TOMORROW night thankfully sees the last ever use of possibly one of the worst gimmicks – and there have been a few – ever forced upon rugby league since the switch to summer.

Saints’ chairman Eamonn McManus will no doubt try to bring some gravitas to the occasion at Huddersfield, but Club Call to me belongs with playing the joker on It’s A Knockout.

But nevertheless it is a serious choice that Saints will have to make, choosing between the winners of either the Huddersfield versus Catalan encounter, or Castleford against Warrington.

Although there are no hard and fast rules, convention usually dictates that the team making the call picks the lowest ranked team.

The theory goes that it neutralises the so-called motivation effect of the team selected. In most years the lowest ranked team remaining is also invariably the weakest, although Leeds proved that wrong in 2011.

I don’t doubt hours of analysis of the four teams are going into this call, with form, style of play and injuries all playing a part in the decision.

It is tough – because things change so rapidly.

Three weeks ago it looked like Saints had blown the top spot with that mauling by the Wolves and seemed destined to limp out of the play-offs with two straight defeats.

Wolves ran pretty hot that night, like a team that was going to bounce to Old Trafford, and yet they looked out of sorts and a touch jaded when they saw off Widnes at the weekend.

Using the lowest placed club convention, Wolves would be Saints’ pick should they beat Cas – and Huddersfield beat Catalan.

I can hear cries of ‘no’ ringing out across the borough, after all Warrington are on a winning roll against Saints at Langtree Park. If you did a straw poll of Saints, I am sure ‘anybody but Warrington’ would come back as the popular statement.

There would also be the added bonus of sending Warrington to face Wigan at the DW – and that is a fixture that invariably produces plenty of biff.

However, given the scale of that last defeat by Wolves and the taunting from the away end, especially during the boxing up of the of the shield, I would not be surprised if Saints did not feel it their duty to try and show that they are not running scared.

Either way it brings us back to how the whole Club Call thing is a poisoned chalice – thank goodness that is going on to the same dust heap as Super League Milk, the countdown clock, and hopefully one day the Magic Weekend.