New league Format After 2019

[sparky49]

To have a league that is fair to every team you have to play each team home and away and no third matches where you may play all the top teams away. Lets have a league of 13 then each team gets a free weekend at some point in the season. I know it would mean someone starting a week later and the teams getting a free weekend late on will benefit more but the only fair way to keep the same number of games is to have 14 teams. I would also do away with the magic weekend as a league fixture as again this makes it an unbalanced league. Either make the magic weekend cup matches or a 9 a side competition for all clubs.

[HuddsTigers]

They won’t get rid of Magic and nor would I. It’s an event and rugby league needs events and big games.

[MØL]

Agreed Magic ain't going anywhere. I would like to see a 9's tournament though, that would be really fun.

[gateman]

I keep hearing two many games, in years gone by we had the league fixtures, john player, floodlight trophy, war of the roses, and the challenge cup played by part timers most of them in physically demanding jobs, to cut the number of fixtures the powers that be will want the same revenue hence an hike in season tickets and admission fee, you cant have your cake and eat it

[WallTiger]

If Magic Weekend is to continue then the fixtures need to be more even rather than some of the gimmes that happen at the moment that make this extra fixture uneven and can provide an advantage/disadvantage to teams at the top/bottom.

[Fumper27]

If Magic Weekend is to continue then the fixtures need to be more even rather than some of the gimmes that happen at the moment that make this extra fixture uneven and can provide an advantage/disadvantage to teams at the top/bottom.

Like us against Leeds

[stuey]

great fan off middle eights seems top teams cant handle ass twitching encase have bad season. Cant see championships clubs happy about it good money earner for them in middle eight playing super league teams . will turn into same couple off teams yo yo in up and down just swapping players over. we need that stadium believe me we are heading for a close shop again back to franchise system rich clubs what all the cake and eat it. ](*,) ](*,)

They will wait until Toulouse, Catalans, Toronto & london are in SL, then change it back to a franchise system with no promotion and relegation. They are obsessed with "expanding the game" at all costs, never mind common sense, and the fact that no income is coming into the game from "away" support.

Nothing wrong with the existing system. No incentive for teams in the Championship now with only 1 up and 1 down. There was something to play for before with a top four finish giving you a chance of promotion. Not now!!

[MØL]

If Magic Weekend is to continue then the fixtures need to be more even rather than some of the gimmes that happen at the moment that make this extra fixture uneven and can provide an advantage/disadvantage to teams at the top/bottom.

Like us against Leeds

[MØL]

Think the magic weekend fixtures should be:

(from the following end of year standings)
1 vs 2 (or grand final rematch)
3 vs 4
5 vs 6
7 vs 8
9 vs 10
11 vs 12 (or promoted club(s))

Then makes it fair across the board they are all predetermined fixtures according to the previous leagues standings.

[Tamworth Tiger]

great fan off middle eights seems top teams cant handle ass twitching encase have bad season. Cant see championships clubs happy about it good money earner for them in middle eight playing super league teams . will turn into same couple off teams yo yo in up and down just swapping players over. we need that stadium believe me we are heading for a close shop again back to franchise system rich clubs what all the cake and eat it. ](*,) ](*,)

They will wait until Toulouse, Catalans, Toronto & london are in SL, then change it back to a franchise system with no promotion and relegation. They are obsessed with "expanding the game" at all costs, never mind common sense, and the fact that no income is coming into the game from "away" support.

Nothing wrong with the existing system. No incentive for teams in the Championship now with only 1 up and 1 down. There was something to play for before with a top four finish giving you a chance of promotion. Not now!!

If Leeds are in a minority of one the other SL owners need to wake up and smell the coffee. If Lenagan and co have their way it will be City Clubs only ( even though the clubs they own aren’t really city clubs) and eventually the UK contingent in SL would be Leeds, Hull, Saints, Wire and Wigan plus possibly a couple of expansion franchises for places like London , Wales and/or Coventry.
It wouldn’t take long for the game we know to disappear after that

[MØL]

Yeah, that's what they will want. Just the big clubs and big international clubs (new york, toronto) and to get rid of the like of us, wakey, salford etc...

[tallguyx]

This has a lot of the echos of the Calder proposals.. This could be the death of British rugby league, falling interest levels are already embeddded due to the lack of quality matches and sky sports moving of fixtures at a drop of a hat.

How many people from Cas are going to go to Toronto to watch a match?? Not many. We are already in danger of cutting adrift our historic local teams/rivals with their lack of funding and publicity.

The problem isn’t the structure of the league the problems the grassroots and the lack of meaningful international competition and a reliance on average Aussies coming over for either a retirement fund or because they aren’t good enough for the NRL.

I love Castleford and I always will but if you take it away from the equation, genuinely how many of us would watch Superleague as a neutral supporter attending/watching matches.

[Danny Boy]

This has a lot of the echos of the Calder proposals.. This could be the death of British rugby league, falling interest levels are already embeddded due to the lack of quality matches and sky sports moving of fixtures at a drop of a hat.

How many people from Cas are going to go to Toronto to watch a match?? Not many. We are already in danger of cutting adrift our historic local teams/rivals with their lack of funding and publicity.

The problem isn’t the structure of the league the problems the grassroots and the lack of meaningful international competition and a reliance on average Aussies coming over for either a retirement fund or because they aren’t good enough for the NRL.

I love Castleford and I always will but if you take it away from the equation, genuinely how many of us would watch Superleague as a neutral supporter attending/watching matches.

The reference to us taking no support to Toronto doesn’t stack up, as we take more than any other club to Perpignan?

We have to become ‘the big club’, we have a great identity and people come from far afield to buy into the Tigers, so the big city idea isn’t necessarily the way forward for the game. In addition, we have a supporter in charge at Superleague HQ now, so I can’t see us suffering if it’s down solely to the size of the town where we happen to be based. #COYF

[HuddsTigers]

Toronto and Toulouse being promoted this season could be bad for Catalans. Away fans will pick and choose overseas games and I can see a lot of away fans plumping for Toronto as it's somewhere new, bit of a novelty, once in a lifetime and can be included as part of a bigger trip.

[gateman]

its sounds great to have an international league, there is one big problem I have been involved with the amateur game over these many years , if our local clubs were sacrificed the grass roots would wither away , were would you get the players from ??

[HuddsTigers]

I don't necessarily see that as a case. For me, there will always be a Castleford Tigers for example. Even if we got relegated or had to start all over again, the will of the fans is too strong. We'd just start afresh as a semi-pro club with 7,000 fans and build ourselves back up again.

The issue is that with lack of away fans, you either have to pull in more home fans/neutrals, or make up the shortfall with commercial income.

The vision to me is that any new clubs have to demonstrate they can improve Super League and bring something to the table. The NRL seems to get by with having strong foundations of local clubs as feeder clubs.

In terms of players, if they have a reserves grade again next year then clubs will just stockpile 40-50 players each of varying age ranges.

[alftupper]

Hold on it seems Elstone got a bit carried away yesterday and let his mouth run away with him. The RFL has denied that any changes have been confirmed for next season. Amateur hour.

[Captain]

Hold on it seems Elstone got a bit carried away yesterday and let his mouth run away with him. The RFL has denied that any changes have been confirmed for next season. Amateur hour.

Fev chairman Mark Campbell pretty much says the same thing here:

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/fe ... al-change/

How can SL announce rule and structure changes without any communication with the RFL - the ones who (supposedly) run the game?

[Sharlotiger]

Fantastic response from Campbell and should be echoed throughout the championship and league one sides. Hetherington is right that a few people are trying to hijack our game for their own gains and I for one am disappointed Cas are backing this.
Time for the RFL to get a grip and ensure no change takes place without a democratic vote involving all stake holders within our game.

[tigerfeat]

Any club that dosnt back the hearn elstone vision of how they want the game to go will end up playing championship teams every week