+1


agree with it all esp. the highlighted text

I won't.

There is clearly "some" advantage of finishing top. Imo way too little - it should be very very very hard for a team finishing say 8th to get anywhere near the GF. When I say it means "zip" then what I mean is that the achievement itself means zip, not the position from which the team can mount an attack on the playoffs.

HOWEVER. The competition is all about the GF. Teams know this before they kick a ball in anger at the start of the season. Citing finishing top as "progress" if we go out before the semi finals is, imo deluded.


Last year we got to 2 SF.

Progress this year is a final.

Yeah but we are still in the early days of this new top 8 system and thus I think XBrettKennyX has a point. Ok 1st and 2nd made the Grand Final again last year but they were helped by 3rd and 4th (Hudds and Hull KR) turning out to be so weak. This year (as stands before todays games) Saints and Leeds are 3rd and 4th. A vast difference. Last year Saints and Leeds ended up playing 6th and 8th in the final eliminators respectively. I'd be truly amazed if it works out that way this season.

A year ago a lot from here would have been happy with a top 4 finish. We should end up top 2, and that's something none of us expected with the same group of players.
'Progress' being better than a semi final is statistically correct, but a season of consistency which has been missing for quite a while is also progress.

Technically speaking the team finishing top is the best team in the comp and should be handed the Championship trophy.

They aren't so we have a play off system. The play off system should be that it almost guarentee's the top 2 make it to the GF. The top 5 and top 6 systems always guarenteed that 1 of the top 2 got to the GF and almost certainly the other of the top 2 got to the GF too. With this current ridiculous format we could have a 7th v 8th GF which is totally stupid. The top team only has to lose 1 home game in the playoffs and it means it will have to go away to another top 4 club to make the GF. No doubt Sky and thr RFL will love this as its proves an even playing field but then what is the point in trying to win games in the regular season? Eventually it will lead to a drop in standards and the crowds will drop away as there is 'nothing to play for' in the regular rounds.

Bringing back the top 6 system is a must.

So you honestly believe that if we finish top this year, but don't make the GF, we have gone backwards?

If you do, then I'm afraid it's your mental faculties that have slipped in to reverse.

Last year, we had a 15-12 record in the competition, lost 70% of our first 10 matches and 44% overall.

So far this year, we have a 17-3 record, we're playing attractive, attacking rugby, we're fitter, stronger and better placed for an assault on the GF (being top of the league).

League tables don't lie.
If we finish top of the league, it's because we are the best team in the league.

If we then go on and lift the GF, that will be a RELIEF - The GF win is a bonus for any team that didn't finish top, but simply a relief for the top team to be recognised for the achievement that you have already accomplished by beating everyone else all year.

The current system is far too heavily skewed in favour of winning a knock-out competition and fails to recognise that the best team across the season is not always the one that lifts the GF trophy.

Whatever happens for the rest of this year, we have progressed MASSIVELY from where we were 12 months ago.

You honestly believe that if we finish top of the table and don't make a Final we have not made progress???

That is deluded, we could finish top, win our first game and then lose the final eliminator on the bounce of a ball and you honesly believe we will have not made progress??