Yes and that's when several guys are always ruled out through injury and if they clubs had their way (which they would for a post season WCC) you'd more than likely see even more withdrawn.

The wigan-penrith crowd was fairly disappointing for a decider between the top teams of their respective hemispheres played at a time when both might have been expected to be at their peak, or certainly at a better level than they're at in today's WCC. Any reason for that? Novelty wearing thin?
I'm not saying the logistics of a game played then are impossible but I do wonder whether it would hold the interest of the average fan whenever it was played. Certainly the series of WCC games involving Leeds saw a fairly rapid drop off from the 38k-odd that were at the Bulldogs fixture. And recent fixtures involving different teams are little better.

And what, precisely, has the last weekend in February got going for it?

An extra 4 months of planning, marketing, promoting it, selling tickets. Do you honestly think the RFL and SL clubs can do the same job in just two weeks on the half chance that the lineups are the same as in the GF's?

Playing it the season after detracts immensely from what it is meant to represent.

Agree.

The main reason is that as a sport we shoehorn our International season into a single month at the end of the season. There just isn't the time to do it then as it stands.

The SL/NRL calendars would need lining up properly to have the GF's on the same weekend. In fact, the whole RL calendar needs lining up between the SL/NRL with dedicated International breaks (perhaps whilst Aus play Origin over 3 consecutive weekends).

Don't talk sense!

We should continue to play seasons that don't match up, making internationals and the like impractical or trivial due to understrength teams while also playing under different sets of rules to each other...

That maybe correct but still doesn't mean it's a smart idea to try hastily arranging the game in 2 weeks.

And how long do you get for the Grand Final ?

If the Venue is sorted, it shouldn't be a major hassle and depending what happens with the 4N, many players would probably be over here or in Aus anyway.
There maybe some disruption to the planning for the National team though.

As a Leeds fan you surely admit that, the Leeds team that played in the last WCS bore no resemblance to the triple winners of the season before and as such, the game was not Champions vs Champions and this rendered the game meaningless.
Ok it was a test of the "new" Leeds team vs their Aussie counterparts but, not the game that it should have been.
Also, the extended games were just space fillers, with no meaning whatsoever and if we're going to increase the number of clubs, it should be Champions vs Champions, Cup Winners vs Cup Winners etc and not just random games.
Of course, if one club won more than one title, there would need to be some kind of system for allowing the runners up to
play.
The concept becomes much harder to market if we dont have bonafide contenders.

Why would two weeks not be enough time?

This isn't the 1980's, we have the internet now and travel & accommodation can be booked at a moments notice.

Venues can be sourced and provisionally booked prior to the GF's.

Tickets can be made available a couple of days after the GF's, again on the internet, giving fans ample time to buy their tickets.


Two weeks notice isn't the issue, the International season is the issue.

Maybe England should announce their fixtures and venues 2 weeks before Australia and NZ next come over as well? Maybe the RU Lions should leave their tour until the last minute and cricket should decide which venues with gold Ashes tests just two weeks before it starts.

People complain when England only announce international fixtures and venues halfway through the season yet now we want to take a showpiece game and scramble it together in two weeks?

And no GF's and CC's aren't the same as the date and venue are set in stone and neutrals can buy tickets all year long and SL can organise the whole event well in advance. And we still struggle to sell out these games even given the long time they have to sell.

If we had to play after the 2015 GF I doubt the team would've stayed near the same given how patched up we were at the time, same for Wigan who will probably be stronger than their GF lineup. What would Wigan playing two weeks after the GF prove? When they lost people would just argue that it wasn't Wigan at full strength.

You see how teams struggle to get up again after a CC Final win, you really think they'd be able to go again, against an NRL team no less, in another final 2 weeks later. They'd get smashed probably worst than now.