: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:04 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

The top 5 system was easily the best. It rewarded the team that finished top in that they only had to win one game to reach the grand final.

To win it from third was difficult.

To win it from fourth or fifth was almost impossible.

I agree with Rogues Top 5 playoff system was excellent. I wasn't in favour of expanding the competition to 14 teams in the first instance because we don't have the playing personnel to fill 14 quality teams. Expanding the playoffs to 8 teams is a mistake.

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:11 pm  

McClennan wrote:

I agree with Rogues Top 5 playoff system was excellent. I wasn't in favour of expanding the competition to 14 teams in the first instance because we don't have the playing personnel to fill 14 quality teams. Expanding the playoffs to 8 teams is a mistake.

Help.

We all know the reasons.

It's nothing to do with giving more clubs something to play for at all.

It's about revenue and tv.

Simple as that.

I just wish they'd be more honest about it.

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:16 pm  

Ashton Warrior wrote:

Even if it meant we beat Saints in Grand Final, 20-19 with Richie Mathers scoring a last second drop goal?

If he didn't miss the game because of a ban he'd have been sent off by half time.

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:20 pm  

I'd like to see more value (and hence winning money) placed on finishing top of the pile and then say the top 2/3 play top 2/3 from the NRL in a knockout for the WCC with say 3/4 - 8 playing for in another knockout competition for like a 'best of the rest' cup giving the lower teams something to play for.

[JTB]

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:51 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

The top 5 system was easily the best. It rewarded the team that finished top in that they only had to win one game to reach the grand final.

To win it from third was difficult.

To win it from fourth or fifth was almost impossible.

I agree completely Brian. The 5 was complicated looking but provided odds in direct proportion to finishing position. The regular season is close to meaningless now and I can't help but wonder if it will lead to lower crowds due to the importance of the games being diminished. Even all the pre-season optimism on here was based on our play-off wins of just 2 games. That shouldn't be allowed to brush a mediocre year under the carpet by basically finishing in the top half of a league. Painful as it is to say it, St's achievement in finishing top the last couple of years is more than Leeds winning the one off final and to me the play off winners should only be an additional trophy rather than the championship.

[Sadfish]

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:55 pm  

I agree.

Does this mean we are now a merged club?

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:58 pm  

I agree totally with the sentiments on here, imo the fact that a team is likely to lose half or more of their games this year and have a shot a being called champions is laughable.

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:02 pm  

The only way the first past the post system can be called champions is if every club plays each other home and away, and only once.

Last season, in the "regular games" Wigan played the top 3, Saints 4 times, Leeds three times and Catalan three times in.

If we are going to go to he first past the post then we would have to scrap the "magic weekend"

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:06 pm  

warriorweed wrote:

I agree totally with the sentiments on here, imo the fact that our team is likely to lose half or more of their games this year and have a shot a being called champions is laughable.

Edited for correctness

: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:14 pm  

JTB wrote:

St's achievement in finishing top the last couple of years is more than Leeds winning the one off final and to me the play off winners should only be an additional trophy rather than the championship.

I don't agree with that. The Grand Final is our Superbowl and should be kept that way. A head-to-head decider is the only way to decide who is our champion team. There are far too many intangibles during the course of the season that undermine the football style top of the league placings e.g. two years ago Saints finished top of the league despite having been beaten by Leeds several times during the course of the season. Of course there are alternatives where the top team has been the better side over the course of the year and lost but that's the way it is. With a playoff format a team that is unlucky with a couple of injuries at the start of the year still has a chance of winning it. Under the top of the league format that's virtually impossible if you have a bit of bad luck.