Bilko - A Last Post

[moto748]

So in an ideal world what type of league would you have in place for next year?
For me whoever finishes top wins LLS but goes straight to the GF. Positions 2 to 4 playoff to reach the GF. Whoever finishes bottom is relegated and is replaced with winner from the Championship. Winner of GF plays NRL Winners at the end of each season not as a warm up the next year. Also bring the Challenge Cup to earlier in the season.
Also 4 Nations once regular season is over.

So 3 plays 4, winner then plays 2 (at 2) for right to meet champions in Final? Sounds good to me.

Thanks again for all the great work you have done for the Wigan club and the game, Bilko.

Just on 'is it just us complaining?: it certainly doesn't seem to be, but, to be fair, I think there is an element of Wigan and Leeds fans in particular usually making the most noise, if you will, and with both, by their lights, having disappointing seasons, there's been plenty of complaints about the standard of footy. From FC fans, though, not so much, I'm sure. And I've seen some good footy played this season. But it mostly hasn't been by the usual suspects.

[fozzieskem]

For me Thursdays have to go it's about as atmospheric as an operating theatre at most games,

The reserve grade and academy have to be sorted as Bioko said,

Sundays why not Sundays talking only about Wigan here there's no reason really is there for not playing the game when even now a fair few people have the day off?

Entertain..enough with the defence wins all type games,they have their place of course but entertain me it's what I pay my money for.

Get rid of video refs,too long have we been in thrall to tech that's not working right,sack it off,

Move the challenge cup,make it relevant or get rid no one is interested in it in its present form,also move it from Wembley it looks terrible all those empty seats,

Speed scrums up or get rid as mentioned elsewhere

A bit of a rant but there you go.

[Garry Riley]

Either get rid of video refs or give them a time limit in which to reach a decision. Or limit the number of times a referee can go to the video ref.

[DaveO]

I am not one to view the past with rose tinted specs or one to think it was always better "in my day". Far from it but I do think in RL terms we were better off before SL and the switch to summer.

Back then we had several competitions. We had the league, the challenge cup, JPS/Regal Trophy and the Premiership.

The extra competitions meant sides who were out of the running for the league still had competitions they compete in.

It was also true that even if out of the running for the league sides would still try and win matches against the contenders to influence the destination of the title. No chance of Saints giving Wigan an easy game if we needed the points.

Playing in winter meant our top players could play down under in our off season. Many would argue it was too much but it meant they could earn more and would not need to leave the UK to play in Oz. We also got some great Aussies/Kiwi's here to help put bums on seats. Doesn't happen anymore.

Neither do proper international tours with a touring side playing clubs. Big occasions those at Wigan now lost.

The move from winter was bad enough but the move to the playoff system was a disaster given how it was handled.

Not only did the administrators deliberately do down the league by not even giving out a shield when we started they also tried to do down the cup, all to try and make sure the GF was the ultimate competition.

I don't think the status of the league has ever recovered from that deliberate attempt to make it out as second rate.

Our administrators also never know when to stop meddling. They have never given a format enough time to bed in. The original top five system was one that did require a good league season but they soon got rid of it.

Fast forward to today and we have the super-8's that just make the preceding twenty odd games a qualifier and a system that saw falling crowds where it was tried (Switzerland) and was rejected by the Scottish FA.

Our current system is predicated on the RFL's "whole game approach" and I am sure they are all patting themselves on the back Leigh have been promoted but the fact of the matter is there is not enough money for a "whole game approach". Particularly when the incompetent RFL lead by that idiot Nigel Wood don't even put the TV bid out to tender much to the annoyance of IL.

Leigh maybe going up but an SL team is going down and people's livelihoods are at stake. Not just the players some of whom will be picked up by SL sides but all the backroom staff and administrators are facing redundancy at one of HKR, Salford or the Giants. All the super-8's does is kick the problems of P&R from a financial point of view down the road.

Yet in RFL-land all is rosey. A side has got promoted. Tick a box. Hull FC won the cup so the competition is more even. Tick a box. Close finish in the S-8's down to the last game. Tick a box. Overall quality of the game is down - no box to tick.

I saw someone say earlier in the thread Leeds and Wigan fans have been more vocal this year because we have been successful. I have been saying this for years and in any case we could actually win the GF this season and I will still be saying it. In fact I was saying it in 1998 when we went to the GF system. I predicted the league would wither back then and we won both the league and the GF in 1998.

[pedro]

get rid of the playoffs and have the CC instead

[cpwigan]

The 8s does not work. It is boring all across the board. SL and Champ clubs involved at the middle 8's are disadvantaged as they cannot plan properly until the positions are fixed.

Move the CC back and have entry for all from Rd1. Surely the idea is to have the likes of Wigan and Leeds being drawn v a Swinton or a Batley.

I would consider a RT/JPS style tournament if need be. Alternatively make it an U21s British players only tournament. Even combine it with an U19s version too.

2 Referees, Speed the game up, stop pampering to coaches, reduce wrestling. scrums are needed IMO but tie packs in more.

[Rochdale Warrior]

Not far off , We are rewarding failure , look at Sky tonight , Leeds carnival atmosphere they say bulling the game up , playing for a made up trophy , they have had a terrible season full stop.
Think most clubs will have a tough job selling season tickets next season, look at the North Stand at our home games this season empty

[Rochdale Warrior]

Good luck for the future Bilko

[Bilko]

Not far off , We are rewarding failure , look at Sky tonight , Leeds carnival atmosphere they say bulling the game up , playing for a made up trophy , they have had a terrible season full stop.
Think most clubs will have a tough job selling season tickets next season, look at the North Stand at our home games this season empty

And it had 1 video ref call and finished at 10.06pm. How? Why? Fix it!

[Wintergreen]

Firstly, thanks for your hard work Bilko. Always found the site to be informative and even posted on the forum in the early days before the interesting posters were driven away.

I have said for a long time that the structure of RL in tis country amounted to 90% of the season being a warm up for a 4 round knockout trophy. I have yet to see any evidence to the contrary.

Nothing necessarily wrong with this as long as you accept that the game vs Widnes on a Friday evening in March has little more consequence than a friendly.

That said, the real thing that is gradually squeezing RL to death year on year is the salary cap