AS Saints go into the hat for tonight’s Betfred Challenge Cup Round 6 draw it is normally a cue for Rugby League supporters of a certain generation to hark back misty eyed to the all-in Challenge Cup draws of the 1970s and 80s.

David Oxley’s distinctive delivery always added gravitas to a tense, nerve-wracking occasion – and it was magnified by the prize at the end of it being such a sought-after one.

Everyone wanted to get to Wembley – and the terrace songs declaring the hopes and dreams of reaching that destination used to grow in volume from round one until the semis – and significantly, so too did the attendances.

The magic of the Challenge Cup draw.

There are grumbles that it is not like the old days of the all-in draws, but there will still be a frisson of excitement tonight as the Super League big guns go into the velvet bag with the four Championship sides who had earned their passage – Batley, Featherstone, Sheffield and York.

Part of that tingle is the wish is to maybe avoid Wigan or Catalans away – but another element is the buzz of potentially drawing a non-Super League team away and that yearning to go somewhere off the beaten track with plenty of Saints fans clamouring for a day out in York.

In the past two seasons Saints fans have enjoyed springtime trips up to Whitehaven and across to Halifax, and hope for three in a row.

The cup draw always brings out the argument, from fans across the spectrum, that we should go back to an open all-in draw of 32 so that we can “have more games like this.”

There were some enjoyable occasions - but they were outnumbered by dull, non-events in the first half of Super League.

The failings of the past Challenge Cup draws.

We can have short memories about how the all-in system used to be, so here is my take on why we have ended up effectively seeding the competition by staggering the entrants at different rounds.

Rose-tinted specs off - when it was 32 teams all-in for 16 ties for Round One we have to remember one key thing – rugby league was all one big division of 30 teams up until 1973.

When the competition became two divisions, the top-flight had 16 teams with another four getting ready for promotion into it that year.

That point is important in the sense that these days an open draw would see the 12 teams of Super League massively outnumbered by 20 lower league sides.

The all-in Challenge Cup draw was changed after 2014.

In 2011 when there were 14 Super League teams, they were joined by 18 qualifiers. Miraculously 12 of those top-flight clubs avoided each other in the opening round leaving Leeds v Crusaders as the only all Super League clash.

IF there had been five or six all-Super League ties – that would have the potential to impact on the rest of the draw and the quality of the fixtures played, leading all the way up to the semis and the final.

Luck of the draw, maybe? But in the next round the three non-Super League clubs who went through (Widnes, Featherstone, and Swinton) conceded 50, 70 and 120 points respectively.

It is not just that, there seemed very little interest in those early fixtures as much as folk romanticise about them. Saints’ game with Featherstone drew a meagre 2,905.

I draw a distinction between the cup games pre-Super League to the one that took place when the gulf between the divisions became a chasm - give or take the odd exception.

There may have been  some good away trips off the beaten track but some of those draws were not the highlights some people think they were.

There was such a lack of interest in some of the games that for a spell they made them free to season ticket holders for one round, but that policy has not helped selling the cup subsequently.

A draw made up of such an unbalanced composition would leave open the prospect of a minnow making it through to the final purely through avoiding Super League teams.

Some may like that idea, and it would leave to a final that is completely different to what you would get in Super League Grand Final - but it could also lead to some embarrassingly lop-sided semis and finals.

Throwing the Championship and League 1 clubs the bone of the 1895 Cup is a way of compensating them and giving them a chance of getting to Wembley that has closed off by the staggered draw.

The current system also allows a pathway for the Community game with heartlands amateurs joined by the amateurs from London and the South who pulled off some shocks this year. That is worth keeping.

But maybe the Challenge Cup needs something else moving forward - but not all-in and a round of mismatches which would require the season the start a week earlier.