14 Team SL and Merged Championship?

[jolly boys outing]

they had all sorts. Custom cars going round the track at HT, monster trucks, cheerleader custom chopper Clubs, fireworks (proper ones) they took west keighley had started and took it to a whole new level.

Thanks mostly to Peter deakin.

btw mate can you help me with something completely off subject because I think I’m losing the plot here but do you remember around the mid-late 90’s at the don valley stadium during a Sheffield eagles home super league game prince naseem hamed being introduced to the crowd by Steveo with a microphone whilst being driven around the athletics track in a rolls royce or Bentley waving to fans out of the sunroof?

or did I imagine the whole thing.

 

[Taking The Two]

It’s the main problem with the combined competition. How are full professional outfits like Oldham/London putting 80+ on the Midland Hurricanes/Newcastle Thunder going to help grow the sport?

There’s been a large gap in quality in the Championship most seasons let alone combining them with the League One side.

I don’t think there is a perfect fit for the fixture list. I think it’s either going to be:

* Play everyone else once (20 games)

then either:

* The remaining six games being based around location to ensure teams get local derbies both home and away

or

* The remaining six games being based on groups of 7 based upon where you finished the season before. You’d have Salford, Oldham, Halifax, Featherstone, Widnes, Doncaster and Barrow playing each other twice in 2026 as the ‘top 7’ from the year before then London, Sheffield, Batley, Hunslet, North Wales, Workington and Swinton as the ‘middle 7’ and then Dewsbury, Midlands, Rochdale, Goole, Whitehaven, Keighley and Newcastle as the ‘bottom 7’.

 

[Growthegame]

I’m a Bradford man, but this doesn’t sit 100% well with me. Sure, we want to be in SuperLeague, but it seems a bit of a mess at best and a total fix at worst. I really feel for Toulouse. What more can they do? I have made my mind up if they keep TO out I won’t be attending any games next season. The completely opaque two extra places criteria is absolutely shocking and open to abuse and construction of conspiracy theories at best. If TO are kept out, I can’t wait to hear their justification- best comedy in years unless they just flat out say we’ve done absolutely everything we can to keep another French team out.

Happy now?

I can't see them changing the top six format, and a top eight out of 14 would be silly anyway.

NRL 2000 & 2001.

 

[jolly boys outing]

So that’s 2026 sorted then. It would seem that they’re relying on a larger TV deal to fund 13 and 14 for 2027 and beyond, then.

Gambling more like.

 

[Perth Red]

Is it true that they gave out a lot of freebies at the time to pad out the crowds?

They often did family and kids deals but can’t say I saw any free tickets, I certainly didn’t get any lol

 

[Perth Red]

Hearing that any profits from the ashes tour will be diverted into funding newly promoted super league teams 13&14(Toulouse&york) central funding or whatever it called which is news to me.

absloutley shocking if true but totally believable when it comes to the RFL muppets.

In an interview with one of the club owners a few weeks ago he said they were talking about each club getting 100k less and that then being split between the two clubs. Given its 1.2mill total they are giving them that tallies.

 

[Perth Red]

Gambling more like.

It’s called speculating,

 

[Perth Red]

Thanks mostly to Peter deakin.

btw mate can you help me with something completely off subject because I think I’m losing the plot here but do you remember around the mid-late 90’s at the don valley stadium during a Sheffield eagles home super league game prince naseem hamed being introduced to the crowd by Steveo with a microphone whilst being driven around the athletics track in a rolls royce or Bentley waving to fans out of the sunroof?

or did I imagine the whole thing.

Yes I have vague recollection of it! I might have even been there as we often went over to don valley to watch a game lol

 

[Perth Red]

There’s been a large gap in quality in the Championship most seasons let alone combining them with the League One side.

I don’t think there is a perfect fit for the fixture list. I think it’s either going to be:

* Play everyone else once (20 games)

then either:

* The remaining six games being based around location to ensure teams get local derbies both home and away

or

* The remaining six games being based on groups of 7 based upon where you finished the season before. You’d have Salford, Oldham, Halifax, Featherstone, Widnes, Doncaster and Barrow playing each other twice in 2026 as the ‘top 7’ from the year before then London, Sheffield, Batley, Hunslet, North Wales, Workington and Swinton as the ‘middle 7’ and then Dewsbury, Midlands, Rochdale, Goole, Whitehaven, Keighley and Newcastle as the ‘bottom 7’.

At one point they were talking about two geographic conferences to reduce travel costs but no confirmation how it will be structured yet.

 

[jason taylor]

There’s been a large gap in quality in the Championship most seasons let alone combining them with the League One side.

I don’t think there is a perfect fit for the fixture list. I think it’s either going to be:

* Play everyone else once (20 games)

then either:

* The remaining six games being based around location to ensure teams get local derbies both home and away

or

* The remaining six games being based on groups of 7 based upon where you finished the season before. You’d have Salford, Oldham, Halifax, Featherstone, Widnes, Doncaster and Barrow playing each other twice in 2026 as the ‘top 7’ from the year before then London, Sheffield, Batley, Hunslet, North Wales, Workington and Swinton as the ‘middle 7’ and then Dewsbury, Midlands, Rochdale, Goole, Whitehaven, Keighley and Newcastle as the ‘bottom 7’.

I'd go for the local derby option, as you get the crowd boost from fixtures like Workington vs Whitehaven (consistently higher crowds than a lot of Championship fixtures).

 

[Timmah]

NRL 2000 & 2001.

.... and that too, was silly. Should've reverted to a top six.

 

[Gobsmacked]

At one point they were talking about two geographic conferences to reduce travel costs but no confirmation how it will be structured yet.

That makes the most sense. Maybe the Championship should be conferences.

 

[Timmah]

Because clubs have to recruit and retain players to play next year and how can you do that when you don’t know anything about the league you’re playing in?

In both Super League and the Championship next year how can you as a head coach say to a prospective player and/or his agent that you’re having a crack at the play-offs when you have no clue how many teams will be competing in the playoffs, for example? The jump between 6th to 8th is big, there’s no idea how many will be in the Championship, it could be 7 it could be 12, it may even be 5, who knows?

It’s the shortsighted way rugby league works here and it’s beyond crazy.

The clubs would have some concept of what's happening and be making decisions accordingly. The RFL already confirmed League One was gone, back in August.

Stuff like fixtures etc aren't usually communicated til November anyway. Not a huge deal IMO

 

[Taking The Two]

The clubs would have some concept of what's happening and be making decisions accordingly. The RFL already confirmed League One was gone, back in August.

Stuff like fixtures etc aren't usually communicated til November anyway. Not a huge deal IMO

It’s nothing to do with fixtures and the RFL have confirmed that no plan on league format has been completed, so yeah, they don’t have a clue what is going on.

 

[Taking The Two]

https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/promotion-relegation-return-cards-amid-1456912

In what will be a shock to nobody on the planet, this nonsense is likely coming back.

 

[Perth Red]

https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/promotion-relegation-return-cards-amid-1456912

In what will be a shock to nobody on the planet, this nonsense is likely coming back.

I’d rather see a 7 team playoff. Week 1 the league winners get the week off.

 

[Taking The Two]

7 or 8 teams is awful. Having quite literal bottom half teams and middle of the road teams in the play-offs waters down the play-offs as a singular competition and makes most of the season pretty redundant when it’s going to be clear that all you’ll need is about 44-48% wins over the course of a season and how do you get anyone excited for that?

My fears and dislike of the move to 14 teams is coming to fruition already. The last time we had 14 teams, it was very quickly derided by fans and quickly binned. I think it will happen again when fans want 12 back and I think this, like all things Super League, will last three seasons, at most.

Looking at the awful days of 14 in SL you had Catalans in ‘09 getting in the play-offs with 13/27 wins, Celtic Crusaders in 2010 with 12/27 wins, Hull in ‘11 with 13/27, Wakefield in 2012 with 13/27 and KR in ‘13 with 13/27 wins. Only two of those sides won a play-off game in their respective year of finishing 8th, Catalans in ‘09 and Hull in 2011. I’m just not sure how you sell that as a spectacle when most were getting pumped by 20+ points? How do you keep interest and try and generate suspense and excitement when you’ve got teams winning less than half their games and being in with contention of being called champion? I don’t think Saints will win the Grand Final next year, in fact, I was a little worried about making the top six but in an eight team play-off scenario, I can see 12-14 wins across a 26 game season and where’s the intrigue and jeopardy in the season now?

It’s just redoing the same things we’ve done before, the same things that didn’t work last time around, the same things fans quickly disliked and expecting it to somehow work this time.

 

[adamkungl]

Both returning to P&R and a top 8 finals are ridiculous decisions. One step forward two steps backwards. Why can't these incompetent clowns ever stick to anything for more than 3 years.

Obviously criteria grading is controversial and even prone to being gamed, but there is simply not enough financial strength in the game to have its fate decided by the random chances of relegation. If Leeds or something went down the tv deal would be slashed on the spot. Promotion via winning alone is will not bring growth beyond the same handful of clubs rotating.

Even people who hate the idea of off-field promotion have to admit that most metrics have been trending in the right directing since the IMG strategy.

As for top 8 finals, having teams with a negative record in playoffs is ridiculous and always has been, right back to the NRLs early 2000s days. In Super League's case its even worse as the gap between the top and the bottom is larger and the season is already too long.

 

[Pippen94]

Superleague will be dead in two years

 

[Gobsmacked]

Should be top 5, with 6th and 7th playing midweek for the last spot.

1 and 2 go through to week 2
3 plays the winner of 6 and 7
And 4 plays 5