A comp to fill in the February pre-season

[Loudstrat]

Hows this for an idea?

A 12 team comp over 5 weeks played each February, alternating between Australia/NZ/PNG one year, and UK/France the other. 3 pools of 4 teams, with the winners playing a finals series. The winning pool team with best F and A goes straight tothe final, and the other 2 winning pool teams play a semi final with the winner making the other final spot.

The teams:
NSW
Queensland
Australian Aboriginal
New Zealand Maori
New Zealand All Whites
Yorkshire
Lancashire
France
Pacific Cup winner
Pacific Cup runner up
Other Nations Qualifier 1 (from other European nations/USA/South Africa)
Other Nations qualifier 2

Eligibility for teams would be based on a preference system depending on the old grandparent rule favoring the Aboriginal sides. EG Inglis and Thurston play for the Aboriginal side instead of QLD. Fui Fui plays for Tonga (if they make the cut) instead of one of the NZ sides.

Weeks 1-3: Pool games
Week 4 - Semi final
Week 5 - Final

EXAMPLE
Pool A
QLD
NZ Maori
Samoa
USA

Pool B
Lancashire
France
PNG
Ireland

Pool C
NSW
NZ All White
Australian Aboriginal
Yorkshire

THE POINT?
Firstly, development of other nations with a regular, annual hitout against the top sides, giving them exposure in the media, and also developing League as an annual event in developing nations, rather than a haphazard mish mash while they wait for a World Cup

Secondly, pitting the top rep sides against each other at sub Test level.

Thirdly, by diluting the test sides of the Big 3, the talent gap is narrowed between them and other nations - making the cop more competetive.

Finally, February is the trial season for NRl clubs, who usually sit their stars out and fiddle with combinations and up and comers. These stars could instead play in the international comp.

PROBLEMS?
Player burnout: The Elite players can elect not to play. My argument is that if Lockyer, Smith and Slater opted out of the QLD side, they would still field a top side with replacements who would relish the opportunity to play for their state - and give selectors a chance to give them a run with a view to Origin.

Cost: Paid for by sponsorship, TV rights (38 games) and gate.

POTENTIAL?
A NSWv Lancashire final at Wembly or Elland Road, or a QLD v NSW final at Suncorp or ANZ.

Thoughts?

 

[adamkungl]

Interesting idea, but has the potential to detract from both the WC and SOO...

If the Big 3 are diluted and still run riot, the WC would attract even more criticism than it does now.

 

[Big Time]

Probably not a bad concept. Why not scrap the whole race thing though. Have NSW, QLD, rest of Australia. NZ South and NZ North. Your other ones are ok. Maybe include Rest of UK side, that way you cover Wales, Ireland and Scotland, plus areas like Cumbria.

If we want to promote the sport need to do something like this. Only argument will be again that season is too long. Probably is. Shorten season, have World Club Challenge plus a Rep Season which includes SOO plus something like this and ofcourse internationals.

Just a pipe dream though. It will not happen.

 

[Perth Red]

I like your thinking but a few issues that would be possible show stoppers:

1. cost, this would be ahugely costly comp
2. Weather in UK in February!
3. If the stars choose to sit out of other teams (like Maoris, Yorkshire etc) it would lead to some very weak teams

Possibly a smaller 8 team comp might work better.

 

[jasonstevenswedgie]

not a bad idea

 

[hunters]

Would love a pre season comp but the teams won't go for this idea. They are trying to bring the whole team together and this format requires that (potentially) the team would be split up over a number of different teams ( i.e. a couple playing for NSW, another in the Aboriginal, a few in the NZ team) all 2 weeks out from the competition starting.

If there is going to be a pre season comp, the current teams would have to be maintained.

 

[Jankuloski]

Looks too big, buuut, you made me think of something else: How about we expand the all stars?

NRL All Stars, Aboriginal All Stars, Super League All stars?

That would take up 3 weeks, and one week could be the sevens or nines.

That is, IF the All stars match does good, which I think it will, it's generated a lot of good buzz here on LU and with my friends here in Serbia ...

 

[Loudstrat]

How would that help international sides?

 

[m0nty]

How about you hold it all in the UK, but both sides are wearing ice skates.

 

[Perth Red]

A world 7's or 9's would help Int scene and be a big hit if played here in Feb time. I'd head East to watch a long weekend of Int RL action in a 7's or 9's format as long as all the stars are involved.

 

[griff]

Sorry, but a bad idea on a lot of levels.

1. You would significantly increase the load on the elite players.
2. ESL starts the second week of February anyway
3. The top teams would crush the bottom teams, meaning a lot of poor quality games
4. An all whites team will go down really badly
5. Travel costs would be huge
6. Teams would be playing NRL trials with none of their good players.

A much simpler, cheaper, and better option? Have a pre-season competition involving the 16 NRL clubs in 4 groups of 4. Each team plays 3 pool games. Teams that top their group play semis and then the two semi winners play a final. Teams that don't make the semis play a trial.

Teams play trials anyway, so the load on players is not significantly increased. Every match would be a fairly competitive match, it would get large TV audiences and likely run at a profit, at the same time as giving more people the opportunity to see RL matches, and it allows us to take attractive games to new markets and regional centres to grow the game. Longer term, you could even look at trial games overseas.

 

[DubaiSaint]

Sorry, but a bad idea on a lot of levels.

1. You would significantly increase the load on the elite players.
2. ESL starts the second week of February anyway
3. The top teams would crush the bottom teams, meaning a lot of poor quality games
4. An all whites team will go down really badly
5. Travel costs would be huge
6. Teams would be playing NRL trials with none of their good players.

A much simpler, cheaper, and better option? Have a pre-season competition involving the 16 NRL clubs in 4 groups of 4. Each team plays 3 pool games. Teams that top their group play semis and then the two semi winners play a final. Teams that don't make the semis play a trial.

Teams play trials anyway, so the load on players is not significantly increased. Every match would be a fairly competitive match, it would get large TV audiences and likely run at a profit, at the same time as giving more people the opportunity to see RL matches, and it allows us to take attractive games to new markets and regional centres to grow the game. Longer term, you could even look at trial games overseas.

I like it... its a compromise between the AMCO Cup style knock out and a legit pre-season tournament of better quality than a Sevens.

Also is better than the AFL's Pre-Season Cup as each team is guarenteed a number of meaningful trial games. Their Cup is a straight KO and hence first round losers go off and play meaningless trial games in regional centres... which is lame.

 

[lturner]

That idea doesn't really interest me too much.

I'd much rather see a knockout cup with 16 NRL clubs plus 16 teams from Queensland and NSW Cup comps, similar to the Challenge Cup.

 

[Eels Dude]

Ridiculious idea. It's just before the start of the NRL season and all players should training and playing trials with the NRL clubs that pay their wages.

 

[Doug2234]

Seems the idea is purely to entertain yourself during the off season rather then contribute to developing Rugby League in other areas...

 

[Talanexor]

February isn't the best time to do this. Losing stars or key players will be really detrimental to every clubs preparation. If stars are allowed to opt-out, the minnow nations will be REALLY weakened; depth is a major problem for them at the best of times.

I like the idea of diluting the top 3 sides in order to grow the international game. The other alternative is to bunch sides together (eg, Pacific Islands combined, Fiji/PNG, Europe ex UK).

I still think the best way to grow the international game is to have a longer test season at the end of the regular season, and have a draft system whereby the weakest nations get first pick of elegible players. NZ might end up with Thurston, PNG would get Petero, Fiji gets Hayne etc. I can see some players being unhappy with being forced to play for a weaker team, but I think we need to do everything we can to stop Aust, NZ and UK from dominating the international game.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Would love it but would never happen.

Bring back the 7's was a cracker of a day out.

 

[Pass the Ball]

I like the idea of five weeks in February....

 

[NAS]

I think that the trials could be turned into a competition of sorts where each team plays 3 games, and those with the best for and against (rather than the points on a win/loss situation) progress forward.......to a finals series....

they could use that competition to trial rule changes.......makes the trials more interesting, kinda like the AFL do....

 

[Titanic]

Two weekends of 7's with clubs playing their best players plus regional and international teams.

Weekend 1: Pools of round robin
Weekend 2. Tiers of finalists culminating in a day of finals.

Also, let's ditch Monday nights and bring back the Panasonic Mid-Week Cup. Squads on such great salaries should play twice a week and hang the pussies who cry injury.