If we have to have loop fixtures it has to be determined by the previous years league position as to who plays who. As others have said the magic opponent has to be someone who is not in the loop fixture list.

If it was just down to me I’d have had a 14 team league and a simple top 6 play off with 1 & 2 having the first week off then playing the winners of 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 for a GF place. I didn’t really like the top 5 last time as there are too many second chances and potentially too many weeks off.

IMO the reason for dwindling crowds is a lot to do with how the RFL run the sport.

Constantly changing structures; if we can’t keep up, how can we expect a neutral to? It looks totally amateurish and laughable.

Short notice fixture changes; it’s happened with Salford and us recently and it’s ridiculous. Fixture changes with less than a weeks notice in Salford’s case.

I’ve lost complete faith in the RFL to run our sport and I genuinely believe they will ruin rugby league in this country if they’re allowed to continue with the utterly inept, ridiculous and embarrassing way they run the sport. I hope Robert Elstone can turn it around from a Super League perspective and then make the RFL see. Otherwise our sport is done as a professional sport in this country.

I'm thinking that Ellstone (and co.) will be waiting for the current SKY deal near it's end and then go back to them with a revised plan of a 14 team league which includes Toronto (who I think will go up this year anyway) plus Toulouse and London, in search of an improved deal.

We're never ever going to get many more £millions playing in and around the M62 area.

From memory, it will be odds v evens based on league fixtures the previous year

1 v 2, 6 and 10 at home and 4, 8 and 12 away.

2 v 3, 7 and 11 at home, 1, 5 and 9 away.


Also it appears that the Magic fixtures will NOT be against any of the teams in the loop fixtures to avoid over saturation as in Wigan v Wire this year.

I was concerned when I saw that, on the proposals they put to the Champ clubs, the highest potential tv deal scenario they listed was the same as what it is now. They included scenarios where the deal is reduced, but not where it is increased. I really hope you're right.

Even the recent premier league deal is down on the last one so it doesn’t look good.

I saw a stat earlier that said overall viewing figures across all sports on Sky are down 12% over a two year period. In that same time Rugby Leagues viewing figures are down 27%! If they reduce the TV deal in line with that drop then the game is in trouble.

No wonder they’re considering things like a shot clock and golden point extra time.

Both Sky and BT realised that they had been played off against each other and as a result had vastly overpaid during the previous football contract negotiation. The football deals fell as they didn't force each other to pay more and more this time. I'm not saying that Sky definitely won't offer less come the next deal for RL but the falling cost of football rights link is being oversold IMO, any fall in the RL rights deal if there is one will not be to the same extent as with soccer. If people (the media included) repeat something often enough others will begin to see it as fact and you get a self fulfilling prophecy.

IMO the shot clock is more to do with all the cramp outbreaks that occur whenever a goal line dropout is to be taken. Did anyone except the Sky team suggest introducing Golden Point? Was that just not an example of Phil Clarke (or one of the others) spouting nonsense to fill an article? Golden Point ruins a game anyway as it is always an awful spectacle.

The latest “brainchild” (copied from the NRL) is for a shot clock to be introduced to reduce game times and golden point added for draw games.

Only the inept RFL could come up with a plan so ridiculous and laughable. Reducing game times whilst potentially adding time on?

The sooner this mob are out of rugby league the better. They’re destroying our game and have been for far too long.

All they are doing is considering what is already in place in the NRL. Hardly a ‘brainchild’.

The shot clock is a good thing imo, stops a lot of time wasting and speeds the game up increasing the chances of a better spectacle. The way they do it in the NRL it does require a big screen at every game.

I’m not a fan of golden point except for knockout games. Nowt wrong with a good old fashioned draw.

it seems a lot of Aussies don't like Golden POint and wish they had *proper* draws like we do. I agree. The shot clock is not a bad idea and works well there, though.

But if you want to attract a bigger audience, the main thing is clean up the ruck, in my view.

Totally agree re the " ruck" If you want to watch wrestling and mauling around on the floor etc then watch RU, the way the wrestle and slowing down of the play the ball has crept into the game in the last 10 years has greatly changed what we get as a spectacle. It needs sorting by officials and coaches or the speccies will continue to leave.

Agreed but the ridiculous obstruction rules need to be sorted out - but the biggest killer for me is the time taken by video ref decisions - so many replays of an incident takes forever and kills the momentum of the game- for any neutrals/casual watchers it must be really off putting. I would have a time/number of replays limit and then stick with the on-field decision (and have penalties if teams do not form scrums quicker - how long does it take to form up now?).