Gareth Ellis - After so many changes this Super League season

LET it be: Expanding the play-offs would benefit Gareth Ellis’s Hull FC side, but he thinks it should remain just for the top four.
Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe — LET it be: Expanding the play-offs would benefit Gareth Ellis’s Hull FC side, but he thinks it should remain just for the top four. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe

If I was pushed into a decision on the whole ‘should we end the Super League season early’ debate, I’d say let’s just crack on and get done what needs to be done.

I understand the reasons about the debate and there are many. But I do think we should just let the top-four – who ultimately will probably be the best four teams that have played this year – fight it out for the honours of playing in the Grand Final and ultimately winning it.

Looking at the subject as a whole, the reason we’re in this position where the fixture list is slightly congested is all based around the fact we thought at least some fans would be back in stadiums by now.

Old hands: Leaders and former champions Wigan will qualify for the top four, while multiple Old Trafford winners Leeds could benefit if the play-offs are expanded. Picture Bruce Rollinson

That meant clubs would be able to recoup some money to soften – if that’s the right word – the blow that’s been this Covid-affect season.

However, as it’s turned out we’ve found ourselves in a very precarious position again in that we’re in a lockdown once more and there’s no chace of any fans being back this year.

So what do we do? Just crack on as we have throughout the year or do we change it?

The key which has been very difficult through this period is credibility. How do you maintain a credible competition during a time when you’re changing things and moving things around so much?

Rugby league seems to be the only sport that makes as many changes as it does and changing the format of a competition can change whether your season has been a success or not.

For instance, in the past it might have been a top five play-offs and – if you’re a club of a certain stature – if you finish sixth that’s deemed a terrible season. Yet Leeds have shown in the past they have finished as low as fifth and they have won the Grand Final so it’s deemed a successful season.

When we’ve played for so long under this guise of top-four I think you have to stick with it.

At Hull FC, we could be very much part of things if it did get switched to a top-six.

The majority of the year a lot of the pundits have been writing us off. For a number of weeks we’ve been do or die, we’re not going to make the four and there’s a been a lot of negativity around Hull going back to Radders [Lee Radford] getting sacked, the Covid outbreak, getting beaten by Salford on the first week back...

Imagine then that if we were to go to a top-six, we could make that as we’re in a bit of form and then all of a sudden we win the Grand Final? It would be brilliant. Don’t get me wrong. Fantastic, in fact. But would it be credible? Would it not always be a case of they moved the goalposts and Hull won it.

I can understand the pressure there is on the governing body to try and generate some interest on this final part of the season given there are going to be some clubs playing congested fixtures; what would be the point of putting those players under that pressure of three games in a week or more?

But on the other hand do you create more meaningful games by widening that play-off system?

I almost think we’ve got to the point now in this country where we all want to see the back of coronavirus and it could be some time before we do.

Maybe the rugby league public in this country are ready for the Super League season to move on and be over as well.

I can see the plusses of maybe changing the goalposts. But is that really going to lead to a credible winner?

We’ve changed it twice already from top-five to top-four and then the way you got into the top-four by being win percentage. We shouldn’t do it again.

If they do, in my eyes, that’s not to discredit the eventual winner in my eyes as, under whichever format we end up concluding the season by, they will be the team that has best dealt with the circumstances we’re living and playing under.

But I think sticking as it is, is the most sensible option.

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Gareth Ellis - After so many changes this Super League season - leave the play-offs alone