A midweek cup - is there a place in the modern game?

[Timbo]

I was thinking about this today, and I'm convinced there is.

If it were a FA cup style knock-out, which was open to every rugby league club in Australia and New Zealand, then there most certainly could be a goer.

NRL sides could get a bye through to the 5th or 6th round, with QLD cup sides entering the round before them, JB and Batercard cup sides before them, Newcastle RL sides before them, CRL group representative sidesa before that, etc...

Make it interesting by saying each NRL side must have 8 Toyota Cup players in their sides, which would give the young star players the chance to play along side their first grade counterparts in top grade games which aren't as high pressure as the premiership.

Also, it'd give us a chance to gauge areas for expansion. Perth, Adelaide, Central Coast, etc. representative sides could enter at the same time as JB Cup teams, give them a chance to play in a televised top level competition.

Make the grand final midweek during the last week of regular season play, and play it at Suncorp, because by this point it really would be a top shelf competition.

If we could get a sponsor on board who was willing to put up a decent amount of prizemoney it'd be huge. The Amco cup was massively popular back in the day, so I don't see why this wouldn't go off.

As for those of you who don't think CRL groups or JB Cup sides wouldn't be able to cut it against the top sides...Ask the 1974 Western Divison side who toppled Canterbury, Wests and Penrith on their way to the title.

 

[no name]

Players whinge about there being too many games as it is.

 

[Cletus]

If it left out the NRL sides and was just State Cup and below it would be interesting. Cost a lot for clubs to do though, and I can't see NRL sides being interested in playing twice a week, could you imagine Canberra's injuries this year if they played twice a week? Apart from that interesting idea, but no.

 

[Junior Bunny]

Players whinge about there being too many games as it is.

Too many games? rofl, harden the f*ck up. Easy option, train less, play more games.

 

[Timbo]

People say they play too much now, or there are too many injuries, etc...

FFS, how did they cope in the old days then? Playing in the premiership, with a midweek cup and a preseason competition, then if you were good enough going away over most of summer on a Roo tour? With a much lower level of fitness, nowhere near as good facilities or medical staff...

All these excuses are bullsh*t. Players are soft primadonas, that's what it boils down to.

 

[Kenny]

People say they play too much now, or there are too many injuries, etc...

FFS, how did they cope in the old days then? Playing in the premiership, with a midweek cup and a preseason competition, then if you were good enough going away over most of summer on a Roo tour? With a much lower level of fitness, nowhere near as good facilities or medical staff...

All these excuses are bullsh*t. Players are soft primadonas, that's what it boils down to.

Not to mention the fact that in the old days the players actually had full time jobs outside of football too.

 

[adamkungl]

No.

 

[eels_fan_01]

People say they play too much now, or there are too many injuries, etc...

FFS, how did they cope in the old days then? Playing in the premiership, with a midweek cup and a preseason competition, then if you were good enough going away over most of summer on a Roo tour? With a much lower level of fitness, nowhere near as good facilities or medical staff...

All these excuses are bullsh*t. Players are soft primadonas, that's what it boils down to.

They played like 16 regular premiership matches, todays play 26. The game is hard every week because the teams are even, back then you could piss through half your games if you played for St George etc.

 

[fightingirish69]

its a good idea. but i doubt the nrl/arl would do it. they are more interested in sitting on their hands

 

[Parra]

Midweek cup in some form would be great. Seems that the more professional players get, the less they do. This is across all codes.

Schoolboy cup back on FTA tele on Saturday mornings as well, with a replay of the mid-week game after. We used to have this - and some people think that we've moved ahead now a media giant owns the game. It is like a slow strangulation with these idiots involved.

 

[westie]

Why it couldn't be used as a vehicle for developing more players is beyond me.

The top English soccer clubs - and to a lesser extent league - use a larger squad and give younger or less experienced players game time in these games against lesser teams.

This is beneficial in player development and also provides an opportunity for upsets.

Chuck in a national second tier with some of the more ambitious sides and you're halfway to having a decent domestic program.

 

[Mr Saab]

They played like 16 regular premiership matches, todays play 26. The game is hard every week because the teams are even, back then you could piss through half your games if you played for St George etc.

Not sure how old you are, but "back in the old days" they played 24 rounds + mid week + finals.
16 games....my god.

http://stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1986.html

 

[The Preacher]

No.

 

[Timbo]

No.

No.

Really constructive answers there.

 

[RL1908]

Amidst all the recent moaning about the effect of Origin on club footy, I've been thinking that it may provide a window of opportunity for a Challenge Cup of some sort.

I haven't thought it through too hard, but if the weekend before every Origin (or on the Origin weekend if Origin moved to Sat night) had no NRL matches, then why couldn't there be 3 weekends of a Cup knock-out or a round-robin going on?

If Melbourne or Brisbane had to play their depleted line-ups against a combined regional team in a Cup game, wouldn't that be a better option than putting on NRL fixtures?

The question is always going to come down to money. It may be that this does away with byes, and I'm not sure if clubs would have less home games as a result....I haven't thought it through to be sure.

I think Timbo's question is worth asking.

 

[Green Machine]

I think by the 80’s, the mid week cup had out lived its use by date. I loved it when they moved it to the pre season.

 

[Green Machine]

As for those of you who don't think CRL groups or JB Cup sides wouldn't be able to cut it against the top sides...Ask the 1974 Western Divison side who toppled Canterbury, Wests and Penrith on their way to the title.

I don’t think it would work because most country players in the 70’s played for their local first grade before going to Sydney. Some of them didn’t bother going to Sydney. Terry Fahey and Ron Pillon were in the 1974 Western Division team and hooked up with Sydney clubs. The next year, Country beat City. In the 1975 Country team, Mick Cronin had already rep for Australia from Gerriningong. Terry Fahey was on the wing. Peter Kennedy from Forbes was in the centres. His sons played in Sydney. Ian Martin left Manly to play in the bush and played in the 1975 Country team. Martin went back to Manly and played in a grade final. There was a bloke called Steve Hewson from Queanbeyan Blues who was the Country halfback 1975. Steve Mortimer has said he was a better footballer then him. The good players leave the country before they get a chance to play local first grade

 

[Alan Shore]

We need to bring the World Sevens back. Perhaps if a midweek comp was run as a 7s competition then it would be fine, since you have short games that are more exciting that use less players.

 

[Raider_69]

Id love it but there is a few things that would stop it

* clubs not taking it seriously- you think any side would risk their marqee players in the middle of the season to win a mickey mouse comp? dreaming. So you say we can us U20's players, but im not sure id like the idea of risking our U20's chances by playing J.Carney, J.Thompson and J.Dugan. Not for a comp that means nothing.
* player burn out- they bitch about playing too much footy as is
* cash- alot of clubs punted their PL teams this year to save money, with the pokie tax, clubs dont have a sh*t load of cash to throw into a competition that does mean anything
* crowds- being played mid week, it would be very hard for anyone to get to, with work , school for kids the following day, uni students often work part time nights to help pay the bills

 

[hillbillyjazzer1954]

yes i think there is......but i would like to see it with teams that represent the different CRL groups, all the current stand alone NRL teams and newtown, balmain, wests, norths and illawarra, that is a lot of teams but you could have double headers on wednesday nights

rather than the current NRL teams using their top 25 they could possibly use a combination of their second and third tier players and under 20s

but as somone else said unfortunately this is pie in the sky stuff as gallop and co will sit on their hands and do jack