This, but i'd go one up, one down and do a top 5 in the playoffs in all divisions. Think if, say Wire finished top and then the other sides played each other for a few weeks they would get a big advantage in playing and also financially.

I think the League Leaders Shield needs renaming to League Winners and a bigger financial reward for this.

@ Jenky

I think the 'own goal' lies with your play-offs. Just going off 2012's league rankings (assuming Leigh & Fev would be at the bottom of Div 1);

Round 1:
Bradford v Gateshead
Halifax v Barrow
Doncaster v Sheffield
South Wales v Hull KR

Round 2:

Wigan v Sheffield
Warrington v Hull KR
Bradford v Halifax

Round 3:

Warrington v Bradford

GF:

Wigan v Warrington

There's unlikely to be a single competitive game until the GF. A top 4 play-off within each division would be better.

Yeah must admit as I was typing that out I thought it could be bad but in fairness the idea would be the clubs would be a lot more professional than now with more fulltime players / employees.
I wouldn't want a Top 4 as in a 8 league it means you would water it down, I want the best teams tobe able to get to the final as they would showcase the game - basically a reward for being consistantly good all season in all divisions.
A alternate could be a random draw ? (as if it would ever happen

).

My wife has bought me a book now so everyone will be pleased to read it'll be the last hairbrained scheme for a while

The problems with the current structure seem to be:
1. The lack of P&R punishes ambition and rewards failure. It makes games down in the bottom part of SL meaningless and traps teams like us, Fev, Fax, Sheffield and Batley in the championship with little/no chance of advancement.
2. There’s too big a gap between the teams at the top of SL and the bottom resulting in uncompetitive games.
3. The main season is ultimately meaningless so long as you get in the top 8, the whole season comes down to a few games at the end.
4. Lower and mid table SL clubs are struggling financially to keep up with the wages paid by the bigger clubs.
To fix/improve this I’d have 2 full time leagues of 10 called Championship Division 1 and Championship Division 2, everyone would play home and away (18 games). Whoever finished top would get the old Championship trophies (or replicas if they’re now too fragile), this rewards consistency through the competition. There’d be P&R with top straight up and bottom straight down then playoffs with 2nd, 3rd,4th and 2nd from bottom of Division 1 (one up one down can create yoyo teams but 2 up 2 down could dilute quality too much if a team isn’t up to it). The bottom of Division 2 would be replaced by the winner of an Anglo-French competition between the top 2 of a National League 1 and The Elite League, providing the club met strict standards on finances, facilities, player development ect. There’d be 2 part time leagues, National League 1 of 12 and National League 2 which would be open to any new teams that could show they were up to the standard (finances, facilities ect) where whoever finished top won. There’d be similar P&R between the 2 National Leagues as the Championships. After the 18 Championship games the Super League would start, all 20 Championship teams would be divided up into 4 groups of 5 based on where they finished in the league (one team from the top 4, one team (randomly drawn) from 5th – 8th, one team from D1 9th – D2 2nd ect) and they’d all play each other home and away (8 games (18+8=26 games (1 less than the current regular SL season, but one week longer because of the byes). The top 2 from each group (8 teams) would then go into the playoffs for the Super League Grand Final as the season climax at Old Trafford. With this set up you’ve established a clear path from the bottom to the top not just for British clubs but also for French which will help the game over there (and prevents another Toulouse or early Catalan just being given a go when they aren’t up to standard). The Championship rewards consistency so you’re not going to get teams resting most of their players as we’ve seen this season as they know they’re already in the top 8/4. The smaller leagues will make games more competitive but by having the Super League groups you’ve not lost any games and the smaller clubs still get the payday from playing a big club and the big clubs still get to give some of the kids a try (just not every other week) in the Super League group stage. 2 leagues of 10 will make the game more exciting and meaningful as teams like Salford and London compete for promotion instead of being resigned to not making the SL playoffs every year, which should hopefully attract more fans which will help with finances. However you’ve still got the Super League with top 8 playoffs (only 8 from 20 rather than 14) and your big season climax at Old Trafford, which is what the Super League has become all about. Also with the talk of expanding the World Club Challenge to 3 teams per nation this also means that you’d have 3 very different 1st class competitions, The Challenge cup (no 2nd chances everyone can win but you have to win every game), The Championship (the most consistent team over all games) and The Super League (the team that can best handle the pressure of playing the top teams week in week out and win).

What about the RU method? 1st qualifies straight for the GF and 2nd plays off against 3rd for the chance to play them.