sir adrian morley wrote:
send our under 19s to hull next week and rest the lads for the semis and there fore stick 2 big fingers up to sky.once upon a time winning the league meant you were the best team in the comp..now the best team in the comp is whoever wins at that cat hole regarding of where they finish in the league..well done sly tv
Once upon a time but only for a minority amount of time in the entire history of our sport. Only from 1895-1906, one year in 1918, the time during WW2 up to 1947, 1962-64 and then 1973-1997 have the champions been the team who won the league ladder. That's only 46 years out of our sport's 121 year history. The other 75 years the champions have been the team who have won the Grand Final (or any other name it has had).
Halifax were the first Grand Final winners in the 1906-07 season. Saints have won the most Grand Finals with 11, Wigan and Leeds have each won 10, Huddersfield 7, Swinton 6, Hull 5, Salford and Bradford 4, Wire Halifax and Oldham 3.
The three times we've been champions have all been through Grand Final wins.
To be consistent over the season is all fine and dandy. But when a team can show it can win in the most do-or-die situations of a Grand Final to not only show they were consistent enough to get there but to go and win in such a high pressure game where the opposition take home the spoils if you don't - that's the sign of a true champion team.
Okay as its fallen, next week, is actually that kind of situation to a certain extent as the top two happen to be playing each other in the final game but that very rarely happens (I'd bet it's not many times in 121 years).