As usual this time of year lots of people are questioning how we can catch up with, and preferably overtake, our Antipodean rivals. We seem to have two main problems: a lack of intense competition and a need to grow our player pool (I can think of a good few more to add to that list but these seem to be the biggest immediate problems). The difficulty is that the solution to one of these tends to exacerbate the other. If we shrink Super League we increase the intensity of top-level competition but reduce the player pool still further. I doubt that there is a perfect solution to this but this is my suggestion.

Super League is expanded to 16 teams then chopped in half - a Super League Elite of the top 8 teams and a lower tier of the next 8 teams. Teams play every team in their own tier twice, home and away, leading to 14 games. However, to ensure that the second-tier is not simply set adrift, teams also play every team from the other tier once (4 home games and 4 away) making a 22 game regular season. It would have to be a condition of the Sky deal that money is split equally between both tiers and Sky broadcast a decent number of second tier games.

That still leaves us 5 games short of this season in the regular season. That's probably no bad thing but clubs wouldn't like losing that money. I would then suggest adding a trophy to the season, a League Cup to replace the old Regal Trophy as it were. This would be a 4 round competition in which all Super League clubs would participate. The Magic Weekend would be the first round of this cup, making it a more meaningful event.

End of season play-offs would take place in both tiers, involving the top 4 sides in each. Week 1 would see the 1st-placed team at home to the second-placed team with the winner going through to the Grand Final in Week 3. The third-placed team would play at home to the fourth-placed team with the winner facing the loser of the first match in week 2 for the second spot in the Grand Final. The Champions of the second tier would be promoted, replacing the bottom club in the Elite tier but entry to Super League as a whole would still be on a franchise basis.

This system gives every team 11 home games per season as opposed to the current 13 but reduces the overall amount of games (albeit only slightly) while giving everyone a third pot to shoot for. Clubs would spend a greater proportion of their time playing against others nearer to their ability, promoting a more intense competition. With two divisions Sky would be able to braodcast 4 games over Easter without forcing anyone to play twice in four days. Incorporating an extra international or two should be relatively easy (for example, I would suggest playing one on League Cup Final weekend with the two teams in the final exempt from providing players). What do people think?

Quite a dramatic change, It'd be watered down significantly before it could be implemented.
I like the concept, I just can't see anything like this ever happening.

Interesting concept. Would please those that want the old promotion/relegation back again. Let the arguing commence over who would be in each division though!

For me:
(Elite League)
Wigan, Saints, Wire, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Hull FC, Hull KR

(2nd League)
Wakey, Cas, Catalans, Quins, Crusaders/Cumbria, Salford, Widnes, Leigh

I also think that in the top league there should be a relaxation of the Salary Cap as well. I think the teams given above have the financial capacity to stand on their own two feet while still maintaining competitiveness. For me, having new, modern stadiums in the elite league at least is a must. At least 5 out of the 8 have those with Headingley needing minor improvements and obviously Odsal and Craven Park getting a more or less complete overhaul. The irony I suppose is that the teams in the 2nd league either already have modern stadiums or are on the way to getting them. I think that even though this may only seem cosmetic it makes us look a lot more professional and takes us away from the "flat caps and whippets" image the national media seems to have of our game.

As far as increasing the talent pool goes, I think expansion is key. Not with new teams per se as I don't think that works. Catalans have had 5 seasons now and there isn't a single French player in SL apart from in Perpignan and this summer's international against France showed that they aren't up to international standard just yet. Maybe it will still take a few more years but we need to advance our own pool of English players as well.

The story of James Graham is a startling one for RL in England. If it wasn't for his Cumbrian dad taking him to a club in St Helens to try RL, the sport would have missed out on a (spoken begrudgedly) talented player. Maghull is only 15 miles away from St Helens but it seems that a lot of RL clubs don't bother tapping into talent coming from the likes of Liverpool, Manchester and even the likes of Newcastle and Birmingham. Who knows, the next Sam Tomkins could be a Brummie or a Geordie? The monopoly football has in this country's school's PE lessons is shocking. Unless kids all over the UK are offered the chance to play RL, our talent pool will not grow.

Apologies for the rambling post, but it's something that has been on my mind for a while.

The super league competition is simply not as good as the NRL, they produce far better players than we do because Rugby League is far bigger over there. We cannot do anything about the pool of talent, it will never be big enough over here because of football but I believe alot is being done to improve in this area. They will always produce better players so we must concentrate on improving the talent we have, therefore the competition over here must improve as a whole.

The franchise system must be far more strict, we all know there are clubs in super league who are not good enough for the premier competition. We should lower Super League to 11 teams which would not only make Super League more high profile and more competative but would also make the division below alot stronger as well. 11 teams also gives the players 2 weeks off during the season which would help with fatigue etc.

There should be franchise applications for the championships as well, this would make those leagues alot stronger and would help the game alot more.

It's been said before but I will say it again, the SC needs to change, we need new rules on over seas players, home grown players and finally International players switching countries. What you can spend should be based on income, this would encourage clubs to be more financially sound and the best clubs would be rewarded.

I do believe in expansion but not stupidity. Planting a club somewhere Rugby League has never been strong will not work. I believe we need a team in Cumbria, this talent and passion will be lost if something is not done now. A merger could be the only option for a succesful club although I'm not sure the locals would take to it.

The 10 teams in Super league should be -

Wigan
Leeds
Wire
Saints
Hull
Hudds
Bradford
Hull KR
Catalans
Widnes
Cumbria

I believe this gives the best mixture of expansion and historically grounded clubs. I would hope that these clubs would all average over 10,000 with the top clubs aiming for 20k and middle clubs aiming above 15k. Each club should be given money to develop Rugby in their area and should be self funded. This would make the game alot more high profile and would encourage more young people to participate.

The league below would consist of the rest of the current super league teams and the best of the rest from the championship.

This would improve the competition and this needs to happen before anything else can go ahead IMO.

We need to ask for more money from sky as we get higher viewing figures than Union
Crowds must increase in all leagues
Each team in the top 3 tiers must be given funds to double participation in their area
The international game must be marketed to get huge crowds in top stadiums

All simple things which could be done to improve the game, nothing complicated, just common sense.

Intresting idea,but how do you realistically expexct wigan and leeds to average gates of 20,000 let alone bradford and saints when not one of these clubs has ever averaged anything like that in their entire historys.
To ask teams like leigh,salford and castleford to get crowds of 10,000 is an even bigger undertaking.
Football is given a precedence in schools up and down britian due to the fact its the most popular sport in the country,even then rugby union and cricket is in front of rl in terms of national popularity,we just have to accept in australia rugby leauge is a more popular sport amongs its own people and therefore has a bigger pool of talent to select from,imo our national team has gone backwards over the last 20 years if you compare the team of the late 80s to todays there's no doubt which was best with players like hanley,edwards,schofield,hulme brothers,gregory,dixon,platt,lydon,offiah etc players like goulding,cudjoe,atkins,o loughlin,fielden,briscoe and carvell wouldn't get on that lots tour to wash the kit never mind play

Im just bored with international rugby league full stop, it means nothing to me.

When the RFL show me that they want to take the game seriousley then i will become interested.

Lets face it - appointing Mcnamara as coach is hardly a sign of taking things seriousley.

Look no further than the impact our 'unknown' Austalian coach has had on Superleague this year.

We are no longer a laughing stock...we are now a casualty of rugby league.

I'd start by moving BARLA Youth Level Games to Summer. I mean look out the window right now and see how grim the weather is. Why do they play at this time of year?

I've said before all the Super League Under 20s should be playing the National League sides in the Northern Rail Cup at least. It would boost both levels. I'm pretty sure Oldham 1st Team v Wigan Under 20s would generate more interest than Oldham v Gateshead. And personally I'd love some extra Sunday Afternoon rugby, providing it was done on a regional basis at first.

Great idea.

I just can't see how it wouldn't benefit both levels. The NL sides would think blimey we don't want to lose to a bunch of kids, and the bunch of kids would be well up for a test against older men. I reckon it'd generate interest from both sets of supporters and maybe even increased television coverage.

Bilko, the RFL would be in a much better state if you were in control!

That certainly would devalue the competition Bilko. It's doing fine as it is. It would be great for the development of young players and would make some close games but we may get to a stage where we see 4 under 20's teams in the semi-final which would completely ruin the aim of that competition.

Maybe bring back the Yorkshire & Lancashire cups? Have the top u20s teams play the NL teams in those. Wigan u20s vs Leigh, Widnes, Oldham etc would be cracking.