How do the Gallagher Prem play-offs work?

Hayden Cottle Published: 12 May 26 13:51

As the 22-game Gallagher Prem season draws to a close, all eyes are beginning to turn to the play-offs.

Each team in the 10-club competition plays each other twice in the regular season, before play-offs take place to decide who will lift the trophy and emerge as champions.

Play-offs have been used to decide the winners of the Prem since their introduction in the 2002/03 season, with an initial three-team play-off expanded to four teams three years later.

Read on as we tell you how the Gallagher Prem play-offs work.

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How do the Gallagher Prem play-offs work?

The Gallagher Prem play-offs are amongst the most simply formatted in sport currently.

At present, the top four teams in the 10-team competition face off in semi finals for a place in the Grand Final.

The top two sides in the league host home semi finals, with first hosting fourth and second hosting third.

The two sides who emerge as victors in the semi finals then face off in the Grand Final, with the highest ranked team in the table viewed as the "home team" and therefore placed in the home dressing room and allowed to play in their home kit.

At the conclusion of the Grand Final, the winner is crowned as the overall Gallagher Prem champion.

Do teams get a trophy for finishing top of the Gallagher Prem table?

Though top-of-the-table do get home advantage in the play-off semi finals and matched-up with the side who finished fourth, controversially there is currently no award or trophy for finishing at the summit of the table at the end of the regular season.