It's Play-Off time

Monday 14th September 2009

IT'S play-off time in Rugby League and teams are getting down to what has become known as "the business end" of the season.

In the Super League it is now the top eight sides who take part in the cut and thrust of knockout football, whilst the rest can pack up and go on holiday. In that top eight, all are  hoping to emerge as one of the chosen two who will walk out at Old Trafford for a Grand Final that, for many, has now become the biggest occasion in the game.

Since the Super League introduced its play-offs in 1998, arguments have raged over the merits of deciding the Champions by virtue of winning a Grand Final rather than giving that honour automatically to the team which finished top of the table at the end of the regular season. You won't be surprised to learn that this is nothing new in Rugby League.

The idea of having an end of season play-off to decide the Championship winners was first introduced way back in 1906-07, in what was only the 12th season of the game's existence following the 1895 breakaway from the Rugby Union. It came about because, with all the teams together in one league, it was impossible for each side to play everybody else, and thus is was deemed the fairest system to have the top four teams play off, giving home advantage to the top two, with a resulting Championship Final played on a neutral ground.

For the record, the very first Championship Final was played in April, 1907 at Fartown, Huddersfield, and was won by Halifax who beat Oldham 18-3 to take the title. Apparently, there were plenty of critics of the new format, but it was another example of the game being brave enough to be innovative and lead the way for other sports. And the top-four system was to become ingrained in the very fabric of the game for the next 55 years.

Personally, I am a big fan of the modern day format of play-offs and having a Grand Final to decide the Champions because the game needs every bit of variety it can find and every "marquee" event it can put on the big stage.  But then I was brought up on the excitement of the top-four system and the folklore of some of the great Championship Finals in the 1950s and early '60s. Achieving a top-four place was the "Holy Grail" for every club in the league alongside a place in the Wembley Cup Final.   

Playing the Grand Final now at Old Trafford is, of course, one of its greatest attractions. The so called "Theatre of Dreams" has its own special aura and is a definite factor in Rugby League being able to draw such big crowds there. And it was the decision to first play the Championship Final at another big soccer stadium in Manchester that sealed its status as a mega-event and silenced those critics who had maintained that only the team which finished top of the league could call itself the "Champions."

That landmark decision came in 1939 when the Championship Final between Salford and Castleford was staged at Manchester City's Maine Road ground and drew a crowd of 69,504. That was the highest attendance ever seen in the history of the game in Britain. Twelve months earlier, the previous record attendance had been set when 54,112 gathered at Elland Road for the "All Leeds" Final in which Hunslet beat their illustrious city neighbours to claim the Championship title. No Rugby League grounds in the north of England were big enough to accommodate the size of crowds which wanted to see the Championship Final and, after that first venture to Maine Road proved that the previous year's attendance was no fluke generated merely by local rivalries in the city of Leeds, the die was cast for Manchester to become the spiritual home of the Championship Final in the same way it has now become again at Old Trafford.

The Second World War, of course, caused a five year break in normality for sports, but when peacetime Rugby League resumed in 1945-46, the Championship Final immediately returned to Maine Road and that's where it stayed for a decade, with the only exception coming in 1952 when the Final was switched to Huddersfield Town's Leeds Road ground. Even the strongest critics of the top-four play-off as a means of deciding the Champions had to admit that the game could not afford to give up what had become such a prestigious, popular and highly lucrative event as the Championship Final.

The emergence of Odsal Stadium as a ground capable of holding huge crowds saw it take over from Maine Road as the home of the Championship Final in 1957 and that year's Final, in which Oldham beat Hull, was a perfect justification of the top-four system. The two teams had not met in the regular season, Oldham being in the Lancashire league and Hull in the Yorkshire league, but they finished first and second in the Northern Rugby League, with the number one side (Oldham) coming out on top by a single point, 15-14.

Odsal was to see one of the greatest ever Championship Finals in 1959, when St.Helens and Hunslet served up a football feast with Saints South African winger Tom Van Vollenhoven scoring one of his most memorable tries. And a year later, the biggest ever crowd for a Championship Final was set when 83,190 packed the Odsal bowl to see Wigan beat Wakefield Trinity.

The referee on that occasion was the famous "Sergeant Major" Eric Clay who, remarkably, as soon as he had battled his way through the crowds up the steps at Odsal and got changed, hot footed it across to Leeds where he refereed an Amateur Cup Final at Bus Vale.  That was the great character and dedicated enthusiast that Eric was.  

Everything changed for Rugby League in 1962 when a two division format was introduced and the Championship trophy went to the team finishing top of the First Division without any need for play-offs- and Swinton won the title both years this was in operation. The absence of the lucrative end-of-season Championship Final was one of the prime reasons why that two division experiment was brought to a premature end, but when "normal" service was resumed in 1964-65, the new innovation of a top-16 play-off system was introduced. Rather like the thinking behind the Super League's decision to now have eight teams make the play-offs, the old top-16 system was aimed at ensuring more teams had something to play for right to the end of the season. Halifax promptly gave fuel to its critics by winning the Championship title after finished seventh in the table, and beating the league leaders St.Helens in the final.   

So, could a team in Super League ever hope to win the Grand Final from eighth place?

All the experts seem to think it would be impossible. But, the last team to win the Championship title from a Final before the Super League introduced its play-offs in 1998, was Dewsbury back in 1973 - and they did do it after finishing eighth in the league.  And guess who their captain and inspiration was ... none other than Sky Sports' Mike Stephenson.

The play-offs have long been an exciting part of Rugby League's history. Just ask Stevo!          

Read more comment on Rugby League and its history in "Rugby League Journal."

www.rugbyleaguejournal.net