Oh the power of Mr. Hetherington.
Oh the power of Mr. Hetherington.
Loyal and true, not a glory hunter.
So does that mean if Alex and Morgan get bans they will apply in the play offs? Conspiracy theories abound.
Loyal and true, not a glory hunter.
The problem is insisting on play offs. Catalans aren't in all likelihood going to complete their fixtures & Rogues pointed out that would leave 10 teams. Scrap the points percentage, 18 games, top are champions & we can shut the door on this non-entity
Bit dramatic.
I think we all need to accept that this is not a normal season and all credibility within the competition ended before the restart when Toronto pulled out after the initial fixtures were released.
Since then we've had:
- Play Offs changed from 5 teams to 4
- Fixture postponements / Cancellations
- Rule changes mid season
- Teams playing at neutral venues all season
- CC format completely changed and redrawn
- Some teams playing alot more games than others
- Change in points system from points to percentage based
- Teams effectively forfeiting games by playing reserves
- GF moved from Old Trafford to Hull
The list goes on and on. It is not a credible season in any way, shape or form. It is simply about fulfilling contract obligations with Sky and getting through the November 27th and then starting again in 2021 hopefully in March / April with crowds.
You can see why Leeds are in favour of the system, they could end up playing 4 or 5 more games than Catalans and losing out on the Play Offs by % to Catalans, with Catalans having avoided playing Saints, Wire and Wigan. Leeds also face mammoth schedule of games in the next 2 weeks whilst Catalans haven't played in 3 weeks and their percentage is unaffected. Hardly seems fair does it?
There's no ideal situation here sadly, we just need to accept what's happening and plan again in 2021.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
I could understand if we were struggling to get teams to the fifteen game mark but by this evening, we’ll have ten of eleven sides on fifteen games, so it makes it all the more bizarre. It effectively makes the whole of this season a complete waste of time if we’re putting eight teams into the play-offs.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
Wonder where the idea came from.]
https://www.totalrl.com/agar-suggest...ffs-expansion/
Be very interested to see what happens if any Leeds players/staff develop covid before the first game of the play offs. Oh, by the way all games to be played at Leeds Headingly, and due to special circumstances no hubcap to be awarded and the prize money that normally goes to the league leaders isn't fair, so give it to Leeds as we are using their ground
Loyal and true, not a glory hunter.
Catalan might not make the 15 games and they currently sit in 4th. It only takes one more Covid outbreak for them or their opponents and they can't make it to 15 as the game will be postponed. Given that it's happened to them 3 or 4 times already and the rates are higher in France currently there's a good chance it may happen again.
This whole season has had no credibility to it at all (for the reasons I listed in my last post). It is about one thing - fulfilling TV contract obligations. Once we do that we can restart in 2021 with a new plan when hopefully the outlook is brighter and hopefully that will be a much more enjoyable season.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
People were saying this season should have an asterisk against it. If we adopt those changes at this late stage, it should have a whole line of asterisks.
There was no guarantee anyone would make it to fifteen with local lockdowns increasing across the north and issues within France. To get to 10/11 teams on 15 games is absolutely fine and should be commended really. I doubted we would get to this stage at one point.
We can complete TV obligations with the four team play-off that was agreed but poor Leeds, with that poor Challenge Cup Trophy in toe, have to play three games in a week and they don’t like it. The sooner we come up with a proposal that bans Hetherington from being in any country where Rugby League is played, the better.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
Saints are in favour of the proposals aswell so it's not just Leeds and Warrington in favour.
To play devils advocate is it fair that Leeds could play 18-19 games compared to 15 that Catalans play and miss out due to a % system especially when you consider two of the Catalans games postponed were against 2 of their top 4 rivals?
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
Agree this is a joke and so typical of RL changing the rules part way through the season. But, if they are considering it, then surely the top 5 as originally planned would be the best option. Nobody outside the current top 5 (Us, Wigan, Wire, Cats and Leeds) really has a shot and isn't deserving of one so give us the LLS and then play out the top 5 same as last year. At least then we win one game and we are through to the final, which would be the reward for our performances since the restart.
To go for a straight top 8 knock out is ridiculous and makes a mockery of all the effort and hard work put in to get where we are now.
"Never write off the Saints!!"
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
I was talking about this yesterday. Was there any point in having Wakefield vs Hull KR last night? No impact on the season, no crowd, no real interest from Sky to show it.
I can understand the current situation, you have Catalan and Leeds/Wire competing on different terms. Having a play off reduces any of the unfairness caused by uneven fixtures.
However, if we have decided to do this it seems unfair that some teams still have to play all 22 games. Why not bin off the midweek games and play a top 5.
Increasing it to more than top 5 would reward a team that are out of the picture now.
Also why don't we just not play any fixture that does not involve a top 5 team or why don't we just have a top 5 playoff now and be done with it?
I could agree with you but then we would both be wrong.
Just going to write the same thing, if Saints beat Salford tonight and Castleford lose tonight, the Saints will be on 26pts with 81% and Castleford on 12 pts with 37%. So the RFKL with a top 8 will allow Castleford the chance to be Superleague Champions.............................that makes our sport with or without Covid 19 a complete joke. A top 5 is just about acceptable creditability wise.
Its too much of a coincidence that Leeds have to play 3 games in 6 days will Hethrington force the new ruling within the next 48 hours,
Why are we, as a game, absolutely obsessed by “meaningful games”. I’ve never known a sport like it and I say that as someone that likes some British sports, an American one and someone who has worked in sport, one which has competitions comprising of leagues and the “meaningful game” nonsense is almost never even mentioned.
Every game doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to. We’ve been down this road before and we’ve ended up with shouts of rewarding mediocrity and the bottom feeder teams were also running scared that they could get relegated and be replaced by teams with an iota of ambition.
If we go down this route, especially the one with eight teams of a possible eleven, taking part, we’ve wasted the whole restart and played a series of actual meaningless games and made a mockery of competition and the game further than we normally manage to annually.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
Play out the rest of the games and present just the shield to the top team. Forget the play offs and final and finish this joke season.
I agree with everyone who says that the idea is a joke, but there is another side to it, if we resort to the old style type of play off, say top five or six, when the top team has two chances of getting to the final, I could perhaps understand where Saints are coming from if they also support the idea, the whole season has been a bit pointless really, through no fault of the Rugby League or the clubs, I honestly think they've done their best, without crowds etc.,, let's just get it over as soon as possible and if this proposal goes through it will get rid of meaningless games against Hull and presumably Catalan