Whoever wins the Grand Final this year will, through no fault of their own, have a hollow victory IMHO.

The Top 8's are a much much poorer place without Leeds (even more so than any other side that may miss out).

This is nobody's fault other than ours - but the Top 8's on TV i'll be giving a miss thanks.

well even if we had scraped the top 8 we would still have been an irrelevance as we have been all year as far as the top 4 is concerned. So for me it is no hollow victory for whoever wins they will have earned it and be worthy champions.

I haven't watched much SL at all this year anyway to be honest i thought the fare on offer from for the first couple of months was shockingly bad so have only caught a few of our games since, although i missed last night. I won't be watching much of the Super 8s just the key games, but will look forward to the play offs and GF as usual.

Looking at the super 8's it looks pretty simple. Widnes have already fallen away, Wakefields season is on the CC semi. If they lose they'll have a hangover, if they win they'll be focused on wembley and will have a hangover from that either way.

So what you're left with is castleford providing nuisance value while cats and saints jostle for 4th place and hull wigan and warrington trade blows to see who finishes 1st 2nd and 3rd.

Most likely whoever loses the semi of hull and wigan will take top spot, assuming warrington win their semi, and then saints will sneak into 4th ahead of catalans.

From a leeds perspective the best we can hope for is that whoever wins the CC doesn't win the GF, because a treble is still a possibility for 3 teams. I'd like to see someone new win the GF, so warrington or hull iw ould hope to win the GF. Just so long as one doesn't win both GF and CC...and LLS.

Was thinking similar when I saw the table after last nights game. Widnes, Wakefield and to a lesser degree Cas are making up numbers - benefactors of Salfords points deduction and ourselves/Hudds having nightmare seasons. That said, the league doesn't lie so good luck to all (apart from Wigan of course).

I kind of think I know where you're coming from, but I think that you are wrong. Under this system, the regular rounds determine who has the right to play for a chance to get to OT. We weren't good enough. simple as. If we were in the top 8 and Wiganor Saints or Wire etc weren't and we then went on to win it would you see it as a hollow victory?

I might agree that it will be a less interesting end of season, or that possible less punters will be watching on Sky. But who ever wins will on balance have earned it and they will have every right to celebrate being champions

There's been a lot of talk about a lack of quality this year. Last year the top 8s seemed to pick up in intensity. I can't see that happening this year, not because Leeds aren't there, but because imo only really Wigan, Wire and Fc have been able to reach that intensity this year. The rest have been highly inconsistent and imo will struggle, although I feel cas might prove good spoilers.

Not really, you haven't been good enough this year, simples

Wouldn't be a hollow victory at all whoever wins. Yes Leeds won't be there but then again Hull. Wire and Catalans are all better than they were 12 months ago so should we call Leeds' victory hollow based on that?

Yes there's a few teams will little to no chance of making the 4 but that's to be expected and I don't know why people get worked up about it. We'll still have a tight contest at the top for the LLS, or at least a top 2 spot and home advantage in the playoffs.

Daft. No Grand Final win is a hollow victory. The top 8 are where they are on merit. Whoever wins it are deserved champions on a par with every champion team.

A couple of extra wins in very tight games could have seen us around 6th. But under this system we'd have been very unlikely to have made the 4.

It's no different to last year- the 8 best teams in the league are in the super 8's and the worst are in the middle 8's. You are where you deserve to be.

SL in general is getting worse though due mainly to poor direction at the top and a succession of coaches intent on bending the rules to breaking point in desperation for a win and spineless refs who won;t deal with it. The aussie game is a much better spectacle because games are refereed more effectively and games are allowed to flow rather than what we have to watch.

I do think you'll make the middle 8's more watchable though

The quality this year right across the board has been abysmal, We seem to be going backwards.

I can't ever remember a stronger line up of teams in the bottom 4 after 20+games. How has this happened when the quality of super league is abysmal and the worst ever?