Association League system?

BTW I understand that it won't be changing anytime soon. IMO RU isn't popular and attractive to TV because of it's League structure, it's probably more to do with the demographic of people watching, a strong international game with regular dates and of course a true competitive European Competition a bit like football's Champions and Europa Leagues, something I alluded to in my other posts, that need to be fixed.

Matches like what? Tony Smith is quite honest in saying that during a season there will be occasions when we (any team) will play below par, be a bit off, don't have the right attitude. I don't think it does reveal a soft underbelly. What does Wigan's thrashing there reveal? Or Hull's battering at Widnes earlier in the season? I wasn't there yesterday, so am not saying that was the situation yesterday and I don't want to disrespect Wakefield either. However, it's likely we'll see more "matches like that" and still finish in the top 4. As long as our "matches like that" don't come in the play off or the Grand Final, I can accept that sometimes we won't win.

Ah, so you are happy to accept defeats by middle to lower table teams, providing they are not in the play offs or Grand Final. And how do you propose to avoid these defeats ? On the one hand you seem to accept they are inevitable, on the other hand they are not allowed to happen in important matches.

The problem in accepting that 'there are going to be matches like that' lowers the expectation of the team from winning to second best. And before you know it, there have been several 'matches like that', team morale has started to fall, and all of a sudden you are no longer in the top four. A winning mentality is just as important as assembling a team with top class players like Sandow, Gidley, Hill and Clark.

only in 2013 it meant you were champions

That format actually ended in 2011

On the other hand ,"matches like that" could give the impression ,real or imagined, that the salary cap is working.

I agree with most of this, and am never 'happy' to lose. However, I don't remember a team ever playing through a season undefeated, it's really not something any side can expect, even when they go into every match believing they will win. Facing that reality, it's actually less damaging to lose to an 'outsider' than to a rival for the top four.

Shirley, it depends what you mean by "damaging"? Getting a beating from an outsider could be construed as a 'bad day at the Office', or the underdog raising their game in a one off, 'playing in their cup final'. On the other hand, losing by the odd point to one of your rivals, perhaps last minute away, might just give a team the belief that they are themselves worthy of being a contender. It's about how you react, hopefully we will bounce back.

IMO it's never clear cut especially it seems this season.

You know Rico, you could be right that Saints victory over us earlier in the season could have been their cup final.

I thought, with the way their fans go wild after each victory, that every game against us is their cup final.