20 teams. 19 rounds.

[Potato Man]

Each team each other once. Ten games a weekend.

The biggest objections to this type of scheme are typically the extra need for talent and the sustainability financially. Also the issue of teams having nothing to play for after a poor start to the season/ too many dead rubbers. I'm definitely talking myself out of this but there are solutions and benefits.

Firstly, extra players. Team squad sizes would not need to extend with the considerably lighter work load for the players. The NRL should also provide dedicated academies in areas such as PNG (the Hunters are doing so well), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji (possibly with a NSW Cup team) and possibly areas such as the top end or South Island of NZ (maybe even RSA). A massive increase in TV money (fewer rounds but same number of games and new markets) would also help to keep quality players from moving to rugby here and abroad, or heading to the Super League due to the salary cap. Incentives to sign players from emerging nations would give lots of young players a shot and increase local playing numbers.

Secondly is financial concerns. Several clubs are already struggling and being propped up, but this could enliven the competition and really spark public interest. With fewer games the stakes are higher, delivering greater interest. There would be some dead rubbers in the competition, but there already are, and they exist in all competitions (even the Premer League and NFL which league tries to compare itself too dispite those competitions being polar opposites in many ways).

There would be plenty of other competitions to fuel interest also. The WCC is a huge point of interest in the UK, gaining coverage far greater than normal. Along with more international games, the nines and of course origin, there's plenty going on. An international Nines tournament to end a season is also a great idea (more so than in 1996-7), far more competitive for the Pacific teams especially.

I think the outstanding candidates are Perth, Wellington, and Brisbane-y. The fourth team would be QLD too I suppose.

Could work. I like the idea. Especially of Wolrd Nines in hindsight.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

you w0t m8?

 

[Mogsheen Jadwat]

I voted this idea 1

 

[flippikat]

Perth, Brisbane 2, NZ 2 (plenty of options where to base this) - would be teams 17, 18 and 19.

Team 20 is a close thing between Brisbane 3, Adelaide, a regional Qld team like Central Qld, or NZ 3.

 

[Duns Simion]

I would go for 20 teams in four conferences, 5 teams in each... North South East west(or whatever works).. Play every team once (19 rounds) and every one in your conference a second time (4 rounds) = 23 rounds.. Keep conferences the same each year to promote rivalries.. Stick with the top 8 finals..
Also would add Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane 2 and NZ 2(Wellington).

 

[Last Week]

I would go for 20 teams in four conferences, 5 teams in each... North South East west(or whatever works).. Play every team once (19 rounds) and every one in your conference a second time (4 rounds) = 23 rounds.. Keep conferences the same each year to promote rivalries.. Stick with the top 8 finals..
Also would add Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane 2 and NZ 2(Wellington).

I like this except I think we would need a top 10 to keep up the number of relevant games later in the year. So that less teams are out of the competition earlier in the year.

And I'm not sold on Adelaide yet. It would be between Adelaide and another Queensland team.

 

[siv]

The further we go down this path the closer we get to promotion / relegation

 

[T to the T]

Can't be assed doing a thread of my own so going to dump my vision for the NRL here:

Current situation: 16 teams plays 24 games each across 26 rounds, resulting in 192 regular season games, 9 post season, giving 201 overall.

From 2018 there will be 24 games across 25 rounds, with a standalone Rep weekend with a SOO game.

I propose from 2018, Perth and Brisbane 2 are introduced. Plenty of time if an announcement is made before the end of the year. With 18 teams, playing 24 games across 25 rounds will give us 216 regular season games, 9 post season, giving 225 games overall. An increase of 24 games, 12% more inventory to sell to the market.

We should expand to 20 teams in 2023 (Wellington/Adelaide/Central Coast). I propose cutting the season to 22 games across 25 rounds, with 3 standalone Rep weekends with Origin played on the Sunday and 3 Pacific internationals played on the Saturday with NZ, PNG, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Cook Islands playing against each other across the 3 weekends. With 20 teams playing 22 games, this gives us 220 regular season games, 9 post season, 229 games overall so no real inventory loss as a consequence of cutting the regular season by 2 games (an actual modest gain is made).

I wouldn't want to cut the season below 22 matches. There hasn't been fewer than 22 games played a season since 1966. 19 games is way too far IMO.


I have scenarios for when expansion to 22 and 24 sides occurs that can wait for the time being

 

[LJC]

The further we go down this path the closer we get to promotion / relegation

Promotion and relegation will never work in a country the size of Australia. The tyranny of distance is very real and should not be ignored.
You need a club to be in the top flight or it will wither away. And so will the game as a result.

 

[CC_Roosters]

Promotion and relegation will never work in a country the size of Australia. The tyranny of distance is very real and should not be ignored.
You need a club to be in the top flight or it will wither away. And so will the game as a result.

Why not? Two fully professional, centrally funded divisions of say 12 teams each could be the ultimate goal. Much more interesting than the current structure and imo more valuable

Step 1- 18 team comp over 25 weeks with 22 games
Step 2- 20 team comp over 25 weeks with 22 games
Step 3- Split into 2 divisions with full home and away in each- NRL premiership and NRL championship with direct P&R between them each year. Grants would be higher in the NRLP and 66% for NRLC. Maybe $9m and $6m per annum. No physical salary cap except perhaps only as a percentage of club revenue

Final teams
Qld- brisbane broncos, NQ cowboys, Gold coast, South qld scorpions, north brisbane dolphins, central qld bulls.

NSW- newcastle, st george illawarra, central coast bears, souths, easts, wests, canterbury, parra, penrith, manly, cronulla.

Other-canberra, melbourne, west coast, warriors, NZ lions (canterbury based), PNG hunters, Fiji

 

[alien]

Each team each other once. Ten games a weekend.

The biggest objections to this type of scheme are typically the extra need for talent and the sustainability financially. Also the issue of teams having nothing to play for after a poor start to the season/ too many dead rubbers. I'm definitely talking myself out of this but there are solutions and benefits.

Firstly, extra players. Team squad sizes would not need to extend with the considerably lighter work load for the players. The NRL should also provide dedicated academies in areas such as PNG (the Hunters are doing so well), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji (possibly with a NSW Cup team) and possibly areas such as the top end or South Island of NZ (maybe even RSA). A massive increase in TV money (fewer rounds but same number of games and new markets) would also help to keep quality players from moving to rugby here and abroad, or heading to the Super League due to the salary cap. Incentives to sign players from emerging nations would give lots of young players a shot and increase local playing numbers.

Secondly is financial concerns. Several clubs are already struggling and being propped up, but this could enliven the competition and really spark public interest. With fewer games the stakes are higher, delivering greater interest. There would be some dead rubbers in the competition, but there already are, and they exist in all competitions (even the Premer League and NFL which league tries to compare itself too dispite those competitions being polar opposites in many ways).

There would be plenty of other competitions to fuel interest also. The WCC is a huge point of interest in the UK, gaining coverage far greater than normal. Along with more international games, the nines and of course origin, there's plenty going on. An international Nines tournament to end a season is also a great idea (more so than in 1996-7), far more competitive for the Pacific teams especially.

I think the outstanding candidates are Perth, Wellington, and Brisbane-y. The fourth team would be QLD too I suppose.

Could work. I like the idea. Especially of Wolrd Nines in hindsight.

there will probably be 20 teams eventually, but i doubt they would include 4 new teams at once. i think the way to go would be to bring in 2 new teams in 2018 (brisbane bombers & central coast bears) and then 2 more teams in 2023 (west coast pirates & christchurch dolphins). when we get to 20 teams, i would be happy with 19 rounds. it leaves plenty of time to have the world club championship 2 weeks after the grandfinal, internationals a couple of weeks after that. the state of origin series can be on stand alone weekends during the season too.

i think the Nines should stay as a pre season tournament, but there is no reason they couldn't include the english super league clubs and some emerging nations like canada, usa, jamaica, south africa, etc.

 

[Perth Red]

20 teams would be the ideal and 4 conferences of 5 suggestion works well. You could have the top 2 teams from each conference plus two wild cards for a top,ten extended playoff.

Not that the risk averse world of RL will ever dream that big.

 

[alien]

I think people are getting this conference and wildcard nonsense from the NFL. There would be no need for it, and also some conferences might be stronger than others, so there would still be the problem with some teams playing against harder teams twice, and some teams playing easier teams twice. With 20 teams, the top 8 should stay. At the moment with 16 teams, you only need to win around 50% of your games to make the finals. So a top 8 with 20 teams, it means you would have to win a bit more than 50% of you games to make the finals, which would be good.

 

[Crippler]

if 19 game A year then each team gets 9 home games and 9 away games with 1 game could be neutral game in country or something

 

[Captain Apollo]

Why not? Two fully professional, centrally funded divisions of say 12 teams each could be the ultimate goal. Much more interesting than the current structure and imo more valuable

Step 1- 18 team comp over 25 weeks with 22 games
Step 2- 20 team comp over 25 weeks with 22 games
Step 3- Split into 2 divisions with full home and away in each- NRL premiership and NRL championship with direct P&R between them each year. Grants would be higher in the NRLP and 66% for NRLC. Maybe $9m and $6m per annum. No physical salary cap except perhaps only as a percentage of club revenue

Final teams
Qld- brisbane broncos, NQ cowboys, Gold coast, South qld scorpions, north brisbane dolphins, central qld bulls.

NSW- newcastle, st george illawarra, central coast bears, souths, easts, wests, canterbury, parra, penrith, manly, cronulla.

Other-canberra, melbourne, west coast, warriors, NZ lions (canterbury based), PNG hunters, Fiji

None of the "2nd tier sides" have anywhere near the financial resources of any current NRL club. As such LJC's concerns are more than valid, they are pivotal.

Secondly, where are all these stadiums going to spring up from for these "promoted" teams to play at? The NRL could not afford to finance them, and no State Government is going to finance a brand new rugby league friendly stadium for a club that may not last in the top league longer than 12 months.

Also distance is an issue. The principle reason the Western Reds were cut from the comp was cost, namely how much it cost to fly teams into and out of Perth each week. It is cheaper to fly from Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane to Auckland than it is to Perth. The more teams you add you also add travel costs, which the NRL has to fund. As such how can they fund 20 clubs plus all the clubs plus see increases in the salary cap (which the players will demand)?

You are being very unrealistic in my book.

 

[CC_Roosters]

None of the "2nd tier sides" have anywhere near the financial resources of any current NRL club. As such LJC's concerns are more than valid, they are pivotal.

Secondly, where are all these stadiums going to spring up from for these "promoted" teams to play at? The NRL could not afford to finance them, and no State Government is going to finance a brand new rugby league friendly stadium for a club that may not last in the top league longer than 12 months.

Also distance is an issue. The principle reason the Western Reds were cut from the comp was cost, namely how much it cost to fly teams into and out of Perth each week. It is cheaper to fly from Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane to Auckland than it is to Perth. The more teams you add you also add travel costs, which the NRL has to fund. As such how can they fund 20 clubs plus all the clubs plus see increases in the salary cap (which the players will demand)?

You are being very unrealistic in my book.

No rugby league side csn survive as a fully pro entity without central funding. This voids any argument about who can survive where especially when its in reference to nsw and qld.

Of course 24 teams is a long shot and way down the track in any case but expansion by competition is a much more organic way to grow the game than dots on a map strategic visions.

 

[Perth Red]

Union has a national second tier, with a Perth team in it. Just saying. In fact every pro sport in Australia somehow affords to have a Perth team in it, except one.

 

[Last Week]

Union has a national second tier, with a Perth team in it. Just saying. In fact every pro sport in Australia somehow affords to have a Perth team in it, except one.

And it's the most popular football code in the country. Go figure.

 

[Rhyno]

Make it 38 rounds so each team plays eachother twice

 

[MarkC]

I prefer 22 teams 21 rounds + 3 standalone weekends for SOO and other rep games.
That makes a 24 week season.
Keep in mind that NSW Cup & QCup can continue to be played on rep weekends.
Have a 10 teams semi final system with 2 teams dropping out each week.
week 1 - 5 games (10 teams)
week 2 - 4 games (8 teams)
week 3 - 2 games (6 teams) (2 teams get week off)
week 4 - 2 games (4 teams)
week 5 - G/F.
That is one additional week of semi finals and 5 additional games.
24 week season + 5 week semi finals is 29 weeks - that should be enough.
Considering there can also be 9's and trials and the start of the season.

I am not saying we can go to 22 teams overnight and it is not even worth considering until we have successfully expanded to 18 teams.

I think 11 games a week is ideal as we can still have night games for the TV and more Sunday afternoon games for the fans.