Leigh coach Paul Cooke says his side's task in the Qualifiers is hindered by only having to play well "once every five or six weeks" in the Championship.
The Centurions claimed their third-consecutive league leaders shield in 2016, and now face the likes of Huddersfield and 2015 treble-winners Leeds Rhinos in the middle 8s battle for Super League status.
Despite their dominance in the Championship, Cooke believes the nature of the play-off system and the quality of opponents they face in the Championship could hamper his side's chances of gaining promotion against the more frequently challenged sides.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Cooke said: "We only have to play well once every five or six weeks in the Championship, so it is difficult to play seven intense games where players are very good at what they do and have been in those intense games for a season.
"It is not difficult to compete with them in a one-off match, it is really difficult to compete with them over seven weekends because the intensity of rugby in the Championship is simply not like Super League.
"Hull KR, although they have lost narrowly a lot of times and Leeds have lost narrowly a lot too, they are still playing in intense games where it is hit and miss, and you have to be very good with statistics and completion rates and your kicking game.
"In the Championship, for Leigh, that is just not evident in the stats.
"That is something that I'm part of now as a member of the Leigh coaching staff where we have to create our own standards in training rather than in games because some of them are just too easy in the Championship - for Leigh in particular.
"There has been some real debate over the last six weeks since I have been at the club on how we raise the standards and how we set those standards in games and then what we do after we have won in one-sided fashion on a Sunday, do we train Monday rather than just recover?
"Which is probably not the way to go but the only way we can raise those intensity levels and standards."
Despite the challenge ahead for Cooke's side he believes the Super 8s format brings a prolonged excitement and interest in the sport, an area that has sometimes been lacking in the past.
"Being at Leigh I would say that they probably deserve to go up having won the league leaders' shield for three seasons running now, but I think the format is exciting for everybody. It is a new concept and that excites everybody.
"I think if the format doesn't work and a Championship club doesn't get promoted in the next couple of years then it will have to be rethought.
"What it has done has given everyone in the Championship a carrot and bucked everybody's ideas up in the Super League because I think 'every moment matters' is a really good slogan from the RFL.
"In the past so many moments didn't matter for a lot of teams in the Super League, once they couldn't make the top five or eight there were too many one-sided score-lines."