Re: 4th Spot - the poisoned chalice? : Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:41 am  

ThePrinter wrote:

5th isn't automatically 'easy', if Huddersfield had beaten Warrington in the first week (which wasn't the mission impossible some are making it out to be considering the Giants had won 2 of the 3 league meetings between the two teams that season, as well as winning at Halliwell Jones in the 2010 playoffs) then Leeds' playoff route would of looked like this....
- Hull @ Home
- Warrington Away
- St Helens Away..........Saints would of had Clubcall and most likely would of picked us over Wigan.
- GF vs Wigan/Hudds

That is incredibly tough going away to Wire and Saints followed by a possible GF against Wigan, what stopped that happening was Hudds usual poor end of season form. So what do we do? Change the playoff format just to factor in Huddersfield's expected playoff crumble?
As for the Giants having to play this tougher game in Week 1, haven't people been saying of late that England won't beat the Aussies because we don't play enough tough or intense matches? A wake up call beating from Wire should of been a kick up the backside for the following week compared to Leeds having a stroll against Hull when they hardly had to get out of 2nd gear.
Leeds did have a fairly comfortable passage to reach the Warrington game but that's because of the attitude of some of the teams in the playoffs and not the structure of the thing.

Personally I'm not trying to say what Leeds did last year was "easy" by any means and I'm not trying to take anything away from the acheivement. You still had to go to a red hot Wire team and then beat Saints in the final. I was simply highlighting that there are too many aspects of the playoffs I don't like.
- There is no real discrepency between finishing 1st and 2nd
- 5th and 6th get "on paper" easier home games in week one than either 1st or 2nd
- Likelihood of repeat fixtures in week 3
- Too many teams in the first place

Re: 4th Spot - the poisoned chalice? : Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:41 am  

There was a massive difference between 1st and 2nd last year. 1st were at home to a s**t-out Huddersfield, 2nd were at home to eventual runners up Saints. Big difference. The difference is variable dependent on how closely matched the top 4 are, but you might generally assume that 3rd will be better than 4th.

Certainly Wigan lost their match while Wire won theirs. I would have expected Wigan to beat Huddersfield at home pretty comfortably.

Bottom line is, Huddersfield would have flopped in the play-offs whatever the format. Had they won (somehow) at home to Hull in week one and Leeds lost at Wire in Week one, Leeds would still have been a better side at that stage of the season.

Re: 4th Spot - the poisoned chalice? : Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:59 am  

If i was in charge

top 6

Week 1

3v6
4v5

Week 2

1vthe lowest team still in
2vthe other team

final

Job done