SAINTS will fight to keep their season alive until it is mathematically impossible to make the semi finals.

It is looking like a really uphill task now after lost the last four games, but this week Keiron Cunningham remained defiant that it was still all to play for.

But plenty of fans and pundits have already decided that the 12 team Super League has already split into three distinct groups of four.

A look at the league table with five games to go before the competition splits into Super 8s and Middle 8s sees some pretty defined chasms between fourth and fifth, as well as eighth and ninth.

If Salford don’t get any points back it appears that they will be joining Hull KR, Huddersfield and Leeds in battling for their top flight status from the middle eights.

That separation is significant given the mantra trotted out ahead the re-jigging of the league format ahead of last season was ‘every minute matters’.

Let’s assume the worst and rule out a collapse from one any of the teams currently placed 1-4.

(Although an implosion from above is not totally far-fetched given Warrington, Hull, Catalans and Wigan are all still tied up with the Challenge Cup.)

If it stay like this – or indeed if the gulf widens then the teams placed fifth to eight at the start of the Super 8s will have seven rounds that are effectively meaningless.

At least the top four can fight for top spot and for home advantage.

And with Catalans in the mix there will be a desire not to be going to the south of France for a semi final the week before the Old Trafford showpiece so second is also vital too.

But the lower half of the Super 8s will be playing purely for pride and maybe their spots for next year.

It goes to show that no matter what perfect system the administrators concoct, you cannot legislate for form.

Nobody would have predicted Leeds and Huddersfield not being up there in the mix for a top four spot.

Leeds’ spectacular fall from grace – even with the departures of Messrs Sinfield, Peacock and Leuluai – was never predicted in a million years.

After years of Super League wanting the nearly men – those that always recruit strongly and show early promise – to challenge the old order to make it competitive they have finally delivered – only for three of the previous year’s top four to fall down badly.

There will be plenty of knee-jerk reaction to this.

After all – every minute matters was supposed to be more than marketing spin.

You have to support the principle behind the move.

The fact that this year’s Super 8s is going to be a damp squib is nothing to do with the game’s administrators.

It is not Nigel Wood's fault - he didn't miss any tackles at Magic or drop the ball three times against Warrington.

It has everything to do with the mid table teams not beating the top four.

Saints, for example, have only beaten one of the top four this season with the win at Warrington being their only success.

A look at the other clubs probably reveals a similar picture.

The reason the Super 8s split was welcomed at first is because it swept away its bloated, long-winded top eight play off predecessor which rendered the league table meaningless.

It was wrong for teams who had underwhelmed with their own displays to still have a chance of winning the league.

The first basis of a league system should be to reward week in, week out consistency.

Like it or not, that is what the current format does.

In 1996 the first past the post went down to the wire before Saints pipped Wigan to the inaugural title, yet the following year Bradford had steamrollered all before it to make the last month a formality.

At the end of the day the purpose of the system should be to reward the best, most consistent teams – not to keep those under-achievers interested for as long as possible.

If Saints don’t pull off the Houdini act and end up meandering through the Super 8s they can take some consolation that at least they are not with Leeds and Huddersfield, fighting it out with Leigh, Batley and London, to preserve their top flight status.

But they can also do something else.

With the bottom end numbers of their squad packed with young talent who play most weeks in their undefeated under 19s and Reserves side, the back end games would give Saints the chance to do what Warrington did last year.

Last year Wolves had a similar season to the one Saints have endured this season and as a result had little to play for in the last eight weeks.

In that time, though, they had a good look at young full back Jack Johnson and half back Dec Patton, in an environment that was more forgiving.

Saints have any number of juniors – Regan Grace, Calvin Wellington, Danny Richardson and Levy Nzoungou – who could have an extended run here to get some valuable experience under their belts.

Even if they got two or three games each, that would help thicken the experience of the squad for next year as well as rewarding them for fine displays in the two tiers below the top team.