Desire to be better!! and if they don't they don't deserve hand outs.

That's what licensing was supposed to prevent and it has - bad management (Wakey) & silly decisions (London/Wales) aside we've got a stronger set of clubs now than pre 2006 - Catalans would never be in the position to compete if P&R had been in place for eg. The likes of Andrew Johns [iwill [/ibe parachuted in to try to prevent relegation & panic buying (Fielden) will start all over again.
Unless, of course, there's a block on buying players after the split to the 3 groups

<EDIT> - interesting line on the SportingLife site: .
"[iHow[/i" they'll get rid of 2 teams ??!

There already is

different structure different salary cap surely. In the RFL manifest it briefly touched on changes to Salary cap but never stated anything concrete.

In the detail of the system it says SC will remain at just over £1.8 million, with home grown stars limited to a value of 100k on the cap, so for us Roby could be on £300k but only counts as £100k.
Using that system, Wigan saints and Leeds could spend very close to 2 million with our squads

That system mean the top 4 and Catalans will be untouchable for years to come. We have a lack of parity is salary cap controlled conditions so this can only make the one side games occur more often. Not good for the game.

Apparently the Magic Weekend will stay but when and how. If each team plays twice plus a magic fixture that is 23 games then seven more games then play offs. Is the season going to be starting January to fit it all in?

Which none can afford!!!

Itr is worse that that isn't it? The regular season will be 30 games.

It's a really stupid idea.

It results in 30 games (inc magic) before the play offs or CC are taken into account.

The 12 team leagues play each other twice. 22 games. Then when it splits to the 8 they play each other once. Seven more games and then the magic weekend. 30 games.

The playing each other once when it goes to an 8 is going to mean the clubs play teams who end up in the same 8 as them 3 times in the league format, they will potentially play one club 4 times if they are drawn against them at the Magic Weekend and possibly again in the playoffs.

Add in the CC we could end up playing, say Saints, 6 times in one season under this format. How stupid is that?

There are also players livelihoods at stake here as there always is when you have relegation from a pro league to a semi-pro one.

It's bonkers IMO.

Don't tell that to the anti SC peoples!

Another effrct of this is clubs won't know if they have three or four homes games after the split to the 8.

So if season tickets cover the 7 games after the split you won't know what you are buying up front and if they don't you can kiss goodbye to any decent crowds as people save their cash in case their team gets into the play offs.

Ahhhhh! Season tickets will only cover the regular season, like now!

What I don't understand is why the MW is still being used as an EXTRA fixture, when it doesn't need to be. 22 games before the split plus 7 after = 29 games (14 home, 14 away, 1 neutral). What point does the 30th fixture acheive!? Granted the MW would have to take place after the split in to 8/8/8.

EXACTLY!! Said this in other forums....the only way the Magic weekend makes sense is to have it as the first round after the split, so it leaves a balanced fixture list of 11 home / 11 away THEN 1 neutral / 3 home / 3 away. The RFL MUST do this!

Also if we move to this then this for me must be a 'play off SERIES' and we don't then convolute it further with play offs on top.

12 teams, play each other home and away. 7 round play off series - with each in top 8 playing twice and points from season carried through - Top 2 through to grand final

Second 8 play simply for top 4 spots for 'promotion' the following season - No grand final - Its farcical!

Still don't know what the bottom 8 play for - Seems pointless unless we look at relegating bottom two to the championship?

Talking to a colleague today, massive Everton fan.
He said that whilst he might enjoy a SL game on SKY now and again, he could never follow the game due to the amount of (in his words) "f***ing about" year after year.

Promotion.
No Promotion.
14 Teams.
12 Teams.
10 Teams.
Top 5 Playoffs.
Top 6 Playoffs.
Top 8 Playoffs.
London Crusaders/Quins/Broncos.
North Wales / South Wales Crusaders.
Challenge Cup Final in April / May.
Challenge Cup Final in August.
Great Britain.
England.


He has a point.

With regards the the magic weekend, surely it can be used as one of the weekly rounds, either move it after the split so that you have 8 teams who effectively wouldn't be losing a "home" fixture on season tickets and also leaves the better 8 teams to possibly provide better quality matches.

Having it before the split would either mean an extra random fixture and you end up with possible situations of higher teams getting an easy 2 points while others get tough games or half the teams losing a home game, neither of which are ideal imo.

Not rattled this cage for a while, so dusting it off:....CHALLENGE CUP 5TH ROUND. Then I might cough up for a ticket.

So what are the 7 games after the split part of? They aren't the playoffs.

If season tickets do not cover these expect low crowds.

I suppose they could offer existing season ticket holders a mini-season ticket to retain their seats for however many home games a club has after the split but I don't think you would get 100% take up even if they did that.

Whatever, 30 games + playoffs + CC is too many as is the possibility of playing one team up to six times.

is it going to be a random draw or something based on position at the split with the top 4 having home advantage for eg? Either way I can't see any option but to have a serious hike in season (& probably walk-up) ticket prices to compensate for potential losses. We're all guessing, but I can't see much beyond this not being good for the supporters.

I was in meetings yesterday in London & the 2 Gooners present were winging about having to pay over £1,000 for a season ticket - me & (coincidentally) the Latics fan were crowing at what it cost us: not too sure any more

Do you lot realise the grand plan of S/L is to have the Magic Weekend on consecutive Wednesdays, or to use one of Pemps phrases , it is all a load of bollox.

The last couple of seasons Jamie Peacock has been advocating a season with fewer matches, we now seem to be hell bent on having a sport where the week rule the strong.

The so called sponsers if they ever existed must be consulting there lawers to get out of any agreed deal.

As I understand it if you get to the GF you will have played 32 games

and how can anybody expect players to play internationals? Teams are going to need bigger squads on less money, so they will just sign past it or useless overseas players.

They had a perfect opportunity to give the MW a real purpose with this revised format, but it appears (from the snippets that have been released so far) that in fact they have done the opposite and persisted with an extra league fixture. If not moving it to after the split, I'd rather they did last 16 of the CC or a standalone 9's tournament. But when they worked out the new format and realised they had 29 fixtures to play with you would have thought someone would have realised that this odd game out could have been used as the MW.

I know the fixture calendar wouldn't line up as it does now, and to have the MW after the spilt would mean moving it to around July/August (perfect opportunity to move the CC final back to May) - but keeping it as an extra fixture when we're already increasing the number of games seems ludicrous to me.

So if you do the double you'll have played 32 SL games and 5 C Cup matches.
A 37 game season?
They're not just mad but absolutely bloody barking!

As for the Magic, it should be in the C Cup and at the last 16 stage where the 12 SL enter the comp!

Can the CC not be structured for the top 12 to enter later ie last 16, scrap the exiles

It makes you wonder how we got so close to the Aussies early 90's. 30 game league, County cups, Regal trophy and CC plus ashes tour or test series every other year.