Chapel House Motor Company Limited Advertising Banner
Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: The Aussies know best?

  1. #1
    Learning All The Songs
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Cornwall
    Posts
    2,287
    Rep Power
    11

    Default The Aussies know best?

    The NRL has a 16 team league that plays 24 games a season prior to a playoff competition. Clearly they do not play every other team home and away. How does that work? Would something like it work for us? For me one of the biggest problems has been the bonkers league structures that have been tried out and ultimately rejected

    We seem to have imported everything else from Australian rugby league. Why not this?

  2. #2
    Moderator Div's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Sintellins
    Posts
    11,911
    Rep Power
    32

    Default

    The difference is they have more money. The English clubs need a minimum number of games to be viable and even then it's a struggle.

  3. #3
    Upside
    Non Members

    Default

    I'm a big advocate of more teams but as div says money is the issue

    I have never accepted the opinion that we don't have enough good players, we have many many good young players who drop out of the sport, you don't increase the player pool by reducing opportunities

    My vote would be to go to 14 teams and keep everything else the same

    I would have preferred the reserves to either be an u23 with 4/5 over age players or join division three with no promotion relegation but each of those options are off the table for now

  4. #4
    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Macclesfield
    Age
    46
    Posts
    8,428
    Rep Power
    33

    Default

    Different cultures. The weekly rounds in Australia are treated as less important than fans here like to think of them.

    Also, most Sydney clubs take home games to the big Sydney stadiums or take home games to Adelaide, Perth, Cairns etc, all in the pursuit of more money because playing 12 home games at the old suburban grounds isn't a profitable venture. Hence Canterbury and Souths left their traditional homes to take the money at ANZ, whilst Wests, St George, etc all take home games to big grounds to make money, or indeed have home games outside of Sydney altogether.

    So, it's not so strange that clubs here want the guarantee of 14 home games because the 12 home games that most Sydney clubs get aren't enough for them to play them at their normal grounds and make enough money.

  5. #5
    Learning All The Songs
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    1,211
    Rep Power
    7

    Default

    I think there is a big confusion over here over what we want, for me the best format we have had was we we had 14 teams in the league, you could do home and away fixtures and a magic weekend, 27 games no loop fixtures. If you want an extra game then enter the Challenge Cup a round earlier. As for the play off format, why can we not go back to how it was in the early 2000s with the top 6 qualifying, the top 2 being rewarded with a week off and an 2nd chance at making the grand final. It is a slightly truncated version of the Australian system, more rewarding to the top 2.

  6. #6
    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk paulscnthorpe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    St Helens
    Age
    40
    Posts
    8,592
    Rep Power
    31

    Default

    I think most would be happy with a top 14 now, Toronto and to a lesser extent Toulouse have improved the potential standard of a top 14

    However replacing an extra home game (in a loop) against Wigan, Leeds or Wire with a 10k plus crowd, and effectively no away supporters is a tough sell

  7. #7
    Learning All The Songs Mike Stephenson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Great Britain
    Posts
    1,612
    Rep Power
    11

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pasty View Post
    The NRL has a 16 team league that plays 24 games a season prior to a playoff competition. Clearly they do not play every other team home and away. How does that work? Would something like it work for us? For me one of the biggest problems has been the bonkers league structures that have been tried out and ultimately rejected

    We seem to have imported everything else from Australian rugby league. Why not this?
    I'm a big fan of the NRL, but that competition is not without it's problems- this year we've seen the Gold Coast side only win 4 games. And the competition really suffers around Origin time, when it plays second fiddle.

    I would like to see the structure of SL simplified further:

    During the regular season, teams should play each other twice- home and away. The home side having the right to take the fixture on the road like Catalans did taking the Wigan fixture to Barcelona.

    That said, I would keep the magic concept, but would have the fixtures decided at the time of the event, with 1st vs 2nd, 3rd vs 4th etc. That would give the best chance of competitive matches and add to the concept of the bonus round that it effectively is. The chance to take an extra 2 points off your closest rival.

    Whether there's enough quality to support the expansion of the competition to 14 teams, I'm not so sure. But do think it would be great to see Toronto potentially in the competition next year, as they've been prepared to spend some money. Ideally having a London based side in there is also good for the game over here.

    Regards,

    STEVO

  8. #8
    Learning All The Songs Blue Harvest's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1,255
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    I'd rather see two divisions with promotion and relegation.
    Do we have the ability to support 20, 22 or even 24 full time clubs? i'm not sure. But relegation can almost kill a club as it's players leave as it's not vialble to sustain full time players outside of SL, similarly promoted clubs struggle as it's a short close season to assemble a structured playing squad.

    Importing clubs from outside of the heartlands into the competition isn't a bad thing, London, Paris, Gateshead, Catalans, Celtic Crusaders (V1 & V2) all brough something different. I imagine Toronto & Toulouse would do to. But this has to be alongside the pre-existing clubs, not to their demise. Halifax, Featherstone, Leigh, Widnes, Bradford et al, all have a rich history and shouldn't be ignored.

    If we take off the blinkers and look at the elite level of RL, we have 2 options; it's a closed shop where it's franchises or we need promotion and relegation to make the bottom half of the league as meaningful as the top half. The problem is we've tried both of these and neither has worked. If we went for a hybrid of a two tier SL with a propotionate distribution of £££, we'd have the best of both. The isssue is we need a corporate partner(s) to assist in this and a broadcaster with the vision to support and promote the sport.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •