Its a loose loose situation. The bigger sides know with the current format that they have a sure fire short cut to the latter stages. I feel that if they were in the mix from the start they would'nt have such an easy ride and some of the weeker SL sides should be entitled to enter the shield competition. The thought of cup upsets would provide a platform for decent sides outside the top flight to genuinely contest the earlier rounds and if some of the top sides end up in the shield then so be it. The mere fact that they end up in the shield doesn't suggest for 1 second that they would win but I suspect it would have an adverse effect as some of those sides would not field strong teams in a lesser competition.
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