I agree with that but still think if it pours it down it'll be a big leveller. Also in close games the refs can have a huge influence, watched the Wire game from the HJ again last night and in the first half our attack was killed by persistent and pretty blatant ball stealing yet Silverwood gave them all as knock ons, we could quite easily have lost that game had Solomona not been prevented from grounding the ball (or had he not dropped it if you're a Wire fan) but we had very little possession in the first half and should never have been in that situation. Had the conditions under foot not been as good due to rain, Amos may not have scored his first try and they'd have won. Our defence was phenomenal that day but in the playoffs the difference between winning and losing can be one mistake, one bad decision or an injury to a key player... Its that close

My sentiments exactly. There is really no difference between the top 4 so far. Yes your lot might have wrapped up the League Leaders Shield but on any given day any of the top 4 can beat any of the other 3.

Time will tell.

I think under the top 6 playoff system we would win it due to the advantage given to the team finishing top but with the top 8 I just can't see any advantage.

To me, the 27 game league season now is just one big pre season tournament before the actual comp begins in Week 1 of the playoffs. I think that's what happens with a top 8 format.

I can only see regular season crowds dropping off ala NRL, if the league games don't become more meaningful.

But at least 3/4 of all games would be meaningless if we simply had a system where the 1st placed team won the league.

As I've said previously, in the Premier League there is the title, CL and Europa League to aim for plus the motivation to avoid relegation. SL has none of these extra incentives bar the title itself.

The top 8 is correct in my opinion, its just the format of the playoffs I have a problem with.

Think there should be more emphasis on finishing top with the grand final some what more second place to the league. Its only a matter of time before an 8th placed team win grand final with having lost half there games or so. The way it is sees the likes of saints and leeds etc not giving there all when know going to finnish in top 8 and holding out for a grand final

In Premier League terms, the top 8 in SL, would be the equivalent of 11 or 12 teams qualifying for Europe. I really didn't see anything wrong in the top 6 system. It gave a big advantage to 1st and 2nd, and i think thats how it should be. It also meant the playoff were more elite. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

Agreed. Play-offs have their attractions, but it's a shame that they completely over-shadow the league. I've never been a huge fan of the current structure; no team who finishes 8th in the league could legitimately be "champions".

There should be a separate knock-out cup competition played after the league with the top teams battling it out to be "best of the best", but tying such a competition in with being so-called Super League winners doesn't make sense, imo.

Which surely points out a flaw in the current system?

Which is actually wrong. We finished top and won it last year. Saints, like you guys will this year, have only blown it 2 out the last 3 years from top.

I couldn't agree with you more

Obviously you do as you now look like not even making the semi's

as are the wire fans that you've lost, you should learn never to shoot your load too early!

For me finishing top this season was a massive bonus as before the season no one fancied us. Were missing some depth in the squad that is more than sorted for next season. Tonight and the home game against Wire proves this point. If we get to the GF or miss out this season i wont be that disapointed but next season i will be gutted. Were better than we were last year but next season could be out best in a long while

I got 14/1 for us to win the league, and 8/1 for us to win the GF at the start of the season. I can't for the life of me understand why were longer odds to win the league when the GF is the so called hardest to win.

Did u put that bet on with real optimism of winning the hub cap.

A work colleague of mine put a £10 on Everton to win the premiership. Something tells me the bookie will be keeping his money.

platoffs are the trie test of champions.

winning pressure games when it counts.

You have to be consistent as well, only 1 team has ever won it from outside the top 2.

you do realise that was posted in July? it was during the season when everyone had a chance to point and laugh at the teams that lost (albeit that was a loss at Catalans!)



no doubt some wigan fans were enjoying the fact you lost on Friday but to reply to that from a couple months ago....

i only saw that it was an old old post after posting, and lets not get into who lost to who as if i remember we ost to catalans away, yet you lost to the quins at the dw, we all know that is worse!

In all honesty

Who cares?

I never in a thought we could win the league. To do it over 8 months week in week out, performance after performance, no i didn't think we could. I had us down for finishing 4th to be honest, but i knew we always had a chance in the playoffs, one off games, ref decisions go your way, injuries to opposition and you can win it. Especially with the new format meaning its a lot easier to win it from 4th. In cup football anything can happen. Its only over 4 weeks.

haha! been brainwashed have we?!!!

What you dont realise is that the top teams nowadays time their run for the end of the season. If you know the champions are crowned in the playoffs why kill yourselves in the beginning. We did that in 05 and look where it got us... nowhere. We did it again in 08 and were lucky enough that we had such a big lead when the playoffs suited a top 2 finish to recover. Last season we started playing with about 2 months of the season left and we have done similar this year with the 1 blip recently coming in the Cup Final unfortunately.

And cut the BS with this brainwash crap... this is the way its been for 12 years now. All team/players/fans know the format and how you are crowned as Champions and it seems the only teams that dont like it are you and Saints. We didnt b[ii[/itch and moan when the Lower ranked Bulls beat us in 05. We accepted it, as they were the comp rules.

Brainwashed. Such a shame.

'we started playing with about 2 months of the season left' what about the other months? I want to see the best all season, not for 2 months. Don't bend over and just accept it mate. Would you accept it if you did more work than anyone else in your job but didn't get your bonus because you didn't 'peak' at the end of the year?? That's BS.
I'm not surprised you didn't 'bitch' and 'moan' when you lost in 05! You hadn't even finished top you cheeky beggar!

Aye, but even if we had have finished top in Leeds we know it means nothing. No ones ever called us champions the 2 times its happened in SL. In fact when we "won" the LL Shield at Salford last season the Salford music man played we are the champions and it was rather cringeworthy.

The reason we dont try to peak until the back end of the season is because we know we can play at 50% for the first 2/3rds of the year and still win the comp. Thats just the way it is. If you dont like it go watch soccer.

And we still lost to a team that finished below us in '05. It hurt as we were the better team throughout the year but they beat us when it count. We accepted it because as I said, those are the comp rules.