I've been trying to find an explanation for the League 1 Super 8s and eventually found one on the Doncaster RL web site; Thanks to Doncaster RL and i hope you don't mind me copying it here?

The League 1 Super 8s will commence on the weekend of July 22nd-July 24th.

The final league position of each team on July 10th will determine who play's who and where in the Super 8’s. The top four teams will be guaranteed four home games. Below is the structure on how this is decided:

1st- Home 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th / Away 4th, 7th, 8th

2nd- Home 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th / Away 1st, 5th, 8th

3rd- Home 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th / Away 1st, 2nd, 6th

4th- Home 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th / Away 2nd, 3rd, 7th

5th- Home 2nd, 6th, 7th / Away 1st, 3rd, 4th, 8th

6th- Home 3rd, 7th, 8th / Away 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th

7th- Home 1st, 4th, 8th / Away 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th

8th- Home 1st, 2nd, 5th / Away 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th

I mentioned last week that I thought our final league position would probably be 6th place barring an upset at London Skolars today (pray for an upset

) in which case we can look forward to away games at Toulouse and Rochdale but remember that in 2003 against the odds we gained promotion through the play offs so everything to play for



Edit: Praying didn't help, London lost so the Cougars have to go to Toulouse again!

Seems to me we are pretty fooked this season. (Sorry for the language Jim)

We have been driven in to the ground over the 'March' period.

I can take that we will not be promoted as long as we have a new coach and the chance of a future for Keighley Cougars.

Cougarmania hasn't existed in the true sense of the word since the 90's, lets hope that it lives again soon and before the club dies under the current regime.

I'm sorry to appear so negative everyone but I am losing the will to live here.

I want nothing more than to say I lived to see the day that the Keighley Cougars entered superleague, (this hopefully shows my passion for Keighley Cougars) even if only for one season with demotion nailed on, but I fear I won't be here to see it happen.

One day maybe.......

So now to the Super 8s, I think it's fair say that most if not everybody would expect Toulouse to breeze through to the play-offs and most probably promotion, one would also expect Rochdale to make it through but the other three places are up for grabs and I see no reason , apart from how we've play this season

, why we can't get there but from the statistics of for/against, I do see a dark horse in Barrow, for/against = + 276 should put them third in league just 19 points behind Rochdale's 295.

Although looking at statistic, the cougars have score 520 points, which for attacking football should have us in 4th place, shame about the Toulouse match, I bet it doesn't happen a second time!

The Super 8s could be very interesting.

Are we playing next weeķ if so need to get fixtures out ASAP?

No, my understanding is weekend of 22~24th.

Correct no C1 games 16-17/7.

With respect KGRLC, the best team to have played at Toulouse this season has been Donny. York looked good in parts and Keighley were the worst by a mile. I can't imafine Toulouse being beaten at home but matbe Donny could 'do' them at their place. Rochdale is the team Toulouse want to beat, if only to prove a point to Mr Kilshaw.

San is back saying the Cougars are the worst in history.

What score you going for in the re-match? 407-0?

Well, Paul March said it was his worst moment either as a player or coach in the game which shows how poor the performance was ! The weather conditions will dictate the score. The last game was played in relatively cool conditions but the next game conditions will be much warmer probably which won't suit the older players in the Cougars 17.

Score prediction please?

Toulouse 18 Cougars 22 Man of the match Jamel Goodall (Cougars)

I have every confidence on how this "super 8's"



will end up for the Cougars.

Toronto we're on our way!

Toulouse away first up. Least amount of time for fans to book up flights etc.

Got to expect that from the RFL as we get the rough end of a lot of decisions they make. That been said finishing 6th in this league is poor so only ourselves to blame.

Fortunately I am a glass half full kind of person. Having travelled to Toulouse For the first game I am glad it is the first game and also that it is away. Get it out of the way and then focus on winning the rest !!
The reality of where we are this season statistically in the league gives us every chance of still qualifying for the play offs. We are only 3 points behind 3rd place , York ,who we have beaten twice already. We lost to fifth place with the last kick of the game and we got blown away early in the season by Doncaster/Hull, so I believe all these games are winnable now. However we are going to have to step up our performances in order to do this which has not really been forthcoming of late. Here's hoping.

Toulouse 48 Cougars 14

MOM - Rhys Curran

Clearly I have misunderstood the Super 8s concept, I'd assumed that the points accumulated through the season were zeroed for the super 8s competition, not too sure I see the point of it now!

The point is that teams are rewarded for their efforts, or lack of it over 14 league games.
The incentive is to get into the subsequent top five in order to still have a chance of promotion. The system is based on merit so what's wrong with that ?

The only one where points are actually returned to zero, is the bottom 4 of SL, top 4 of CC, because they've been playing different teams up till now. All others just carry the points forward.

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it [iper se[/i. Just my understanding of it, we may as well have played everybody home and away then gone on to the play offs. Just my two penneth worth

.

The home and away system plus play-offs would have made the season finish in about november, hence the truncated version I assume. Home and away plus p-o's would have been great with a 10 team league for example. I don't think the present system is perfect but given there are 15 teams it's not that bad in my humble opinion.

Well, just exploring the league a little further. Consider if the championship is increase by two teams, sure their season is extended by 2 games but at the end, as with super league and the championship, the bottom two teams could play in the league 1 play offs. Also since league 1 is now reduced in size then home and away fixtures are possible if we start earlier. Lets face it the super league season starts a whole four weeks before league 1.

Sure, we have the Ipro cup to contend with but when I first started watching Rugby league we played a lot of games, twice a week wasn't unusual. Besides the league fixtures, we had the Yorkshire/Lancashire Cup, the John Player Cup, the Floodlit Trophy and Challenge Cup ................ happy days!

Must win today (obviously) to have any chance of reaching the play offs, that would leave us with two matches Barrow away, I don't think we'll get anything there just have to keep the score down, then York at home another must win. Whereas Doncaster have Rochdale and York away then Skolars at home, I only see Doncaster getting 2 points against Skolars. So we end up on the same points, for and against will be important for us to reach the play offs where we will probably play Barrow away, hopefully we will have learnt something about them from our next match.

[iTrying to keep the faith![/i

Depending on which team turns out Doncaster could win all 4 , we played well at Hunslet & didn't do too bad against Toulouse.
Going to be a tough game today for both sides !

Is it over for this year, did anybody hear the fat lady singing yesterday? I guess there's still a chance but I'm totally peed off!

You guys were the better side for most of the game , then you got the Doncaster virus ie giving penalties away.

COYD