Quote ="Mild Rover"Make 'em shorter, sharper and easier to understand.
I'd go with table toppers get a first round bye, while 2nd plays 7th, 3rd v 6th and 4th v 5th.
Then straight into knock-out semis.
Another (longer-term) alternative would be two conferences, playing H & A vs those in the same conference, H or A against those in the other. You'd need 16 teams just to get up to 22 fixtures though. Conference titles, would, despite being smaller achievements, actually carry more kudos by virtue of being distinct - the hubcap is just the GF winners ugly cousin. IMO. Top 4 from each conference play-off.'"
I've been wittering on about this for a while. Back in the day we had the Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues within the league itself. If you were in the Yorkshire League your matches against Yorkshire teams counted towards your position in that table. All teams were placed in one league at the end, with all league matches contributing to it. If you followed that model with two conferences losely based on regions and planned it properly. You could have the conferences rapped up at the end of July, CC final end of August, League Leaders shield mide way through September, Grand final a month after that. If Magic continued, that'd be 23 games, opening up more space for a home nations comp. Planned well you have internationals monthly throughout season, CC cup round monthly, the local derbies played in the first half of the season and games deciding play off positions and League Leaders shield in the back end and regular chance of silverware. That should overall improve the intensity of matches throughout the season and help the international game.
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