Souths’ masterplan to help guarantee top-four spot every Season:
https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...n/news-story/f1541c2e586f74601168d9cfc409af22
What a fantastic article that is! Great read. Our club is in really good hands leading into the future.
Andrew Johns wants the NRL to turn into an 11-a-side game:
https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/andrew...ide-game/885dc522-b63d-4462-8e9f-febd8cf013b1
From Sporting News,
New NRL boss Andrew Abdo flags changes for 2021 Season, confirms Grand Final venue
Newly appointed NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has lifted the lid on the ongoing planning at League headquarters for next season and how the governing body plans to navigate COVID-19 disruptions.
The NRL has entered a new era after
Abdo was officially unveiled this week as the game's new boss having served as interim chief executive since Todd Greenberg stepped down back in April.
Abdo has served an all-time baptism of fire since stepping in, together with ARL commission chair Peter V'landys helping the NRL survive the OCVID-19 pandemic.
With his appointment now official, Abdo and his team are deep in planning for next season and
in a wide-ranging interview with ABC Grandstand, the new CEO opened up on the many challenges the NRL is due to face over the next 12 months and how it plans to attack them.
Among a number of issues the NRL will be forced to overcome, the management of player welfare in the wake of this year's delayed season has been one widely flagged, with
Phil Gould calling on the NRL to consider drastic changes to the 2021 competition.
Abdo revealed the NRL has already begun to tinker with the post and pre-season schedule to manage player rest.
"We're planning well into next year, we're looking at different scenarios. We don't know what it will be but we're planning for what the possibilities are," Abdo revealed.
"We've done a couple of things, we've announced there won't be an international post-season so after Origin the Kangaroos won't play, there won't be Test matches.
"We've looked at shortening the pre-season and limiting how much [time] there is before round one kicks off but there will be an opportunity for players, if they're not playing Origin, to completely remove the bubble.
"And we're hopeful we won't have to have protocols as stringent as this year next year, but we're planning for different scenarios and if they are we'll make them as sustainable as we can."
Abdo described the financial pressure the game finds itself in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic as a "hurricane", and admits that while planning has been rigorous at head office, the uncertainty surrounding next year has created vast challenges.
One thing that is for certain however is the reduction in next year's salary cap, as the game looks to share the financial burden among clubs in a "sustainable" way.
The impending salary cap cuts create huge hurdles for clubs over the next six months as they begin to shape their rosters for next season.
While an official figure is yet to be settled on between the NRL and RLPA, Abdo said negotiations have been effective.
"We're assessing other ways in which we can save money and of course we're going to have to reduce the player payment pool as well," Abdo added.
"Certainly there is going to be a drop in the salary cap, it's unavoidable. We're trying to limit it as much as we can but there will be a reduction.
"It's a complex discussion we're having with the players association and the clubs as well.
"We've been hit by a hurricane just like other industries and other sports and we've had to stabilise and to stabilise we've had to think about how we share the reduction of revenue.
"We've been in constant dialogue with the RLPA and are hopefully close to resolving something in the next couple of weeks.
"We're just now trying to work out exactly how much and from which areas from player payments [cuts will be made]."
While on State of Origin scheduling, Abdo declared there was still every intention to persevere with plans to open this year's post-season series at
Adelaide Oval for the first time in the interstate rivalries history.
Meanwhile, it appears likely the NRL will return to traditional venue ANZ Stadium for the grand final, to be played on October 25th,
despite initially planning to temporarily move it to the SCG.
"It was only going to be played at the SCG on the basis that ANZ Stadium would be decommissioned and a new stadium would be built there or renovated," Abdo said. "So it makes sense for it to return to its traditional home at ANZ Stadium and it has a bigger capacity which means under the current NSW restrictions wed be able to get more fans inside ANZ Stadium.
"We want as many fans as possible but it will be in the constraints of what's safe and what protects the community. We'll leave that as late as possible because that might allow us to get more fans in
"But ANZ Stadium, because of the large capacity, is the logical place and the home of the NRL grand final."
