In Rugby League, more often than not, they aren’t – and that is my point.
Actually in the “super” league, since it was introduced, more often than not the team who finished 1st has gone on to win the grand final – I think I did the stats the other day during a “quiet moment” at work & put it on this thread ;)
And I see your point & agree with it. I don’t think that play offs are a fair way to decide who is champions of a league but a play off in the way they are used in football & rugby league is unfair purely & simply because you are allowing teams who have proved themselves as inferior to others a chance of getting promoted/being crowned champions.
If it’s unfair then it’s unfair no matter what the sport & no matter what the prize is on offer – my argument has nowt to do with money & nowt to do with prestige
The only argument i seem to be getting back is “Yeah it (football’s version) is unfair, but its not as unfair as their’s (rugby league’s)” which proves my initial point that football fans aren’t on the most solid ground to criticise RL’s play off system[/quote]
I’ve come out of retirement from this thread again because you really are dragging it out, and I can’t let it pass me by.
The bit in bold isn’t my argument. That bit is merely affirmation that I agree that play-offs are unfair, although I feel there are different levels of unfairness.
My argument is that you are not comparing like for like:
a. In football you can avoid the play-offs. In Rugby League you cannot.
b. In football the play-offs decide 3rd place (a bonus promotion place -if you like). In Rugby League they decide who wins the league outright.
c. In football play-offs do not occur in the prestigious top tier. In Rugby League they do.
Simply: being crowned champions is not the same as winning promotion, and that is what you are comparing.
If suddenly they did away with the automatic promotion places and went to an all play-off end of season, then football would be very similar to Rugby League. As it stands however, it’s not.
Next time you post on this thread I will put my fingers in my ears and repeat loudly ‘La, la, la, la…’
