why not you play your nearest rivals going into the weekend. simple and means every game is competitive

Because there would be one team in each of the two groups with no one to play?

Why not just make it the one regular from the normal season that would occur on that weekend?

Rather than anything random which kinda makes a mockery of of the league (even the premier league didn't go that far and they could have got 10's of millions for playing a random game outside the norm).

Oh no, to simple for the RFL (who couldnt in general organise a up in a brewery)

The football one was to allow clubs to sort out their own extra fixture in some far flung place to fleece more money out of joe public. The league one is meant to be an extra event for fans where they can see seven games for 15 quid

Both were meant to raise the profile of the respective games and both would/do count points wise.

The Luke Dorn column mentioned on sky he suggests moving it to this time of year, not a bad idea less competition would ensure more coverage.

Personally I think the only reason it's not a regular fixture is that the northern teams cannnot risk loosing one of their big derby games to the magic weekend.