ANYONE surveying the crowds for the Super 8s and tasting that feeling of anti-climax as the weeks meander through a series of dead rubbers before the business cranks back up again in October must realise that this is why rugby league's big row had to happen.

Sure, there was probably too much petty name calling and questioning motives.

But it would have been a dereliction of duty to pretend that all would come good in the end if only we could only let the players do the talking.

One things for sure - the players would not only have been doing the talking, but also the walking - straight over to the NRL and rugby union’s Premiership had something not been done to halt this downward spiral.

Sometimes you have to put your views out there publicly to break a logjam and focus hearts and minds.

The changes voted through, as important as they are, can only be one small part of what the game needs to revitalise itself.

But let’s start with those changes.

The one-up, one-one down keeps teams honest and ambitious in Super League and ensures nobody just plods along for the ride.

And it gives a real incentive to the Championship clubs that if they strive, and build prudently, without splurging all their money on one huge gamble to get back up, then they will be rewarded.

Of course there is a danger of clubs doing an Icarus and flying too close to the sun, but we have to let clubs be as ambitious as they want to be and not hold them back.

At the top of the table, the top five system when it was first hatched was always the best as it combined rewarding the top team and livening up the play-offs.

The first was that it genuinely rewards the team finishing top, and then in turn the teams placed below them in the five.

In that way it marries the week-to-week rounds with the system that decides the Champions.

And secondly it allows a genuine play-off series to build momentum over the three rounds and final.

At the moment there are the rounds, and a straight knockout and it is all over, suddenly and brutally - with only home advantage being the credit banked for finishing top.

But after all the rows, let's hope that the game does pull in the same direction now.

These are pretty difficult times for a sport like rugby league that is not just up against the behemoth that is Premiership football, but also sports like rugby union, UFC and darts when it comes to competing for viewers, spectators, sponsors and players.

The sporting world does not exist in a vacuum, we cannot take anything - or anyone - for granted, players or spectators.

But we have a great product on the field to sell as long but that is what we do.

Sell it, and being positive and upbeat does not mean you whitewash over mistakes and carry on with things that are not working.

The 2019 season has to start with something else, an additional sparkle and a proper plan, other than expecting the structure to magically alter the game’s problems.

And in doing so we need to tee up rugby league so that it is in stronger position to negotiate the best possible TV deal in two years.

I am certain the clubs and Super League's CEO Robert Elstone will have plans in place to attack the year ahead.

Put putting my oar in here among the plans should be a commitment that clubs have to put by a specified portion of their budget for academy and reserves system.

The idea that there are not enough players to go around becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There have been a worrying number of cases this year in which teams have not had 17 players on matchday.

If we grow more players at the top end, and they stick around in the reserves into their early 20s, they must then stand a better chance of staying within the game even if they don't have a future at Saints and Wigan.

But the onus for topping up the playing well has to be shared more evenly.

And the second, often under-rated aspect, is a budget for marketing.We are seeing too many games played in front of empty seats, how do we fill them?

Sure the players are the clubs' best asset for pushing the game in the community and building that bond between team and town.

But sometimes we need to take advice from different PR gurus to really stir the imagination - and pick out key personalities and favourites, like Regan Grace, and sell them to the uninitiated.

Game wise, in terms of leadership nationally, we do need someone to do what David Howes did as as Rugby League's PRO in the early 70s to point the game forward again ­— and after a bruising few months maybe pour a little oil on troubles waters while we are at it.