see in the paper over the weekend that some of the "top players" have started complaining about the number of fixtures in a season again and have started wittering about reducing the SL to 12 or even 10 teams so that the international squad have more chance of success
Interested in what people think of this, there was little support from most clubs by the way

personally international success is a good thing but should not be at the expense of the weekly club game

It was ludicrous when the league had 12 teams in it that you played some teams 3 times, i think what we have now works pretty well, home and away 26 weekly rounds
If the international players are that worried lets get rid of the play offs and the extra games at the end of the season and go back to first past the post that would reduce the number of games for those likely to be playing in the international jersey
Doh no that would never work would it, sky would not like that

anyone remember the days when players used to play winter in UK then all go to Aus for the summer and play back to back all year, funny old thing they never complained then when they were getting the big bucks for doing that


thoughts!!!!

I remember the days when players had jobs + plus training and sometimes played twice a week with county cups, floodlit trophy and regal cup. This lot don't know they are born. Read Roger Millwards book! He worked in a pit in Cas and travelled to hull for training and then was at the pit next morning at 6.00am. Too many games huh!!

fully agree, err was the Gt Britain squad in those days reasonably good
Maybe thats it, lads have gone soft, back to part time and get the boys doing manual jobs during the day

Nice one Micky! A post that makes Gary Schofield seem forward-thinking by comparison!

I don't think it's reasonable to compare the density of the fixture list in the old semi-pro days to the present. Modern players are bigger, stronger, faster and the tackles surely have to be far more damaging.

I'd be in favour of scrapping the play offs (and the Magic round of games) and just having 26 league games with the top team declared champions, but that's not going to happen. With the RFL determined to keep expanding geographically I can't see the sense in excluding several established clubs in order to reduce numbers to 12 or 10 at the same time including a second French club etc., so the logical solution would be to adopt the Australian model whereby some clubs only play each other once per season.

I think it's reasonable to compare then and now when you're comparing year round rugby versus a maximum of about 35 games a year for a non-international player - obviously in terms of "stop whinging" over whether more than 35 games a year is a good idea.

thing is though this is were rugby league struggles because if we declared the team that finishes top champions then the league would be boring and you would see attendences go right down followed by sponsorship ect. in football it works because you have 8 teams that fight relegation then the rest for the europa cup then 5-6 teams going for the top 4 for the champions league so every team in the league has something to play for were as rugby league dosent have that so the league would be boring and they would be 2-3 teams you could win the league and the rest of the teams nowt. so what you could do which could raise the profile more of rugby league have a bigger world club challenge were say top 4,5 or 6 teams from the super league and nrl play in a comp at the end of the season,his could be instead of the playoffs. i really do think this is were rugby league has to get this going obviously it has to be sorted out properly but we need a like european club competition to add more publicity to our game. you imagine for example my team hull fc at the kc vs canterbury bulldogs it would sell out and get some real good publicity. then after the 27 league games the team at the top wins the league then we go into the european comp.

I actually quite like the play offs to be honest, the first past the post way of doign things did mean that with sometimes upo to 6 weeks of the season to go the trophy was already claimed
Saying that, the way the play offs are organised beggers belief to be be honest, think they should have stuck to top 6 top 8 is taking the mick when there is only 14 teams, as for this stupid idea of the top team being able to choose there opponents hmmmm
Point i am really making is, I watch club rugby!!! week in week out, would i want the weekly rounds cut in the hope that the England squad are gonna improve, short answer NO!!!