Bring back 3-test series vs NZ and England

[undertaker]

It's hard to believe the 3-test Ashes series between Australia and (then known as) Great Britain haven't been contested since 2003, and furthermore Australia hasn't played a 3-test series vs New Zealand since 1998 (albeit 2 of the 3 were held after the NRL Season, making it 1995 the last time Australia played an uninterrupted 3-test series vs New Zealand). I would absolutely love to see the Ashes (and 3-test Trans Tasman series vs NZ) back after the 2017 RLWC. This is something that has to happen, but I don't hold much hope whilst the NRL and RLPA have a very big stranglehold over scheduling and availability of their players to participate in tournaments outside of NRL/State of Origin.

Just would like to hear your thoughts on this and also a possible itinerary for the cycle/scheduling.

For example (will need to give more thought into this, regarding the cycles for the Ashes):

2017 - RLWC (in Australia/NZ)
2018 - Ashes series (in England)
2019 - Trans Tasman series (in New Zealand)
2020 - Ashes series (in Australia)
2021 - RLWC (in England)
2022 - Trans Tasman series (in Australia)
2023 - Ashes series (in England)

Regarding the Ashes series, I know that the long extended Kangaroo/GB tours pre-SL war will never happen again as the Super League season runs parallel with the NRL. However, a possible schedule could be:

1) If GB tour the Southern Hemisphere: 1 test vs PNG, 3 tests vs Australia, 2 tests vs New Zealand

2) If Australia tour Northern Hemisphere: 2 tests vs France, 3 tests vs GB, 1 test vs USA

Finally, regarding possible venues for the Ashes, compared to 2001/2003, I believe the profile of the Australian tests has moved beyond the 25k seat stadia that were used. Venues such as 90k seat Wembley and Old Trafford might be a bit too large, however stadia around the 50k-60k mark could get strong attendances with proper promotion and as days games kicking off at 2:30pm (compared to 2001/03, that were on Saturday night).

Possible venues I propose:

Emirates Stadium, London (capacity approx 60k).
Etihad Stadium, Manchester (capacity approx 55k, expanded to 61k after the renovation).
Anfield (capacity approx 54k.)
Elland Road (capacity approx 40k).

I'm not a fan of the Olympic Stadium that was used last Sunday. Some parts of the field are too far away from the action.

For possible venues in Australia:

Etihad Stadium, Melbourne (capacity approx 53k).
Allianz Stadium, Sydney (capacity approx 45k)
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (capacity approx. 52k)

They would be the safe/conservative options for crowd attendances.

 

[siv]

We all are waiting in baited breath on the new RLIF program of IRL events post the RLWC2017

But I beleive the Tran-Tasman tests are being played

Australia won the Tran-Tasman Cup in Perth

 

[IntRLEnthusiast]

i like the idea of competitions and am excited by the idea of an 8 team comp and world nines.. but i also think series like you are saying should be played.. I believe it's a both thing. with windows during the year allowing this to happen and 22 round NRL to manage players workloads. International league can't only be thought about during what most people treat as the off season! Breaks during the season bring with it more coverage when people minds are actually on Rugby League!!

 

[adamkungl]

Out of curiosity, I just looked up the Wallabies schedule. They play 14-15 Tests in a non WC year. Compared to the Kangaroos 6 (or 1, if the precious snowflakes don't feel up to it that year).
This needs to change.

15 is too many for us, at least at this stage. Partially due to the length of the club season and the time it would take to transition to a better balanced schedule, but mostly because we don't have strong enough opposition to fill a 15 game schedule.

But we could easily shoot for 10 good games a year.

Annually I'd like to see the Roos play mid-season
v NZ
v Pacific Nation

In years 2 and 4 of the cycle we'll have post-season major tournaments for 4-6 games, bringing it up to 6-8 total for those years.

In year 1, the post season could look like this for a total 10 games
v Pacific nation
v NZ (game 2)
Kangaroo tour of England:
v England (x3 games)
v France
v European nation
back home..
v NZ (game 3)

and in year 3:
v Pacific nation
v NZ (game 2)
England tour of Aus-NZ:
v England (x3 games)
v Asian/African nation
v American nation
v NZ (game 3)


Larger club squads and a slightly shorter season could make this happen with no impact on players. I believe it would add far more value to the sport than 3 weeks of NRL.

 

[Captain Apollo]

Sorry Adam, but the Wallabies?! Mate the demands on a union player v a league player is like chalk and cheese mate. Union players do play more games as the stop start nature of a union game places lesser physical demands on them than a league player. In union the game is more stop start, the ball is out of play for longer, and you might only make a handful of tackles and/or runs per game.

 

[IntRLEnthusiast]

I also find it hard that the NRL goes for so long.. i would enjoy it being slightly shorter.. i don't think you can drastically reduce it because it brings in the money that would get Internationals going in the first place and because it creates the superstars who make international Rugby league strong.. What i'm looking for though is balance. Your dream of even 8 games per year for Aus I think is good, however it might happen.. Lets hope this meeting of RLIF gives us something to be excited about!

 

[adamkungl]

Sorry Adam, but the Wallabies?! Mate the demands on a union player v a league player is like chalk and cheese mate. Union players do play more games as the stop start nature of a union game places lesser physical demands on them than a league player. In union the game is more stop start, the ball is out of play for longer, and you might only make a handful of tackles and/or runs per game.

I'm not suggesting we play more games overall. We need to play less meaningless club games for more internationals.

 

[undertaker]

I also find it hard that the NRL goes for so long.. i would enjoy it being slightly shorter.. i don't think you can drastically reduce it because it brings in the money that would get Internationals going in the first place and because it creates the superstars who make international Rugby league strong.. What i'm looking for though is balance. Your dream of even 8 games per year for Aus I think is good, however it might happen.. Lets hope this meeting of RLIF gives us something to be excited about!

I 100% agree that the NRL season is too long, and if expansion from 16 to 18 teams occurs, the season needs to be cut back from 24 to at least 22 matches/regular season, as it was pre-1998.

I would remove the rep round in May. It's pointless playing a one-off test in May, and then having to wait until October for more test football. Completely pointless. Aus vs NZ Test series should be played during the middle of the season like they were pre-1996 to capitalise on the RL interest. Aus vs England/GB test series though should be played after NRL/ESL seasons in November, as they run parallel. Test matches involving other nations should be played during October-November. Also, the World Club Challenge has the potential to be huge if it was scheduled 1-2 weeks after the Grand Finals in mid-October, rather than in February as a pre-season warm-up match for the defending NRL premiers. It should just be the NRL premiers vs ESL premiers, none of this World Club SERIES crap. Another thread should be created on this topic, but thought I would mention it as a brief side note.

Also, have 3 split rounds during the Origin period (reduce the length between Origins from 3 weeks to 2, in order to shorten the Origin period and thus not as many crowd attendances are affected by Origin). In the split rounds, have 3 games in the first part of the round and 6 games in the second part. That way, each team gets to play in the second half of the split round 2 out of 3 times, and thus only one game in their season is affected by Origin eligibility (i.e. the game where they have to play in the first half of a split round). So, currently, the NRL is 26 rounds/26 weeks with each team playing 24 games. It would then become 22 rounds/25 weeks with each team playing 22 games. So, just one less home game per team isn't going to cause too much damage.

Very easy to get 22 matches from 18 teams. In terms of the game distribution:

3 groups of 6 teams each. Each team plays each other team in their group twice, and the teams in the other groups it plays once.

i.e. 5 x 2 + 12 x 1 = 22 games

No, I'm not talking about having a conference format (need at least 20 teams for it to work in Australia/NZ) like American sports, but just formulating pools pre-season on order to determine the game distribution.

Sorry, went a bit off topic in this post, but these are also issues that relate to international RL and the ability to schedule more test matches.

 

[adamkungl]

10 Kangaroos tests a year would be achievable with
* a 20 game NRL season
* a mid-season break
* and larger club and test squads

Ease the clubs and fans into it - short term go down to 22 games, 2 week break, 8 tests/year. next tv deal take it down to 20 games, 4 week break, 10 tests/year

 

[siv]

You wont see the NRL season will shortern to accommodate IRL

Just the yanks wouldnt change their NFL season for a international gridiron season

We need to work with what we have got 6 weeks in Oct-Nov and 1 to 3 weekends in season during SOO

 

[adamkungl]

You wont see the NRL season will shortern to accommodate IRL

Just the yanks wouldnt change their NFL season for a international gridiron season

We need to work with what we have got 6 weeks in Oct-Nov and 1 to 3 weekends in season during SOO

Be content with the same mediocre rep season as always, coz nothing will change without actually changing something.

 

[siv]

Be content with the same mediocre rep season as always, coz nothing will change without actually changing something.

My change is simple

4 dedicated in season representative rounds worldwide in 2 x 2 week periods

First last 2 weekends of May
Second first two weekends of July

and

6 weekend end of season period last 2 weekends of Oct and Nov

WCC on Fri of 3rd Weekend of Oct