Interesting thread on possible relegation....

[MrAlex]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfivelive/F21 ... ad=2773182

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[ancientnloyal]

The fivelive message boards crop this up from time to time. No need to worry though, Cas to go down!!

[Cruncher]

It's interesting, though, that it isn't just Wigan fans who are getting worried at the prospect of Wigan being relegated.

There'll always be one or two bitter and twisted types who'll celebrate if we get the bullet, simply because they're terrified that we might at some point return to power and humiliate them again, but the average thinking-man's RL fan now seems to be seeing the down side of it.

I'd go further. I reckon it would be a shame if anyone got relegated this year. For the first time in a while, most SL teams are of a reasonably high standard (Wigan excepted of course, but we've got all the SL trimmings so that counts us in ). Castleford and Wakey are often cited as not being SL standard, but Wakey's team is no pushover and Cas, though weaker than Wakey, are always capable of pulling off a shock, and have such a recent tradition of being a top side that it would be a crime to keep on excluding them from the top flight, especially when these days that means hitting their revenue stream. As for Harlequins and the Cats - who can argue on recent performances?

The other point is, who else is there who would bring anything of value to SL? Aside from Widnes (because of their ground and attendance potential), I'm not sure. Leigh were pretty well a catastrophe last season (in truth, nothing has changed there since the 1970s, at the very latest), and I'm not at all convinced that Humberside can accommodate two SL teams, so for all Hull KR's ambitions I think they may have lost that war some time ago (though I must admit, I'd love to see a strong Hull KR side again - they were an awesome opponent at one time).

But bearing all this in mind, maybe we should only be looking at promotion at the end of this year. If we keep on knocking the likely lads back (and relegation is now a big knock-back, for all the reasons mentioned), will we ever assemble the solidly competitive top tier that the Aussies now have?

[jinkin jimmy]

I've been saying the same for ages. There should be no relegation threat hanging over any club. Make it a 14 team comp and shut the door.

[waterside glens]

i agree jj but i would look at a 16 team league so each team only played each other twice and it would give the lions a better chance

[jinkin jimmy]

Just reread my own thread. I meant to say 15 team comp.

[ince warrior]

It's all very well saying this, but everyone likes the excitement of a good old relegation dogfight (well, except the teams involved), and it gives the 'smaller' clubs something to play for, which in turn brings up attendance revenue. If teams like Cas and Wakey weren't fighting relegation, what would they be playing for (realistically), since they haven't a cat in hell's chance of making the play offs. On top of that, what would happen if there was a team outside this relegation-less league who were good enough to make it in SL? Would it be fair to deprive them of a chance because we don't want to hurt people's feelings?
It's for those reasons scrapping relegation would turn rl into a shambles.

[jinkin jimmy]

ince warrior posted:
It's all very well saying this, but everyone likes the excitement of a good old relegation dogfight (well, except the teams involved), and it gives the 'smaller' clubs something to play for, which in turn brings up attendance revenue. If teams like Cas and Wakey weren't fighting relegation, what would they be playing for (realistically), since they haven't a cat in hell's chance of making the play offs. On top of that, what would happen if there was a team outside this relegation-less league who were good enough to make it in SL? Would it be fair to deprive them of a chance because we don't want to hurt people's feelings?
It's for those reasons scrapping relegation would turn rl into a shambles.

Absolute rubbish. Look at the NRL, by far the best comp in the world and one of the main reasons is that because all teams know they are there long term they can build properly.

I haven't done this as an exercise, but check back over, say 8 yrs in both Aus and GB and I bet you find far less dominance and far fewer whipping boys in their comp.

Also, why does a team finishing top of their division have to go anywhere? Saints finished top and didn't go anywhere, similarly whoever finishes bottom of the third doesn't go anywhere.

Regarding your point about smaller clubs' attendances going up. They would not be affected one bit by the fact that there was no promotion. People turn up in increased numbers when their team is winning. Period. Unless you are talking about Wigan!!