I thought Wire had Brisbane?

So if Saints won on Saturday, the main event will be sandwiched between two friendlies because Wigan Athletic are at home??

It was muted as Brisbane as they were the lowest ranked if the Bulldogs who were in the GF decided to take the option to play...They didn't and St George being 11th placed are the lowest ranked of the 3

Well it won't really matter whether Saints win or not on Sunday as the Grand Final is actually on Saturday

That's because Wigan is the most important name in RL. Sorry to break this to you.

Haha. Correct. Absolutely nothing to do with being told when to play by your landlord!

I am confused by this competition - Wire and whoever loses are simply playing a friendly against a random NRL team? I am not against it, but why should either side care/bother? I think I would be cross were we to lose say Lockers or Mac to injury playing a friendly.

Oh dear LW, you have exposed the 'Emperor's new clothes' nature of this venture. It will be a nice pre season jolly for two Australian sides (ranked 8th and 11th - what are we to make of that?). Neither The Bulldogs nor the Roosters could be bothered to come over.

The only game that matters is the two GF winners.

The other two games are just friendlies. Neither side will care. And neither will the public. I predict even lower crowds than the pathetic playoff attendances. It is a concept that will last one season only.

It's far from ideal but I'm definitely looking forward to us having a crack at an NRL side regardless of whether it's for the WCC or not. I can't see them flying around the world to not give it their all. Regardless I'm sure people will just write it off as the Aussies not taking it seriously if the SL side wins or demonstrating the massive gulf in class if the NRL side wins

When it was first announced I'd assumed it was going to be some sort of mini-tournament, but now it's revealed as just 3 meaningless one-off games it makes it worse than the original one-on-one.

Does not compute.

Teams could collectively hire a jumbo, switch years one in Oz one over here.
Top 8, 1v1, 2v2 etc.
1v1 being the WCC
the rest what ever you want to make it, friendly/points tournament whatever.
ALL teams play preseason friendlies anyway so incorporate this.
Like a magic weekend, hire a stadium 4 game one day 4 games the next.
Just as a spectacle it would be good.

Yep but it is usually played two or three games into the season so it is hardly pre season.

I'm also looking forward too it. If the organisers put the right package together I would be tempted to go to all 3 games with them being local.

Hopefully we will be in the main event, and would like to see Warrington do well against St George. But I would have to support the Ausies who play against THEM.