Maybe we should ask if we can be posthumously awarded the Challenge Cup? :cry:
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It's a one week break.
Week off after the last round of regular fixtures.
Qualifier against the winner of 2nd v 3rd. Winner to the final.
If we win it's a week off before the final.
If we lose, we will be in the Final Eliminator the week after. Win that and it's the final the week after. Lose and we are out
Same here, the importance of the cup has declined massively over recent years. If I had to pick between the two I’d much rather win the Grand Final as being the champions beats being the cup winners every time. The team who win the Grand Final this year (unless it is Warrington) will be the ones remembered as the top side more than Warrington.
What if...(in A parallel universe). Feb to Sept/Oct season
SUPER LEAGUE
14 team league. Straight home & away. 1st place are champions.
Another cup competition is brought in (say the Elite Level Trophy) or something. Challenge Cup & Grand Final Winners get a by through to the next round. As 14 teams to make the next round the 8. If same winner go off league positions. Final in June. All SL teams enter Challenge Cup at same time a round earlier. Final is last game of season late Sept/early Oct. Bottom 2 relegated.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Bottom 2 relegated to League 1. Top of the league champions & promoted. Next promotion spot goes to winner of the following play off format.
2nd place plays winner of an eliminator of 3rd v 4th.
Also the league has its own cup competition with a mid summer final.
LEAGUE 1.
Obviously the relegation scenario most likely off the table but bar that, exactly the same as the Championship.
For season tickets, you have the option of just league, league & one cup or league & both cups. An opt in system if you like.
Dunno what the thoughts are but I'm trying ha ha
It may be nostalgia, it may be a rose-tinted view of my youth, but the system we had when I was growing up has IMO never been beaten in the 20-odd years since Super League came about.
14 team league, 26 game league season, team at top is Champions.
Top 8 Premiership comp at the end of the season, final at Old Trafford.
I accept that the JPS/Regal Trophy and the County Cups fell by the wayside for a decent reason, but the rest of it was great in my opinion. League games were important, the Cup was massive because it gave teams out of the title race another goal to go for half way through the season, and the Premiership was a decent little comp at the end of the season which clubs took pretty seriously. It gave the reward of a home QF for finishing Top 4 and gave the reward of a chance of a trophy for those who finished Top 8.
In many seasons Saints priorities as the season went on were as follows...
Try and win the league
League is not do-able, prioritise the Cup
We've been knocked out of the Cup, get a Top 4 spot for a Premiership Home QF
It all tied in for me, and the current format just doesn't match up. League games are diluted, the Cup has been talked down over many years by the broadcasters of the league, and the season drifts for long periods because games just aren't as important IMO.
I don't think I feel any differently about Saints now than I did in the mid 80s when I started following them. They're my hometown club, I love them, and they are a part of my life that I will never let go. But back in the day I'd look forward to games all week. I'd be gutted when we lost a league game, I'd be delighted when we won one. The league table and upcoming fixtures were obsessed over, and Cup games were big things. Now, I'm annoyed a bit when we lose a league game, and I don't go overboard when we win games because I know they don't actually help us win anything unless we get it done in Sept/Oct.
My feelings towards Saints haven't changed, but my feelings towards the game have.
How about simply crowning the League winners as champions.
Super league champions play NRL champions in a grand final.
I personally like the Grand final as an event but it does detract from being the best team over the season, which is the harder achievement.
That said though, as a previous posted said, the format is known so we should learn to play the system.
Never forget that without Murdoch’s money and Sky, there’d never have been NRL or Superleague and IF the game was still around in this country, we would be semi-pro (at best) playing at Knowsley Road. There’d be hardly any new fans coming through, the good young players would have gone to kick and clap and the sport would probably be eaten up by Union....
Great post by Gray. I know this season is a bit of an anomaly in that it’s been a one horse race for the ‘league’, but in most years there could be 2-4 teams in the running. You hear the argument for the play offs keeping the season alive for more clubs but only 4 teams have ever won it in 20 odd years of grand finals and 1 of them isn’t even there anymore. In fact more have won the shield
And a major reason the same corporation fronted up big money in the UK in the first place was because they wanted to win the war against the old ARL in Australia and isolate them as much as possible. It always makes me laugh when people present SKY as some kind of Samaritan group. They never have been and never will be. They've taken advantage as weak leadership at the RFL down the years and the sport has been made ot look successively daft. Its almost as if we're the 'soft lad' for any SKY gimmick they want to trial.
They’re a business and they only do something for their own advantage.
Don’t let my statement make you think I feel that they did it for our benefit, as I’m not presenting them as the Samaritans you mention but the knock on effect of SKY money is that we are still around....... like it or not!