Sports   (Talk about balls here.)

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.