I think you will find that the team who comes 4th plays the team that comes 1st in the initial Qualifier.
That's 1st v 4th not 1st v 2nd as in 2008.
The winner STILL has to play in the elimination SF.
I say again, this year the regular rounds are much less important than they have been in the past.
Thats whats ridiculous about the playoffs IMO....taking last years scenario, we could have gone to saints as 4th place, lost, played a mediocre team at home (or widnes ), lets for arguments sake say hull kr win through in week one, play them and your back to in what essence is a final eliminator against leeds or saints (which if 'picked' by saints, you actually have an added advantage in that you've already got a tactical insight into them from playing two weeks earlier and can right the wrongs which ment you lost the previous game)?!?!
So all you have to do to get to a final eliminator is beat one mid table side at home!! and in the process of the play offs you can actually afford the luxury of LOSING your first game even coming 4th!!! Ludicrous IMO but typically RL!!...compare to last year or the year before when you had to beat 2 top sides one home one away just to make an eliminator, and you can see that under the new system there is little benefit in coming 1st or 2nd....its all about top 4 now with each team roughly having the same chance of winning (which could actually work in our favour, but still RIDICULOUS!)
As annoying as nobbys comments are he does have a point...our pathetic new play off system means that much of the season is in real terms cast meaningless, but an excersise to warm up for the playoffs.
While I think it is always hard to justify anything other than a first past the post system anyway, at least the old top 5 could be argued with some effectiveness, in that you could counter any arguements against the P/O by arguing that every team had to beat every team above them at the very least to become champions. to win from 5th you would have to beat 4th, 3rd/2nd, 2nd/1st away...followed by 1st/2nd at Old trafford!! I hope the Play offs reduce the RFL to a laughing stock this season and the top 5 is brought back in...only playoff system that ever made sence IMO
Conroy - Being a Latics fan i'm already immune to watching sh*te.
Sally Cinnamon - Treat the Saints forum as you would if you met a girl from St Helens. Best policy would be to avoid altogether but if you absolutely can't resist temptation then take every possible precaution.
Conroy - Being a Latics fan i'm already immune to watching sh*te.
Sally Cinnamon - Treat the Saints forum as you would if you met a girl from St Helens. Best policy would be to avoid altogether but if you absolutely can't resist temptation then take every possible precaution.
Conroy - Being a Latics fan i'm already immune to watching sh*te.
Sally Cinnamon - Treat the Saints forum as you would if you met a girl from St Helens. Best policy would be to avoid altogether but if you absolutely can't resist temptation then take every possible precaution.
I am really going to enjoy posting this link in October, so some can see the utter tripe that they have posted on this matter.
"Let's sack a coach who has the best record in SL, who has saved Wigan from relegation and taken them to 3rd place two years on the trot And let's replace him with ..........er... Exactly".
This year the competition is even less about the regular rounds and totally about how you play in Sept/Oct.
I disagree with the format, but you play the hand that you are dealt.
Theres no talking to them. No one will answer my question why do proven coaches keep failing at Wigan. Some will say Noble isnt proven as he had the Bradford team made for him by Elliot-Bulls**t! He had to deal with losing nearly all that team whilst he was there and rebuilt it and left them as SL champions and World Club Champions. Then you have Millward,another proven coach who failed at Wigan. Suddenly he was clueless when he came here yet had won loads with Saints and seemed to get the very best out of all his players. Before that Raper suffered similar alleged player revolts towards then end as did Endacott.
People say Noble coaches boring rugby but the same was said about Millward when he was at Wigan, We couldnt score trys yet Millward was one of the most attack orientated coaches around yet our attack under him was terrible.
You have to ask yourself if Noble is sacked are we going to be wanting the next man sacked in a year or two when he fails to win anything and we hit a run of losses. The people who are calling for Noble sacked are the ones that blasted Lindsay and Whelan for sacking coaches. Two faced as hell!