The unfairness of the draw

[The Who]

Only now can you see how unfair the draw is.
Of the bottom four teams, we miss out on playing three of them twice (Titans, Knights and Raiders).
It makes our position at the top of the table even more meritorious.

 

[RiverEagle]

This is a very good point mate, and a lot of us agree.

That's why getting to the finals (and top 4 or top 2) is only half the job.

We then fully see who's great, and who's something of a pretender this year.

I'm confident we can beat any mob on our day!

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

It's why you'll see the Panthers slip back, they only get to play the top sides once.

And they play a few of those in the next few rounds

 

[doc]

Not to mention in the last round Souths and Roosters get to play on the Thursday night giving them a long turnaround ahead of their first semi-finals (which worked very nicely for them last year as they both won in Week 1). Handy that they get the benefit of that again this year....

 

[Snake]

I wouldn't call it unfair; more unlucky. When the draw was realised at the end of last year, Newcastle were coming off a preliminary final appearance, and Canberra can be a daunting road trip, regardless of how bad they're going. OK, the Titans are pretty mediocre, but someone has to only play them once. If you really want to discuss something more to do with unfairness than bad luck, lets talk about the Donkeys and their 7 day turn arounds and Friday night games.

 

[RiverEagle]

I think you'll always have glaring anomalies in a competition where teams don't play each other once, or twice. Full-stop.

You're right about the saloon-passage for the Bronx (and they'll still miss the 8).

But on the other side, look at us getting 7 Monday nights last year; and only 1 home game in the last month now. Plus 2 trips to QLD,
including to Townsville a week before the finals.

Hard to always see those things as mere coincidence (or "luck of the draw").

 

[Hamster Huey]

Only now can you see how unfair the draw is.
Of the bottom four teams, we miss out on playing three of them twice (Titans, Knights and Raiders).
It makes our position at the top of the table even more meritorious.

No draw can be made predicting where clubs will be placed when you face them. Even a true home-and-away fixture will not nicely place all the teams you face evenly on the ladder, during the course of the season.

The competition is close enough that even those strugglers can put one over a Top 4 side; check out the Knights job on the Roosters a couple of weeks ago. Hell, we were lucky to get away with one against the Knights earlier in the year.

 

[Brookie Brawler]

The draw will always be unfair and could mean the difference between 3 or 4 positions on the ladder in a close comp like this year, which IMO is the only valid justification for having a top 8 finals series.