Not too fussed, I enjoy watching 80 mind of Warrington rugby v another team, what ever the system we'll compete, I'm cool with it as long as some clubs ambitions are not beyond the depth of their pockets.

Don't fully understand it tbh, but from what I have read it just seems very complicated and I'm not sure how we can have full time professionals against part timers. One sided games etc maybe. Not good

Wonder how it will impact on us paying fans? We will probably pay a season ticket price for the first games then have to pay inflated prices for the second part.

i only hope that we can too yed as i would hate to turn into a mediocre side like bradford as some pundits have predicted

I'm sure the usual suspects will get to the play offs , but is the idea to get mini play offs in the divisions of 8 till they find enough teams for the end of season play offs ? Can't beat keeping the competition simple.

i actually believe that there is an incentive here under this new proposal to win the majority of your regular seasons games and finish as high up the top 4 as you can

i also believe that regular season ticket holders would see a far more competitive league and thus get a better value for money product with not having 27 rounds of meaningless fixtures

if i am correct would this not eliminate sides from just tossing it off in the regular seasons games to finish in the play off positions, rather than sides making sure they win enough games for a guaranteed top 4 finish and thus treat the regular rounds more seriously?

How will the groups be made up though ? After 23 games will it be 1-8 ,9-16 & 17-24 finishing positions to make up the groups ?

Top eight make up the top league of 8 and that's the grand final play offs.

The middle league of 8, made up of the bottom 4 of Superleague and the top 4 of the championship, play off for promotion to the Superleague.

The bottom league of 8 seem to be playing for nothing.


This is how it seems the new system will work.

How I understand it.
Top League of 8 - regular season followed by 7 games, then a play off of 1 v 4 and 2 v 3 for GF spots. Points accumulated during regular season retained for final placings
Mid 8 - This will involve 8 full time clubs, it will consist of the bottom 4 SL1 in the regular season and the top 4 in SL2 regular season. The SL2 clubs are likely to be the 2 relegated 2014 who will probably remain FT with the payments being rumoured and this seasons top 2 in the championship as they get £600k. The odds will be favoured in the bottom 4 to retain SL status but you could have a Wakey on its backside for example playing on a reduced budget in the eight with a fev on a higher budget due to financial stability, investment and the 600k - the top 3 from this eight retain status with 4 v 5 for the last SL1 spot. The SL2 clubs play 4 home games. That 4 v 5 game will be huge
Bottom 8 are playing to avoid relegation as I understand 2 go down

This was proposed last year so may be changed before we get the details confirmed.

I see it as the elite have a more intensive comp, with only the top 4 involved in the play offs - everything to play for all season, clubs wont be able to field weakened teams as often by choice and there should be one hell of a scrap 4-10.

I expect like many things in SL this will get scrapped after a few years, probably 2015 and 2016 fans will criticise it and the RFL will insist it is working, then 2017 coaches will start becoming more and more outspoken against the system, England will lose the semi final or final of the World Cup and we will have a review of our system and there will be a great fanfare announcement "SL returning to its former format from 2018"

I can see the rationale behind it, they want to provide some incentive for clubs that don't make the playoffs and make all the end of season matches count. However for this to work we will need at least four clubs in the second division to be able to run full time professional squads, for that middle group to work.

The danger is we will see clubs like Widnes, Wakefield, Castleford finishing outside the top 8 of Super League but having enough about them to cause upsets on their day beating the top clubs, because they do have some pretty decent players. Then they will drop in to the mid tier for the playing against relegation battle and we will get results like Wakefield 76 Halifax 8, Widnes 64 Featherstone 2 and there will be no real excitement about the 'promotion' battle.

Remember that 1997 World Club Championship thing where our clubs just weren't at the races to compete with the Aussie teams so you got Auckland Warriors who were bottom of their league, smashing 60 odd past Bradford who were unbeaten at the top of SL...

Thanks fevfan76 , i am going for a lie down in a dark room now with an ice pack on my head.

So at the moment top players could face around 27 league games plus up to 3 play off games giving a total of 30 games without factoring in the Challenge Cup Under this proposal that will increase to 32 I think - 23+7+2. I wonder what the players think of it.

The title of this thread is Boycott Superleague 2015!
Why on earth would I stop watching the game and team I love?

We all need to get our heads around the new formula, but to suggest that we Boycott the 2015 season is liking a Turkey voting for Christmas or cutting your nose off to spite your face.

I have not read the new formula but I have read on the BBC that League points accumulated prior to the Play Offs in some way count during the Play Offs, which could mean that it will be more difficult to win SL from 4th or 5th. This should make regular season games even more important.

Boycotting something that hasn't even happened? That must be a first. RL being innovative, again.

I think Super League 1 teams are going to come into CC one round later.

Having tried to understand the farce that will be the new format, I would summise it in the following way :

The playoffs have playoffs that includes league points depending upon which playoffs your team is playing-off in.

All we need now is for the Circus to be an announced as the new SL sponsor. This is based upon our game being run by Clowns.

So will the season ticket only cover 11 home games then ,with the seven fixtures in the play off league of 8 having to be paid for ? That won't go down very well.

Do we still have the magic round?
If so, when?
If so, they have to make sure this extra fixture is as fair as they can make it
Look at the nailed on fixtures of Wakey v Cas and KR v FC, if there is clear daylight between the teams during the season then it's unfair if one drops into the middle tier based on that one result in which they played in a mismatch.
The 1v2 and 3v4 format would have to be adopted.

I'll be honest the format neither bothers me or confuses me and I'm sure clubs can think of new ticketing strategies to suit the system.
Probably a similar system to the ones the Broncos are adapting to for 2014 that Barnet FC use.

Start of season

A.1
A.2
A.3
A.4
A.5
A.6
A.7
A.8.
A.9
A.10
A.11
A.12

B.1
B.2
B.3
B.4
B.5
B.6
B.7
B.8
B.9
B.10
B.11
B.12

Two leagues of 12 all play each other home and away like and normal league, at the end of this those that finish in postions
A.1 to A.8 are top tier
A.9 to B.4 are 2nd tier
B.5 to B.12 are third tier

-------------
Top Tier keep the points they had, then after playing each other once the top four teams go into a semi final of 1v4 and 2v3.

That is easy to follow
------------

2nd tier play each other once but they DONT carry their points over as obviously one set of teams were winning more than they were losing and vice versa.

They start from scratch and they are playing for league position in the next season, the right to play the big boys with the bigger crowds.
Top 4 play in the top 12 league A.1 to A.12 positions
The bottom 4 play in the bottom league of 12... B.1 to B.12

This is how the promotion/relegation happens, it's technically a playoff promotion relaxation league.

you following?
----------------
The 3rd tier are playing to not get relegated out of the whole system, the bottom clubs dropping out of the whole
A 1 to 12
B 1 to 12 system


it really is easy to understand and the more I write the more I'm swayed into liking the system.
It means that if someone rich comes in and fancies buying his home town team, he doesn't have to worry about franchise criteria he can just pump it straight in and potentially compete with the big boys, Fax, Fev, Leigh..remember Barrow having money, they have an easier path.

I just hope ambition and pocket size are realistic and ambition doesn't get bigger than the pockets.

Im all for the Circus

but Clowns running the game ,





we do enough , I would want extra for that , unless you want to a Clown ?

In terms of the making regular season games more important part of it, this solves one part but not another. You need to be in the top 4 at the end of the season. Nobody will be doing a Leeds and winning from 5th.

However if you're in the top 4, the only advantage to coming 1st or 2nd is that you get a home tie in the semi final. There is no more 'week off' and no more 'second bite at the cherry'.

As to whether it still pays to do the whole tactical rotation thing, resting players, this depends on how strong you are and how much of a cushion you are likely to have above 5th. If you're the type of team that's likely to come 3rd or 4th, and you drop a couple of games in the first part of the season and are running 5th when the league splits, bear in mind you are having to play catch up in the final rounds against other top 8 teams, there won't be the easier teams at the bottom any more. So it makes it slightly harder to catch up if you're outside the top 4 at the split.

But for the strongest couple of teams in the league, it will probably still pay to do the tactical rotation. Generally there are about 10 to 14 points between the teams that finish 1st and 5th, so if you're a team that under normal circumstances would finish top you have about 5 to 7 games slippage over a season. I've used the historic 10 to 14 point margin because although you could argue that under the new system with the final rounds being played just between the top 8 it may be a little tighter, there's also a chance that over the past few years the teams that have finished top have dropped a couple of games through squad rotation anyway so otherwise they would have been even higher ahead.

Where the real criticism will come in is if we have a situation where the club finishing top is 8 or so points ahead of the club finishing 4th (as often happens), and then the club finishing 4th wins the playoff semi final away from home: boom, the league leaders are out. This is the same thing that happens in the rugby union Premiership and it gets criticised.

And whats the incentive to finish top rather than second? You play your playoff against the team finishing 4th rather than the team finishing 3rd.

Overall I think in terms of changing incentives the main changes are:

- teams that finish 9th-12th have the incentive of fighting to stay in Super League, whereas currently they have nothing
- teams that are in the 3rd-6th type of spaces will be fighting for top 4 spots, wheres previously they were guaranteed playoffs in a top 8
- there will be no more easy first round of playoffs (or week off) where some teams get to play 7th or 8th ranked team

What it doesn't address is:

- there is no extra incentive for finishing top rather than second
- there can be a large gap in points over the league table between 1st and 4th, and 4th only has to win one playoff semi final away from home to knock them out
- in the end it all boils down to the last two weeks of the season and who is fit/in form versus who isn't

No playoff system is perfect but this is a system that incentives teams to play rather than coast