Bit of a side-story to this from the Hull paperWigan owner Ian Lenagan, who revealed Leeds Rhinos are the sole dissenting voice, alongside St Helens chairman Eammon McManus spoke about why the Super 8s – which have been in place since the 2015 campaign – are a flawed concept with ideas in place at the end of the current season.'"

Great news! The chairmen are all in agreement barring Leeds. They all say that the format doesn’t generate enough income which is obviously not good. The format clearly contributes towards that in my view and here’s why.

This season, we will potentially play Warrington 6 times. Home, away, Magic, Challenge Cup, Super 8s, play offs.

I love my rugby league and I love close rivalries but those rivalries get watered down when we play each other so often. This means I’m not bothered if I miss a game against them because we’ll play them again in a few weeks anyway, therefore the gates are down and so is the revenue.

We should play each other home and away and with the potential to meet in cup competitions or a grand final. I’m not sure how we can get to that but having first past the post as champions would help. I’m looking forward to seeing what impact Mr Elstone has on our game.

Let's hope Mr Elstone recommends/insists all Super League teams have to run a reserves side.

Is the negotiations with Eddie Hearn/Matchroom still happening? Or does this change things?

So if it’s a 12 team too flight and you play Home and away that’s 22 games plus magic so a total of 23 games.

Any ideas what is replacing those lost games? Playing some teams once more based on this years league placings? An extended play off series?

SL definitely looks like its heading into a new and refreshing phase: The announcement of a young CEO, the movement of the RFL headquarters away from Red Hall to the Etihad Campus, the 'three musketeer' club chairmen Lenaghan, McManus & Moran spearheading the crusade against the 'Yorkshire Old Farts' regiment.

New and improved TV deal next?

Perhaps we could try a fourteen team super league with a six team knock out play off for some kind of grand final trophy oh wait.......

It's all going off
Sounds like a man under pressure.

Do we need to replace those lost games?

Hetherington's just used to having things his own way and is spitting his dummy out.

What a stupid time to release a statement like that. The social media reaction gives an indication of how little people care for his opinion.

I just wanted to be the first to use the phrase "dead rubbers". Now we can start moaning about pointless fixtures for half a season.
On a realistic note how many games are needed to balance the books?

Personally I’d say no, well at least not with other league games. Less games of a higher intensity and quality should be the aim. I’d personally fill the gaps with more mid season internationals but we’ll not get the buy in from the NRL for that.

I actually like the super 8s but seems I’m in the minority. Anybody know if the superleague is being increased to 13 or 14?