I for one would love to win every game in the super eights, but it isn't going to happen.
Therefore looking at the top four we need 4 wins extra than Warrington !
Will they loose 4 to enable us to pass them ? & then loose more for them not to overtake us ?
Time to get real, we can play for 5th. In order to get better prize money & club prestige !
At some stage we may have to decide on some younger players gaining experience & our half backs
Bonding better week by week !
Come on the trin.

Sorry for the double post, error !

You're talking about Wakefield Trinity here remember TrinTrin. I can't see them performing any differently to the erratic way that they have been throughout the season so far. I'd like to think different but I can't. I reckon 7th or 8th final placing.

Yep, I agree -- it pains me to say !

I think we could realistically aim for 5th .

it just how much motivation is left in the players - most are signed up for next year - is there anything to play for?

Maybe pride and the monetary prizefund BOJ042

I've been saying this since the 1st year of the concept...it's flawed and the only way to fix it is to have a 4th vs 5th jeopardy game which can be played on the same weekend as the £m game.
It means 1234 can't rest players because their all wanting to avoid 4th and an extra game, and 5678 all have a realistic chance of 5th like you pointed out.
No dead rubbers.

How peeved off would you be if lets say Wire were to finish 8 points above 5th and ended up missing out on the semis because of that jeopardy game? For me the top 4/8 format is fine as it is as it currently stands, teams know they have to be consistent throughout the season to earn a place in the playoffs.

I don't mind the super 8's format - but think they should get rid of the points at the end of round 23 like they do with the middle 8's - giving more incentive from every team.

Less than a 50% win ratio from the last 53 League games suggests that we’re an 8th or 7th standard team, so we’re where we deserve to be.

That said, with this squad I beleive we should be performing better than that! When you factor in the implosions by Sts, Warrington, Leeds, Catalan & Wigan in either one or both of the last two seasons then we’ve missed an opportunity to do something really special.

Why should they? Why shouldn’t the teams who have been the most consistent over the season be given an advantage? They’ve done the hard yards, it would hardly be fair at this point for Saints to be starting on the same points as us when they’d managed twice as many as us up to this stage!

er incentive???
also as has been alluded too, its a pointless exercise - why do it with the middle 8 and not supers?
every team has ambition to get to the grand final, but its not a level playing field to start with.
it would be better if they turned it into a cup comp - 1v8, 2v7 etc. in one off games followed by semi finals then final.

So what's the incentive to finish first in the regular rounds if you just end up with the same points as 8th? Teams who are far behind 1-4 only have themselves to blame not the system.

I'd say to win the league......

Well, because the top championship clubs are on 30+ points and the bottom SL clubs under 20 that's why!

Well, winning the league would become even more irrelevant if teams 5-8 had equal chance of getting the Grand Final? For example, it wouldnt be right if we got the Grand Final at the expense of Saints.

If such a thing were to happen it would be a travesty, however I could live with it.

You could put the same argument forward for the team finishing fourth. I think it never seemed right in the old days of a 30 team league that the championship play-offs allowed the team finishing fourth to be "champions", and not the side finishing top, even though that's how Trinity achieved their two championship trophies. Lets face it, the play-offs are purely there to make money.

True.

And I suppose they're aren't any Rhinos complaining about winning the Grand Final from 5th.

exactly.
do you get the point now??


seeing as you've just contradicted yourself by mentioning leeds......

Mainly because the teams taking part in the middle 8’s have been involved in different competitions. And of course it’s a level playing field, every team in the super 8’s has had the exact same chance to be as far up the table as possible. The fact that teams like us weren’t good enough to rack up enough points in the regular season is quite frankly tough luck. The teams at the top deserve the lead they have. The incentive is to be better over the whole season. Yes it’s going to be pretty dull for the remainder of this season but that’s our own fault for not winning more games.

FWIW i’d do away with the whole 8’s concept, go to a 14 team SL and a top 6 play off, with home advantage and second chances the bias for the clubs at the top of that. Then a straight one up, one down at the bottom with second bottom of superleague playing second in the championship as the million pound game for a potential second promotion place. Personal opinion though.

Well, the top 8 back then were all playoffs, a bit different and easier to this format.

But why should a team, like Saints and Cas last year, who's built a ten point gap over the course of a season, have all their points scrapped, just because a few teams didn't play as consistently and found themselves with to much do to make the top four?

Anyway, sounds like this is the last year of this format, and it's back to the easier way.

I'm sure the RFL will find a play-off system eventually that might get rid of us before we get a new ground!

Peeved not at all. We'd all know before the season and all the top clubs won't be resting players until they're guaranteed 3rd or higher.

...
And furthermore it doesn't work and never has.
Only one team made 4th from outside the original split since the concept began...and that was only because Salford collapsed.
Wakefield or Hudds deserve a decent crack....alas just dead rubbers making up the numbers as Wire only need 3 wins from 7 with 4 home games.