www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... 015-season Sounds good, exciting times ahead for all the clubs.

www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... 015-season Sounds good, exciting times ahead for all the clubs.

the CC exemption is a nonsense, starves lower league clubs of potential big pay days, and the fact it's being brought in next season with no notice is unfair, maybe teams would have worked harder to finish top 8 with that kind of carrot dangled, maybe some clubs would have parted with poor coaches/results earlier. Finishing the 8 now means so much more than it did 24 hours ago.

I'm sure the clubs have known about this longer than the fans.

And the dreadful Magic weekend remains. With the 2 points it brings potentially much more significant, are the fixtures going to be made with some attempt at fairness? Some fixtures are usually physically much more demanding than others, while some sides have had more than their fair share of soft opponents in the past. I wouldn't object to a random draw but can we be sure that the powers that be could be relied on not to favour (or disfavour) certain teams if they are creating the match ups?

For the sake of fairness it needs to be all derby/rival matches or a random cup draw for me. Personally I would prefer the random draw because I'm fed up with the amount of times we play Rovers these days. And next year we could meet even more! Throw in the pre-season friendly, a potential match up in the cup and the possibility of further face off's in the second half of the season once the top 8/bottom 4 split (at least one regular and a possible playoff/eliminator if in the same group) and we could end up with about seven matches against each other. It's ridiculous.

Except you can't have all derby fixtures. Beyond Hull/Dobbins, Wigan/Saints, Cas/Wakey and possibly Warrington/Widnes what else? Leeds/Shudders has never really been a derby fixture, though at this point in time it would be a tough rivalry. Salford and Cats - not even close though neither team fits in with any other.

In which case it needs to be a random draw.

I'm confused already, it's the middle 8 I don't get am I reading right that the top 3 from the middle 8 are guaranteed super league then 4th and 5th playoff for the last super league spot so does that mean that if by some miracle the 4 championship clubs Finnish 1 to 4 then 3 of them will be promoted and 3 super league clubs will be relegated and then if the super league club loses the play off potentially 4 clubs could go down and 4 get promoted.

A random draw would definitely be fairer but it wouldn't necessarily mean an easier game.

I'm more confused about what strutchure is.

But yes theoretically that is correct.

That's how it reads but do the clubs coming up have to meet the Super League criteria for grounds etc. Yes that old chestnut. Seem to remember a couple of teams missing out in the early years of Super League for this reason?

You've got it right Ben. The top 8 are guaranteed their place in SL the year after but the bottom 4 compete with the Championship's top 4 for places in next seasons SL. Depending on how that goes then all 4 Championship sides could potentially be promoted and the 4 SL sides could be relegated.

That's the luck of a draw. I can accept that.

I don't like it, cant agree with it. I think it will be the death of the game.

People say attendances are dropping and interest in the game is waning. Then do something about the referee's, disciplinary or salary cap. Don't mess with the fixtures which have followed the same general format for years and years.

A lot of fans will be confused by this (me included) and to be honest it just p's me off.

The game desperately needed something to spark it up as the current system is jaded in my opinion - too many nothing games. Whether this convoluted structure is the answer I'm not sure - it could certainly increase end of season excitement. Will have to wait until we've seen it in action to be sure. Much as I like Magic Weekend as a spectacle the extra game just doesn't fit and it's a big problem when the points from that extra game alone could make a big difference.

I don't mind the magic weekend although I would prefer a random draw rather than having to play a derby game every time.

The playoffs can still confuse me though, so I'll reserve judgement until next season. I just know that I have no faith in the RFL to get things right but there's enough negativity on here just now

I like it, only problem I see are a few cricket scores between bottom 4 sl, and top for championship, team finishing 9 in sl will probably demolish team finishing 4th in championship, no one wants to see those kind of games, maybe should of only had top 2 from championship

On the other hand though the top 4 in the Championship may have a higher morale than the bottom 4 SL sides which could make for interesting contests.

Can't say I like the cc exemption either. Devalues the competition more in my opinion.

re: magic weekend. I would have everyone play each other once in the league, then schedule 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th etc. Obviously, magic weekend would have to be a couple of weeks later so everyone could arrange tickets and travel. Seems simple and fair, so highly unlikely to happen.

So if you finish in the bottom 4 of SL and play in 'the Qualifiers' group, surely you start from 0 points?

still think it will be to much for the 3 and 4 placed team in the championship, think the top team will be very dangerous though, I wouldn't like us having to beat Leigh at the end of this season to stay in super league

Absolutely mental, carn't see it ever happening that all 4 champs clubs go up but you just never know.

Only thing I can see happening is that when clubs get to a point in the season where they mathematically carn't make the 8 then they're likely to start resting players for the super 8 games because last thing you want going into the super 8s is injuries to some of your best players, the resting of players could then have an effect on the rest of the league if that team still has to play teams from the top 8 who are vying for the highest place then can achieve, the other teams in the top 8 arnt going to be happy your not playing a full strength team against there top 8 rivals.

Franchising never worked at all so things had to change.
The format seems good and does mean teams should be fighting to win each and every game and not resting players here and there because final standings are not that important at the minute (Within the top 4)

If we took this season for example we would still be fighting to get points because finishing 9th or 10th means an extra home game.


It also gives all the clubs in the lower divisions something to fight for and in turn stops the majority of those dead rubber games.

Glad they are keeping the magic weekend but i think it should be drawn on the previous seasons league standings, or the standings 1 month before the magic weekend.

1st v 2nd , 3rd v 4th etc

I think the bottm 4 teams in sl will all have a chance of sneaking into he 8th spot up until last couple of games of the season, so cant imagine t been a problem

Rest players, lose games and finish 10th or 11th and have an extra away game. It is designed to make all games competitive.