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.

The 8s concept seems to be a dead duck(ie). The main problems seem to be too many repeat fixtures and the short notice of fixtures at peak holiday time.
I emailed the RFL last year with a suggestion to improve the super 8s.

LLS is awarded after 23 rounds. Have a points carried forward column in the table, but everything else is zeroed (games played/points diff). The 8s is then the premiership with another prize/trophy. Make it 3 points for a win to reflect the greater intensity of games and reward teams that can get on a run against other top sides. The top 4 still play off as now to become champions at the GF. 3 prizes increasing in value/prestige.
So far, if we'd used this system, no team would have won the treble - League/Premiership/Championship
I even got a reply! From Ralph, I think... "Don't phone us, we'll phone you"

I've emailed the RFL myself and never once even had a thanks for your email now feck off.
Just nothing.

As it stands the teams 5-8 are safe but not a lot for the fans to get excited about with the next games as been said we can’t make the play offs .
The top four have a battle royal on their hands and so do the bottom four for a different reason .
Just hope our fans turn out for the next fixtures as well as the team puts the effort in or the season could just fizzle out which would be a real shame

is that so we have a chance to win something

So theres not point in finishing top of the league.
I think he hasn't thought that one through.

In respect of the 8s I've always preferred it to start something like this after 23 rounds.
1st 6pts
2nd 4pts
3rd 3pts
4th 2pts
5th 1pt
6th 0pts
7th 0pts
8th 0pts

Still rewards higher placed teams but still offers all 8 a chance of getting in top 4.

apart from being league winners????

After 23 rounds have a top 5 playoff. Cut down on games get more international games played. Generate more money through this for the game feeding this into the clubs and development offices. Keep the jeopardy if we must.

I have to say I like the current set up.
If you take the points away after 23 rounds there is no point playing for the last few. You'd get teams resting players when they know they are in the 8, and for some that would be 5-6 games before the end.
The middle 8s is excellent from an every minute matters point of view.

There is an issue with both from a sponsorship/season ticket point of view but in a lot of ways that is down to the marketeers to be more creative. It probably hurts a team like us more where we have less supporters so a Thursday game hurts us more when a percentage can't attend so it would be good to resolve that issue.

Unfortunately, the best way to resolve the season ticket/sponsorship issue of not knowing who will play when, is to bring franchising back. It guarantees the fixtures for everyone for this season all the way to the end, and as long as they are financially stable guarantees the next 5 years as well.

If we stay with promotion I'd stay with middle 8s, but just market the up coming teams more than talk about the jeopardy of the SL teams.
The top 8 could easily be changed but the final positions at round 23 have to count for something. Even if only financial.

But your not!!!!
Doh

Why not just award the top team 7 home games, 2nd place has 6 and so on...team 8 has none.
All teams on zero points top 4 play off.

Personally I’m happy that we’ve stayed up and we’re not in a that dog fight

Then we might have more teams in financial trouble than we currently have. That is a non-starter for me.

ok league leaders shield winners....

I get where you are coming from but it's the financial aspect of no to limited home games that wouldn't work. Good teams would financially benefit every year.

Doing this could financially kill a club like ours and others, if we finished 8th, and at a time where there are clubs in lots of financial uncertainty do we really want to be adding others?. Equally, the team in 9th would end up with more home games and would therefore gain more money. The theory of awarding higher placed teams is right, but I dont agree with this suggestion unfortunately.

On the topic f league structure etc though, I think we need to have some sort of promotion and relegation to keep the jeopardy of sport alive and therefore keep the interest there. I'm sure we all remember the pointless dead-rubbers that occured towards the end of the franchising system seasons. There also needs to be some reward and an aim for teams in the lower leagues. We need investors in this sport, and who is going to invest money in to a team like Leigh or Toronto for example, if you have no hope of reaching Super League for a franchise system period of lets say 5 years, as was mentioned above.

My suggestion would be that we employ a system similar to Scottish football. the bottom team from SL would be relegated and the top team from the Championship would be promoted. The team finishing second-bottom in SL would then join the play-off system with the championship teams for the remaining place in SL. There could be a simple system of second-bottom SL team vs 4th, 2nd vs 3rd, with the winner of each game playing in a 'grand final' for promotion to SL. However the play-off system could be expanded (more championship clubs) dependent on the number of teams in each league (which I think should be increased to 14) This would reward your first place team and equally a team like Widnes this year, or WT of 2015 who are/ were both appalling, should suffer the consequences. It also gives the remaining teams in the championship something to aim for.

My issue with a straight one up one down system is that, when you have a team like toronto who just eliminate all teams in their way, that this is going to discourage spending by other clubs. Logically, why would a team like Featherstone lets say, spend all their money trying to compete when they could have a less expensive season and then go for it the following year.

Feel free to rip my ideas to shreds haha

your sounding like Rimmer

That to me is just a rehash of the same thing.
The problem isn't that teams can't get promotion, it's that sponsors and season ticket holders don't know what they are paying for at the beginning of the year.

I don't mind your concept in fact I quite like it but it doesn't solve the problem.