Only in RL- when are the Champions not 'Champion'?

So Featherstone who have finished the season in the Championship’ 12 points clear, having only lost 2 games all season are NOT automatically promoted to ‘Super League’ but have to go into a ‘play-off’ game against a team who have lost 11 games, in London Broncos. Thanks to some ‘recent’ additions to their squad the Broncos beat Fev who are now dispatched to another season in the lower league!!

Sorry seems total unjust – the team who are finished top of the league are CHAMPIONS – the teams below them should go into ‘play-offs’

Another bluff to get Toulouse in the SL methinks

everybody knows what they sign up to back in february,everybody is aware its not a first past the post competion..untill it affects them!
These clubs have a vote,why don't they vote for change?

Truth is Fev were terrible on the night,and sacking their coach 6 weeks or so ago didn't help.

i quite agree wigvet . even tho i,m a wigan fan iv,e never been in favour of any play-off & how many times have we seen teams finish down the league & save players for the play offs & come out as champions with the recent ones being leeds who finished 5th & won the play off . no i,m with you that if you play your guts out for the entire season & win it you shud be crowned champions . the play offs are a money only promotion .

Its because Sky Sports who have the contract for Super League want a big end of season televised play off and a big Grand Final like they have down under in the NRL.

If our game needs to have a big final to end the season, it perhaps should follow the example of football who have the final of their FA Cup as the final game.

And surely as games in the Championship and Division One are not subject to any television coverage, the top club in each division as intimated by Wigvet should promoted without any play off, especially as unlike the Super League, the top club can miss out on promotion in spite of being in the top position with a massive points difference al season.

The problem is that the RFL allow Sky Sports to keep our game in the shadows of Football and Rugby Union instead of putting out the contract for Super league to Freeview Channels where it would get far better coverage like it has been on Channel Four and attract new supporters at a national level.

On Saturday, the Grand Final unlike the Challenge Cup Final and the FA Cup Final will only be seen by a minority of people who pay a subscription to Sky Sports!.

Leave the challenge matches to The Challenge Cup….bring in 14 teams…play home and away….have the Magic Weekend as a Challenge Cup weekend…even if it’s not all Super League teams….and let the League Champions be the team who are Top of the League…..simple
Relegation and Promotion for one team…all this “your ground is not fit for purpose” is wrong….if a ground holds only 4000 like Whitehaven or the like then make the game all ticket
Let the Aussies do their own thing…they are not always right

TBH Roy,I Liked the premiership top Four play off after the championship had been decided
The up to 25 year olds though only know this Aussie type play off system they’ve been brought up with

Joe…yeah top four play off fine to bring in some money…like the old days….that could be played at the ground of the highest team left in the 4 team playoff….not a 75000 ground

This play off system actually originated early in the last century, when there were too many teams in the rugby league to accommodate playing each other home and away during a season. So each team played every team from its own county and five or so against teams from the rival county. [Workington and Whitehaven counted as Lancashire!] But this meant that the final league table wasn't a true reflection of the season, so they brought in the top four play offs [top vs 4th, 2nd vs 3rd] with the two winners playing in the championship final. Wigan, for instance, played Wakefield Trinity at Odsal for the 1960 Championship Final in front of 83,000, having beaten St Helens in the semi final [always great to write that bit!]. Then the rugby league went crazy and after experimenting with two divisions in 62/63, where there were no play offs and no championship final, they brought in the nonsensical top 16 play offs. Bonkers! Then we had a top 8 system introduced, until now we have these confusing play offs when, as has been hinted at, the only logic behind all of this is financial.

I also was at that final in 1960 one of my lasting memories was BILLY BOSTON scoring a superb try ! But i am in favour of the "old system" where as if you finished top you were quite simply "The Champions" Then we used to have a top 4 play off ! Then it went to top 8 those finals were normally at Old Trafford . But the knob -heads that so-called run the game decided to change everything ( supposed to be for the good) but for me it never the same . As you say what has happened to Featherstone Rovers is an absolute scandal !
G.B.

We’ll be having this conversation same time next year,nothing will change.
Unless the non sky contracted clubs(anything below super league)get together and get some proposals on the table we will be having a moan annually.
You never know,they might even want this daft system!
And Due to the animosity shown recently by the Yorkshire press towards Wigan,I personally couldn’t give a fig for Fev,Wakey or any other of the m62 corridor clubs

If we are to have play off, the best and most popular among supporters was the Top 5 format as it give the club that finished as league leaders, a far better chance of getting to the Grand Final.

Only in RL- when are the Champions not 'Champion'?


Same thing applies in football doesn't it? So not only in RL.

Aye,and I believe RU employ a play off system too

were in premier league football does that apply coz i,m very sure that city were crowned champions & did,nt they ? .

Correct whups, but all the leagues below them work on a top six finish, plus three out of the top four in the PL didn't win it but are allowed into the Champions league......

yes but the champions dont have to play off after they have won the league do they unlike rugby league ? .com on frecky how many times have we seen teams coming from lower places get their men ready for the play-offs & have 4 or5 good games & be crowned champions . it,s not right .

In rugby league there are a small number of teams in the leagues and they end up playing each other 3/4 times in a season and for me who ever is top at the end of the season should be champions and should go up a league. Again in football the teams play 40+ in a season and the top team's(2) should go up to the next league none of this play off nonsenseWigan RL won the League and got the hub cap trophy there should be none of the play off rubbish and the top two teams from this rubbish are playing today

So I’ll take it that a couple of people commenting on here wont be watching tonight.
Quite right,no double standards hey

The trophy for finishing as league leaders is no longer the "hub cap", but now a shield of a different design.

And as for clubs in Football, their even more farcical play offs have only been introduced in the EFL Divisions together with more Friendly Internationals together with American Football and Rugby Union games to offset the massive debt incurred in the constuction of the new Wembley Stadium.

Whups, spot on, and leeds were masters of that for a few seasons.

Totally agree whups....but in the same instance, a team who's won the Europa cup can go on to win the CL, and this is a team who couldn't get in the CL in the first place and a team who's come fourth in the PL can also have a chance of winning the CL. As in RL a team who finishes 6th can get promoted from the Championship, league one and two. With city winning the PL then yes I agree with you it can't be taken away from them, but then they have to go through rounds to get to the final It's all about money money money....

yes frecky but that,s eufa for you . remember several years ago that eufa wanted a european league just like the jokers last season trying to set one up . well eufa has now got it,s wish by keeping top teams playing in europe by dropping them into competition after competition.

Joe Maplin and fellow Rugby League Supporters.

At the end of tonights game, a steward told me that it had been the best game seen at Old Trafford all season!

aye & many other stadiums too .

They were apologising to us for frisking/searching us on entry,and when we left,we got a “see you next year”from one steward.
Hope so
(Sir Bobby stand)

Spot on whups, too many games so they can make more money, money, money.

exactly frecky .

It all about money now!

were in premier league football does that apply coz i,m very sure that city were crowned champions & did,nt they ? .

whups

Did i mention the Premier League? I posted Football

And it does happen in Football doesn't it

where ? . you cant use the play offs of the lower leagues because all they are playing for is a place in the league above . the ones who win the league go up as champions .

Where?

Errrrr a thing called the champions league were you can get in without being a champion of anything and then you can go on and win the trophy, become champions of Europe and maybe not even be the champions in your own country

champions league is nothing to do with our countrys running of football is it .

Just reading thro your threads and the underlying problem seems to be one word ............
"MONEY" in all sports it's becoming the evil master.
My main wish for instance in Football is that the team that finishes top of the Premier League ,ONLY THEY PLAY OTHER LIKE TEAMS IN EUROPE FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TROPHY.
Otherwise like you all agree it's utter nonsense .Similar in the sport of RUGBY LEAGUE ,the team that finishes top after a gruelling season ...
THEY ARE THE CHAMPIONS ENDOFF!!!
After you can devise ,come up with whatever cup comp you want but please get away from this GrandFinal nonesense (even after we won it)
Call it bu another name but stop calling them champions ,it's also true (JOE MAPLIN ) it'shappens in RUGBY UNION ALSO . THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT IT ALL IS THE ONE WORD ,,,,,,,,,,,,"MONEY"""
G.B.

whups


wigvets headline was " only in RL " no mention of any country. So my comment regarding football is correct. Will you stop clutching at straws now?

i,m clutching nothing & i,m correct . or is it you that,s clutching .

Whoever wins the league in football is quite rightly crowned and considered champions no ifs or buts.
The Champions League places has no bearing on who is and is considered champions of said league it is just a qualifying vehicle for another competition.
Not to be confused with RL where the team finishing top may not be considered or able to call themselves champions because the format is then changed from a league to a knockout allowing teams to cruise along then come with a wet sail like the Leeds side had a knack of doing as mentioned above.

try telling that to ishudentspeyk chatty .

The Champions League places has no bearing on who is and is considered champions of said league it is just a qualifying vehicle for another competition.

But it has a bearing on who could possibly win that competition and be declared Champions of Europe and they may not even be Champions of their own domestic league. Naming the tournament the " Champions League " When other teams apart from champions are allowed to enter Is a total joke.

So it is the title "Champions League" you have a problem with then and are happy to agree that it isn't in the slightest the same as Rugby League were the team who finishes top aren't able to call themselves the best team that season if the don't win the play offs.....which this thread is actually about.

chatty

The topic is supposed be about Rugby League, not the farce that exists in football's Champions League.

Yea I was a little surprised when you was the first to reference football on this thread

Not sure if it has been mentioned but, back on topic, London Broncos beat Toulouse and are back in Super League.

yes he did chatty but he must have dementure like all his other posts .

He,'ll be sat in a home slaverin in a bit

Says he with the limited thinking and vocabulary!

along with you todger .