You have to finish in top 8.



Then you play other members of top 8, either home or away.



Then the top 4 of that 8 go to semi finals? 1v4 and 2v3?



You can imagine them 2 semis being sell outs if its just gonna be the 1 knockout game, winner takes all.

According to the RFL Policy Review Document from September it'll work like this:



The Super League (Tier 1) will comprise 12 teams.

The Championship (Tier 2) will comprise 12 teams.



Both divisions will play a main league format of 23 matches, with every club playing each other home and away and a Magic event in both leagues.



The Magic event will be staggered to give each division an opportunity to attract significant media attention.





After 23 rounds the season Play Offs will commence with the 24 teams splitting into three groups of 8.

The top 8 will compete in the Super League Play Offs.

The middle 8 will compete in the Super League Qualifying Play Offs.

The third 8 will compete in the Championship Shield.





Each Play Off group will comprise 7 fixtures. In the Super League Play Offs and the Championships Play Offs (i.e. top 8 and third 8 ) the four highest ranked clubs will receive the benefit of four home fixtures.

In the Super League Qualifying Play Offs (the middle 8 ) the four teams who have qualified from the Championship will receive the benefit of 4 home game fixtures.





Thereafter, in the Super League Play Offs and Championships Play Offs (top 8 and third 8 ), two Semi-Finals will be contested with teams as follows; 1 v 4 and 2 v 3, with home advantage being available to the highest ranked side.

From the two semi-finals the Super League Grand Final and Championship Shield Grand Final will be constructed.





In the Super League Qualifying Play Offs no Semi-Finals or Grand Final are envisaged. The first three teams in this ‘mini league’ will qualify for re- admission into the Super League competition for the following year. However, at the end of the Play Offs series, the team ranked fourth will play the team ranked fifth in a one-off game to determine the last Super League place for the following season.





In the top and third 8s, league points will be taken forward into the Play- Offs. Clearly it will not be possible for the middle 8 to carry points forward.





The bottom two clubs from the Championships Play Offs will be relegated to Championship One (Tier 3) for the following season.

The champion club from Tier 3 will be automatically promoted and a second club will be promoted via a Play Off system comprising clubs 2 to 5 in that competition.

That's pretty much it.



Top 8:



- Points carry across, all teams play each other once.

- Top 4 play semis, 1v4 & 2v3.

- Grand Final.



Middle 8:



- Points reset.

- Top 3 'promoted'.

- Bottom 3 'relegated'.

- 4v5 playoff for the final promotion spot.



Bottom 8 I'm not too sure on, I gather they'll have their own 'Grand Final' and also there will be a relegation slot.



It's also important to note that the bottom tier of 12 will have different cash allotments with 1st getting a decent amount and 12th getting F all. This means the bottom 8 still have everything to play for as they will want more money the following season.



Edit - Bah, I type far too slow.

It sounds like we're off on another RFL hairbrained scheme, or should I say innovative idea?

I think between rounds 3 until 7, the top three teams in each division should play with both halfbacks hancuffed to one another, and the fullback fitted with a ball and chain. This could be balanced in rounds 9 and 10 having games played in Florida.



I may be old fashioned, but what a load of old tosh.

I actually quite like the format after the split. I suggested a playoff system similar to that myself with 6 teams all playing each other in a round robin then semis and a final.



My main issues with the system are that:



A) There is no difference at all between finishing 1st and 8th. The top 4 get an extra home game, that's it. I would make it that the team who comes 1st gets 7 home games, 2nd gets 6 etc. The team in 8th has to play all their games away.

B) When it becomes apparant that a team has no prospect of making the 8 they will probably just put the cue on the rack and focus on what will happen after the split. Likewise with teams that are safely in the 8 mid way through the season.

C) Whilst there is, on paper, a route for the Championship clubs to reach Superleague. In reality the chances of any championship clubs making the top 4 of the qualifying group are slim. We all know that a team like Fev is capable of beating a Cas or Bradford in a one off, but to beat them over the course of a 7 game series is a tall order. Over time the gap should close, but I think the initial 12 Superleague clubs will remain unchanged for at least 3 or 4 seasons.



And the most important problem is how convoluted it all is. I can't imagine it will appeal to outsiders at all.

The initial BBC report said differently, that it would go to 3 groups 8 after 11 Rounds, that'll teach me from believing stuff I read about 13-a-side football on the BBC. Anyway, 23 Rounds to sort it out!!! Flip that's too long for mine, so that's basically 30 regular season rounds, too much football for me that, quality not quantity, plus the C Cup on top of that.



In my opinion, it should be 12 or 10 in SL with a licensing system, but many seem to disagree with the licensing system, so fine have a two leg match between the bottom SL club and the winner of the Championship Grand Final.

That was the initial proposal, but it was rejected very quickly.

Thank you "Him" for the details. Will have to read it again as I don't quite get it first time of reading.



So if the bottom four play the Champ clubs away then a season ticket can only cover the eleven home games. All the remainder will be pay on the gate.

Surely attencances will drop off massively?

Nobody knows how season tickets will work yet. Logically there would be an 11 game season ticket to start with & an option to extend that for a further 3/4 games depending where you finish after the split.

Being a Salford fan I've rarely had cause to pay much attention to the top 8. How often has a team in say 7th or 8th with 7 games to go managed to finish in the top 4 (as would be required here to have a crack at winning it)? Is there a danger of those teams simply having 7 meaningless games in the Superleague Playoffs?

There's probably a very large chance of this for at least a couple of teams. They can't really complain though, they should have more income from sky/sponsorship money and theoretically more money from matchdays as there's more games played.



There are always going to be some teams playing meaningless games, the new structure just tries to minimise how many teams fall in that category...All my humble opinion of course.

Well a team finishing 8th will have to win 6 or 7 games to make the top 4 and a chance of the title. Which is how it should be in your regular season finishing position is as low as 8th.