THERE are three Super League games to go – and apart from the ‘hub cap’ decider between Wigan and Warrington there is little to really get excited about.

After last weekend’s results, Saints have more or less secured the top four spot that gives them the second bite at the cherry and avoids the sudden death knock out.

There is obviously a bit of local interest on Humberside, with Hull FC and Rovers battling for the eighth spot, but it is hard to get too carried away about what have effectively, results wise, become pointless games.

There is not even the thrill of relegation to be excited about these days, with those matters taken care off with application forms and overhead projectors rather than playing capabilities.

The play-off series has turned the league table into a starting grid and rendered the end of season regular league fixtures as of secondary importance.

Obviously the games are important for the players. They can’t switch the rugby button off and on.

The team that builds momentum in the league programme invariably takes that through to the play-offs – just like Bradford did when they stormed home from third in 2005.

But the more we end seasons like this, the more we will diminish our product – the one that fans stump up their hard-earned cash for every week.

One concern is that the more we see the regular programme fizzle out with largely irrelevant games, the harder it is to crank up the play-off series. Look at the crowd figures, all-pay play-off matches have been notoriously poorly attended in recent years.

We have to give the paying customer value for money and reward each and every performance.

Cast your mind back to that first glorious summer Super League season in 1996. For a start it was a summer season, starting in March and finishing in August, not beginning in the depths of winter and ending in autumn like we have now.

But more importantly, every fixture counted. It was nip and tuck between Saints and Wigan all season so there was no time to ease off one week; no scope to rest players when the Challenge Cup Final approached.

Every game of that 22-match inaugural Super League season counted. And so when Saints thrashed Warrington on the last day of the year to dethrone previous kings Wigan, the men in the red vee could rightly proclaim to be the new, undisputed top dogs.

In the keenness to promote the Grand Final concept since 1998, the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater.

The play off has its place, just like it used to under the old top eight Premiership, but the champions should be the team that finishes top of the pile.

The game is big enough for three competitions – and each should carry weight.

The hub cap should be traded in for a proper trophy, with the words champions on it.