there is a lack of intensity in SL this year due to it not mattering what position teams finish. Prior to top 8 and Leeds victory from 5th, teams where hellbent on finishing top 2. I personally think the GF is now big enough to let the team finishing top be champions. The playoffs prior to the GF attract no more bigger attendances that the old Premiership playoffs did. And people will still turn out to watch the big teams play each other in the Premiership as people want big games and win a trophy. Leeds/Saints/Catalans this season, for example, would be trying to aviod going the season trophyless.

A lot of free tickets are dished out by Sarries for these games.

Oh and the NRL getting 70,000 for a semi final? Thats not so bad considering its their national sport. Footyball gets 60,000+ for its FA Cup Semi no? Dear life!!!

The obvious answer , well to me anyway , is to turn it into a straight knock out competition . Do away with the second bite of the cherry , if a team looses they are out no one gets to pick who they get to play just put the top 8 in a hat draw them out and play all games at neutral grounds .
But then again this would never happen as it would be to straight forward so no chance of anything like it ever happening Red Hall just have to make it more complicated than it needs to be to justify there inflated salary's .

IF we keep the top 8 then why not scrap the top four week one fixtures, top 2 straight to semis, next 2 to quarters, the rest play week one, all knock-out games and top sides always play at home.

so why don't we try the whole free tickets thing?
oh yeah, the Broncos did and attracted... 4,000 fans! wow!
it's all marketing, just the union boys are much better at it than us.

This might sound totally bonkers but with a 14 team league with no relegation, how about a 12 team play off, no second chances.

Week 1: 1,2,3,4 week off, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, 8v9

Week 2: 1 v lowest qualifier, 2 v second lowest qualifier, etc

Week 3: Top placed qualifier v lowest qualifier, etc

Week 4: Grand Final

Keeps the normal season interesting throughout, makes the play offs meaningful (lose and you are out).

Prize money rewards progress in play offs and off sets the fact that play offs included in season tickets (home and away).

Absolutely bonkers. You could finish on about 8 points from 27 games, then win 3 in a row and you're in the grand final.

Yes but you'd have to win away from home at 5th,3rd and then probably 1st. Surely if a team did that they'd probably deserve it....

Why not just have a 10 month long off season, then an 8 week's playoff competition with all 14 teams in the hat?

At least if gives that team a chance but how much of a chance in reality ????

Another whitewash score tonight (still 25 minutes to go).

Huddersfield, total shiiiete!

I'll always gladly join any slagging off of the RFL.

However, your suggestion makes the regular season almost pointless, unless you make the regular title the "big prize". But then what are the playoffs for?

Yet we'll still have those nobs at sky saying ''it's been the best yet!!''

Why not the winner of the league, wins the lot?

Worse, we've got the RFL who seem to actually believe it.

The sport is desperately in need of a wholesale clear out at the top. I was about to say " to get fresh thinking in ", but its not even that... simple "clear thinking" wth evidence of a strategy and basic competence in managing and marketing would be good enough.

For a nation that is 1/3 the size, then divide that again by 2 as you can evenly split NRL and AFL as being followed by half a nation based on almost geography alone.

Is this another thread of RL fans declaring they don't like RL?

what a bunch of moaning minnies

This season has been decent, we have a very competitive top 5 which is alot better than recent years

No league in any sport has anywhere in the world has a totally competitive league

and just because a team won it from 5th last season (the first time it has happened in what 14 years) suddenly none of the players/clubs give a about the regular season

I'm a Leeds fan and I'm glad we won last year....but I'd much rather win the GF from 1st or 2nd

and suddenly we have alot more Warrington and Wigan fans piping up about there dislike for the play-offs for the first time since 98 .....just as they become the top two teams in the last couple of years

Sometimes, RL fans who have an unfathonable dislike of the other code don't half come up with some utter bollox.

1. I have heard tell of these mystical freebies that sarries throw about like confetti, but have yet to track them down or see a link to an offer declaring this blatant fudging of average attendances.
2. 36,503 people paid to watch the London Broncos in their 13 "home" games in 2013 but it is your assertion that we should instead cast doubt on the validity of a RU club attracting 4,560 MORE FANS to ONE regular season game.
3. The RFL first round of 4 play-off games, featuring 2 matches where the sides were from within 15 miles of each other attracted 35,128 than this sarries game you feel the need to question.
4. 31,728 Rugby League fans paid to attend the 4 Quarter Finals of the 2012 Challenge Cup.

Why is it that some fans feel the need to try and belittle the other lot? Is it amisguided belief that by trying to poke fun at Union we will all forget the general apathy of your average RL fan in the UK. Do they mistakenly believe that by questioning the attendance and the methods to achieve it at a Union game, that the rest of us will forget the crowds that the RFL fails to attract to games that aren't included on ST's at clubs? The Exiles anyone? The Challenge Cupsemi between Hudds and London this year maybe...?

Rather than question the goings on at a club that identified, purchased and will have built a stadium inside 12 months why don't we continue to discuss ways in which the RFL can sort out this farce......because empty stadiumson TV isn't going to attract anyone! IMO that is.

Never mind that, it's the fans who seem to have an unfathomable dislike of RL that I can't get my head round.

Oh dear....another one who thinks because I openly state that RL could learn a lot from Union....I am now some sort of anti-league troll.....

......
Here...pour this petrol on your pre-conceptions of me....

2013 Northern Hemisphere tours of SA/AU/NZ head to head with the total attendance of the RLWC 2013.......just because I know which will get the bigger attendance doesn't mean I applaud it......it simply means I UNDERSTAND IT!

The 1 Billion NRL TV deal is massive......but it is for 1,400+ games........the 6 Nations gets 60% of that revenue for 75 games.....do facts like this bother you? I don't like them either, but putting stickers on lorries isn't going to change it soon......

Don't mistake realism for anti-league sentiment.....90%+ of my post on here are about how to grow the game in the UK

Whoa whoa there Mildred!

My post wasn't directed at you, I'm talkin about the people who constantly bag the sport with pretty much every post they make. I love RL and whilst I agree that it could be administered better, I feel we have a great sport with a lit of potential.

Keep the play offs to eight teams.
1v8, , 3v6, 2v7, 4v5

Winners of match one play winners of match two
Winner of match three plays winners of match four
Highest finishing team of the regular season plays at home

The winners of the matches play in the GF. In theory the best two teams of the season should meet at OT, as the decks are in their favour. If they lose tough they're out it's knock out stuff.

We used to have this in the old days of premiership play of at the end of season it seemed to work then so why not now you can still call it the grand final