The problem with that is that you could end up with a top 8 cut-off again.

e.g. Leigh gain promotion and London win the MPG. They may very well finish up 11th and 12th the following season, but if both are to be protected for a season, then you have 10th being relegated and 9th in the MPG.

Can't see that working, but I'm not sure what you could do instead to avoid the bounce?

There are 2 options imo. Easier said than done but the sports objective should be to make the second tier fully professional, until this happens promotion and relegation won’t work as it should.

Otherwise (my preferred option) return to franchiseing but do it properly. If we have playoffs I don’t see why all teams have to play each other home & away. We could easily have a franchise system which allows in new clubs (providing they meet strict set criteria) without relegating existing clubs.

Either go back to a first past the post league with the CC as the season finale & promotion & relegation or adopt the Australian franchise system. Trying to find something in between that actually works is near impossible.

So Wigan, St Helens, Warrington, Widnes, Salford, Hull, Hull KR, Huddersfield, Widnes, Catalans and Castleford all show their support for Robert Elstone (either through their website, social media or the press) and express optimism for the future.


Gary Hetherington's Leeds release a statement condemning the whole process. Go figure.

He really has lost it.

Does he seriously think that Leeds having a tantrum will send all these guys back to the drawing board?

It’s tough to know what would work but the priority has to be improving the fan experience. Bull mania was fabulous and at the time, the rugby matched the off field experience. Bradford played fast, hard rugby and it was great to watch. The whole game day experience made fans turn up and although they fell apart financially, that game day experience, within the salary cap rules is what we need.

Personally I think we play each other too many times due to the Super 8s format and it has watered down the rivalries. As I said earlier in this thread, this season we could end up playing Warrington 6 times so people are not bothered if they miss one because we’ll play them again in a few weeks anyway. There is no real anticipation and build up to those bigger fixtures.

I don’t have the answers and I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Somehow we need to generate a great game day experience at all clubs and in my view play each other less often.

I’d be open to paying a few extra quid for a much improved product.

Oh look, the RFL in a mess againhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/44468711rl

Anyone live near a brewery that could organise a party for them?

And they wonder why nobody outside the M62 takes our sport seriously

The RFL just can’t help but meddle. Either the rules, format, league structure. Everything seems to change every few years and if it leaves us fans uninterested and confused what does it do for the casual sports fan?

They can’t just roll with something and stick with it.

This link is worth a read as it has the HKR chairman's response to GH in more detailhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/44455976rl

The video on Wigan t.v with Elstone, Lenagan and McManus is well worth watching.

Did anyone else prefer the old league & CC structure with the premiership final at Old Trafford? I was stupidly thinking if the incentive of a premiership final win was to compete in the world club final it might work. Maybe I'm just being old fashioned.

I much preferred the CC Final being in May. It being in August his diluted it somewhat IMHO.

It needs to move imo although May would be difficult with football play offs, FA Cup Final etc. I’d go mid June and then get the rounds spaced out evenly rather then having this ridiculous 8 week gap between the quarters and semis.

He does mention that in the full press release, as well as minimum standards for promoted clubs.

It’s not so much the month but where it is in relation to the season. The Challenge cup was effectively the season finale and the big day out. That has now been replaced with the grand final. Unless we move the CC to the end of the season and return to first past the post I doubt it will ever be as big as it was.

I see your point to an extent but even some years after the Grand Final was introduced the CC Final was still a big occasion. I just think it’s so spread out in the fixtures that they just sneak up on fans who don’t even realise their club are in a CC Fixture. We don’t make enough noise about it or put any real effort into it. I think the RFL sit in Red Hall thinking “its alreet lads, it’s the challenge cup. Be reet”.

If we shift it back to May and make fixtures every month fans aren’t allowed to lose that Cup Magic feeling. The first big event of the season followed by Magic, Internationals, War of The Roses, Grand Final run in.

Sport these days is all about events. Making the sport appealing to casual fans by putting on a show. That’s how darts has done it, the NFL and even Baseball are coming over soon! Bloody baseball! It’s rounders on a larger scale! And don’t get me started on NFL!

How we sit there and take that is beyond me.

We’re too reliant on the dedicated fans who come week in week out rain or shine. But they’re a dying breed. Fans and kids these days rarely go for the love of their team. Fans want entertainment.

If we could market ourselves half decently Sky and other broadcasters would sit up and take note. We’re poor at marketing and we always have been.

We have millions of closet RL fans up and down the country but would they go to a CC Final? Magic? No. It’s not an event. It doesn’t appeal to them. Make it appeal to them, market properly and in advance. Don’t just throw up signs in a bus stop a week before expecting every man and his dog to rock up, like was just done in Newcastle.

I’ve gone off on a tangent a little there