I like Cooper well enough, but couldn't honestly say his absence especially weakens a St. George side that really aren't all that anyway. Can't see it having much effect on attendance, either.

FWIW. I believe all the weak Aussie teams will win their games.

A team that includes a reborn Benji Marshall, plus Gareth Widdop, Joshua Dugan, Jason Nightingale, Trent Merrin and others is not to be taken lightly. But Michael Cooper was an important part of the the forward pack.

How many times did you watch St. George last season? Yes, they have some quality in the halves, and two good wingers (one, now BMozz has gone), but their perennial problem, as it has been for a few years now, is their lack of forward power. And the ongoing praise for Dugan, a good ball-runner but otherwise a very limited player, never ceases to surprise me. I will be surprised if they overcome the Wire.

Wigan F.C. play rugby.

The soccer team are Wigan Athletic A.F.C.

I am forecasting Wigan will have the biggest attendance of the three games and will be the only one to beat their Aussie opponents.

I'm expecting wins for Wire and Wigan, and defeat for Saints.

If Wire don't beat the team that finished 11th we might as well pack it in over here

and yet......................


Don't wish for things that may possibly happen, no matter how remote it may seem.

Problem with that it isn't really the team which finished 11th is it. The team they will play will be the 2015 version not the 2014 version.

Yes, but since then they've lost their star player and bought, well, no-one much.

Saints nearly sold out,saints had first pic on seating bit annoying when saints ticket holders could buy for any Tom, dick,or Harry fans then non season ticket holders could purchase two weeks later!!?? Lass in sales said blame rfl?? Anyway kicked off..... As a rabbitohs international member she sorted sum decent seats!!! Will be plenty in red n green tbhand bunnies up for it big time!!!

Benefits of being a season ticket holder. You have to give some benefits to your loyal customer base, or what is the point in being a loyal customer.

Also there was still plenty of seats after that 2 week period. I should know I got mine after the season ticket holders.

I've seen less than 500 left in the East stand on web forums but nothing official that I can see anywhere else.

All tickets went on general sale on 10th December, so you had plenty of time. Souths had an allocation of tickets in the North Stand that were returned a couple of weeks ago, and put on general sale. If you wait until 97% of tickets have been sold, you cant really complain when the ones you want are not available!!


For info, there are just 300 tickets left now.

What are the expansion plans for the series? I'm assuming in time that they wanna make all the games competitive, maybe a 4 team mini-league of the 4 grand finalists? Dont think I've really seen anything about it?

Sweet Jesus give it time. It's not even started yet.
I doubt the plans would be to go from a 6 team series to a 4 team one though.

Personally I'd like to see the next step to be a proper 6 team series. It could run along the lines of the old top 6 playoff system and include the LLS & CC winners:

Round 1:
Game 1 - Challenge Cup winner v NRL runner up - winner to Round 2, loser out.
Game 2 - SL League Leaders v NRL League Leader - winner to Round 2, loser out.

Round 2:
Game 3 - SL GF winner v NRL GF winner - winner to Final, loser to Round 3.
Game 4 - Winner of Game 1 v winner of Game 2 - winner to Round 3, loser out.

Round 3:
Game 5 - loser of Game 3 v winner of Game 4 - winner to final, loser out.

Final:
Winner of Game 3 v winner of Game 5


6 games over 4 weeks, or I'm sure it could be done over 3 weeks with a mid-week game.

What if the teams in games 2 and 3 are the same team???

You mean if the Grand Final winner is also the League Leader?
In that case it'd go to 2nd place in the league.

The same goes for Challenge Cup winner, if they've also won the GF then the Challenge Cup winners place goes to the CC runner up.

So if, for example, this were around in 2006 when Saints won the treble then:
Saints would take the SL Grand Final winners spot.
The Challenge Cup spot would go to Huddersfield as runners up.
The League Leaders spot would go to Hull for coming 2nd in the league.

Yeah, that is what I was getting at.

And to play devils advocate even further - what if the CC runners up are the GF runners up, and finished 2nd in the SL table? Unlikely I know, but could happen, and then I think you are taking something away from the comp by then involving teams that finish 3rd and 4th IMO if you want to have any substance behind it.

all but 50 tickets sold at Saints as of 9:30 this morning

Great news! Will be an amazing spectacle!

Saints are in single digits on their website, but who knows how many the RFL have in reserve on their 3 game package??? So there maybe a chance for some of these to come back and be sold at Saints.

Not sure how many people will buy a 3 game package?

It works as:
Grand Final winners
Challenge Cup winners (or runner up if winner is same as GF winner)
League Leaders winner (or 2nd place if LL is same as GF winner, or 3rd place if LL & 2nd place are GF winner, CC winner and CC runner up.

So if for example the season ends as:
1. Saints
2. Wigan
3. Warrington

Grand Final winner = Saints
Challenge Cup winner = Saints
Challenge Cup Runner up = Wigan

What would happen, apart from uproarious p|ss taking directed towards Wigan from a certain town known for its glass making, is that Saints obviously take the Grand Final Winners place.
Wigan, as runners up, take the Challenge Cup place.
Warrington would then take the League Leaders place since both 1st and 2nd are already involved. It's not really a "League Leaders" place, more a "highest league position" place.

It would only be as low as 3rd place in the table that would ever be involved (unless of course a team from lower in the league wins the Grand Final or is involved in the Cup Final.
I dont think, if you're involving 3 SL teams in the comp, that having the team finished 3rd involved is devaluing it.

And the other thing is, an English team or two in the Auckland Nines, please!

There were only 50 left of the 3 game package left this morning according to the Super league page

3 North Wales Crusaders fans coming to Warrington by train looking foward to game. just got tickets seemed to be plenty left.