What was the reasoning behind bringing in playoffs to decide the championship?

Was it to prevent the championship being decided with weeks to go?

Who decided we should have it? Did all Super League clubs have a vote or did one man just come up with the idea? Was it to copy Australia?

You'd have to do some historical research. Certainly the people who decided it in 1895 aren't around any more. A more pertinent question might be why was it dropped and replaced with the post season competition of the Premiership? Fortunately, we decided to go back to the traditional method of deciding the champions after the experiment of following association football's idea.

Football [Soccer is the only sport in the world to use a first past the post system to decide it's champions.

It was because not all the clubs played each other. There was a Yorkshire League title and a Lancashire league title which were decided on a first past the post system. However all clubs also played games against clubs from the other conference and all results were then compiled into a single championship table from which the top clubs played off at the end of the season to determine the "RL champions" for that season.

Perhaps thats where we are going wrong! haha!

Yeah i knew it was originally brought in because not every team played every other home and away but why was it brought back in 1998 when we had an even fixture list?

Who decided it? Club Chairmen?

The old Championship Final was brought in because it was never an even fixture list. Lancashire sides would mainly play Lancashire sides and Yorkshire sides mainly played Yorkshire sides. Their were some exceptions but it was basically that. Thats why in the old days the Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues were respected trophies.

It was abandoned basically because the game switched to two divisions in 1973 meaning the fixture list became even and fair so 1st place being champions was a fair system. The last Championship Grand Final actually saw Dewsbury win from 8th!

I assume the 1998 return of the "Grand Final" was pushed by Sky?, possibly to emulate Australia. It also allowed the league to return to an unfair fixture system that year which still continues today. Maurice Lindsay would have had something to do with the Grand Final vision I suspect. I've been very critical of his role in the last decade at Wigan but in that era he was an excellent visionary for Rugby League.

So Dewsbury got to be called Champions for the whole of 73/74 even though they finished 8th?!!!!!!

Bilko, you historical knowlege of the game may go back further than mine but I understand that the 2 divisions came in 73 and either Salford or Saints won the league in 73/74 so what trophy did the Wire win at Central Park defeating Saints a week after the Wembley 74 final? I thought that was the Championship final or was it a forerunner to the old premiership?

Thats right. They had a Top 16 play off from about 1964 to 1972. Halifax also won once from 7th.

Dewsbury beat Oldham (9th), Featherstone (2nd), Warrington (1st) and Leeds (3rd) to take the title, captained by a certain "Stevo.




That was called the "Club Championship" but wasn't to decide the title. It was basically the start of the Premiership Trophy as you say, I suspect it changed to the latter name the year after to avoid confusion. Although the "Club Championship" held that year actually involved teams from both divisions.

Warrington also won the "Captain Morgan Trophy" that year. This cup was contested by all the first round winners of the Lancs & Yorks Cups and Widnes (narrowest Lancashire Cup losers) but was never held again, so Warrington are the only winners of that, beating Featherstone at Salford in the final held in January 1974.

Also in the early 70s they brought in the "Players No.6 Trophy" (Regal Trophy when it ended in 1996) which I guess also contributed to the two division structure. The BBC 2 Floodlit was still contested then as well.

I'd agree sky want ad revenue. Teams involved in a post season playoff means more tv coverage plus lets face it in the old system if you were not involved in relegation or able to win the title it meant very little interest in watching a game and less reason for non supporters to watch the games. At least now teams in mid table have meaningful games.

Thanks for that Bilko, those Wire matches you mention were probably my first memories of the Wire. The John Player/Regal trophy was at least one trophy the Wire regularly got to a final until it finished in the 90s.

Another question if you don't mind the Wire were top of the league in 73, what honour/title did that give them? Was it similar to the current league leaders trophy, then the play off would decide the champions?

cheers again

You can't beat a tight play off game and the Grand Final for the publicity of an event the game gets BUT as a fan if given the choice to scrap it and bring back the Regal Trophy and/or Premiership Trophy I'd go for the latter. At least then you'd have four trophies to aim for rather than the current two. But it won't happen because for some reason we won't contemplate midweek games any more.

Yeah once the Lancashire/Yorkshire League Trophies had been scrapped in 1969 a "League Leaders Trophy" was offered till the play offs were scrapped after 1973. So you "won" that although I assume like today it meant little.

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Thanks again Bilko