Hopefully it will equal itself out as these teams need to play catch up with time left in the season running out. For these teams fatigue and injuries due to short turnarounds will be a massive test. Hopefully we can take advantage of it now we have some players returning.

It’s not just our bubble but also the bubble of the teams we have been playing. It could be considered unfortunate.

This is most certainly not an excuse, it is a reason (albeit one of several). The first few days after any game are rest and rehab with the actual training taking place after that. Having 4/5 days between games means we only really get to train as a team for 1 day per week. It is far from a normal season in which we might have to do this once or twice, we’ve been doing it for the last month and it will take its toll on the players.

If we want a higher quality sport we must play less games.

To be fair I’ve probably worded it wrong and should have used reason instead of excuse - you can blame day 4 of CV19 and 5 of isolation for that.

I still don’t agree mind but that’s by the by.

Surely if the season extends, we get chance to get bodies back, and having played more games already, we get a rest towards the end of the year?

Not buying into this one to be honest.

The final could be played on 27th November at Old Trafford, the scheduled date for the World Cup Final.

Push it back til French is fit!

No urgency from clubs that have missed loads of games to get some mid week fixtures lined up.

I imagine they’ll just creep over the 18 games and be fresh as daisys for the playoffs.

Extending this season disrupts next season when the World Cup will now [iallegedly [/i will be. Considering we want to have home/Euro internationals at seasons end and the disruption already to next season which could have to be cut short to get the RLWC in before FIFA WC I personally think we end this season as advertised.

For the past couple of seasons, the game has been in exceptional circumstances and turmoil and judging by some of the other comments, some supporters are in agreement.

But, you can never pleased those who expect everything to be as it was up till 2019!

Edit

Your post is fixed

Bang on that Nicky

Are there even any attempts being made to rearrange the postponed fixtures? I know we' don't look anywhere near good enough to challenge at the end of the year anyway but not great if we go into the playoffs having played five more games than most other clubs.

I agree. I can accept postponements but at the moment they look more cancellations than that. It makes a mockery of the league if these missed fixtures aren’t either replayed or points go to the team that didn’t cancel.

If the league table just showed points won and not percentages then the teams who have not played many games would make strenuous efforts to rearrange postponed fixtures.
Wigan have played more games than any other team and the fatigue is showing.
I commend the players for the effort displayed at each match considering how lightweight our young forwards are. They must be aching, carrying knocks and shattered. Definitely not fair if the other teams don’t catch up on their fixtures.

I imagine things get a bit easier for SL now that 'close contacts' who are double jabbed are no longer required to isolate? Often the strain on player availability came more from the close contact rule rather than positive tests.

If you want a higher quality sport where there is a decline in the number of top quality players and a decline in support, the time has come for some clubs to merge and form less but bigger and stronger clubs.

A classic example being Salford and Swinton clubs who are both struggling both on and off the field. Salford in danger of having to leave the AJ Bell Stadium and Swinton with no Stadium of their own playing at the home of Sale RU which is nowhere near Swinton.

Thirty six clubs in three divisions with most along the M62 corridor is not a good situation to have in the present time of a poor financial state of the game, declining crowds and less quality players with only a handful having Academy teams.

Time that some owner and directors stopped burying their heads in the sand and clinging to their own little empires and faced the reality that the time has come for a complete overhaul of the game where the number of "professional" clubs is concerned.

If it does not , I fear for the games future as a fully professional sport!

A few seasons back, the Aussies did it when they said there was too many clubs around the Sydney area and they did not let objections get in the way and just went ahead with mergers with the result that the NRL is now better, bigger and stronger than what it was at the time.