JP has has said there are too many teams in SL and the current 14 teams should be reduced to ten. I fully agree with him. www.loverugbyleague.com/news_692 ... eague.html I would change the current Rugby League structure so it is 4 leagues of 10 (SL1, SL2, Championship, Championship 1) Something along the lines of: SL1 SL2 Championship Championship 1 Warrington Salford Barrow South Wales St Helens Broncos Hunslet Whitehaven Wigan Wakefield York Gateshead Leeds Crusaders Dewsbury Bramley Hudds Fev Swinton Oldham Catalan Widnes Keighley Coventry Bears Hull Halifax Workington Medway Dragons Hull Kr Leigh Rochdale Hemel Stags Castleford Sheffield Skolars Bristol Bradford Toulouse Batley Northampton Have 5 team play offs and bring back promotion and relegation. This would give more teams something to play for and increase competition. The top 7/8 teams would be targeting play off spots whilst the bottom 2/3 would be looking to avoid relegation. Some teams might complain at being relegated to form this league structure but if you are good enough you maintain your position in SL. SL1 + 2 would play each other 3 times with a magic weekend making 28 games. Championship levels would play each other twice and have the northern rail cup as well (4 groups of 5, top 2 quarter finals). I would also reduce the overseas limit to 3 players in the top 25 paid players and increase the number of club trained players. I would also give clubs to take 1 player off there salary cap to try and keep the best young players in SL and not tempted by the dark side!! What do people think of these potential changes? How would others improve the current RL structure?

JP has has said there are too many teams in SL and the current 14 teams should be reduced to ten. I fully agree with him. www.loverugbyleague.com/news_692 ... eague.html I would change the current Rugby League structure so it is 4 leagues of 10 (SL1, SL2, Championship, Championship 1) Something along the lines of: SL1 SL2 Championship Championship 1 Warrington Salford Barrow South Wales St Helens Broncos Hunslet Whitehaven Wigan Wakefield York Gateshead Leeds Crusaders Dewsbury Bramley Hudds Fev Swinton Oldham Catalan Widnes Keighley Coventry Bears Hull Halifax Workington Medway Dragons Hull Kr Leigh Rochdale Hemel Stags Castleford Sheffield Skolars Bristol Bradford Toulouse Batley Northampton Have 5 team play offs and bring back promotion and relegation. This would give more teams something to play for and increase competition. The top 7/8 teams would be targeting play off spots whilst the bottom 2/3 would be looking to avoid relegation. Some teams might complain at being relegated to form this league structure but if you are good enough you maintain your position in SL. SL1 + 2 would play each other 3 times with a magic weekend making 28 games. Championship levels would play each other twice and have the northern rail cup as well (4 groups of 5, top 2 quarter finals). I would also reduce the overseas limit to 3 players in the top 25 paid players and increase the number of club trained players. I would also give clubs to take 1 player off there salary cap to try and keep the best young players in SL and not tempted by the dark side!! What do people think of these potential changes? How would others improve the current RL structure?

Is not going to happen any time soon.

I don't like it, one bit



Imagine the crowds in 'SL2'

Has he checked this out with Comrade Wilkin to ensure it's an opinion consistent with that of the members?

Presumably the players will be happy to take smaller salaries, on the basis that shorter seasons mean less work?

Wasn't it proffesor Peacock that suggested Cardiff on the first weekend of the year to get SL of to a cold & poorly supported weekend.

Isn't he now trying to become some "union" rep for the players.

Peacock needs to realise he is to thick to have an opinion.

There are those that dont know
There are those that know they dont know
and then there are people like Peacock who dont know they dont know

We'll all have to accept less of everything; less televised games means lower TV money, less games means lower gate receipts, less games means lower revenues from concessions and merchandise etc. Either that or we have some funny league structure where some teams in the top division play each other twice and some thrice, and I know from previous experience how everyone loves that one.

" You know "icon_lol.gif

Better than the current championship I would guess. Average attendances would go up alot in SL1 though.



Your right there. I would do a better job than Richard Lewis though.

No doubt someone will join the thread and declare this to be the holy grail, but it just doesn't work. Hopefully this thread will die a quick death...

I presume he would be elected to be a rep so that would be the players' wish.

Out of interest, how do you know he is "too thick to have an opinion"?

Its something people seem to bring up a lot, not sure what sense it makes or what the real benefits would be.

At the moment , nothing seems to work

I think everybody agrees that they want SL to be more competitive. I think reducing the number of sub standard teams is the best way to do that. It would also create a stronger second tier imo. My structure may not be perfect but it would create a lot stronger leagues than we do currently!

In terms of intensity Peacock is right, there needs to be less teams, but financially it just doesnt work. I think 14 is the way to go for the medium term and concentrate on improving those teams at the bottom

Why? we have a good competition! we are just not up to pace at international level but it has nothing to do with the number of games. it is down to the size of the grass roots player base & it being the 3rd or 4th choice sport here. The only reason Peacock & the rest of his ilk want this is that they could play more seasons & earn more & stuff the rest of you. The only way we should go is keep adding teams as & when 1, the game can afford it 2, the grass roots produces enough players to fill the teams.

there are 2 many teams not good enough in SL cruising along knowing they wont go down and not being able to compete for a trophy. It would be great to have 14 teams in SL if they were all of a decent level. Salford, Widnes, Wakey, Bradford, Cas and London will all get a couple of poundings this year with some getting 4 or 5 which is simply not good enough

We should relegate them because none of these teams will ever improve or aspire to, we should have relegated Catalan when they were getting beatings too.

Ok so if a team takes a couple of poundings kick them!!!

So Man Utd got stuffed this year does that mean the PL should boot them. ??


Grow up RL in this country needs to expand, and the only way to do that is get more players playing at the top level

When the RFU introduced Italy into the 6 nations did they expect them to be competetive? No But the comp is much better with them in

England has a bigger player base than NZ, NZ as 1 pro club and their domestic competition is below mediocre. This is before we go into the situation of resources available. Yet they consistently produce more skillfull players. In Wigan, Leeds, St. Helens, Hull, Bradford; which 3 sports are bigger than RL ? I can only think of one.

Hey, its not too long ago that we expanded the league to 14 teams (from 12), beecasue it was the right hing to do. Now JP wants to cut it to 10
For me 12 should be the absolute minimum and 14 is about right.
Its bad enough, with the magic weekend, playing 1 team 3 times (plus the possibility of cup and play off games).

Long term, however, if more clubs improve then there may have to be SL 1 & 2, but for gods sake, lets have natural movement between the divisions and not the current system.

A team from 5th winning the comp

More english players coming through the junior ranks than ever

Lets get it all stopped now before the plan works

I would love to know Peacocks answer to what would you have been if you didnt play RL?

Your misinterpreting what im saying. Firstly Man U are the current champions and are second in the league so dont try and ridicule me with silly comments like that. Italy have improved since they made it into the 6 Nations and the game is growing over there as well, teams like London, Salford, Castleford, Wakey have been consistently poor over the last few years and dont have massive followings. So have Bradford but they bring in big crowds and until recently were consistently in the top 4. Catalan will be one of the better sides again in SL this year and came 3rd/4th just a couple of years ago. Theres a difference between having a bad season and being consistently poor.

Ideally there would be 16 teams in SL all at a good standard. I am not saying if a team loses by 30+pts they should be relegated but if it happens regularly they are quite clearly not up to the standard of the league. Cutting the league down to 10 to increase competition and intensity, bringing back P+R and then gradually adding teams over time is the best way to expand the game imo.

If the way to expand RL is to have more players playing the top tier then why not just promote the top 4/6 from the Championship and have a 18/20team league like the premiership?? The answer is we simply dont have enough players of sufficient quality to accommodate a 14 team league let alone any more!! 12 teams is the absolute maximum we can accommodate, even then there will be some sub standard teams!

Playing more competitive matches every week will improve the standard of the international team. Putting 70/80pts on teams like Wire did this year wont!

Indeed. It was so obvious that Leeds should have been chucked out in 1996, after all the hammerings they had that year.

Peacock's period is back then!
Seems to bang on about this every few months so at first you take note but now I just think get on with it! If he was a young lad on the fringes hoping for a game he wouldn't be moaning at all.

1 bad season. We finished 2nd the 2 years before as well as making the CCF in 94 and 95 and 5th the year after. We were not consistently poor over a 4 year period like salford, london, wakey, cas and bradford have been.