- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
While recent discussions on what is the greatest blight on rugby league continue to echo, no one has mentioned the ridiculous state of affairs with the finals system. It is clearly unfair and something must be done.
Teams are currently being punished for finishing higher on the ladder and this must stop.
Melbourne now face a grand final qualifier against the third-place Brisbane. The minor premiers will be forced to play the most difficult side coming through last night’s game.
The Roosters, finishing second, will play either the fourth-placed Parramatta or the eight-placed North Queensland. Is this fair?
After finishing third, the Broncos were punished by having to play the seventh-placed Penrith. The team they beat on the ladder have the luxury of playing a lower placed team, in North Queensland. Some of these are circumstantial based on the reality that seventh beat sixth and eighth beat fifth, but if Parramatta win – as their ranking suggests they should – Melbourne will still have to play a higher placed team than the Roosters, who did not earn that right.
[latest_videos_strip category=”rugby-league” name=”League”]
If the NRL wanted to address this inequity, it may result in a lot of repeated fixtures. One suggestion would be that the highest-placed team in each week of the finals plays the lowest placed team then next weekend. Melbourne could again face Parramatta, while the Roosters would play Brisbane two weeks after they just played.
Or, the highest-placed qualifier each week could get to select the team they play. In this case, Melbourne would get to select whether they wanted to play Brisbane or the winner of Parramatta-North Queensland.
On Friday night, it would have been Brisbane selecting whether they wanted to play the Panthers or Cowboys. From the point of view of interest in Queensland, they may have selected North Queensland, as it would have given them a 52,000-strong crowd instead of the 38,000 they attracted.
Whatever the case, someone at the NRL needs to explain what benefit the minor premiers really get. Melbourne disposed of the fourth-place team only to have to defeat a higher-placed finisher to make the grand final.
Apparently being six points clear of the competition doesn’t count for much.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.