Why not have the team finishing top going straight through to the final. They deserve it after a season proving they are the better side. let the other teams fight it out to see who'll meet them. Simples.

A team can finish top but go off the boil towards the back end of the season. I think making the top team win a play off kind of safeguards a good final.

One problem with that is you could have the team finishing top sat on their backsides for 3 maybe 4 weeks. I'm sure most coaches would prefer their players to be match ready come the Grand Final.

Good points.

I don't think there is a system which pleases everyone. I still think more emphasis and recognition needs to be given to the side that finishes top of the league. John Monie always liked winning the league as in his mind, it proved who the best team was over the season, not just over 3 or 4 games.
It's like playing for the Premiership Trophy years ago. Wigan very rarely won it after finishing top. It's just rebranded now, and more emphasis is placed on the winner of a cup competition of 3 or 4 rounds than a team that has played consistently over a season.

I just can't belive the winners of a 4 weeks competition are champions the the winners of a 27 games comp have, in theory, nowt!

I'd go for something similar to that posted above, it's quite radical and would involve a massive change in the mentality of everyone with an interest in RL and would send shockwaves throughout the sporting world. Here goes - whoever amasses the most points after playing every other team in SL once at home and once away will be crowned champions. In the event of more than one team finishing on the same number of points then the difference between points scored and points conceded will be taken into account.

Once we've let those shock waves reverberate there should be two end of season tournaments between the top 6 and the top 8 culminating in a double header finals day at Old Trafford (imagine that, 2 matches at OT in one day) one could be called the premiership and one the minor premiership.













Just a crazy thought.

It'll never catch on. Imagine a massive world wide sport like football trying that??? It would be a laughing stock and nobody would turn up.

Next you'll be saying the team who scores the most points in a game wins

That's what it used to be?

Was it so bad?

No not at all I just got the impression that you were trying to come up with a new idea, the top 6 system was a lot more fair and there was a lot more advantage in finishing 1st and 2nd.