Steve,



I quite agree with your sentiments.



But I do believe that to finsh in the top 3 of the middle 8 you'll need to aim for 10pts. since with all things panning out to team stregnths the table should look like:

1st Strongest: 14pts

2ndStrongest: 12pts

3rdStrongest: 10pts

4th Strongest: 8 pts

5th Strongest: 6 pts

6th Strongest: 4 pts

7th Strongest: 2 pts

8th Strongest: 0 pts

I realise that this will change since there will be upsets in the middle 8.



So the aim has to be 5+ wins in the middle 8 (10pts) to get in the top 3, with a secondary goal of aiming for 3+ wins (6pts) for 5th place and a win in the £1M game.



Roll on the 2015 season, I can't wait for it to start now.

As an aside, and to give you a laugh here is my predictions from the TotalRL board.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Go on just for the fun of getting it totally wrong:



1 = Leigh

2 = Bradford

3 = Fev

4 = Fax

5 = London

6 = Dewsbury

7 = Sheffield

8 = Workington

9 = Batley

10 = Doncaster

11 = Hunslet

12 = Whitehaven

I don't believe they will only be bit part players. But I was replying to the fax fan who claims to have inside info from leeds ( and every other club in RL) that they would be no more than bit part players.

Why would the second from bottom super league team have the disadvantage of playing away and the team in 12th play at home?

The easier games have got to be at home rather away...

not sure thats right looking at the grid. I think the 2nd bottom sl team is the 5th ranked team and they play the 6th rank (12th SL) at home



How will the Super 8s work?

Clubs will each play seven fixtures on a league basis.

Clubs which have performed strongest in their respective competitions in the regular season will be rewarded with four fixtures as follows: the top four Super League clubs will play four home matches; in the Qualifiers, the team finishing ninth and 10th in Super League and the top two teams from the Championship will have four home matches; and in the Championship Shield, clubs finishing the regular Championship season in 5th to 8th place will have four home fixtures.

In Super League and Championship Shield, the competing clubs will carry over the points and scoring records from the regular season into the Super 8s. The Qualifiers will start with zero points because the eight clubs are drawn from two different competitions.



How is the fixture schedule for the Super 8s determined?

The Super 8s fixtures are produced using a merit formula which rewards teams for the consistency and excellence of their results in the regular season. The higher a team finishes after 23 rounds, the more favourable their fixtures in the Super 8s are. For example, the team that finishes 1st will have home games against the teams finishing second and third, and be away to the teams that finished in 7th and 8th.

As with the regular season, the scheduling of fixtures will be determined by a range of factors, including the fairest balance of alternate home and away games for all clubs, stadium availability and broadcast preferences.

The fixture list is produced using the grid below:





any team coming forth In the championship may as well not bother in the super 8 lol



where as team who win the championship get 4 pretty winnable home games

9th and 10th in SL are Ranked 1 and 2



1st and 2nd in Ch are Ranked 3 and 4



11th and 12th in SL are Ranked 5 and 6



3rd and 4th in Ch are Ranked 7 and 8

Dunno....ask the RFL who devised the fixture grid

Its shocking that the higher you finish makes a difference

does it though???? its a matter of opinion as to whether it actually does work like that, there's an obvious difference between finishing 1st and 4th in the championship that is clear, but....



Some teams would say that they would rather play the top teams at home and the lesser teams they are more likely to beat away.



you could argue that the 2nd placed champ team has it slightly easier

That was sort of the point I was trying to make a few posts back. I am not sure how fair that fixture pattern is either.