Only four teams have been crowned champions in 23 years, within a 12 team league. The SL era has been dominated and monopolised by the biggest clubs.
In 80s six different teams were crowned champions, ranging from Leigh, to KR and to Widnes. The contrast in the competitiveness is astound, so what is your best answer as to why the big clubs have been so untouchable in the SL era compared to previous decades?
Full time money consolidating the advantage Saints, Leeds and Wigan have as the biggest clubs with the best crowds anyway.
Also, let's not forget that the Champions are the Grand Final winners now (since 98) as opposed to who tops the League.
If you think about it, Huddersfield, Cas, Catalans and heaven help us Wire have all been top and would have won the league under the old system.
Equally, the Premiership which you could use a rough equivalent of the SL Play-Offs: we won 6 times as did Wigan, so you could argue us and Wigan dominated that.
Money has always ruled in a sense, with wealthy 'supporters' on the boards of the big 4 in the old days. The real breaker was the contract system brought in by Wigan iirc. You had to have ready money for that and many like us didn't have that. Of course even the big 4 managed badly and had to sell to Sky to cover their losses.
The establishment of S L and their hand on the Sky funds resulted in the bigger financial gap which still exists. Who knows if a more equitable use of Sky funds would have seen the game progress?
At the time there were many smaller clubs struggling too and even a few quid was welcome. Lenahen has opened the box in his explanation of Wigans state of play. Wire have also had a clear out and, I suspect, have saved some pennies in the process. The Sky income is not what it was and clubs will need to look closer to home to meet their costs.
The game is weighted to ensure they maintain their dominance
From the allocation of cash to the academy system it's all set up to ensure they get the most money, best players and consequently bigger crowds ad infinitum
Full time money consolidating the advantage Saints, Leeds and Wigan have as the biggest clubs with the best crowds anyway. Also, let’s not forget that the Champions are the Grand Final winners now (since 98) as opposed to who tops the League. If you think about it, Huddersfield, Cas, Catalans and heaven help us Wire have all been top and would have won the league under the old system. Equally, the Premiership which you could use a rough equivalent of the SL Play-Offs: we won 6 times as did Wigan, so you could argue us and Wigan dominated that.
That is why I used league as example as the league winners prior to 96 were effectively the champions rather than premiership winners, so winning the league back in the 80s had the same importance as today’s grand final.
Money has always ruled in a sense, with wealthy ‘supporters’ on the boards of the big 4 in the old days. The real breaker was the contract system brought in by Wigan iirc. You had to have ready money for that and many like us didn’t have that. Of course even the big 4 managed badly and had to sell to Sky to cover their losses. The establishment of S L and their hand on the Sky funds resulted in the bigger financial gap which still exists. Who knows if a more equitable use of Sky funds would have seen the game progress? At the time there were many smaller clubs struggling too and even a few quid was welcome. Lenahen has opened the box in his explanation of Wigans state of play. Wire have also had a clear out and, I suspect, have saved some pennies in the process. The Sky income is not what it was and clubs will need to look closer to home to meet their costs.
Although I agree money has always been prevalent. Between 1973 and 1987, only once did one of the big clubs become champions.
I believe the biggest issue for SL is that success isn’t equally shared out, how Wakefield grow their fan base when they haven’t the hope of winning a major trophy. Outside the top 3 clubs, crowds are shrinking.
Full time money consolidating the advantage Saints, Leeds and Wigan have as the biggest clubs with the best crowds anyway. Also, let’s not forget that the Champions are the Grand Final winners now (since 98) as opposed to who tops the League. If you think about it, Huddersfield, Cas, Catalans and heaven help us Wire have all been top and would have won the league under the old system. Equally, the Premiership which you could use a rough equivalent of the SL Play-Offs: we won 6 times as did Wigan, so you could argue us and Wigan dominated that.
That is why I used league as example as the league winners prior to 96 were effectively the champions rather than premiership winners, so winning the league back in the 80s had the same importance as today’s grand final.
But ultimately, in the current system, a team can win every single game of the season - and then lose to Wigan/Saints/Leeds in the Grand Final.
Of course, if the Grand Final was scrapped, I doubt we would have seen exactly the same teams have finish 1st, finish 1st - but it's certainly a lot more of a challenge to do that.
Wigan/Saints/Leeds (albeit the Rhinos had a couple of seasons to the exception) almost get to the play-offs by default each year, and they know they only need to win 2/3 games in that series and they are the champions.
Based on the crowd at Old Trafford, I don't know why we don't just go back to the old Championship/Premiership format.
Full time money consolidating the advantage Saints, Leeds and Wigan have as the biggest clubs with the best crowds anyway. Also, let’s not forget that the Champions are the Grand Final winners now (since 98) as opposed to who tops the League. If you think about it, Huddersfield, Cas, Catalans and heaven help us Wire have all been top and would have won the league under the old system. Equally, the Premiership which you could use a rough equivalent of the SL Play-Offs: we won 6 times as did Wigan, so you could argue us and Wigan dominated that.
That is why I used league as example as the league winners prior to 96 were effectively the champions rather than premiership winners, so winning the league back in the 80s had the same importance as today’s grand final.
But ultimately, in the current system, a team can win every single game of the season – and then lose to Wigan/Saints/Leeds in the Grand Final. Of course, if the Grand Final was scrapped, I doubt we would have seen exactly the same teams have finish 1st, finish 1st – but it’s certainly a lot more of a challenge to do that. Wigan/Saints/Leeds (albeit the Rhinos had a couple of seasons to the exception) almost get to the play-offs by default each year, and they know they only need to win 2/3 games in that series and they are the champions. Based on the crowd at Old Trafford, I don’t know why we don’t just go back to the old Championship/Premiership format.
Because sky wanted their game to be the biggest game of the year
Hence relegating the CC to a pre season tournament for a few years to take the kudos away from Wembley
I agree with James about changing back to the old system but there is no chance while SKY still own the contract IMO, they have invested too much effort in the Grand Final being the be all and end all.
Although if you look at crowds for the Premiership Final, the last 2 we played in the crowds were around the 40,000-42,000 mark and the last ever one between Saints and Wigan had 33,000. All less than the disappointing one last night.
Perhaps that is indicative of Wembley getting 80/90,000 and being the big one before SL.
Why have the crowds been so poor in these play-offs? I did assume that people were still Covid risk averse but that isn't being borne out when you look at other sports. I watched some Prem RU at the weekend and they were sell outs, the Prem Football always is.
To see Wigan at home in the play-offs playing in front of such a sparse crowd, same for the semis, disappointing crowd for the final, is Covid masking the issue (sorry)?
But what was the TV audience? For a RL supporter whose team isn't participating the TV offers the package for free! Diehards like Spelly are getting fewer - look at pub car parks when big soccer games are on, even local ones.
The game has become a TV 'gameshow' rather than something that you want to attend. All the travel, where to park etc is a bind. The 2 X 10 with more even funding might make the games tighter and see more local support but travelling support is for the dedicated only I am afraid.
If the games don't even attract locals it will die as a 'go to' event and depend solely on TV funding.
Yeah but have you ever seen Wigan and Saints playing play-off rugby in front of half a crowd (or less)? I haven't.
That is precisely what Lenehan was complaining about! Their crowds had dropped significantly - in his view through bad results but he was unhappy about a load of other things affecting their support.
I agree with James about changing back to the old system but there is no chance while SKY still own the contract IMO, they have invested too much effort in the Grand Final being the be all and end all. Although if you look at crowds for the Premiership Final, the last 2 we played in the crowds were around the 40,000-42,000 mark and the last ever one between Saints and Wigan had 33,000. All less than the disappointing one last night. Perhaps that is indicative of Wembley getting 80/90,000 and being the big one before SL.
When we played at Old Trafford the capacity was nowhere near what it is now, and the Saints / Wigan game was played with a reduced capacity due to building work.
Yeah but have you ever seen Wigan and Saints playing play-off rugby in front of half a crowd (or less)? I haven’t.
I have.
The excuse that Wigan fans trot out is that Super League set the prices for play off games, and season ticket holders aren't guaranteed to sit in their own seats, so they spit their dummy out and watch it on Sky instead.