Quote: vastman "Nowhere in my post did I say it would match SOO, what I said was the template was there and done right the series could be useful. Useful would do just fine.'"
The problem is the players have to buy into it as a genuine trial match.
I went to the last one at Headingley and it was a joke.
1 side was 20 points or more up at half time and then managed to lose. Neither side took it seriously.
I’m not into the whole hatred thing but we need to really play up to the Yorkshire Lancashire rivalry.
The QLD vs NSW rivalry was stoked by the NSW clubs taking all the top players but also by the fact there was a deep seated resentment over a plan to basically give up QLD to the Nazi’s during WWII should they have attempted to land in Australia.
Lots of history there, just like the old war of the roses.
Promote it like a WWE event stir up the history and get all stakeholders to buy into it and you have a product. Few of the players need to act as “heels” and be willing to get a bit personal over the other team in the build up. A bit of a pantomime villain on both sides wouldn’t go a miss.
I cannot see how we make it into a 3 game series though. We don’t have the depth for some clubs to no doubt be decimated over 3 rounds by having their best payers unavailable.
We the punter have to back it too and probably accept the concept will take time to bed in, rugby league folk are great folk but I think we do struggle to look at the longer term benefits if something doesn’t work straight away.