forums.leagueunlimited.com/showt ... p?t=391788 Should be interesting if true

forums.leagueunlimited.com/showt ... p?t=391788 Should be interesting if true

Sounds great in principal and it is much needed.

But whilst the backwater, deliverance types are still pretending to be Super League clubs I don't see how it can happen. I can't see the likes of Wakefield holding their hand up and taking the drop for the sake of the sport. Can you?

Cutting the clubs is a bad idea. cutting the number of overseas players is the way forward. this will allow more players from the championship to step up. and more players from the bigger clubs to be loaned out. there may be a drop in standard for a couple of years but with more opportunities for uk players the standard will eventually increase. the millennium weekend should be dropped as it offers nothing. and the play off should be top 6 max. or if we stick with 8 then the regular rounds should be cut to 24 games. agree with everything else.

Couldn't disagree more.

I'd do both personally.

12 teams. 22 games each.

Challenge Cup is Under 23s only for SL sides up to the semi final unless meeting fellow SL opposition.

Squads to have 3 imports only. No exemptions of any kind.

Under 18s to be handled by regional academies tied to leading sports colleges and a draft pick, bottom to top for the best youth it produces.

Cutting the number of SL games & increasing the number of Internations is the way forward IMO.

Keep SL at 14 Clubs. Play eachother once (reverse the fixture the following season), and keep MM. After these 14 games, split the division into top 7/bottom 7 and play eachother in once (another 6 games). The bottom 7 would be playing for the final playoff spot and avoiding the wooden spoon. The top 7 fighting it out for the playoff positions. Then go into the playoffs as it is now.

The split would make for much closer games towards the back end of the season.

20 games in total, freeing up 7 weekends.

Not enough games for clubs to generate enough revenue, this argument has been done to death.



Never heard of anything quite absurd.



One example, citizenship is UK/EU law. If Tony Smith were a player, there would be nothing stopping him playing for England. Off the top of my head can't think of any other similar examples. But there are other laws, such as residency, that can be a loophole for clubs regarding the number of imports they have in their squads. The "No exemptions of any kind" bit is a bit unrealistic.



I agree the Yanks have it spot on when it comes to producing young players in any sport, but realistically that idea is dead in the water in this country. Especially when cuts to almost every public service including education are taking place. Education authorities won't be able to/willing to support them.

so, the only this year, the clubs voted to keep the SL at 14 clubs for 2012-15, the RFL has just handed out 14 SL licences for that period, but a Dragons director, via the pages of [iL'Indep[/i, would have us believe the RFL has opened talks with the clubs to reduce the number ... does it really sound likely?

A play off for the play offs? Not a fan of this idea, I have to admit, though it is an interesting angle.

My view is that cutting clubs in the SL in the worst thing we can do right now. Instead I say we need 16 clubs split between two conferences of eight. The conferences are loosely based on the old Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. Each club plays each other club in their conference home and away and each club in the other conference once (four at home, four away). With a MM fixture, that brings the total matches in a season to 23. That's 11 home matches, two less than at present.

At the end of the season all teams are ranked with the top eight playing in the play offs, the winner being crowned SL champions. The Yorkshire and Lancashire League cups are resurrected for the teams that come top of their conferences. The winners determined by the results of the 14 matches against the other teams in their conference. The League Leaders Shield is presented to whomever finishes top of the league with both conferences combined.

Then throughout the season an international round robin takes place between England, Exiles, France, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. No fixtures take place on the weekends internationals are played. A cap of three matches exists for each England and Exiles player. The 4N's take place after play offs. Decent sized venues are hired for matches and all clubs told that they will receive a cut of the ticket price for each ticket they sell and encouraged to put together packages (such as coaches, accomodation) to bring in revenue for the club to offset the reduced fixture list.

It's the RFL, so, yep

Can't see any change during the current Sky contract, as I'd imagine that it was signed on the basis of a certain number of games per season.

So if Saints, Warrington and Wigan get drawn against Featherstone, Leigh, Halifax in the early stages of the CC then they have to send out their under 23's? They'd probably all get comfortably beaten and saints, wigan, wire would all be knocked out by the semi final stage? That would help the Cup wouldn't it

And there we have it folks, the definitive answer to the drop in attendances and general disinterest in the rugby league challenge cup; take the majority of the best players out.

They may adopt the Aussie fixture format which is, each club plays each other once then seven of the fourteen for a second time. Twenty games doesn't sound enough games as has been mentioned but there could be some fine tuning of the format.

To help the International game and ourselves in particular, we need to bring more club trained players into the starting seventeen. It's a SL rules that each club has eight club trained players in the first team squad of 25. That needs updating to eight in the starting 17. Perhaps increase the 17 to 19, coaches name 19 each week so why drop two? They will have trained all week.

Also we need to drop the threshold age for club trained from U20 to U18. This would give smaller clubs the confidence to develop lads knowing they will be their club trained players. It will stop money bags clubs from signings lads from scholarship squads at 16 and by 19 calling them their own club trained. That has to stop and quickly.

SL should stay at 14 teams for now. If we're ever to compete on a international basis, we a broader base, we much more depth and opportunity for youngsters to thrive. Given time, the academies will produce players who go onto play for their respective clubs first team. The quality will suffer for a short period of time until it's established, but it'll take time to widen the base.

Once established, i'd like to see two conferences of 8 teams (based on Yorks/Lancs). Play those in your conference twice, and those in the other conference once (alternate H & A). Top 4 from each qualify for the play-offs.

The loons of RLFANS always come out to play in these type of threads, its very amusing reading.