grow up.

Sore losing pie eaters. FFS you finished top of the league. You were the best throughout the season but play offs you fluffed it. I don't care if you rebel and don't buy season passes anymore (like some of you fans have said) but don't blame rules and regulations why you got beat. Leeds got to the GF from within a play off spot. Deal with it! It isn't though they finished 7th or 8th which IMO should't be rewarded for play off spots!

Are you Nigel Wood?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. The majority of the opinions on these forums suggest that some of you are sore losers. Some however have acknowledged the fact that Leeds were up for it and played better than you. I do agree with that and agree the play off structure should be changed. I wouldn't come on here and disagree with you if a team won the competition from 8th place! (Unless it was FC)

This whole thread originated from a question to Bilko about his website. Bilko answered in his usual manner and, as a result, created one of the best debates on here for ages. Then in true forum fashion you surfaced from the bottom of the gene pool and now look where we are.

Good luck to Bilbo and the rest of the Pie Eaters in the World Club Challenge.

Just off you prick you are ruining a perfectly good thread/read.

so then add to the debate. tell us what system you would have, what is right and wrong under the present structure, is the regular season perfect? if so, do you think it will stay perfect the more clubs start resting more players.

It has nothing to do with loosing in the playoffs, it is the complete pointlesness of going every week to watch teams like Hull, Castleford, Salford, Widnes, Wakefield, KR get smashed and being bored out of my tree after about 10 mins because it means absolutly nothing.

Last Friday was one of the few times this season where the blood has been racing, worryingly for the sport it took close to 30 games to mean something!

I dont understand how hard that is to grasp!

Top 6 same as before. Or alternatively winner goes straight to GF 2v5, 4v3 they meet in the next round and winner plays 1st place (the most consistent team and the one that deserves to be in the GF)

Oh look, more good news from Sooper Dooper League Club Castleford: www.loverugbyleague.com/news_103 ... -fans.html Quote Castleford chief executive Steve Ferres has warned fans the club is in a precarious position without a quick fix. The Tigers, who finished level on points with bottom club Widnes in 2012, are targeting 5000 season ticket holders for next season, as it looks to improve its fortunes on and off the field. Ferres said: "There isn’t any doubt that the club is in a precarious position and one that cannot be resolved quickly or easily. "It is now time to be honest with the fans. The club has a vision for the future and knows what it needs to do to move forward but there are significant obstacles to face before it can get there. I think it is very important that the fans understand what these challenges are before they are asked to commit as season ticket holders for next season. "Castleford Tigers fans and their support next year are integral to its future and they deserve to be given a true representation of the club." Ferres has been undertaking a review of the club since his arrival earlier this year.'"

Oh look, more good news from Sooper Dooper League Club Castleford: www.loverugbyleague.com/news_103 ... -fans.html Quote Castleford chief executive Steve Ferres has warned fans the club is in a precarious position without a quick fix. The Tigers, who finished level on points with bottom club Widnes in 2012, are targeting 5000 season ticket holders for next season, as it looks to improve its fortunes on and off the field. Ferres said: "There isn’t any doubt that the club is in a precarious position and one that cannot be resolved quickly or easily. "It is now time to be honest with the fans. The club has a vision for the future and knows what it needs to do to move forward but there are significant obstacles to face before it can get there. I think it is very important that the fans understand what these challenges are before they are asked to commit as season ticket holders for next season. "Castleford Tigers fans and their support next year are integral to its future and they deserve to be given a true representation of the club." Ferres has been undertaking a review of the club since his arrival earlier this year.'"

what a bunch of miserable b******s
you lost, it's the end of the world, we get it!

Another ****ing idiot who can't see past the club-bias agenda. The game as a WHOLE is being discussed not 1 ****ing match in a season.

Friday night was a fantastic game and occasion to be at even if we fell on the wrong side of the score line. Problem is apart from the CC we are only getting that tension in week 3 of the playoffs and the GF when we should be getting it everytime Wigan/Leeds/Saints/Wire play each other in the regular season. You get the feeling that the clubs don't really care if they win in the regular season as long as they win in the playoffs. I don't blame them when where you finish in the league doesn't define your season.

Well, quite simply, i don't think i'm prepared to pay out hundreds next year to watch my club in 27 friendlies until the 'real' season starts at week 1 of the playoffs. I still remember watching Leeds v Wire early in the season and Cullen and Hemmings where saying the coaches won't be really bothered who wins the 2 points at this stage of the season!!!!
how the f*** can that be the mentality when 15,000 plus people have paid £20 or more to be there!!

sorry rant over but i can see the regular season, and British RL with it, going down the drain if the RFL don't sort it quickly.

what if next year, none of the big 4 try to win the league? what the hell are we going to be watching all season?

I am prepared to watch my team win lose or draw whether its a friendly or a league game. I love my RL and will always support my team. Top 8 is a farce but I wouldn't be complaining if I was Leeds and neither would you. How would you feel if you lost key players during the season, dropped points and then key players came back to win the GF? Would you turn round and say "FFS we don't deserve it because we finished outside the top 4?" Yeah right! Give your head a bang and stop being a fake plastic fan. Support your team, the sport and stop being a muppet!

i look back on the season and just think it was unequivocally lame. very few matches that were actual competitions, some entertainment resulting from low skill, low intensity games going to the wire (figure of speech, not warrington) and very few real highlights. from the whole league.

teams are resting players who are not injured knowing they can do so and still quite easily have a shot at winning the grand final. you might follow your team in any type of game they play, but most fans will wise up and start to pick and chose.

I only missed 4 of the 36 games that Wigan played this year and next year will be no different.

The key statistic though is that whereas I barely missed a TV game regardless of who was playing, I've only bothered to watch about 6 games this year that didn't involve Wigan (pre playoffs) and two of them bored me to death.

What a depressing thread, not that I disagree with most of the comments (I don't agree with the unwelcome visitors to the board who seem to think this is all because we lost).

I said on another board recently that Wigan fans have a tendency to think more about the game as a whole than simply our own club and that other clubs' fans tend to think more about their own club first. That sounds arrogant but threads like this and others over the years (like the stupid SC comments from Saints fans in particular) prove it is true.

I despair for RL at the moment.

The management and structures of the sport are just not fit for purpose.

The treatment of Tomkins shows the sport for what it is, petty, parochial and self-defeating. We waited c20 years for another player of similar gifts to Hanley to come along and then when he does the sport gives him the MoS a year late, after the greatest player of his generation suffered abuse from so-called RL fans. Instead of praising him we have stupid threads on rlfans.com in which Tomkins is said to be worse than just about any NRL full back. This stuff is just hate-filled nonsense, but it tells us a lot about the mindset of many RL fans.

What's even worse is that in 20 years' time we simply won't have sublimely talented players like Tomkins in Sooopah Doooopah League or even players who are very good. We will have very mediocre players playing for poor pay in front of small crowds at empty stadiums. The standard has dropped noticeably in the last few years and we can expect things to get worse.

The same people will moan and have a go at him should he leave for the NRL or indeed RU.

I was too young to remember, but were Edwards, Hanley, Gregory or anyone else ever booed by Great Britain fans whilst playing for Great Britain? (I know Longy was when the teams were read out but he wasn't during the game IIRC)

I've been holding off commenting on this thread as I didn't want it to seem like a dummy spit after our exit but I do agree with most comments on here.

Ive been a Wigan fan since I was 11, I was a season ticket holder for 14 years until I started a job 4 years ago that heavily involves shift work; as such I missed more games than I could get to. This was gutting at first as I loved going to every game and watching some great encounters.

However, even if I could still get a season ticket I wouldn't. This year I would have actually been able to get a to a few games that I didnt bother with. The quality of most of the opposition is a joke, am I really expected to pay £20 (£30 including travel) to watch Salford or Widnes or Cas make a game out of it for 5mins especially when the results dont matter??

Prior to this year I'd book the evening/day/night off for the bigger games but again this year I've come to realise the games are meaningless. I dont usually go to friendlies because I dont like friendlies, I want games to mean something and I want the players to play like it means something.

This year I've probably watched 3 games on Sky that didnt involve Wigan and next year I wont be re-subscribing to Sky Sports until very late in the season. I do like the Grand Final, its nice to have a big show piece at the end but something has got to be done about the regular season before more people realise its just a load of meaningless games where teams warm up for a small 3 game final series. This season its been more evident than any before, Tony Smiths face when Warrington lose sums it up, he couldnt give a toss. Most losses by the bigger teams have been shrugged aside by their players and coaches as if they didnt matter. Well it does to the fans and it should to the team.

None of my non-rugby friends can believe a team who finishes in the BOTTOM HALF of the table can win the league, its crazy.

I predict in 10 years time the game is not classed as professional and thats a shame because played and run properly it is the best sport in the world.

Now im off to listen to Radiohead and Morrissey.

[url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/castleford-tigers/inside-rl-leeds-rhinos-not-to-blame-for-the-play-offs-flaws-1-4990088This thread summed up in the YEP article?[/url

Good article. Even recommends changing to a top five playoff to raise the standards during the season, as below:

I dont think anyone is blaming Leeds, they are playing to the system and thats fair enough, they've done a bloody good job.

The fact that over half a league can enter a play-off series with some teams having less than a 50% win ratio is laughable and I cannot think of another sport where this happens

Spot on! Feel exactly that.