Time to change the NRL Competition format

[Saints Forever]

Have to say I would like to see the competition divided in to 2 geographical zones consisting of 8 to 12 teams each.

This way regional Queensland teams, Northern Territory and a three to four Brisbane teams, Gold Coast and Ipswich could be catered for.

The Southern Zone would incorporate Melbourne and some additional NSW regional areas including Wagga and Orange/Bathurst as well as allowing Illawarra/Newcastle/Central Coast to be independently represented.

Top 4 in each zone to play off against one another.

The new TV deal is coming soon folks.

Time to freshen up the existing "product".

 

[Mr Red]

Northern Territory?
Four Brisbane teams?
Ipswich?
Wagga?
Orange?
Bathurst?

Surely not serious?

 

[jay mac]

There's an app for this type of thing:

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[Gareth67]

There's an app for this type of thing:

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Medi - Safe ? Classic , what a twisted mind you must possess !

 

[Dragonslayer]

There is a good rumour that the NRL is considering a 3 tier competition (starting ???)
Tier 1 - Current NRL teams
Tier 2 - Teams from Perth, PNG, Fiji etc
Tier 3 - NSW Cup (as it stands presently)

 

[Old Timer]

Freshen up I agree but all these teams and divisions sorry not realistic IMO.
How about you must field 2 grades which play on the same day at the same ground.
Cut the 1st grade roster back to 20 and adjust the cap accordingly.
You can only buy, sell or trade 3 players in a season.
You are allowed 4 reserves on game day 2 of which must have played the lower grade game. (hopefully forces clubs to blood players from the lower grades)
Six interchanges only per game (save for losing a player for foul play, concussion or blood bin)
Enforce the rules of the game including the scrum, piss off the extra referee and bunker, have 2 captain reviews which you retain or lose depending on the outcome (replay to be in real time and 2 replays of each review only)

Sick to death of all the clubs that have no real development programmes and poach players at will and cheat the cap.

Sick to death of replay after replay, make a bloody decision and get on with it.

Sick of all the big boppers that are used for 10 - 15 minutes only.

 

[BringTheNoise]

I was thinking about this the other day and I'm not convinced it would work here in Australia and the NRL specifically.

I liked a point that Hayne made about the NFL how the season is much shorter and teams only get around 8 home games per year. This adds prestige and makes them much bigger events.

I don't see why the NRL can't just shorten the season with stand alone weekends for rep footy. Every team play each other once as opposed to the 1.5 model they have going now. Home game one year, away game the next.

 

[Walpole]

I'd be happy with a 20 team comp, 19 rounds playing each other once (home and away alternating each year) with a 5-6 week rep season in the middle that includes Origin, U20, Anzac Test, Pacific Islands matches etc. Could also play a round robin tournament between the clubs while the rep games were on which would be the perfect chance to blood some young blokes.

Also like the ideas of cutting back the bunker, one ref and the captains challenge. Like in tennis and cricket you'd see that the players don't have any better idea than the refs about most decisions.

 

[Old Timer]

There is a good rumour that the NRL is considering a 3 tier competition (starting ???)
Tier 1 - Current NRL teams
Tier 2 - Teams from Perth, PNG, Fiji etc
Tier 3 - NSW Cup (as it stands presently)

Guess we will need to have this then
Cheap Flights from Sydney to Papua New Guinea - Cheapflights.com.au

 

[duck]

Freshen up I agree but all these teams and divisions sorry not realistic IMO.
How about you must field 2 grades which play on the same day at the same ground.
Cut the 1st grade roster back to 20 and adjust the cap accordingly.
You can only buy, sell or trade 3 players in a season.
You are allowed 4 reserves on game day 2 of which must have played the lower grade game. (hopefully forces clubs to blood players from the lower grades)
Six interchanges only per game (save for losing a player for foul play, concussion or blood bin)
Enforce the rules of the game including the scrum, piss off the extra referee and bunker, have 2 captain reviews which you retain or lose depending on the outcome (replay to be in real time and 2 replays of each review only)

Sick to death of all the clubs that have no real development programmes and poach players at will and cheat the cap.

Sick to death of replay after replay, make a bloody decision and get on with it.

Sick of all the big boppers that are used for 10 - 15 minutes only.

I like this post.

 

[duck]

I'd be happy with a 20 team comp, 19 rounds playing each other once (home and away alternating each year) with a 5-6 week rep season in the middle that includes Origin, U20, Anzac Test, Pacific Islands matches etc. Could also play a round robin tournament between the clubs while the rep games were on which would be the perfect chance to blood some young blokes.

Also like the ideas of cutting back the bunker, one ref and the captains challenge. Like in tennis and cricket you'd see that the players don't have any better idea than the refs about most decisions.

20 team comp. With a top 5, not a top 8.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Guess we will need to have this then
Cheap Flights from Sydney to Papua New Guinea - Cheapflights.com.au

Noted OT that Fiji are requesting entry into the NSW cup as early as this Friday, will be interesting for those boys playing NSW cup, flights to NZ, and now Fiji (maybe)

 

[blacksafake]

No offence DFE but it looks like something Cheech & Chong would suggest.

 

[dangerousdave]

Have to say I would like to see the competition divided in to 2 geographical zones consisting of 8 to 12 teams each.

This way regional Queensland teams, Northern Territory and a three to four Brisbane teams, Gold Coast and Ipswich could be catered for.

The Southern Zone would incorporate Melbourne and some additional NSW regional areas including Wagga and Orange/Bathurst as well as allowing Illawarra/Newcastle/Central Coast to be independently represented.

Top 4 in each zone to play off against one another.

The new TV deal is coming soon folks.

Time to freshen up the existing "product".

I don't know if you spend much time browsing the expansion forum but there's often some pretty interesting things suggested.

In my opinion, the NRL needs to expand sooner rather than later and there's a good chance a change in format could help facilitate that.

What you're suggesting wouldn't work because the addition of small market teams doesn't add enough value to the RL product. The current clubs wouldn't have a bar of it because their relative popularity would be propping up new teams that don't bring more $$$.

Still, thinking outside the box is usually a good start.

 

[Mr Red]

I was thinking about this the other day and I'm not convinced it would work here in Australia and the NRL specifically.

I liked a point that Hayne made about the NFL how the season is much shorter and teams only get around 8 home games per year. This adds prestige and makes them much bigger events.

I don't see why the NRL can't just shorten the season with stand alone weekends for rep footy. Every team play each other once as opposed to the 1.5 model they have going now. Home game one year, away game the next.

because with a shorter season there is less product each season, and the tv rights wouldn't be worth no where near as much... It's all about tv rights unfortunately ...
As I have mentioned in another thread, the NRL does want to move to the model you have suggested (play each other once, stand alone rep) but they want to do this in a way that doesn't shorten the overall season too much (less product).

Hence the need to increase the number of teams to 20 first.

 

[Dragonscales]

Introduce 2 new clubs from Brisbane and Perth bringing the competition to 18 teams.

Everyone plays each other ONCE and the finals series to be extended by weeks.

Competition to be suspended for 3 weeks mid-season to serve as a break and to play the Origin series during these three weeks.

 

[Dragonscales]

There isn't enough talent to have 20 teams, the quality of games will be reduced.

 

[Mr Red]

There isn't enough talent to have 20 teams, the quality of games will be reduced.

Agree with you at the moment due to the current player drain.
If the NRL worked out a way to reduce the code hoppers to union, and the heap of players going to super league each year it might address this.
Previously the NRL thought an increase in salary cap would allow clubs to keep more players from going to super league, however all the increase in cap seemed to do was put more money in the elite players pockets.

I think there is definitely enough talent in Brisbane / central qld for another team, and perhaps a second team in NZ is achievable if the Warriors deliver some sort of consistent winning, it may entice more kids to start playing...

Perth is a tougher obstacle due to no real junior base or local quality however this is where the NRL really want to go IMO, due to the time zone difference making it ideal for broadcasting another game...

 

[Morotti]

We should either be playing each team once or each team twice. It is unfair that some teams have to play the better teams twice whilst others get away with playing them once. Even the dragons got to play the Cowboys and Storm during the origin period.

Hard to put another team in Brisbane now. You crowd out the market for the Gold Coast who are still trying to rebuild their brand.

You can't go outside of cities as there is not enough corporate support out there. And the facilities would need a huge overhaul.

What the NRL need to do is identify where they want to expand, go to that government with an in depth proposal of what the NRL will do and what the NRL need from the Government and then go from there. But they should be looking at expanding not at the end of this TV rights but for the next one. And then work back from there. if they can build up junior bases in these expansion areas then you also build up a fan base at the same time.

Would suggest next expansion teams are:
- Perth (I think there is some good junior base there currently. Not huge but it definitely exists)
- New Zealand (Warriors have been around for over 20 years and they have a good brand over there. Plus the junior base could support it based on the number of Kiwis playing in the NRL).

Would like to see a team in PNG eventually but that doesn't bring much to the table for the NRL for TV rights etc. And they could not support a team at the present moment. But perhaps in another generation.

I wonder about Adelaide and whether it will ever be worth putting a team there given its size. I would expect another team in Melbourne eventually and Brisbane. And that would see us done.

Happy to set aside a three week period during the middle of the year to play origin. But not just origin we should be playing on the same weekend:
- NSW City vs Country (played in country areas)
- QLD City vs Country (played in country areas)
- Fiji vs PNG vs Samoa vs Tonga
- Even Australian Aborigines vs NZ Maoris
That way you get good TV product with more than one game over the weekend and keep the TV networks happy. Plus give developing teams and also fringe origin players more time in the spotlight

Right now we need to do 30 week home and away season I think. With a three week break in the middle for origin.
Get rid of trial games and simply start the season earlier.

I think they need to scrap the All Stars game. Instead they should maybe get an Australian Aborigines team together for the end of season and they could tour a developing country. Could still celebrate the indigenous people.

And I would think the idea behind the Auckland nines is to eventually set it up like the Rugby Sevens. But be interesting if that got off the ground. Which hopefully means that NRL teams will no longer participate like they currently do.

 

[BringTheNoise]

because with a shorter season there is less product each season, and the tv rights wouldn't be worth no where near as much... It's all about tv rights unfortunately ...
As I have mentioned in another thread, the NRL does want to move to the model you have suggested (play each other once, stand alone rep) but they want to do this in a way that doesn't shorten the overall season too much (less product).

Hence the need to increase the number of teams to 20 first.

You're right, I forgot about the influence of the TV networks. Hopefully the NRL will take back some control when the TV rights expire.