Presumably we only want to attract affluent women who will have affluent kids? And as for ethnic minorities, according to the 2011 census 5 percent of the UK population are from. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. How do you suggest we involve them in the game? Sell the concept of Toronto or New York? Set up a team in New Delhi or Karachi? Bribe them to play the game?

Looking for real and actionable suggestions and not just the usual vague generalities.

Media reporting that all SL clubs except Leeds have voted for a 12 team league, 1 up, 1 down, 29 games regular season plus Magic Weekend and 6 extra games (no detail on how this will be decided) Top5 playoff format again.

Championship to be 14 teams, with 2 going down, Champion to be decided by playoffs. League1 to contain 12 teams, 1 up automatically, 1 via playoffs.

HullFC's Adam Pearson has told League Express "“If it doesn’t get agreed then I can’t see the Championship and League One clubs getting as good a deal again,”

Wakefield chairman Michael Carter has already shot that story down on twitter saying there’s “way too much untruthful c**p being peddled out there”

I think its more him saying that SL can't decide how the Championship league works.

The RFL can however, and if SL want to get rid of the S8's then it obviously means the Championship format changes. Michael was on SKY before his game saying he was confident the S8's would be gone. They must have been pressure from SL onto the RFL to make these changes. Otherwise how can he be confident over something they have no control over? Particularly when Championship/L1 were pretty certain where they stood on the issue.

I think SL's put pressure on the RFL to force the changes through, Ralph wants the infighting to stop, so to try sweeten the Ch/L1 clubs, he's offered to save one championship club and promote 3 from L1.


I've said all along i agree with the SL chairman that the S8's need to go, but rushing it through will see tje new structure have many of the issues the S8s had. Loop fixtures are a farce and making the season even longer is solving nothing.

The season would be 1 game shorter under this proposal, but I agree that loop fixtures are a farce. I'd rather see the season start later in better weather, and have more space for international games, friendlies with NRL sides etc but of course the SL sides just want cash through the turnstiles.

More rumours going round today the structure will change for 2019. Apparently we are going to a 12 team Super League, play 5 clubs 3 times 6 clubs twice with a top 5 play off.

How many complained when Leeds won it from 5th? But we go back to a system where that’s possible.

Presuming the top 5 play off is as before, you could end up playing the same club 7 times a season.
3 x league, 1 x cup, 2 x play offs 1 x friendly.

This is a poor knee jerk decision that has been rushed in at the last minute. Expect another new structure in a few years time.

1st you say it's a rumour going round,then you say it's been rushed in at the last minute. Make your mind up.

Is it any wonder you're not taken seriously on here?

A team winning it from 5th in itself isn't an issue. Ideally we should want to have a play off system where it is possible a team finishing 5th or 6th can actually win the whole thing.

Erm, don't we already have 12 teams in SL.

The fixture structure you mention though is sheer nonsense, but will be classed as forward thinking, unique or other such rubbish. Good old RFL eh?

I believe Pearson is the driving force behind the changes, which have to be voted in by the clubs.

Source?

I think the main beef with the Leeds winning from 5th was that the top 8 system that didn't provide enough of a test for a team finishing lower down the league. If a team wins 3 games away from home then a grand final as a part of a top 5, that teams legitimacy as champions is a lot stronger.

I suspect that the clubs ideally would like to go to 14 teams and get Toulouse and Toronto in but it is all dependent on how much the SKY deal gets in the way of that.

Given the meeting is on the 14th of this month the clubs will have a good idea as to the final outcome of the qualifiers. Maybe it will be a case of looking at the teams and fitting a structure around that.

There probably isn't one. He's just trying to stir up jobby as usual.

The old top five format was probably the one that rewarded league placing better than any we have previously. It provided the top placed team with with a week off and a potential direct route to the final (rewarding finishing in first), the teams finishing 2-3 had a lifeline in week one, and the trapdoor was open for 4-5.

I think one of the arguments for scrapping it was that for clubs playing in the final, there was debate over whether the momentum of not having a break before the final gave an advantage to the loser of the Qualifying Semi, but I wonder just how big an advantage / disadvantage that was.

But of all the play-off systems we have had, I think it did better to hold the interest of supporters and reward season-long performance.

The plan is 11 H and 11 A games, 6 loop fixtures and Magic Weekend, meaning 29 games. Each club will get 14 H fixtures then, which is equal to now.