I like your positive thinking and that of other posters on this subject, as I agree with unfairness of MW lob-sided fixtures when P&R are involved balanced with a need to promote our sport.

However, I'm not convinced that tagging on the CCSF is a good idea as it could easily blow the carnival atmosphere with rival supporters getting involved in a bit of OTT goading in two 'must win' games. To be fair I've not seen much evidence of this at Wembley even though it is open to all RL supporters, but, at the GF a bit of unsavoury nonsense has unfortunately raised its ugly head.

You say that the CCSF crowds are low, so what and how is that judged? The LSV is a sell out, but, that 'small' crowd will be having a great time they've waited some time for Sunday. It's a season defining fixture and shouldn't be lost in the midst of knockabout RL and when I'm at Langtree Park tomorrow I wouldn't thank you for having a load of Widnes species cheering any Leeds score and vice versa in their game.

But having that 4 home game advantage gives the teams that incentive to carry on trying to win games to finish as high as possible (even if they can't finish top8, or below top4 in the Championship). Removing that advantage could render some games at the end of the 23 rounds meaningless.

In terms of the MW being the difference between staying in SL and getting relegated? That's a bit dramatic. They would still have the 7 games in the Qualifiers after that, which is more than enough opportunity to make sure you survive.


9's idea - I enjoyed watching the floodlit 9's a few years ago, but from the comfort of my own armchair. Would many supporters go for the weekend to watch predominatly youngsters playing for something that isn't important? Let's be honest, most clubs wouldn't take it seriously and only send a few senior players.

If it was a standalone competition that was properly sponsored and there was a decent prize money on offer, it would be taken seriously. Plus there could be a rule about how many first team players had to be included.

I think there are two reasons why the MW has been left as a standalone game and not integrated in to the post-split part of the season, one is to give the top 4 an extra home game as you have mentioned and the other is so they can sort the fixture list out early. Leaving it until the leagues of 12 are finished would mean fans would not know who they were playing or on what days until the very last minute. This way it can be sorted out months in advance. So I can see why they have kept it as it is but creating a league system with one additional fixture isn't great. I like the MW as a concept but it needs a better purpose IMO.

I still don't understand why another Cup Competition isn't introduced.
Something else for clubs to play for.
I'd love to see the Lancashire and Yorkshire Cups return to the game.
A stipulation whereby each team could only select a maximum of 10 first team squad members and the remaining players would come from the Junior team.
Would be great for development of the young lads, but would still provide enough experience in there to attract the fans.

I agree though I wouldn't do the Lancs & Yorks cups. I'd have a League cup like football where it's only the pro league clubs that take part. And I'd have all the clubs from SL, Championship, C1 in from the start.
I'd also have, like you say, either a max limit of so many first team players or a minimum of so many young players for each SL team.

So after a prelim round to get it down to 32 teams it'd be a straight knock-out comp.