I was just looking back over results from this years cup and thinking about the BBCs coverage of the fa cup and how they have really latched onto the whole Salford city fc thing and how they were obsessing over Leigh in our competition. Anyway they started their coverage in the sixth round and sky had a game in the fifth which is ridiculously late into the competition in my opinion.

Looking back through the results, there are a number of good games which they could have screened in the interests of showing something a bit different and showcasing the game which would be great. If they started their coverage in the 3rd round say, the kells-Rochdale game would have been a good one, kells did well, put a couple of tries on Rochdale and there wad just under 600 there which is good for amateur and early round of course. Another game in that round was hemel-oxford which would have been a good one to showcase expansion teams. In the fourth round Leigh miners beat oxford which, by their definition, is a giant killing.

Anyway my point is, starting the competition that late on tv will never really enthuse potential new fans whereas if they showcased a wide variety of teams it might, showing early round at smaller, more intimate stadiums right up to Wembley just like they do with the fa cup. Thoughts?

Typically, the early rounds of the FA Cup usually involved one reasonably sized team from the lower divisions, in the hope of an upset. Whilst I would not have a problem with it, is it feasible for the BBC to televise a game between two amateur teams? It helps that there are 48 professional teams in the FA Cup (with extra teams from the Conference etc).

Good idea, but unfortunately don't think it would attract that many new converts to the game.

I think that they need to pick the best tie of the round, with the best teams. Football has the luxury of being the number 1 sport in the country, with a huge program like MOTD etc. so watching smaller sides in football is different and "the beauty of the FA Cup"

In Rugby League, we are trying to win a more national fan base and encourage people who may not know much about the sport to find a club to go and watch, or even start participating. To achieve this, we need to show the best game that the 4th/5th/6th round of the cup throws up

I think the challenge cup should start much later, in late June or even July and have either 2 or 3 weeks between each round. Along with internationals this would see RL on the bbc regularly between July and November.

Agreed. But almost anything is better than the current 'spread all over the place' format, which has seriously devalued the Cup.

Something else I always think they should do is to enter all of the French league teams into the competition which would increase interest in France as well as make the competition a more European affair.
As people have been saying, if they space rounds closer together it would help the travel for those teams, especially if they put rounds in consecutive weeks, take a 2 week break from the league every couple of months or something.

It is easy to pick the best games after they have been played.

c