The Problem With Playoffs

by Dugald Skene

I'll start with a question: is it fair that league titles be decided by a playoff system?

On Saturday, the Leeds Rhinos clinched their second successive Super Rugby title having finished 5th in the league on both occasions. Congratulations to them, but their win highlights the fundamental problem with playoffs: they undermine the reward of consistency in a league format.

Leeds Rhinos clinch their 6th Super League title

Increasingly over the last decade, and particularly in both codes of rugby, leagues around the world have adopted a playoff system. In the UK, the English Premiership introduced the knock out structure in 2003, followed by the Celtic League in 2009.

I have no doubt that a tournament style format at the sharp end of the season adds some extra excitement and heartbreak for players and fans in equal measure, and that it prevents any runaway league winners, but what's wrong with a runaway winner if they are clearly the best team in the their division and therefore deserve any title they rightly earn?

Look at a team like Gloucester, who came top of the then Guinness Premiership in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons, only to lose in a playoff final and then a semi-final against the Leicester Tigers on each occasion. Gloucester have never won the premiership title since the introduction of playoffs in 2003 despite twice topping the table. Alnong with Leeds and other examples, this proves that playoffs distort the reflection of form over the course of a season.

Then there is the question of strategy. Taking a cynical slant, it could be argued that teams will strategise their season in an effort to finish in the top 4 of a league rather than first place by potentially resting players for the bigger games, ensuring they are available for the winnable ones.  What does that do for competition and generally upping the standard of the league and the sport as a whole?

I like the climactic nature of the playoff system.  I like that there is something to play for until the end and that it comes down to a showpiece event, a one-against-one all out shootout.  It's certainly great commercially, but for me does nothing to reward the team who more often than not, it seems, comes top of their league only for it to be taken away from them.