Missing the Point

Well we only had to wait until week 3 for our 1st Golden Point game in Super League , so what did we make of it ?

My colleague Ian wrote an article in favour of it yesterday , I disagree . Ironically the Hull fan on our team is in favour and the Wigan fan against you may say .

To be fair though I’ve said this about the NRL model before Super League followed suit this year . Ironically it is the clubs who wanted this to increase excitement , led by the 1st Chairman to fall victim of it … Ian Lenaghan .

I just don’t see what is wrong with 2 teams sharing the points , I get it in a cup game where there has to be a winner but if 2 teams are level after 80 minutes in a league game they have surely earned something ? It ended ok on Sunday , Hull deserved to win having been the better side for 70 minutes , but if they had lost in the same manner Wigan did it would have felt wholly unsatisfactory . It would have been a travesty had they gone home with nothing .

In a league ladder teams accumulate points over the season and see how they tally up at the end , there is no need to find a winner every week . I’m not sure if this was brought in to make it appeal to Northern Americans , who don’t do draws , but they don’t do relegation either . The single point could be crucial . Also we now kick off earlier some finish earlier , well a game with golden point would go well past the 10 o’clock deadline for the next days newspapers , hardly speeding the game up .

What also felt unsatisfactory on Sunday , FC scored a drop goal without Wigan touching the ball but surely only a try should end the game there and then . In the NFL if a side scores a field goal on the 1st drive overtime continues , otherwise the side kicking off has a massive advantage . Only a touchdown on the 1st drive , as the Patriots did in the AFC Championship game , ends the game in overtime . Surely the opposing team must have a chance with ball in hand , if a try is not scored the game should continue until the 5 minutes are up , which would only allow a couple more sets of 6 anyway . This I feel could also be implemented for Cup games to add a bit of balance .

So it’s a no from me on this new idea , if you earn it you should keep it .