its just not that straight forward tho..
would the players be on 2 contracts? one for the league and one for the cup? otherwise its mighty unfair club work load for the non internationals
would there be different salary caps?
how do you stop the internationals playing in the nrc cup?
if you somehow get pass restriction of trade, what measure are you going to actually use to judge who can't play? in the train in squad, in the team squad, in the team?
what happens about the teams that have better average players, so they only loose 1/2 players, compared to the teams that loose 6/7?
are these games going to be on at the same time at the internationals?
....
there's 100's more questions, none of which give a particularity good answers
reducing a strong competition in place of a weak nrc style cup, and a couple extra internationals doesn't sound to great to myself

as said above if some(all) players are really worried about burn out, sign a limited number of games contract, don't back up after origin etc

Pretty much summed the whole thing up there really

But the answers are all there.

You may not agree with my conclusions but I'm using the NFL and it's history as an example as it's so obvious Tallis is drawing from this.

It too started as a minority sport confined in the corner of one country and too a degree RL has already implemented some of the cornerstones of it's success (obviously not everthing is the same between the two infrastructures).

What do you base your argument on that this simply cannot be made to work?

Why the need for two contracts? Could there not just be one that included international call-up clauses?
You'd stop them playing in the NRC because they'd be playing internationals. If they're not playing internationals, or not in the set-up, they would be eligible to play for their club.
Where's the restriction of trade?
The teams that have more international call-ups will be more affected, yes. But it would put more of an emphasis on squad-depth. There could be an arrangement made where clubs that have many players called-up could have certain salary cap dispensions where they are credited a certain amount of money extra onto their salary cap allowance for the use of their international players, which could then be used to pay for a bigger squad. It also wouldn't affect their SL campaign as they would be only called up during NRC games.

Just because you cannot find any good answers doesn't mean there aren't any. And if we can get more international games out of it, it does sound like a good idea. We get far more media coverage from internationals than we do usual SL rounds, and we'd finally be building up some sort of England brand rather than just a team that plays a few games at the end of the season. Anything that increases the international calendar is a good idea IMO.

That's inaccurate. The NFL itself started as a league confined to the north-east and mid-west, but the sport was already played in colleges across the US by then. The NFL season has lengthened gradually over the years, with the last change going from 14 to 16 games. They now play over 17 weeks and are investigating options to make their season longer.

That's misleading. 32 teams play 16 fixtures over 17 weeks (one is a bye week).

There are no plans to expand it to mirror an RL model or anything close to that i.e. Premier League.

There are tentative plans to expand the NFL outside the US with new teams though, such has been the success of the business model.

(And even with a big collegiate base the professional game took a long time to grow from it's corner using the more traditional models)

because the nrc cup would turn up 1/3+ of the normal season? so you only get your full cap for 2/3 of the year if you don't change it, but to change it you would need two contracts. this then opens up silly situation of having a league squad, and a different nrc squad. so you could have 'player A' plays for roosters in the league, but then plays for wests in the nrc.

you wouldn't be able to just have extra cap space, for one it gives some teams an advantage over others, and with the test squad changing regularly how are you going to manage this extra money. baring in mind that the club would need to a lot of time to find a player to take up the nrc squad space, by which time the international squad will no doubt have changed.

its a restriction of trade because you are stopping a club player competing in a club competition. the only real way round it would for the international players also be paid for the nrc squad (that will make team mates happy)
(sidenote will use massively to their advantage)or are we back to the two squads/contracts?

as for the more internationals, yes it would be great if we have an even playing field (or at least a bigger 'good' pool) but realislicty we have
the aussie - top team
nz - can stand up to aus in series, seem appalling in one off games
england - normally fairly close, and can win games in the pool rounds. when it steps up to knock out rounds, we just don't have another level

png - still along way off
fiji - as above
samoa - as above
tonga - as above

the media will just laugh at us even more then they do now.
oh and the reason internationals get more press is because they're seen as special events, do you think they'll still be special events if there taking up 1/3+ of the season


what we need to be looking at is developing the club game in new areas/countries, not trying to massively change a working formula

You seem to forget that the NFL operates in a country of 300+ million people which generates huge television revenues. The NRL operates in a country of 22 million where television is dire and the revenues aint too hot. Forget the NFL model it wont work and Tallis is talking out of his rear as usual. He only spouts when he thinks there is a chance of getting his ugly mush in the news.

Reducing the number of games is a crap idea and just gives extra space for AFL to take a stronger grip in RL heartlands like NSW and QLD. They are already attacking Western Sydney and have the Gold Coast (QLD) and Central Coast (NSW) in their sights.

Altering some of the ridiculous rules would help the attractiveness. Such as reducing the number of interchanges would be a start, making more of an open game rather than dull defence oriented encounters that currently plague games out here.

You still haven't explained why you'd need two contracts. Just because there is another competition doesn't mean you need another contract for it. No player would be ineligible to play in this competition UNLESS they were selected for international duty, which the governing body would have to give incentives to clubs to release their players (i.e. compensation of wages and credit to the salary cap to cover their temporary removal from the squad). I don't understand why you think a second contract would be needed for a second competition.


Being given extra space in the cap would even out the disadvantage of losing your best players to international duty. If anything, the teams with international players would be at more of a disadvantage than an advantage, but they'd have the advantage of greater squad depth.

You wouldn't be able to manage it on a rolling basis because of what you have said. But you could credit them for the next season, where there is every chance a similar number of internationals will be picked from the same club (unless their is some kind of mass exodus), and so they will already have a decent squad depth from recruitment in the close-season. Emphasis on player development would be more vital here, because younger players are cheaper, and would definitely be needed when their are internationals on.

NFL teams seem to do ok with a 16 game schedule

Seriously couldn't care less about internationals, they bore me.


As for games maybe, in SL, they could spread the games out more, so each team plays once every 2 weeks...

But the interest in the NFL wasn't there from the start and therefore neither was the mega money or mega tv deals - they had to make changes.

Try a book called 'America's game'. There are some interesting parallels and it's difficult to argue that the way they developed the game didn't work.

Both Baseball and College sports provided equally tough competition for them over there.

I agree totally with your point on the dull defensive battles in Australia.

The NRL by 2020 will be a 20 team league with 20 rounds and an 8 team playoff imo. SOO and the Anzac test will be stand alone weekend games with no NRL games on and the season will run from March to 1st weekend in October.

The World 9's will be reintroduced for Feb and an improved International schedule for Oct/Nov each year.

Well we can live in hope!

like we smash the dross for the last 30 years