It's still becoming an almost elitist 'closed shop' though isn't it, Animal ?. Where only two teams are favourite to win things, at the start of every season.
I think it's going down that worrying route of what the Premier league started doing to football, also with the annoying dominance from Sky sports.
It takes me back again to when the RL and the likes of Maurice Lindsay, tried to force clubs into merging. They didn't know then, and I still don't think they know or even care now, apart from Wigan or St Helens. 😕