8 year calendar

[adamkungl]

One of the cornerstones of International games growth will be the planning of a set calendar of events.

Here's my attempt at it. The goals are
* To fill a 4 week mid-year window and 8 week late-year window with meaningful and competitive international events.
* To ensure every RL playing nation can participate in as many of these events as they wish.
* To give every nation competition against tougher opposition to improve their rankings.

Basic structure is June = Regional tournaments, November = Ranked tournaments/major events

2018 - Touring year
June
England vs New Zealand 3 match series (home team alternating by year)
Pacific Cup 4 games each (PNG Fiji Samoa Tonga)
Euro Cup 4 games each (France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland)
Regional 3N or 4N Tournaments (Euro B group seeded by rank, others local region):
Pacific B (Cook Isl, Niue, Vanuatu, Philippines)
Euro-B (Serbia, Italy, Russia, Belgium)
Nordic Cup (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
Mediterranean Cup (Malta, Lebanon, Spain, Greece)
Northern Cup (German v Netherlands)
Eastern Cup (Ukraine v Czech)
Americas A (USA Canada Jamaica)
...etc
Australia: State of Origin

Oct-Dec
Test series':
Aus v NZ x3
Eng v Fra x3
Samoa v Tonga x3
Fiji v PNG x3
Scotland v Wales x3
...etc
Tours:
Australia tours UK for 5 matches: France, Wales, England 3 game series.
NZ tours Pacific Islands
Tournaments: Remaining teams play 3-4N tournaments seeded by rank
Group 1 (Ireland, Scotland, USA, Serbia)
Group 2 (Italy, Canada, Russia, Belgium)
..etc

2019 - Intercontinental Tournament
June - same as previous, regionals
Oct-Dec
Intercontinental Cup tournament featuring top 8 ranked teams
Remaining teams play 3-4N tournaments seeded by rank

2020 - WC Qualifiers
June - same as previous, regionals
Oct-Dec
Regional World Cup Qualifying tournaments

2021 - World Cup
June - 'Warm-up' regionally based test matchs
Oct-Dec
World Cup
Emerging Nations WC

Next 4 years, repeat with alternate home venues etc

Notes
* The period from July-October is free for nations to organise whatever they see fit for their non-professional playing talent - mainly for mid to low ranked teams and non-ranked teams, warm up matches, etc.
* Rankings are adjusted at end of each year to seed the next year's tournaments.
* Tours alternate on 4 year cycle, so in 2021 England would tour Australia and NZ while France tour Europe.
* Every 4 years review and/or repeat.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Nah, it all fine the way it is...

RL is 120 years old and its been doing fine so far.

No need for change

 

[Ustriblike]

Don't like changes either!

 

[roughyedspud]

The 2018 'big 3' post season series is gonna be england v australia..


And the june thing you propose is never gonna happen

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Don't like changes either!

Change is scary and bad and nothing good ever comes of it...

 

[langpark]

Euro-B (Serbia, Italy, Russia, Belgium)
Nordic Cup (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
Mediterranean Cup (Malta, Lebanon, Spain, Greece)
Northern Cup (German v Netherlands)
Eastern Cup (Ukraine v Czech)
Americas A (USA Canada Jamaica)

This is a problem. Way too cluttered and confused. The RLEF tried to bring some clarity to its format by forming Euro Group A, B and C. I think that's the right way to go.

 

[siv]

Getting the international RL calender sorted out is one of most critical RLIF things to address - other than the rules

It all revolves around the RLWC in Year 4

Year 3 should be RLWC Qualifiers

How everything else plays out if we can get 2 dedicated representative fortnights in the NRL and ESL calenders

NRL play CvC and 3 SOO matches

While in parrallel we can play 4N Pacific and Euro Cups

End of year their is a desire for the big 3 to play tours A v E, A v NZ and NZ v E

So its its either tours or something like a annual tier 1 6 nations

But both cases I would like to see tier 2 6 nations being played in Europe and the Pacific

But its important to establish multiple tiers in the international calender

 

[roughyedspud]

the new cycle is gonna be announced during the 4nations