Super Eights : Fri May 27, 2016 9:22 am  

Not having Sky I don't often watch non-cup live to games, I watched Cas v Wigan last night at my brother in laws and it made me think.

There is a huge gap between anyone in our league and these teams, both are above average, but realistically no one is going to get promoted unless a SL team collapses.

Despite the gap the standard of play is not good. No real level of high skill or speed most of the time and Sky having to play up the quality of the kicking to find something to keep going on about. The same guys who moan about all the kicks in Union. And why is every penalty a "silly" one?

The quality of the referee last night was poor. Time for two refs like in NRL? But even worse was Cummings constantly jumping to the wrong conclusions. If these are the best refs no wonder the guys in our league really struggle.

overall the game is going backwards at this level and despite this we can't close the gap, so after a season and a half I think the Super 8's are just a con and will continue to be, automatic promotion is the only answer, even if we get yo yo's. We are simply playing for the prize money and a nice trip to Headingly and to the empty stands at Salford and Huddersfield (which will be fun).

Re: Super Eights : Sat May 28, 2016 7:40 pm  

Of course they are.

Big changes will need to be made before a team gets promotion under this system.

Having said that, now we've decided to do it, we need to stick with it for several years to give it a fair trial.

Re: Super Eights : Sat May 28, 2016 8:07 pm  

LOL, I think you mean the "middle eights". Putting that aside, the format still gives a championship side a one-off chance in the "million pound game" to get promoted. You need to make sure you're in it (as Bradford did last year), but it's down to one game in the end (putting aside the almost impossible scenario of a championship team getting to 3rd place in the eights).

Strange things can happen in one-off games. The SL side will always be favourite as things stand, but not all favourites win!

Re: Super Eights : Sun May 29, 2016 10:23 am  

I hate all the negativity about the new system, it's all based on last year. If Bulls hadn't had an absolutely useless coach, and Leigh hadn't spectacularly self derstructed since half time at Hull KR, we'd have had 2 serious promotion contenders. Leigh spent the first 3/4 of the season better than half the teams in SL!

The new system is great and it's not the RFLs fault that Bulls and Leigh messed up last year.

Re: Super Eights : Sun May 29, 2016 11:09 am  

This thread is about ten years late. We have a system where if your good enough you can go up, and if your tripe you can go down. It keeps meaningful games going all year and everyone has something to play for. It might not be perfect but no sport is.

Move along, nothing to see here.