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Billy Slater dives over the line to score a try - Source: Getty Images -
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I heart McIntyre
By Max Bania
Thank goodness the NRL finals are here.
After a season in which more action has taken place off the field than on it, David Gallop and the fans can look forward to three more frantic weeks of finals footy while 2009's also-rans practice their golf and kung fu skills away from the media spotlight.
And yet the NRL faces one more looming controversy to fend off: the dispute over whether they should retain their current McIntyre play-off system, or revert to the AFL system, where the first place team plays the fourth, two plays three, five plays eight and six plays seven.
Frankly, just the thought of League following in the AFL's dubious footsteps is enough of a worry. Next thing we'll have legalised knock-ons, mandatory tight shorts and commentators saying things like "rush behind" and "he's a good kick, this boy".
Proponents of the AFL's finals system say it increases the likelihood of close games in the first week. Try telling that to Essendon, who copped a 166-70 shellacking at the hands of Adelaide a fortnight ago; or Brisbane, who went down 107-56 to the Western Bulldogs last week.
Meanwhile, aside from Melbourne's trouncing of the Eagles, week one of the NRL playoffs produced three intriguing clashes - and two wins to lower ranked teams. Scant evidence to suggest that the NRL's system is more given to blowouts.
The main point of contention over the McIntyre system is that it leaves teams in limbo; their fate in the hands of other teams still to play over the weekend. Yet this is exactly what makes it so endearing - its wildcard factor.
The permutations are endless. Nothing is set in stone until the last minute of the last game. And crucially, every game is vital, because one slip up against an unfancied team can be enough to send one of the big guns tumbling out of the competition.
Where the McIntyre also outdoes AFL's system is that it gives the top two teams an easier ride, and rightly so.
The reward for topping the log during regular season play should be greater than just a token trophy that is quickly forgotten should the minor premier fail to go the whole hog. It should be the luxury of playing the eighth-placed team (in theory the weakest finalist), rather than the fourth.
There are other mathematical advantages to the system, including the fact that it allows any pairing of the top eight teams to square off in the grand final, but let's leave that to the number crunchers.
All the fans need to know is that the McIntyre system has offered up thrilling finals series for the best part of a decade, where the upsets, drama and intrigue come as thick and fast on the field as they do off it.
Dump the McIntyre
By Chris Matthews
The Sunday Roast, a NRL panel show on Channel Nine, recently ran a competition asking its viewers to send in a explanation of the McIntyre system in 25-words or less. Needless to say, nobody entered.
The impossible task was asking far too much from an audience that is more akin to fending off scandal than doing a word count challenge that even Phil Gould was left flabbergasted by.
The complexity of the ever-lasting variables indeed was one of the primary reasons why Kamichael Hunt jumped ship. So confused, he ended playing for the wrong country, and after five seasons in the NRL, he still couldn't figure it out so went to the AFL in the quest for clarity.
And it's not often the AFL can offer clarity. Here is a sport that glamorises tight-sleeved singlets and celebrates bouncing a oval shaped ball in a game that is a twisted mix of forceback, rugby, basketball, cricket and football all rolled into one.
But one area where they do have it over the great game is their simple playoff system. The bottom four teams face sudden-death elimination, with teams five and six gaining home-ground advantages. The top-four meanwhile square-off in a humdinger of a first weekend that not only offers a semblance of fairness for the top-four qualifiers - they rightfully get a second chance for all their success in the regular season - but also gives us a preview of possible Grand Final match-ups.
This is far more desirable than the one-vs-eight mismatches the NRL has traditionally thrown in the first Sunday afternoon. Sure the Warriors and now the Parramatta Eels have upset the natural order over the last two season but these results in reality, are just blips.
Before the Warriors upset win over the Melbourne Storm in 2008 the average winning margin, over nine years of the McIntyre system was 24 points, with the minor premiers scoring around 40 points in these clashes while conceding 16. And indeed, back in 2001 the Warriors were on the end of a huge 56-12 thrashing at the hands of the Eels which remains a finals record.
This is reason enough for the NRL to change tact, quick smart and indeed it appears possible that David Gallop and his honchos will cave into influential pressure before 2010 rolls round.
Wests Tigers star Robbie Farah and Panthers great Greg Alexander both recently told Sydney's Daily Telegraph that the McIntyre system is flawed and now Rugby League Players Association president Simon Woolford will lobby the NRL to jettison the current system.
It's not often the NRL will take something from its rival code but lets just call it a trade: they give-up Karmichael Hunt for a superior playoff system. Seems like a fair deal to me.
