Playoffs? What playoffs?

Remember when we we were being wooed to accept playoff football? The oft repeated claims that these high-octane, high-intensity battles would fuel a revolution in rugby and play an integral part in boosting our chances of competing with Australian’s weaned on the top-5 concept?

I do. But I didn’t see any evidence of it yet in this top-8 format. You?

Even the elimination playoff between Wakefield and Catalans last night struggled to become a real contest despite a late rally by the Widcats.

Whether tonight’s Wigan-Castleford clash redeems this opening round, the format can clearly be seen to be flawed.

Coaches are canny men. They wouldn’t hold their jobs for long if they weren’t. So they can see when they need to play cards close to their chests and there is a more than even chance that the top-4 will meet again in round 3; subject of course to the ridiculous ‘club call’, whereby the Leeds Rhinos get to choose who they play and by implication who St.Helens will play in the elimination Semi-finals.

Ditch the top-8. It has to go. Please don’t be swayed by chatter that only one Super League game was meaningless this season; the final one between Warrington and Harlequins when all playoff places had already been filled.

The top-5 worked fine. Top-4 would be even better.

First v Second with winner to Grand Final. Loser plays winner of Third v Fourth game in elimination semi-final.

It’s not rocket science. Every game has meaning. And it’s over in three weeks.

Oh and it’ll deliver high-intensity, high-octane games to packed houses, whilst reducing the number of games asked of players.

The financial loss arising from the reduced game could perhaps be address , by staging the opening round as a double-header (at Elland Road say). The increased drawing power and capacity would provide a big-match stage with the prospect of a higher attendance than the qualifying games might draw individually.