is too many?

Leeds will face Widnes for the 4th time in competition this year in the middle 8's, as will Toulouse and London, whilst Wigan and Wire together with Hudds and Catalans will also meet for the 4th time in competition when the Super 8's start....and Wakey v Hudds will meet for the fifth time this year.......five games in the same season????

If (as I think they will do) they scrap the concept, promote the top 6 in the middle 8's to SL XXIV and then have one up one down in a MPG between bottom SL and Top Champs, with a top 8 play-off then PLEASE GOD can they stick to the system longer than a couple of years.....on the current tables standing, that would leave a Championship with Toulouse, Bradford, Halifax, Featherstone and possibly Leigh (once DelBoy puts his dummy back in) scrapping for the chance to meet probably Widnes or London in a MPG......so not to dissimilar to what we had this year but without the cheating mancanadians......

The middle 8's have grown on me, but too much repetition of games is making fans stay away....and to a neutral, Wakefield v Huddersfield for the fifth time (with an average gate of 4,127) in a season makes us look a small and localised sport that only a few towns in the north play.

Maybe rename it Premier League.

I agree RL should copy the NRL. They have the right structure in place in my opinion.

I don’t think we should move away from soccer though, I think we should move toward it. I think we have more in common with soccer than Union for instance and should target football fans in specific areas. If we were doing a rebrand of clubs I’d tie some in with local football teams. Even see if some football clubs want to take over the RL club and run it jointly alongside the football.

Where we should follow Union’s lead is with internationals. They’ve nailed it.

All fair points but the problem always remains that in RL the team going up is always the most likely team to go back down because they do not have enough time to prepare sucessfully and unlike in football, where there is enough money to protect the relegated team from the cost of their promotion run, the relegated RL team will always suffer. The perfect solution would be to have a vibrant Championship where the wealth of the two leagues is not so different that it does not matter. Until that happens we just recycle the same players who get relegated every year.

Yes, pretty much as it is in the round ball game.
Unless you are going to exempt any promoted side from relegation the following season, this will always be the cas, unless there war parity in income/spending power between SL and the promoted club.
As the saying goes, you cant have everything and at least any promoted side gets their shot at "the big time".

Also, with one up one down, at least any promoted side would avoid the nonsense that we have now (the qualifiers), where half a dozen clubs fron SL and the Championship will perpetually struggle to build and strengthen their side.
How many decent players would want to go to a side that would be in jeopardy at the end of the season and if they do, just how much will they want to be paid, in relation to going to a "safe" club, which gives the top 6 a massive advantage both in terms of recruitment and salary cap spend.
They will still want more to play for a Widnes or Wakefield, compared to Wigan or Saints but, again, that's life.

Having said that, the current system does prevent as many dead rubbers as there are under the 1 up/ 1 down system and for the neutral, the middle 8's is probably more compelling viewing than the race for a top 4 spot, especially this season when the current top 4 are almost certain to be the semi finalists.