It doesn't take too long on any RL forum to see the disquiet amongst genuine fans about the danger to the league (more pointedly, attendances) from the RFL prioritising the playoffs/GF;



What would people think if the playoffs stayed as they are, with the GF winner being declared 'Champions', but the only other incentive (financial reward!) to winning the GF would be the WCC game?



The RFL could then (please see sense on this RFL) use the money generated by the playoff system to increase prize money for the league, meaning that although finishing higher up the league might not increase your chances of being champions, the incentive to finishing higher would be significantly fuller coffers for next year.



If there had been more money on offer for finishing higher up the league than actually winning the GF, I'm sure many of the top teams, including Wire, would've shown a better attitude towards all the league games throughout the season than they did this year.



Oh, by the way Leeds fans, from recent years, including Saturdays efforts, I'm quite sure even if this system was adopted, you'd still have a good shout of becoming champions, just from a loftier league position!

I dont think all players/teams are motivated by money.

If that was the case, we wouldn't be touching our forelocks and shouting "How high?" every time Sky shouted "Jump"' ....

Mentioned this several times, so once more won't make any difference.



Reduce SL to 12 teams, and scrap the magic weekend.



12 teams play each other home and away = 22 rounds.



Split the league into top 6 and bottom 6 creating two mini leagues, but all teams keep the points they have already earned.



Every team plays all the other teams in their mini league home and away = 10 more rounds.



The obvious disadvantage is that for the last 10 games half the league have nothing to play of except maybe avoiding 'the spoon'. But is that really that much different from the current system? There is the possiblity that a team could have the league wrapped up with three or four games to go, but that happens in football, it doesn't really turn fans off, either live or on TV.



The advantages are that every club knows before the season starts that they will have 16 home games and can advertise/promote/sell their season tickets accordingly. Sky can start to get excited about round 18 when the battle to make the top six starts getting interesting. The last 10 rounds of the competiton would feature the best 6 teams in the competition playing eachother each week. The team who is top of the league after 32 games are the champions. Nobody can argue whether or not they were lucky or whatever, they are the best team and rightly can be called champions.

The one thing that keeps coming out is, something needs to change before it self implodes ......



I've often thought (usually over a few beers with both SL & Championship supporters present) as to whether we'd even be better off going to a split league, based on East/West pennines (with each getting one of the obvious oddballs of London & Catalan)...... 2 leagues; 10 teams; 18 games; almost without exception local derbies of one kind or another, and gives a chance to get teams like Leigh, Halifax, Featherstone, Oldham etc back into the fold without twisting their arm over meeting farcical licence requirements (which count for anything anyway!) ..... Then, top 6 (doesn't really matter if it's 4, 5, or 6 at this point, it's the concept) go forward to PO knockouts, with top 2/3 playing host to bottom 2/3 from other region ..... or if more acceptable to fans (Sky paymasters !!!), a further league format with top 4 going into a 14 game mini-season, then top 2 contest the GF!



Don't actually care right now what it's changed to, but for the first time in years, this season I found myself feeling like a cash-cow being fleeced as clubs put out under strength teams for games I'd already paid for upfront with a season ticket.

Looking back over this and last season it still sticks in my throat that a team can come from 5th to be crowned champions, not taking it away from Leeds in anyway well done you are masters at it.

Wigan for for me this year was the clear outright team to beat and they demonstrated this week in and week out. Warrington did that last season of course.But 1 match and Wigans season is deemed a failure that cannot be right in anyway both in recognition of their achievement and financial reward.



We did well winning the Challenge cup and coming 2nd in the league, and as discussed previously the hub cap was squandered in 2 stupid matches that we should have won.



I don't have a problem with the the play off system the problem I have is major glory for 3 matches. really a team can pre train through the season and come good at the end. The glory should be around the League winners and the play off system an icing on the cake.



So RFL bods .....change the importance of winning the league and reward clubs for doing so etc etc. The top 6 or 8 can then go onto a champions league final type jobby with a day out at old Trafford and a bit of a cup and spread after job done I say

I decided before the season had finished not to renew our season tickets next year. The league is a non entity now, and the best games are on TV. At £600 for the two of us for 13 games of which 2 we usually miss due to holidays etc, and then the half dozen games that have weakened teams, it does not seem worth it.



Instead I will pay for every cup game and any play off game we are in as this offers better value for money compared to the current league format!!!

Another one who completely overstates the case. If the league were a 'non entity' then Leeds could have played their under 20s every round and won the GF from 14th! The play-off system does need changing ( in my view the original Top Five worked well ) but if you seriously don't think that teams are trying to finish as high as they can ( within the current rules ) then you're deluded. Personally I like watching rugby league so I'll go to as many matches as I can afford.

Congratulations on the first post you've ever made which I agree with completely

There is a difference between trying to finish as high as you can and knowing you will finish fairly high anyway, so you can afford to rotate.



Finishing higher does give certain advantages, such as the week off and home games.



But I do think the all or nothing senario of the playoffs, does negate the season somewhat. I have been in favour of a division set up for some time now, (whether that be by region or some other method). But the finances will not allow it.



No SL club will vote to spread out the money they get from SKY more ways than they already do. Especially with clubs on the brink of going bust and other clubs (mine included) advocating a cut in numbers to boost earnings.



I think the boat on divisional rugby set sale when SL was born and for it to come back would require a huge boost from sky or sky to pull the plug and make the money from attendances all important.

This is a good discussion. the problem is that The clubs run the league and self interest gets in the way of the good of the sport as a whole.



Sky pay for the right to have what they want. believe me, without them, like it or not, we are stuffed. They cannot fail to have noticed that the first two weeks of the playoffs were substandard. The original top 5 playoff was effective, but we need something to play for so sky get a decent amount of matches that actually mean something!



therefore, I dont feel that you can have a top 5 playoff without reintroducing promotion and relegation.

I also think that this should be based on sporting performance (with appropriate deductions for salary cap breaches.)



I dont think a clubs stadium should make it more or less likely to be in SL, other than a minimum capacity of say 8000. If it is safe, then it can be in SL. If it doesnt have a certain number of seats, then the club has reduced revenue, so there is some incentive to improve, but its not at all costs, and to the detriment of the club. reintroduce promotion and relegation, and scrap the playoffs in the cahmpionship. that way, the most consistent team comes up each time. Let the sky money provide a parachute payment so that should a club go down, they can retain their full time players for one season, and distrubute the money throughout the game so that great clubs like Halifax, Featherstone and Leigh, can really have a go at getting up and staying up!



re-visit the value for money that we get as a sport from the expansion teams. are London and Catalans simply a gimmick to placate sky, or do they add reall value to our competition. should we keep them, but make them operate on exactly the same rules as the British SL teams? or should we look closer to home at ensuring that traditional clubs are looked after?



RL faces a time of serious self evaluation. Clubs in the elite competition of our sport are facing, or have faced financial meltdown, and something has to be learned. SUper League, the salary cap and licensing were all supposed to bring an end to the boom and bust in Rugby league, and then we almost lose one of the biggest clubs in the game, with possibly another 3 SL clubs getting close to being in the same situation.



in 1895 our sport was founded because people in this part of the world wanted fairness to be applied and 117 years later we need leaders with a similar vision to be brave once more. But can I see this happening?

Hang on. On the one hand we have people saying the league is meaningless, on the other we have people saying the top 8 gives us meaningful games. Which is it?



I am sick and tired of reading and hearing people saying the league has become meaningless. Winning the Grand Final from 5th is a remarkable achievement and their playoff games plus ours against Hull and Saints were great to watch. The only disapointment for me this year was the number of clubs at the lower end of the table who failed all year to mount any challenge to get in the 8 and that half of the top 8 fell well short of playoffs standard when it mattered most.



In other words - I'm all for continual improvement using the current structure. I like having 14 teams. Even with that number we end up with several repeat matches through cup ties, magic and playoffs. Going down to 12 or 10 gives less variety and I think many would find it boring playing the same teams all the time. It would also be bad for international RL, as we'd have a smaller top level player pool.



The major issue for me is that too many clubs are well short of the A standards that Warrington, Wigan, Saints and Leeds are setting. i.e. good stadium, good crowds, well run off the field, produce lots of club trained players. Get those things right at more clubs and get more money into the game through better sponsorship deals and better marketing and the competition really would hot up.



Tinkering with the structure and/or number of teams is just dressing the same problems up in different ways. We need to tackle the problems, not the symptoms.



As for P&R - I quite like it in principle. BUT it can only operate sensibly if the level of budget available between competitions is not massively different, as it is between SL and Championship. That just causes massive struggles for both the promoted and relegated sides.



So, to sum up - there is NO simple change available! Nor is one needed. Just continual improvement at all clubs.