A week ago there was an interview published in the Mail with the St Helens chairman which I believe was in all the local rags as well.

Basically the jist for those who didn't see it was that he wasn't a fan of the top 8 playoff system or even the top 6 that preceded it. He stated that the competition is encouraging mediocrity and that the regular season games were in danger of becoming virtually meaningless. He suggests a simple top 3 playoff where the 1st placed team goes through to the Grand Final and 2nd and 3rd simply play off to meet them there.

I agreed with him at the time of reading. And in the midst of Wigan's current predicament I agree with him even more now. As everyone knows, the 'reality of thie competition' as Noble describes it is that you can have an awful season, finish in the bottom half and then win four games at the end of the year and become champions. I find it a farcical system that although may have financial benefits and provide all clubs with something to aim for is damaging the integrity of the sport.

From a personal perspective I also can't help but notice that it is dampening my enthusiasm for the game. The whole point of the enjoyment of cut-throat professional sport is the desperation for your side to win - experiencing the happiness of it if you do and the consequences if you don't. That doesn't exist in rugby league any more, for me and I'm sure many others the regular season fixtures have simply become a pre-season warmup.

Is it acceptable that a coach such as Noble can provide such dross during the season and get away with it due to a late flurry for 3 weeks at playoff time? Is it acceptable that the fans have to put up with that? Personally and I know that this would virtually render Wigan's chances of winning the title to zero for a few years, I would endorse a return to a traditional league championship with no playoffs at all which hopefully might encourage teams like Wigan to sharpen up their act. Imagine going back to the days where you knew every single game was vitally important. As far as giving all clubs something to aim for, surely there could be something else the game could provide. Possibly an expanded World Club Championship for the top 4-6 to be played after the regular season? Just a thought? But IMO for the integrity of the sport, the structure of the Super League needs to change.

In a strange way I actually agree with you! Even if the competition becomes more exciting, could you imagine United finishing top of the Premiership, only for Everton to be crownd as Champions?

Who ever finishes top, should be classed as champions if you ask me.

Although to end up as Champions this year would be great after how bad we have been and how bad we will most probably continue to be.

Great post/thought/opinion and i toitally agree

Unfortunately it wont change

I wholly disagree. I would quite frankly find it embarrassing and humiliating for both the club and sport if we were to win it after being so bad and finishing somewhere around 6th to 8th.

Although the winners of the league deserve to be champions this will never come about.

I do agree as well that the play-off system should be limited to the top three but this can only be put into place when every team in the league is competitive and most the league will be in the running for a large portion of the season.

Changing it now will make the game less interesting to supporters of lesser teams and will hurt attendances. For now the play-off system is the right way to do things as it gives incentives to sides less inclined to win the league to continue to perform and keeps the fans happy (Lets face it, if Celtic finished eighth this season they would never win the league anyway.)

Even if it meant we beat Saints in Grand Final, 20-19 with Richie Mathers scoring a last second drop goal?

We live in hope eh?

The top 5 system was easily the best. It rewarded the team that finished top in that they only had to win one game to reach the grand final.

To win it from third was difficult.

To win it from fourth or fifth was almost impossible.

We dont!

I totally agree.

The season has completely lost the spark that it once had. 1996 for example was very special from a Saints POV because every game mattered. I remember the day Terry Matterson kicked that goal to salvage a draw against you guys and the Saints fans celebrated big time, because it was vital. Whilst it's funny seeing you guys losing at the moment from a Saints POV, I'm not wholly that bothered as we all know the title is won in October, not in February. Wigan always peak for the Play Offs and get pretty close.

When the Play Offs were introduced it initially had a huge spark. The Premiership was going nowhere with low crowds and it was seen as a minor trophy at the end of a long, hard season. The Play Offs created a spark. It gave others hope and it meant that the end of season meant something. The top 5 system was great and when Bradford did win from 3rd, alot of people applauded there great effort to do so.

Then we went to the 6, and for me it lost a bit of spark. A top placed reward became a top 2 reward, which devalued the comp slightly. The current top 8 system is terrible though. As unlikely as it is, to see an 8th placed team possibly win the comp is laughable in my eyes.

There's a balance between this though. With 14 teams in the comp a top three Play Off would be disastrous for the teams lower down the table. The comp would be gone by the mid point of the season and alot of games would become uncompetitive, so I don't think a top 3 is logistical in a 14 team league. Top 5 wuld be ideal IMO. It would bring back some spark and competitiveness in the middle part of the table. Teams would have to be more consistent.

I agree with Rogues

Top 5 playoff system was excellent. I wasn't in favour of expanding the competition to 14 teams in the first instance because we don't have the playing personnel to fill 14 quality teams. Expanding the playoffs to 8 teams is a mistake.

Help.

We all know the reasons.

It's nothing to do with giving more clubs something to play for at all.

It's about revenue and tv.

Simple as that.

I just wish they'd be more honest about it.

If he didn't miss the game because of a ban he'd have been sent off by half time.

I'd like to see more value (and hence winning money) placed on finishing top of the pile and then say the top 2/3 play top 2/3 from the NRL in a knockout for the WCC with say 3/4 - 8 playing for in another knockout competition for like a 'best of the rest' cup giving the lower teams something to play for.

I agree completely Brian. The 5 was complicated looking but provided odds in direct proportion to finishing position. The regular season is close to meaningless now and I can't help but wonder if it will lead to lower crowds due to the importance of the games being diminished. Even all the pre-season optimism on here was based on our play-off wins of just 2 games. That shouldn't be allowed to brush a mediocre year under the carpet by basically finishing in the top half of a league. Painful as it is to say it, St's achievement in finishing top the last couple of years is more than Leeds winning the one off final and to me the play off winners should only be an additional trophy rather than the championship.

I agree.

Does this mean we are now a merged club?

I agree totally with the sentiments on here, imo the fact that a team is likely to lose half or more of their games this year and have a shot a being called champions is laughable.

The only way the first past the post system can be called champions is if every club plays each other home and away, and only once.

Last season, in the "regular games" Wigan played the top 3, Saints 4 times, Leeds three times and Catalan three times in.

If we are going to go to he first past the post then we would have to scrap the "magic weekend"

Edited for correctness

I don't agree with that. The Grand Final is our Superbowl and should be kept that way. A head-to-head decider is the only way to decide who is our champion team. There are far too many intangibles during the course of the season that undermine the football style top of the league placings e.g. two years ago Saints finished top of the league despite having been beaten by Leeds several times during the course of the season. Of course there are alternatives where the top team has been the better side over the course of the year and lost but that's the way it is. With a playoff format a team that is unlucky with a couple of injuries at the start of the year still has a chance of winning it. Under the top of the league format that's virtually impossible if you have a bit of bad luck.

That still wouldn't be exact. You would have to have exact conditions in every match for it to be the perfect and fair determinant that people say it is e.g. if you played us next week and Long wasn't playing that wouldn't be the same as beating us if he was playing.

The top of the league format primarily rewards squad depth and consistency not big game mentality and the true test of a good side is its ability to perform on the big stage at Old Trafford against the very best, not at Belle Vue in April or The Stoop in June.

By the same token a team that has been outstanding all year can suffer a couple of key injuries and lose a Final - Terry Newton should have rammed that point home to you. I don't dislike the play offs as an end of season jamboree, it is the fact that they now are seen as the sole achievement in the league structure rendering the rest meaningless.

I like the Play Offs, it's been very good in the past. The RFL have just gone too far with the top 8 idea. We follow the Australians far too much on some things thinking they are perfect, when they're not.

I remember that but dems da breaks. The playoffs don't render the rest of the season meaningless because they are a jostle for position at the end of the season.

I've said this a million times but all the premier sporting competitions in the world climax with a head-to-head final. It's the only way to decide things e.g. World Cups, Champions League, Superbowl, NRL, World Series, Boxing, Olympics, golf, Wimbledon, FA Cup etc. Winning when the pressure is on is the only true measure of a great side. Christ, even Halifax finished top of the league once during my lifetime and there were better teams than them that year.

I agree with Eamonn McManus!