To win the sheild and not win the GF would be devastating for any team.

The shield doesn't get enough recognition for me. I know the whole point is to win the biggest title; the GF but potentially this can be done from being mediocre over the season coming 8th in the league and having a great run of form.

I love the concept of the Grand Final as it means theres still so much to play for but it should not take away and devalue the sheild. Winning the sheild is a much harder feat and this 'i'm not bothered about the hub cap' wah wah wah really grates on me.

League leaders should be champs but we know its not like that anymore. When we finished top last year nobody gave a poop until we won the GF. Its sad imo but thats the way the game has gone. League leaders is more of a self satisfaction thing nowadays, the club that wins it will be proud but nobody else gives a crap unfortunatley.

I agree with this, however, cast your minds back to the Leeds away game. We fall heavily behind and Sam kicks a penalty with seconds to spare to earn us a draw.

I think this cancels out one of the ones we should've won above. Therefore we should be one point ahead of where we are now which would be level with Warrington. With their huge PD, they would still be top. Fair play to them they've had a wicked season and completely deserve it.

However, three little words - COME ON HULL!!!!!

I said last year and I will still say it this year when we wont get it but I think the league leaders should be equal to the GF. The league leaders shield requires consistency and being able to push out those dirty close wins that other teams would lose. I think at the very most the Play-Offs should be a seperate competition with the participants decided on league position.

This way this year it would be something like(in order of competition won by calendar not importance before a Wire moans):
Challenge Cup Winners - Wigan Warriors
Super League Champions - Wire (probably now)
Play-off Winners - whoever probably Wigan/Wire

IMO the league leaders shield doesnt get the credit it deserves you look back at previous years its all about the GF which i thinks wrong as winning the league is harder than winning the GF maybe a better incentive could be offered for finishing top

Thats the point i made on another thread but got shouted down. They are inconsistant, none of them has even mentioned Salford turning them over in their own backyard earlier in the season, they have always done that.

I'm not actually convinced that people don't rate winning the LLS. imo it's simply opposition fans trying to minimise the success of their rivals. If they won it they would rightfully celebrate being the most consistently successful team of the season. They more than likely still believe that when somebody else wins it but will say things like "the hubcap" to lessen the blow of failure and minimise the success of others.

Only you could label the team sat at the top of the league with the best attack and best defence and having played 26 games and won 21 of them as inconsistent.............

Winning the Grand Final is the only thing that matters.

Eddie & Stevo say so, so it must be true - after all, Sky invented our sport!

Battering most teams and also losing to Salford at home is probably one of the biggest inconsistencies you can have in this league.

True. But on the other hand we did the same at Leeds which has to be seen as a point gained that didnt look likey with 25 mins left

pretty sure that guy is this forums 'Ron'

Would it be so wrong of me to suggest the following ? ..

As we currently have a knockout playoff competition that includes 8 out of 14 teams . Why not include the other six teams , and just have an all included SL KO end of season comp ?
1 v 8
2 v 9
3 v 10
4 v 11
5 v 12
6 v 13
7 v 14
Highest League positioned loser from first round go into the draw for the second round to make up the 8 for second round .
Simples .


El Diablo . I am unsure as to wether I would swap the titles , although I do consider the LL more of an achievement than GF success . But I definitely wouldn't swap the memories of those days out . Swapping the titles would take the edge off those victories at OT . I could never surrender the memory of Marching On Together belting out over the PA at Old Trafford . That was a classic moment in my RL supporting life .

They have been inconsistant for longer than this season, you know that so why disagree with me. Am sure i mentioned they had been the same for years, you need to understand what i have written before come back with silly conclusions.

I suggested this once and got shouted down but i think its spot on except id have a full reverse ie:
1st v 14th
2nd v 13th
3rd v 12th and so on.

Gives that incentive to not finish bottom as people say was lost when relegation went as they wont wanna play top of the table straight away I'd also have a 3rd place play off as a curtain raiser to the gf gives it even better support then I think you allocate each of the 3rd and 4th an area behind sticks and the gf teams an area at the sides.

The old top five format was the best.

Playoff for third place sounds like a very good idea . Don't they do something like that in the wendyball WC ?

The team that finishes top SHOULD be crowned Champions and that is the end of it. This isn't the case however and the Champions are not crowned until after the Grand Final.

Whilst finishing top is a major achievement it means jack under the current rules (which as I said imo is wrong but they're the rules). Whilst I'd like to finish top every year, I would quite happily take 8th as long as we are the ones parading the trophy at Old Trafford. (read my thoughts on the hubcap last year for verification)

It actually works better for us IF we finish top this season imo in that the presentation will be done at training and we can just say 'thanks very much, we'll stick it in the cabinet' and move on instead of having some crap parade thing like we did last season.

I would agree that the current format doesn't give the team that finishes top at the end of the regular season "enough" benefit.

However, those are the rules at the start and we must play to them. There is no doubt in my mind that Wigan would have approached some games in the regular season very differently if they thought that coming top after the regualar rounds made them champions (as would other teams to be fair).

To be fair to Wire, I don't think you can count the Salford game. It was on the same weekend as the Exciles game. We went 22-0 up at Cas and ended up only drawing.... think most of the top teams should ignore that weekend's games when doing a season review.

Correct. No matter what you think of them you cannot dispute their quality throughout the whole season. Their blip against Salford is easily explained away. Also, the way they coped effortlessly without Briers and Morley for extended spells has to be acknowledged too.

It might not taste too good, but Wire are a top side - possibly THE top side.

I know they used to gone off football a bit so I can only assume they still do haha.

But I think it would be superb and a lot better than now where the league champions have got nothing to do with consistency. I mean the team that finishes 4th can win the league by playing the same amount of games 1st place would have needed to or 8th place can win by playing 1 more. Its not really a fair system to the most consistent team in the league all year.

Btw centralparkforever. Wire are not inconsistent they have had what are called drops in form they just bounce back a week later. Think of us with the Cas game.

It's going to be interesting to compare the games played by whoever wins the GF in the playoffs to those we had to play to win the cup.

If it's us or Wire you can guarantee it won't be as hard a path to the GF then we faced to get Wembley.

Of course that is the reward you get for a good season in the league but it also means winning the cup should not be by any means a second string competition in terms of merit.

It certainly isn't financially as you get more money from a cup final appearance than that of GF one.

The current play-off system also needs to be scrapped. Top 8 is rubbish and the best of the lot is top 5 because that does give THE most direct link to league performance and the advantage you get for finishing higher up the table.

As to which is best league winners or GF winners I have always thought the league but acknowledge the sport has chosen a different way to crown the champions.

But you watch, I expect Wire tyo get the shield by beating Hull and when they do look at the headlines. They will read Wire's first championship since 1955 regardless of the fact the sport deems the GF winners the champions. That is because in our country compared to OZ the concept of playoffs are still not part of the sporting psyche.

Yes, I well remember your signature on RSRL for a long time, wasn't it something like: "Wigan Warriors - 1998 Champions (oh and we won the Grand Final as well)" ?

Sadly, I suspect that prediction (IF we beat Hull tonight, it's not a given) is going to be proven accurate. And it will be pretty embarrassing.