I was thinking more like connoisseurs

Oh me too obviously.

But maybe not, because disappointment is the gap between expectation and reality, and in those days expectations did not rise far above hoping we'd stay in the top division. Birts had to be seen to be believed. He was the Mathers of his day.

Twelve pages of utter drivel and still a 20,000+ crowd.Why do half wits try and spread such drivel?

Because for some reason best known to themselves, some people are never happy unless they are spreading negative stories about the club - and the start of the season seems to be their preferred time.

Presumably those predicting the death of RL due to Leeds winning the GF & a 16 point start to Wigan will now STFU?

WELL, that's it, we have now sold over 15,000 tickets for the 3 home stands. Thats more than the average attendance for any other superleague club for the 2012 season.

We may have a younger less experienced team than last year but i bet everyone of the 17 that take the field tonight will be giving everything they have and will run their blood to water once they pull on that Cherry and White jersey...

As fans we need to give them that same support and shout our lungs out tonight for them.

I'd be interested to know the feeling on here had Wigan gone on to win last year's GF.

Well said!

When I first started watching RL around 1973:

- the average crowd at a first division game was below 5K (I actually remember Wigan playing Wakefield on a foggy Friday night in a league game @CP with approx 2K on when there was NO play off to decide the league champs).

- there were a grand total of 4 nations playing the game.

- in the UK at amateur level the game was played in Lancs, Yorkshire, Cumbria, and there was a very small league in London. That was it!

- there were no fully professional clubs in the UK.

- only one of the 4 league playing nations had any fully professional clubs.

- the semi professional clubs in the UK were based in a grand total of 3 counties.

- since the inception of Super League in 1996 gates have increased virtually every year.

- we are heading for the biggest, most successful, best attended RL World Cup in the history of the game.

- the game is now played at some level in virtually every county in the UK.


I could go on, but hopefully the point is made.


No one is saying everything in the game is perfect, but to say that the league is now just 27 friendlies is laughable. What do some people not understand? A club needs to finish in the top eight to enter the play offs. To have a further advantage (ie such as hopefully playing at home, playing less play off games) a club needs to finish as high as possible in the top eight.

Maybe if Wigan lose the next 26 friendly matches we will romp into the play offs with ease. Maybe the club finishing ninth will miraculously win the grand final at Old Trafford this year after playing its 27th friendly.


I do think that the current play off system needs tweaking to perhaps a top 5 or 6 play off format, but in my opinion, I'm a fan of the idea of end-of-season play offs.
The game is still, the most exiting, breathtaking game on the planet. Get in there and enjoy it.

As a failure to do so, and continue a reasoned and reasonable debate, might cause your head to explode, given your seeming inability to carry more than one thought around at the same time?

This was the fatal flaw in your argument. To have a total crowd of around 16k you were assuming Wigan would sell no tickets during this week.

Bingo. As to the rest of the thread, the most sensible thing I read (excluding external factors over money which are of course valid and sadly will be relevant for some time yet) was:

Nope, I've read it a number of items & can't fathom out what you are trying to say.

It's been done to death but anyone who is still of the opinion the current play off format requires you to try and finish higher up the league to gain most advantage is a few beers short of a six pack.

To explain the advantage of finishing higher up the league I've used last seasons play off games for Wigan and Leeds.

Round 1.
Both Wigan and Leeds win their respective home ties.

Round 2.
Wigan - Because Wigan finished higher up the league than Leeds, they have a bye into the semi - final.

Leeds - away tie at Catalans

Semi Final
Because Wigan finished higher up the league than Leeds Wigan have home advantage.

Wigan just didn't capitalise on their obvious advantage.

Now where is that 6 pack. I need a lie down.

The position you finish is not the key, it is the 'health' of your team when the play offs arrive. To try to win ever fixture rather than preserve the 'health' of your team is wrong under the present system. Any system where you are discouraged from winning fixtures is wrong.

The play offs do not encourage or reward week in week out consistency. You are punished for putting the bodies of your players on the line week in week out.

I like that - you're able to laugh at yourself. Good work.

Not going because of work.

But if I wasn't working, I'd have to ask myself, what's the point?

How often I've said this but...

Context:
Leeds play Wakefield at home. The worst team left. Wigan play Catalan, the team [iabove[/i Leeds. Poor Catalan have to play the League Leaders, followed by a team close to them in the table who have just had a nice easy run out. Home advantage is moot because both teams have to travel to France from the north of England. It's much better to be 5th or 6th than 3rd or 4th a lot of the time. Wigan get a week off which is dubious as to whether they benefit from it from past results (really don't think our team does most of the time). If we have to have a top 8 system, the only way to go is the McIntyre system, I think the NRL was mental to move from that one.

It's easy to make a case by picking which playoff clubs you like. Try Catalan as an example. Finished higher than Leeds and as a result had to travel to Wigan for a pasting as opposed to Leed's home cakewalk over Wakefield(?). Then had to back up against a Leeds team on the ascendency.
Anyone who doesn't think the format needs revising is either deluded or from Leeds.

The pleasure of watching a full-blooded encounter between Wigan and Warrington.

Like it or not, that's most likely what we'll get this evening. Neither club is preparing for this game as if it is a friendly. And it sounds as if 18,000 plus Wigan and Wire fans feel the same way.

But I can watch it on TV. What's the point in spending money on a game which in the end will mean nothing, when I could watch it in the comfort of my own home with a beer?

I want to support our brilliant game, I do. But at the moment, I am so un-inspired by how our sport is run that I have to ask these questions! The format needs to change!

Very much and we all want to see a great game, one where our team hopefully wins BUT if our team loses the impact is far less and ultimately it does not matter.

The PL every game is treated as potentially life or death for the clubs at the top and those near the bottom, even now.

If you are so upset about the state of the game that you would stay at home and have a beer rather than watch Wigan v Wire, then I suggest you do just that. Only by voting with their feet will dissatisfied fans get their message home.

But if I was you, I'd be inclined to terminate my subscription to Sky Sports and deny the game's owners the revenue before I denied the revenue to Wigan RL.

There is only one can in yours that is for sure.

Rewarding league position does not just mean rewarding who finished top. Les Cats who finished fourth had to play AWAY at Wigan in round 1 while Leeds who finished 5th played the 8th placed side at home. Yes Les Cats got another bite at the cherry but that was after a hard game whereas Leeds had a canter in round one.

It's obvious you are better off finishing 5th than 3rd or 4th. There is no difference between finish 1st or 2nd either other than the stupid club call idea. The current format is garbage and simply does not reward league position.

The old top 5 system does so it is not beyond the whit of man to devise a system that would ensure the league is much more important.

It should be progressive thing where the higher you finish brings greater advantage. Our system doesn't do that. Don't drink that can too fast, you haven't got any left