An idea I've just come up with elsewhere to offer a better reward to 1st place.....


Perhaps a better idea would be to allow 1st to pick anyone they want straight away (probably 8th) BUT if they choose to do so they have to play in an elimination scenario. They'd still get a week off with a win but should they lose game over.

If they picked 8th the other games would be 2nd v 3rd, 4th v 5th, 6th v 7th. The two highest ranked winners would get the week off.

This way 1st taking a gamble but it's perhaps a gamble worth taking?

I doubt any coach would risk it, anything can happen in knockout rugby

How about a top 7 with the top team getting the first week off?

Or the winners of the league are crowned champions and then have a separate end of season straight knock-out comp with 1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th and so on?

To be honest I don't think it is.
I'd like to see the playoffs involve the top 6 only as long as we have a 14 team competition.

At the other end of the table I'd like to see a game between the Championship winners and the bottom placed Super League team for a place in the following year's SL.

So who would 1st play if they decline to use the Club Call pick?

The choice is you can play 4th (playing on as currently scheduled) in week 1 with the back up of the week off or play 8th but take the risk of being knocked out.

So for arguments sake its Wigan 1st, Leeds 4th and Crusaders 8th.

We could play Leeds with the back up of a week off or risk elmination by playing Crusaders instead of Leeds. So in affect we have the choice of an easier (on paper) game but with risk attached.

I'd take that risk in my view. It doesn't have to be 8th, we could pick 7th or 6th or whoever we deem easier.

I always wondered how 2 leg ties would work as in football, would be too many games though

They were quite common in Rugby League during the second world war with Wigan playing both Challenge Cup and Yorkshire Cup ties over two legs. They even contested Championship and Challenge Cup Finals during that time were contested over two legs. They lost the 1944 Challenge Cup Final over two legs winning the first leg at Central Park 3-0 but losing the 2nd Leg at Odsal 8-0.

After the war they remained in the 1st round of both Lancashire and Challenge Cups until about 1954. They made a brief return in the 1st Round of the BBC 2 Floodlit Cup during the late 60s/early 70s as well.

So it wouldn't be a new idea.

I still think that the top team should only have to win one match before progressing to Old Trafford (as it used to be).

Perfect, but too much common sense.

Top 5 was by far the best.

It should also be a separate competition. Champions are the team that finish top after the 27 rounds. Then have a play off Top 5 (maybe also a 6 - 10 play off) for another trophy.

We simply don't have enough competitions (and hence trophies) any more.

The argument people give is that the playoffs keep the seasons alive, but Premiership playoffs kept the season alive. I don't why we look at mid table clubs and care about keeping their 'season alive' when they are mid table. Teams should be striving to be the best they can and that is winning as many games as possibles. I hate this 'peaking for the playoffs' phrase. You should want to be the best from start to finish. Not for the last 1/8 of the season.

One problem with that is that only 5 clubs could win the treble (league, premiership, challenge cup). It's all well and good having an extra competition but it loses it's appeal when it's only open to a few clubs.

How about top 5 and the CC winner if they are not in the top 5 (otherwise 6th place).

For example Warrington last year won the cup and finished 10th - but were in form. It would also make the Challenge Cup more important.

That would devalue completing a double if you can perform badly in the league but win the Challenge cup to then go on to win the SL play offs; as you'd only have to win what? 10 games in an entire season?


As for the mid-table sides having nothing to play for with a top 5 comp, why not have a separate play offs between 6 - 10 for another trophy (obviously being no where near as prestigious as the top 5 trophy) but it would give lower sides something to play for.

I came up with one a while ago but the only downside is that one team would have a 2 week gap.

Week 1:
G1: 1st v 2nd
G2: 3rd v 8th
G3: 4th v 7th
G4: 5th v 6th

Week 2:
G5: Losers of G1 v Lowest Rank Winners from G2/G3/G4
G6: Highest Rank Winners of G2/G3/G4 v 2nd Highest Rank Winners from G2/G3/G4

Week 3:
G7: Winners of G5 v Winners of G6

Week 4: Winners of G1 v Winners of G7.

Week 1:
G1 - 4th v 5th (Losers eliminated)
G2 - 3rd v 6th (Losers eliminated)

Week 2:
G3 - 1st v 2nd (Winner goes to Grand Final)
G4 - Winner of G1 v Winner of G2 (highest placed team in regular season gets home advantage)

Week 3:
G5 - Loser of G3 v Winner of G4

Week 4:
Grand Final - Winner of G3 v winner of G5


This way there's a maximum one week gap for any team and the teams finishing top and second are rewarded by being able to make it to the Grand Final by winning just one game. The losing side in game 3 gets another bite of the cherry at home the following week.

Ok, I've changed the number of teams in the playoff from 6 to 8 but I really don't like the idea of finishing in the bottom half of the table and having the possibility of being crowned champions.

Another vote for the top 5 here. for a start it pretty much ensures that only teams with a >50% win/loss and + points difference can get anywhere near the playoffs. Also, that system was based around the fact that in order to win the comp you had to beat every team above you on the way. I also feel it gave the fairest number of 'lives' to higher finishing teams whilst giving qualifying teams in 4th and 5th a reasonable chance to win as well.

We'll never go back to that though, the main reason being that there just aren't enough playoff games to satisfy the sky planners.

What I suggest above isn't too dissimilar from the top 5 system.

Going off the table as it stands and let's say the top placed team wins,

Week 1:
G1 - Hull v Leeds (Losers eliminated)
G2 - St Helens v Huddersfield (Losers eliminated)

Week 2:
G3 - Wigan v Warrington (Winner goes to Grand Final)
G4 - St Helens v Hull (highest placed team in regular season gets home advantage)

Week 3:
G5 - Warrington v St Helens

Week 4:
Grand Final - Wigan v Warrington

Wigan come 1st in the league and.... they get the SUPER LEAGUE TROPHY

Another option I would be to have two tiers of Superleague with 10 teams in each and P&R

Top 6 in Tier 1 play off and bottom 4 and top 2 in tier 2 play off for remaining 4 places in tier 1 for following season.

Wouldn't that leave two very short seasons?

I'd like to see a top 6 like so:

Week 1:
3rd v 6th
4th v 5th

Week 2:
1st v Chosen winner from week 1
2nd v Other winner from week 1

Week 3:
Winner from week 2 v Other winner from week 2

I'd like to see the playoff winner (in whatever guise it is) and the CC winner play against there aussie counterparts in a WCC comp> i ven like the idea of a "Community Shield" type game at the beginning of the season with our Playoff and CC winners playing each other.