Going by their press release, the RFL appear to have identified Bulls vs Crusaders as the most interesting game (the Nobby connection). MOTWYW.

Simple...

Bradford Vs. Wire
Hull Vs. Quins
Celtic Vs. Salford

Saints Vs. Catalans
Wigan Vs. Leeds
Cas Vs. Wakey
Hull KR Vs. Hudds

Every game is a tricky call on who'd win.
Wish that wouldve happened.


Now if Widnes manage to get up next season..
You could have 5 very good derbies going on!
Then bring it back

Based on the previous years regular season standings 1st plays 2nd, 3rd vs 4th etc.
This year would have been:

Leeds v St Helens
Huddersfield v Hull K R
Wakefield v Wigan
Castleford v Catalans Dragons
Bradford v Warrington
Harlequins RL v Hull
Salford v Celtic Crusaders

Not a bad idea with the CC thing, but don't understand how you could put a NL team in there?

Last 16 is 8 games so you are always going to have 2 teams outside of SL making the weekend.

I suppose you don't have to guarantee the winners of the NL a place at the expense of SL 8th but its a good reward for finishing top, they should bring as many as some SL clubs do now and it makes sense licensing wise (could even be a tick in the box depending how many tickets are sold).

Also underlines this is an RL event not just a SL one which I think is where we lose the NL fan base.

I would make it a NL free weekend.

Ideal for me would be a top 7 in sl for grand finals anyway with 1st getting a first week bye and the pick 2v7 3v6 4v5 then 2 semis & final. ( which would free up another week) But thats another story.

What about if the qulified NL teams play each other only and drop 2 from the superleague?

Say Northern rail cup winners and top NL league finishers?

The two superleague teams to drop out would be lowest previos season finishers? They play each other as normal away from edinburgh.

The novelty of the NL clubs making it, and as a result a major appeal to those fans would offset the loss of fans from the superleague teams. So widnes and Oldham say would replace Celtic and Salford say. Crusaders (i should say) and Salford would lose money and will try harder the following year to snatch a league position rather than resting on their laurels as teams can do at the end of a season now relagation is out the window.

look at pick a winner post and see how you do with the games that are going to be played

Well we have 2 out of 7.

Said something along these lines last year.......would really give the challenge cup a lift and is an inclusive ALL RL event and not just SL. THerefore it would also be supported by all national league clubs. I could see a crowd of about 50k for each of these days if they followed this an would make it a PROPER event rather than what must be less than 20k that turn up this year....IMO this years MM could be a shocker for the game as most games will be played in front of 5-10k in a massive ground

Instead though the RFL will probably ditch it after the inevitable embarressment of this year

Sad but I feel you may be correct, still going though

Whatever my opinion of your idea [ not really too fussed as it seems far too complicated I lost interest after the 1 st 3 lines ] I dont think that many NL/Championship fans would be that interested [ considering there is only 20,000 of us in total between the 21 clubs ] to swell the attendance by anything more than 4/5,000 considering a most likely battering at the hands of a SL club , compouded by it also being televised

Wasnt my idea and I dont really see how it was complicated

but as regards that point id say your completely wrong....more than their usual crowds would turn out IMO because its a glamour tie in the challenge cup, against SL opposition, in a finals atmosphere in a big ground.

Look at the barrow wigan tie last year, or the gateshead stains tie for how fans of smaller clubs would turn out. If barrow say drew wigan again they would take 4-5k IMO as its the closest their going to get to a final, and in many ways would be 'their' final. Both barrow and gateshead didnt get 'battered' as you put it, but held their own in the game, and also even though the majority of their fans knew the reality of the draw was an inevitable loss, they still turned out in great number.

In addition i would anticipate say 1-2k of floating NL support would go as a neutral to the day, merely to watch some good rugby as the event has a more inclusive feel rather than a strictly SL day out. In addition i think more SL fans would turn out for the SL clubs than currently attend MM as there is the draw of straight knock out, and it would bring back some of the magic of the cup and give the NL something real to aim for.

IMO the RFL should seriously look at this idea as its the only way its ever likely to work IMO, and does then have potential to grow year on year and reignite the CC rather than its inevitable slow death. This would be a true RL event with 2-4 NL clubs or so (depending how many SL match ups were in round 4, and how many NL clubs come through) that serves so many purposes

Indeed

The other problem is that now we've had the draw, how long will it take the RFL to announce who is going to be playing when and what time will it start ?

Last year, it was merely a couple of weeks before the actual weekend when they formally announced things like match order and kick off times.

Like Rover49, I'd like to go and watch pretty much every game my teams plays that I can get to. However in the case of Edinburgh, other commitments means that I can't justify a whole weekend up there and last year due to the structure of the games, I managed to book a cheap train ticket to get me up & back in the same day. Due to the nature of the last trains south especially on a Saturday, if you're as the last game of the four, you can't come back by train and have to make other arrangements (which would probably mean not going at all).

Other flagship RFL events, like the Challenge Cup Final, know a year in advance what date and kick off time the game is going to be, so why all the dragging of the feet with the Magic Weekend ?

Last year, the RFL had the cheek to call fans for not showing a commitment to the weekend and yet, couldn't be bothered to tell them exactly when their team would be playing.

By all means have a draw, but soon after the draw is made announce who will be playing when and what time those games will start ... Is that really too much to ask ?

Last year they announced the schedule a couple of days before christmas. The Kick Off Times wern't finalised until about two months before though.