Thats a failure coming top is all that counts!

I have loved the whole play-off structure up to now, lets see what effect eight teams and choosing opponents has. The Grand Finals I have attended are easily my favourite sporting moments, there is always a feeling that history is being made before your eyes. The tension is great, and the atmosphere of playing under floodlights heightens the occasion.



On the other hand, the Cup Final is more of a light hearted celebration of the great game. The mixing of supporters and fancy dress is more obvious at the Cup final.



I was still buzzing Sunday and Monday after my Wembley visit, something I've never done after Old Trafford. Maybe it's because I have a four hour drive home after OT.

First couple of seasons the Grand Final was worth winning and had value. Now that are down to a 8 team playoff, there might be a day when the 8th place is 6 points adrift of the bottom league place and say 20 points off the top league place.

They then win this play off system and become champions, will this scenario have any creditability because this dosn't happen in any other sport.

The cc hasn't meant anything since 99.



The grand final meant nothing until 2004 and the only time the LLS has been worth anything was 2004 and maybe this season.

I don't see why they even need to call it the Minor Premier. Doesn't the word "premier" mean first and foremost anyway? Whereas "champion" means the winner of a contest? Surely both words can be used and rightly praised? Being called the Premiers doesn't mean they won the SL, it just means they came first. And being called Champions doesn't mean they finished first, but it does mean they won SL.



I don't see why we have to talk one down in order to talk the other up when we can surely talk both up? The more trophies we have that are "worth" winning (to players, fans, chairmen, media, etc) the more interest that will be generated.



I just hate the whole "minor premier" title, and the pathetic hub-cap that is the LLS. Especially when you look at the shield they use in the NRL:

How do you work that out - the SL trophy is more prestigous then the League Leaders shield.

Should a team who finished first and have all the advantages that entails, then go on to lose to the 8th place team with all the disadvantages that brings then they wouldnt deserve to be champions and the team that won the gf with the harder run in would. By the way in 2006 the relagated team was only 7 points off the playoffs. With a more competative league the playoff places (wether a top 6 or top

are always going to get closer and closer to the bottom. In the nrl theres only an 8 point differance between 8th and 14th place and it doesnt seem to devalue their playoffs.

The best team of the year is clearly the SL winners.

Grand Final.

The Grand Final is the culmination of many rounds. The Challenge Cup is scheduled around those matches. It carries much prestige but is not what player salaries and TV contracts and franchise licenses are based on. The main competition is Super League.

Lets face it - the CC Final is still a huge event, but crowds in virtually all games running up to it are rubbish - the opposite of what it was 20 years ago. That suggests that many fans only consider the CC important once your team gets to the final. And don't start on about extra costs - it never used to stop people attending cup games in droves in other recessions.



Not sure how you can say that winning 5 games on the trot - with for example Warrington being able to avoid paying Sts who they haven't beaten in eons and many a cup-winning side only playing one or two other SL sides in all rounds - being a bigger achievement than a series of knockout rounds at the end of the year between the highest placed clubs in the league.



Add to that the lop-sided fixture list and the fact that both Leeds and Sts have slumbered through parts of the season without going all guns blazing in every league game, and its fairly clear where priorities lie.



FWIW the league leaders' shield is a nice reward for winning the league, and more presitgious than the World Club Challenge. However, the Challenge Cup is far more presitgious, and the GF more prestigious still.



As a Leeds fan I'd definitely rate the GF ahead of the CC, but TBH given that we've won the GF 3 times in the last 5 years (who is the dominant side in SL???

) I'd actually almost rather us having won the Challenege Cup this year than the GF.

As an Aussie I'm hard wired to only care about the big prize, the Grand Final.





All the other club comps outside of that are just rubbish.



The WCC is not worth felt on the bottom of what ever stupid trophy they hand out for that exhibition game.



The Challenge Cup, a good old competition, but seriously, who cares. How many people really give a stuff who won the cup last year?



The Minor Premiership, congratulations, you got a week off in the finals. Outside of that you have won jack ****.





The Grand Final is what its all about.