The top 4 clubs in the league !
The RL have had a change of heart .
Source Dons Chairman .

So that mean if a club wins the GF from fifth they wont be promoted?

Yes , the top 4 go up .

terrible decision

You have to be joking !

Not joking at all.What will be the point in having the end of season playoffs?

They have em in the Championship & SL & no club gets promotion as a result !

Getting to ,or winning, the CC GF gives you the right to apply for sl,thats the incentive.
What will be the incentive to half the clubs in the division when halfway through the season when they know they can't make the top four?.
If they'd announced this a couple of months ago i think it would have been ok but to do it now just before the season starts is terrible

They are w@nkers it's a fact.
They just chuck balls up in the air and see where they land.
They haven't got a clue about unintended consequences and have got no shame about changing rules when it doesn't suit.

The RFL close off the top division and take away clubs ambitions and basically tells teams such as batley etc that they will never get to the top division. And then wonder why fans are deserting the sport. They are a joke

I am sure it was stated the clubs had requested the change !

Which sort of begs the question .... why didn't they ask them in the first place.
And if they did, why change.

Personally, I prefer first 4 get promoted.
You know where you are at and it saves a lot of jigger-pokery at the back end of the season.

Lets say you were clearly one of the best sides and had crippling injuries a the play-off end of the season and got knocked out. That is clearly not fair, if you finished high up in the table.

I agree , the fairest way .

COYD

Absolutely agree, and all divisions should be based on top teams up bottom teams relegated, including super league.

Batley will never, ever, ever be in the top division regardless of which system of promotion is used, and I'm pretty sure their fans are fully aware of that.

they were robbed of a place in the top division at the onset of super league. Who would have thought you would have seen Barnsley,Bradford or even Hull city in the premier league. The point is they had the chance and took it- albeit briefly, i am sure the clubs and fans enjoyed it, and there is a chance, however remote, to do it again. In rugby league that chance does not exist. Sky television have a lot to answer for in my opinion.Sure i watch it because im a league fan,but i also enjoyed watching the bbc2 floodlit trophy when the game wasnt so "closed shop"

You are right.
it doesn't matter a jot that some teams in reality will never make Superleague.
It does matter that they have a chance to.

just look at our history how good was the couple of years when we got promoted to the big league! ok what happened after is somthing we all want to forget but at least we tasted the high life so to speak n I for one loved every minute

but now with the franchise system teams like batley donny n many more will never have chance to play in top tier!

The official line is that the clubs are to vote this week, so the Dons Chairman has been a bit premature there.

This makes no sense. Any team with potential to play in Super League has far more chance of making it under the current system. Clubs like Batley wouldn't ever have been promoted regardless of which system was used, just like Hunslet didn't go up when they won the NFP. The majority of current Championship clubs are never, ever going to play in Super League, they accept that fact and incorporating rules to the severe detriment of the game in order to try and maintain the illusion that these clubs will make it some day would just be stupidity. Open your eyes.

sorry but thats just garbage to me. Creating teams with no history is never going to further rugby league. Catalan dragons travel costs must be astronomical, sheffield were swallowed up by hudders who quickly dropped sheffield from their name. gateshead merged with hull and beacame er.......hull. Teams have been put into super league from wales,a hotbed of rugby league, and failed. What gives you the right to say traditional teams should be forevet excluded. It is you my freind who needs to open your eyes.

Well said sir. I suspect you are a man after my own heart. I have been banging this particular drum for ages, if you go on the Virtual Terrace with these views you will executed by the RL Expansionist nut jobs!

It's nice to know that you have the ability to read minds and speak for others.
So you prefer a system that sees Widnes vitually GIVEN the right to be in Superleague over Featherstone that EARNED it?
The disparity in facilities could have been sorted out with a little help from the same people that squander money on Welsh clubs and the like.
Have you been to Cas's ground and Wakey's ground, they are clearly Superleague grounds aren't they?
But they have promised to get better grounds. Fev could probably make a similar promise.
It's balls basically. It's just what suits at the time.

There's no point in talking sense to these expansionists, they don't want to know.
They would rather throw money at places like Bristol, Northampton etc than support heartland RL.
Rochdale, Oldham, Donny etc are expendable but God forbid we let an expansion team go under.