Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:45 pm  

...latest rumour

12 team Superleague.

Each team will play 29 regular season games in 2019.

These will be made up of each team playing every other side home and away, the Magic Weekend fixture, plus six other matches (how these are selected is anyone's guess).

Top 5 qualify for the GF playoffs.

Bottom club relegated.

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:52 pm  

ccs wrote:

...latest rumour

12 team Superleague.

Each team will play 29 regular season games in 2019.

These will be made up of each team playing every other side home and away, the Magic Weekend fixture, plus six other matches (how these are selected is anyone's guess).

Top 5 qualify for the GF playoffs.

Bottom club relegated.

Common sense at last! Top5 playoffs rewards the league leaders with a week off, but still keeps the playoffs for the best teams.

Intrigued to see how they do the extra 6 games though, really don't want to see another derby shoe-horned in like previously just to make money. But if you do a 'top 6 play each other again' type format, then it benefits teams in the 7th-10th positions for their playoff run-in as they get easier games, and hinders those in say 4th-6th.

Interesting to see the only SL club that voted against was Leeds, its not like Gary has spat his dummy out or anything!

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 3:00 pm  

The 6 extra games loses all credibility as far as I'm concerned.

Someone might play the leading side 2, 3 or 4 times. It's a lottery.

It's as bad as the magic weekend fixture times 6.

14 or 15 teams would have given 26 or 28 games, but diluted the sky money, which is obviously more important (to the club chairmen).

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:14 pm  

ccs wrote:

The 6 extra games loses all credibility as far as I'm concerned.

Someone might play the leading side 2, 3 or 4 times. It's a lottery.

It's as bad as the magic weekend fixture times 6.

14 or 15 teams would have given 26 or 28 games, but diluted the sky money, which is obviously more important (to the club chairmen).

We had this set up before I think. Didn't you play all the even numbered teams from the previous season again if you finished in an odd numbered position, or something similar?

The game IMO could really seek to deliver the expansionist ambition of Framing the Future now with the momentum of Catalans and Toronto. The problem is the current economics of the game mean that many chairmen are propping up their respective clubs and are more interested in preserving their own "status", however mediocre, than seeing the sport as a whole expand. As long as they have the voting rights the game will remain entrenched in the M62 corridor with Wakey v Cas playing in grounds that should have been condemned decades ago whilst the potential of Toronto, Tolououse etc gets pisssed away.

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 5:34 pm  

Presumably loop fixtures will be based on this year's 'rankings' at the end of round 23. Odd numbered team play each other again as do even numbered teams. So for example if Toronto beat Widnes in the Million Pound game Hull FC as the 6th place team would play Wigan, Warrington, Catalans, Rovers and Toronto.

Obviously a bit tough on any team facing two trips to both Perpignan and Toronto.

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:11 pm  

… I forgot to mention that we'll be playing all our home games one after the other during the winter months, followed by all our away games during the summer.
You know it makes sense.

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:50 pm  

Interesting article. I believe in the cliche less is more in some instances, and with the number of superleague games this needs to be applied. It would be much better to have each team home and away just the once. Keep the magic weekend, if you must, giving a league season of 23 games and then straight into the playoffs of 5 teams as the article suggests. The local derby matches should be at Easter (where we should only play one fixture) and the August bank holiday weekend. Challenge cup final is played earlier in the year, and more time between the semis and the final to try to get bums on seats. I'd like to see rotated GB, Australia and New Zealand tours (home and away), at the end of the season when there's no world cup. I'd reduce the number of substitutions to try and redress the decline in playmakers and to help the backs somehow find more space, as the game has become boring.

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:09 pm  

Just play each other twice and have another standalone cup competition. Instead of 6 pointless games

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Sep 03, 2018 6:58 pm  

What's the proposal the club's are voting on this week? I've seen different versions of it.

Re: Seize the Day - 12 ways to make RL great again : Mon Sep 03, 2018 7:02 pm  

Dezzies_right_hook wrote:

Just play each other twice and have another standalone cup competition. Instead of 6 pointless games

Got to say, I have been in favour of this format for years. Have a 14 team league = 26 games.

Have an equivalent of the old county cups (I appreciate there would be a need to incorporate French, Canadian and London teams ) as a competition before the league season started.