A BIG REVENUE GENERATOR??????????????????????????????????

Have you SEEN he attendances, for this season's big revenue generator.?

I have heard the following playoff format suggested which if we have to have a playoff format to me at least sounds reasonable.

A 7 team playoff.

Week 1, the 1st place team has a week off and goes direct into the semifinals, 2nd plays 7th, 3rd plays 6th, 4th plays 5th.

Week 2, the three winners join the 1st placed team in the semifinals with 1st playing the lowest ranked team, second highest playing the remaining team.

No second chances, and the reward for finishing top is a week off and only 80 minutes from the final rather than 160 minutes.

Alternatively, we could simply have first place go direct to the final where they'll play Leeds

Come off it, we won the league by 1 point, and thats because we beat Wigan (as usual) home and away so taking aside the head to heads they were better against the rest of the teams in the league. Head and shoulders the best would be winning the league by 6 points clear or something.

The reason it felt such a shock was because we were in such good form at that stage of the season, we hadn't lost in SL since Salford in June (the first half of the season we had been quite erratic) and we had just smashed Huddersfield 40-0 in the playoffs.

This year we 'beat the system' in the playoffs to an extent. We played Saints twice in the playoffs, they won one, we won one. We got a 'second chance', they didn't. How is that fair?

First post on here. I'm a Wire fan and congratulate Leeds on becoming champions last night - I've got absolutely nothing against them and have a lot of time for their coach and many of their players and they played better than us last night and deserved the win. I also accept that if you're going to have a play-off system you need to accept that the champions may not be the team that finishes first or second in the league.

But I think the game does have a problem if the balance in favour of the play-off finale has been tipped to such an extent that the 27 weekly rounds lack intensity and importance. On one hand I can't wait for the return of SL in February, but on the other hand I know that when it comes there will too many weeks when we put out a rotated side and you feel no more than relieved to win at home to a middling side, embarrassing losses which can easily be brushed off and big nights against the big teams which even then still lack something because the stakes are not quite as high as they should be. On SuperLeague BackChat last week there was general agreement that the season hadn't produced many great moments without any linking of that to the reality that teams aren't particularly encouraged to play great rugby during the regular season. The question isn't so much "Why can Leeds finish fifth in the league and become champions?" but "Why are Leeds finishing fifth in the League?"

Agree completely and echoes my thoughts 100%. We couldn't replicate the standard of performance we reached against Saints away. Had we done so, I think we'd have been fine. As it is we were too ill disciplined and our kicking game wasn't nearly good enough. Leeds deserved their win.

As for concerns about Leeds winning it from 5th. There's one easy way to stop that - beat them. We had the chance the last 2 years and couldn't. They had to win at Catalans, Wigan and against us at a neutral venue in the space of 3 weeks. Very hard task and, in my view, more than wipes out any "concern" about their mediocre league campaign.

This sport is not big enough to survive on a simple league campaign to decide its Champion. Sorry, but that's true. The playoffs need to involve a lot of teams for the same reason. If we did have a league champion, we wouldn't have won that either.

That's hard to take for some but not for me. It's sport.

^Spot on that.

How old is rugby league? and out of how many of those years did it survive on a simple league campaign?

You miss the point it’s the effect the play offs and the title of champions has on the weekly rounds that’s the point, but to take up your point, tell me if Leeds are worthy Champions, why could they only finish fifth in SL?

[uThanks for making my point for me! [/uWhy bother too much with the weekly rounds? Short change your fans on these, just save yourselves for the big one. GREAT why should fans go to the pointless weekly rounds? Good one, let’s just have a league of five or six; forget the rest they’re not going to win out anyway. I hope your blueprint for the future of SL ends up in the bin, because if it doesn’t that might be where SL will end up itself.

Firstly, well played Wire; you can be very proud of what your team's achieved this season.

Re trophies, my preference is always the GF although that's as much about the "Rhinoglow" lasting for the entire off season and beyond. In terms of merit, I'll happily applaud Wigan for winning the LLS and yourselves for winning the CC. To my mind, all are of similar merit. And I too would be happy to see a return to a top 5 playoff system.

But I really don't see how not buying a season ticket is going to help your club make another step up (although to be fair there are far more on the Pies' board banging on about this and, perhaps understandably so). Even as a Leeds fan I'd be forced to acknowledge the greatness of a team that could win CC, LLS and GF. To my mind, yours is the side most likely to do that. It's been a few years now since Leeds have threatened to win the league; your dominance of the CC is apparent and for the first time you came very, very close to winning the GF. At a guess, your current side has one, maybe two, years with a realistic chance of the treble. Surely the thing to do is get right behind your side and go for it?

I guess the obvious answer is they didin't they finished Champions, but the answer to the question youu were trying to pose is because they didn't need to finish any higher and their focus on peaking at the business end of the season means they tolerate being undercooked during the regular season.

It's really not too difficult to understand, but it is obviously very difficult for many clubs to implement.

Overall, in RL's history very few years have been decided by a first past the post league system.

This isn't some new concept that first arrived in 1998.

[uI see you continue to be deliberatlely obtuse but never mind.[/u

Personally I would go with the a certain Mr J Peacock`s view and cut the league to 10 teams and have a more intensive competition

I would award the Championship title to the league winners and have a separate play-off end of season trophy and retain the CC has it stands for all teams.

The cost would be a higher gate charge so clubs maintain current income.

Firstly, I think this is a fair and unbiased comment on a tricky problem. However, i dont think the issue is about one club (Wire in this instance) losing their ST holders, but rather RL fans in general. My concern is that in trying to 'milk the golden cow' via the playoff system, the RL will lose revenue via fans disinterest in the regular season. There can be no doubt that the playoffs rake in a lot of money for the governing body; the final alone must have creamed in the region of £1.4 million, but at what price for regular games in 2013 ?

And all of this problem could be easily rectified by elevating the value (in some manner) of the LLS. A low key cup perhaps ? I don't know exactly where the 'value' should be pitched, and it would obviously need to be below that of the GF, but Wigan do deserve more (IMO) for winning the league, and as a RL fan, I do feel they deserved more from their season.

Obtuse, I don’t like to get personal myself, but sometimes it’s hard not to give into it when you can’t promote any kind of cogent argument, so I won’t. Let’s just wait and see whose view of the shape of things was clearer, yours or mine!

I've been ST holder since we moved into the HJ despite knowing that I would miss 3 or 4 games each season. The fact that I've been missing so many games has been making me rethink buying a season ticket for the past few years now, but the benefits (knowing I have a ticket when I am able to go without having to buy one, first dabs on semi final and finals tickets, 10% discount in the shop, etc) have kept me dipping my hand into my pocket.

But now, I do think there was a drop in the quality and intensity of games last season, not just Wire but across the league. Is this just a general dip or are the clubs/coaches/players starting to feel the same as the fans and realise that making the top eight is the only thing that counts. The 27 rounds of Super League are merely a qualifying competition, where at least five clubs start the season almost certain of making it, to get into a three or four game finals tournament. Do I really want to pay for a season ticket when I'll only see maybe ten games, and of those ten, in five or six of them we are likely to be playing without four, five or more of our 'star' players. Other than possible bragging rights against our near neighbours, none of the league games really mean that much anymore.

Leeds winning from fifth is a fantastic acheivement, and doing it twice is just incredible, and they should be applauded for it. It might be great for Leeds and their fans, but I wonder whether it really is that good for the game in general both on, and off the pitch.

Wigan deserve the utmost respect for winning the regular season, as did your team last year, and I posted congratulations on both boards at the time. I can't really see a way forward tbh, unless the clubs in question make more of it, maybe be holding a public reception or the like. Of course that would require the fans to buy into it and I think that input would vary quite widely from club to club. (For all I know, the clubs may actually have done this but I'm not aware of it if they have)

If you cant see that I have made a cogent arguement based on the expressed view of a respected and professional player then that would seem to fit the definition...

ob·tuse (b-ts, -tys, b-)
adj. ob·tus·er, ob·tus·est

a. Lacking quickness of perception or intellect.
b. Characterized by a lack of intelligence or sensitivity

The rugby league season has 2 events now... both are cup runs... As many have said, and many have laughed at.. the league is virtually pointless. The games now reduced to almost friendly status.... The fact that the champions have come from 5th for the last 2 seasons just shows how irrelevant league position has now become.

Thats a statement which would only be made by a losing side.

so league position is important ?

Let's imagine Leeds had finished 8th instead of 5th. They would have had an away game at Hull which I think most people would expect them to win. They would then have played Wire and have shown both this season and last that they can beat us when it matters. Chosen by Wigan, and we know what happened there then on to probably play Saints in the final again.

Leeds have shown without a doubt that reaching the top eight is all important, if a team is good enough and has the right attitude, which Leeds clearly are and have, then there is little difference between finishing 8th or 1st.

You can even make a case that finishing at the top is hindering teams.... That week off doesn't seem to do the team any good during the playoffs. Teams always seem to come back from that looking a bit rusty and off their game. It seems to stop any momentum.

Club call and the ability to lose a game are a pretty big advantage. If clubs can't use hose advantages to make it to the final they shouldn't really blame the system.

Not sure about the week off. It should mean a team is fresher and more likely to be injury free but it can also stop momentum as you say.

I enjoy the play-offs, some great games and Leeds did exceptionaly well to win it, but because of the play-off's the weekly rounds were boring, we didn't go for it and i suspect Wigan won't make it a priority next season, the big clashes are rarer with this system.