NRL season structure

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...lling-club-footy/story-fni3fbgz-1226675611108

STATE of Origin might be the showpiece event of the season but it is killing the NRL competition.

Club-game crowds are down by 23.4 per cent since the series started, TV ratings have slumped, players are suffering burnout and teams are getting an unfair advantage over others.

Two of the form teams in the competition are the Warriors and the Panthers, who have both stormed into finals contention because they don't provide any Origin players.

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The Warriors were undefeated since Origin started, going into last night's game against the Rabbitohs in Perth.

They've beaten the Broncos twice, Manly, the Knights and Roosters, all of whom supply their highly paid stars to Origin.
The Panthers have flogged St George Illawarra twice and the Titans since Origin started.

Over the same period, the Broncos have lost five from six without Sam Thaiday, Justin Hodges, Matt Gillett and Corey Parker.

The Storm and the Cowboys have both handed over their four best players to Origin (the most of all the clubs) and have struggled as a result.

Melbourne gave up the competition lead to the Rabbitohs and the Cowboys are fighting to make the top eight.

Rugby league is the only major competition in the world that has such an unlevel playing field around representative football.

Australian clubs in rugby union's Super competition have all had a month off while their best players have been on duty for the Wallabies.

The English Premier League has free weekends set aside for internationals and World Cup qualifiers every year. Their TV networks just put up with it.

The NRL refuses to have stand-alone Origin weekends because broadcasters want games and programming every weekend.

Fans, however, are sick and tired of paying to watch substandard football without the superstars.

In round 12 there were only four NRL matches played but they were still missing 18 Origin players.

The average crowd for the first 11 rounds of the competition was 17,100. It has since dropped to 13,600, a fall of 23.4 per cent.

So what is our fearless leader Dave Smith doing about this rather important issue? Absolutely nothing.

Dave's in England right know, conveniently at the same time his family is there on holiday.

Forget the salary cap dramas, the terrible standard of refereeing, the fight to keep Sonny Bill Williams or this Origin fiasco ... Dave is at his first international board meeting.

The game that has only three serious countries competing, Australia, New Zealand and England, is apparently more important than dealing with what fans have been served up since Origin started.

Why an IRLB meeting couldn't have been done by a video conference call is anyone's guess.

Andrew Hill, the NRL's head of game development, is in England too.

They will also be watching the Australian Jillaroos, the Australian Students, the Australian Wheelchair Team, the Australian Police Team and the Australian Armed Forces Team at the Festival of World Cups, which finishes Tuesday.

So what is the solution to fixing the mess Origin creates and the fact some clubs have to give up millions of dollars of their talent, risk injury and suspension, while their rivals play on as normal and take full advantage of such an obviously unfair set of circumstances?

Why not play Origin over three straight weekends? Allow NSW and Queensland to pick squads of 22 players to be used over the three weekends.

Let the series gather momentum like the Lions-Wallabies rather than this stop-start excitement over more than six weeks.

Call the club games off. Send the stars who aren't playing to the bush on promotional tours.

Stage a midweek Sevens or a Nine's NRL club tournament to keep the broadcasters happy.

Do something ... because nothing is more important than this premiership being played out on a level field.

I know its a telegraph article and there are some poorly veiled agendas in the article, but it does make a fair point.

Being spaced so far apart, the SOO series does lose some momentum. Plus no one cares about club footy (except when there club is losing players to the Origin teams)

So what do yous think about suspending the season for a few weeks?

Personally I would stop it for 5 weeks and have an Origin game every 2 weeks on a Sunday night and have a big Grand Final-type festival day like the one DSmith was talking about. They would be able to have the full 25 man squads together for the whole 5 weeks which would be great for promotional stuff.

And to fill in the gaps put this 9-a-side comp on in the lead up days and the off weeks (Im sure they could put together enough teams to make that work; intentional teams, under 20's players, ect.)

Edit: Oh and ..... after five weeks of no club footy it would be like coming from an off season. the club fans would be excited and i imagine the crowds would get a nice boost.

Aaaaand you would get rid of the uneven bye structure and those crappy bye weekend where there are only like three games

 

[MrAnonymous]

Rothfeild cant stand seeing Penrith do well.

Suck a fat dick merkin

 

[Red&BlackBear]

Penrith have been using nobodies just like teams they've played in the last month or two due to their origin stars missing where as Panthers have their starters out injured. Reason they and the warriors are winning is cause of self believe built on good defense.

 

[Big Sam]

Didn't Brad Walter suggest this last week? Looks like Slothfield plagarised...

3 straight weeks is a good idea though.

 

[Pierced Soul]

the way origin disadvantages teams with rep players has always been stupid. after seeing the hype yawnion managed to bring with their 3 tests over 3 weeks i'd love to see SOO do the same. make it over 3 weekends using a squad of 22 players.

going by crowd and tv ratings, the fans tune out of club games when origin's on anyway. i'd rather see clubs go bush and do training/promotional camps whilst orgin is on, then when it's finished we'll all get back into it

 

[SharkShocked]

Wow... the NRL isn't a 100% fair competition.

Who'd have thunk it?

Get over it nothing to see here.

 

[Dogs Of War]

Yep. Start last week of June and continue into July. Gets the coldest weather out of the way. Still think an international round for other nations is a good thing, or a barbarians vs nz game, where the barbarians team is made up of all players who don't qualify for nsw or qld.

 

[some11]

Origin isn't the reason the Broncos and Cowboys suck balls.

But keep whining you alcoholic f**khead.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Wow... the NRL isn't a 100% fair competition.

Who'd have thunk it?

Get over it nothing to see here.

Well, if it was just the same shiit in a new order than fair enough, move on. But i think could actually improve bother competitions.

Origin would be able to keep the hype up constantly over the "Origin period".

And just think about how excited people are in round 1 after spending an offseason without their team. Now imagine getting that kind of excitement in round 13 with the first games back after origin.

 

[Timmah]

Regardless of who or what wrote the article, the point is valid.

We need to look at a mid-season break for Origin rather than the ridiculous 7-8 week drain it currently places on the club competition. For all the arguments about how it would lose the interest of people, the return round after the test break is a good indicator that people attend more when it's been away for a bit.

I'd like to see us go R1-12, three weekends of SOO, then R13-24.

Test footy I just don't know, but it doesnt make sense to have it BEFORE Origin.

 

[Liddell]

Rothfeild cant stand seeing Penrith do well.

Suck a fat dick merkin

Pretty much the only reason he wrote this.

You guys have been my second favourite team all year thanks to that alcoholic merkin.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Regardless of who or what wrote the article, the point is valid.

We need to look at a mid-season break for Origin rather than the ridiculous 7-8 week drain it currently places on the club competition. For all the arguments about how it would lose the interest of people, the return round after the test break is a good indicator that people attend more when it's been away for a bit.

I'd like to see us go R1-12, three weekends of SOO, then R13-24.

Test footy I just don't know, but it doesnt make sense to have it BEFORE Origin.

Yeah, i like the ANZAC test, but it does feel a bit out of place.

But one of the main things about it is that it give NZ test team a chance to toughen up, like what origin does for the Aussie team.

They could replace it with a North vs South Island series over the break. (Ive never been to NZ, so i dont know what those teams would look like or if thats even a rivalry.)

 

[BuffaloRules]

Crowds are always going to drop off in winter. Origin or no Origin.

 

[Jono1987]

Shorten the comp to say 16 or 17 rounds. Each team plays home/away against each other over a two year period. Throw in 1/2 byes for each team.

Play Origin after the comp + finals are over.

Hell play a best of five in Origin if you're so worried about money.

Then Test match footy after that.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Has Rothfield been trolling my posts. I've said that several times over the last 3 seasons.

22 rounds, no byes.

Rounds 1-11

3 week break that has the following

- Origin
- Four Nations comprising Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, PNG to be played as double headers over 3 consecutive weeks.
- Something with NZ. Would like the ESL to do the same break so there's a NZ vs England/GB series during the break period.
- All other players compete in a 7's/9's in potential growth areas so Central Coast, Perth, Wellington etc

Possible one week off for everyone, but would prefer not.

Round 12-22

Finals

Tests

22 rounds without players playing twice in a week, more room for Origin to be the showpiece event while also allowing regular opportunities for international league and promoting the game in potential growth areas. All that without reducing the length of the season which would still start and end the same as it does now.

And before anyone mentions Fox and there being less games because of reducing rounds, I've always been pro expansion and 18 teams x 22 rounds equals more games than 16 teams x 26 games.

 

[Brutus]

Origin will not have the same impact on weekends.

Play the series over 3 consecutive Wednesdays.

And have 12 nrl games spread out over the 3 surrounding weekends. So 4 games per weekend. The 12 games would take up 2 rounds (taking byes into consideration).

 

[Dogs Of War]

Origin will not have the same impact on weekends.

Play the series over 3 consecutive Wednesdays.

And have 12 nrl games spread out over the 3 surrounding weekends. So 4 games per weekend. The 12 games would take up 2 rounds (taking byes into consideration).

Just make origin Sunday night. That will work.

It's just a matter of finding something for the Friday night. Possibly that's where a uk v nz match works, with the pi matches on the Saturday night.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Friday night
GB vs NZ

Saturday
Day 1 of 7's/9's

Saturday Evening
Four Nations double header

Sunday
Completion of 7's/9's

Sunday evening/night
Origin

If there was a one week off for everyone after the 3 week club break then you could also keep Origin on Wednesday night as it wouldn't effect the next round.

 

[TheFrog]

Lets see now. Since the week leading into Origin 1, Penrith have won 2, lost 2 and had 2 byes. Their byes were on the weekends before both Origins, so they haven't played a team depleted by missing Origin players yet. They played the Dragons last week, who were missing the suspended Merrin. The Panthers also have a lengthy injury list, however the replacements have acquitted themselves quite magnificently. This is the true story behind Penrith's rise to become a finals contender this season.

The Panthers position on the table is elevated by the byes, no doubt, but other than that has been achieved on merit.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Has anyone ever been in america while the Superbowl was on?

Their season is structured so that there is a two week gap between the qualifiers and the "Big Game", just so they can hype it up as much as possible and let the players freshen up. There is alot more time for the players to promote it and get over injuries.

This is why i think it should be over 5 weeks instead of 3. I imagine they could produce a better build up and it would give every player in the comp that bye weeks, just in a fairer, more even way.