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Changes for next year and beyond

PARRA_FAN

Coach
Messages
17,010
http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/...-from-backing-up/story-fn2mcuj6-1226099293932

Players will no longer be forced to back-up for NRL games 24 hours after representative fixtures, with the 2012 season to be extended by a week to accommodate a representative weekend.




2012's mid-year Test and what could be the last City-Country match will be played on a standalone weekend, ahead of more drastic proposed changes in 2013, when State of Origin could be shifted to Monday nights.
The proposals were put to a meeting of chairmen and chief executives from all 16 NRL clubs in Sydney on Thursday, with player burnout high on the agenda.
The move of Origin to a Monday night, with just one game on the following Friday night, means only a handful of players would be forced to back-up on four days rest, while the scrapping of the Monday-night game preceding Origin would still give the New South Wales and Queensland squads an eight-day preparation.


"We're looking to alleviate the issues around player welfare and certainly next year looking for a standalone weekend so that players aren't forced to play the next day and the day after the Test match and the City-Country as occurred this year," NRL chief executive David Gallop said.
"Then into the future a situation where rather than playing two days later, players will be playing four days later with Origin."
Byes will also be done away with under the new schedule, with one Origin to be a standalone affair and split rounds being played around the other two.
NRL chief operating officer Nathan McGuirk said NSW coach Ricky Stuart, retiring Maroons skipper Darren Lockyer and St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett - whose club was most affected during the Origin period - were consulted in designing the new season structure.
Stuart initially had mixed reservations about the Monday timeslot, for fear of jeopardising the build-up to each game, but the possibility of abandoning some Monday night NRL matches in the new broadcast deal helped alleviate his concerns.
"As a prominent coach said to us, it's almost bordering on cruel what we ask players in backing up from Wednesday Origins into weekend matches," McGuirk said.
"It's a serious issue that had to be addressed. We believe that Monday nights would be a positive move for players.
"We spoke to Ricky about how preparation would be changed with regards to Monday Origin and the impact of taking away the Monday night match the previous week which will allow them to have a full week's preparation.
"Ricky's position was that if we could provide one day less of preparation to at least provide two days more backing up for players, then that's a positive thing."
Also, with the 2012 season to start a week earlier, it was determined the first game would be on a Thursday night, with the All-Stars match to also be moved forward a week.


Brought to you byFOX SPORTS

I dont mind a lot of these changes, the stand alone weekends are alright as long as there's at least 2-3 matches.

And finally split rounds are back. Been saying it for a while they shouldve been brought back.
 

Loudstrat

Coach
Messages
15,224
Cruel? FFS remember the says of Saturday tests and Sunday club footy? If clubs were not f*cking tight arses the would give suffering players time off.

The stand alone Origin weekend is going to be boring as batsh*t, just like it was in .
 

hutch

First Grade
Messages
6,810
Hopefully the stand alone weekends give other countries the opportunity to play test matches or test series against each other! Png, Fiji, Samoa, tonga, northern hemisphere countries and the proposed nz origin will be for the benefit of the sport as a whole. Who cares if a few NRL club fans are bored and lonely for one or two weekends a year, it might give them the chance to look at the bigger picture.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
If they scheduled the England v Exiles and made it a tri series, throw in PNG v Fiji, Wales v France and a NZ SOO and you could have a brilliant weekend of rep football from around the world to watch.
 

Danish

Referee
Messages
31,835
So we are doing away with byes.... By having split rounds?

What the f**k is the difference practically, barring not handing out the meaningless 2 points?
 

Perth Tiger

Bench
Messages
3,022
I still think a 4 nations comp between PNG, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa fits perfectly in the 3 week window of Origin if we have stand alone rep weekends.

It probably wouldn't be a huge ratings success but it would at least fill some time slots and give the die hards some Rugby League action over the weekend.
 

Quidgybo

Bench
Messages
3,052
So we are doing away with byes.... By having split rounds?

What the f**k is the difference practically, barring not handing out the meaningless 2 points?
There's no difference. It's byes by another name.

Leigh
 

Quidgybo

Bench
Messages
3,052
Moving Origin from Wednesday to Monday is a huge mistake.

Alright guys humour me here. Why is it a mistake? What's the "huge" difference between playing a rep game on one school night after standing down players from club games the weekend before and playing it on a different school night after standing down players from club games the weekend before? Apart from how much recovery time the players get before returning to club football of course.

Leigh
 

gronkathon

First Grade
Messages
9,266
It is a huge mistake because Wednesday night it was the only game in town.

It generated great media coverage and dominated newspaper column inches because all the sport was done.

Now it will be shown on the same night as Monday AFL, not be the centrepiece it deserves to be and lose all of the charisma of the build up.
 

betcats

Referee
Messages
23,471
Alright guys humour me here. Why is it a mistake? What's the "huge" difference between playing a rep game on one school night after standing down players from club games the weekend before and playing it on a different school night after standing down players from club games the weekend before? Apart from how much recovery time the players get before returning to club football of course.

Leigh

Past experience.
 

nqcowboy87

Bench
Messages
4,181
what are the non rep players meant to do, what if a team is steamrolling with momentum coming into origin and then are forced to take a weekend off because they have maybe 1 or you know cause its obviously a blanket rule theyd be forced to take the weekend off with their entire team intact
 
Messages
42,632
Everything has come together to make Origin what it is today, the envy of every sporting body in Australia.

Moving it to any other night is a bad move.
 

Cumberland Throw

First Grade
Messages
6,442
Why the f**k would you tinker with the most succesfull tv sports franchise in australian history

And why the f**k is the 16 ceos deciding on this ???????

Its a nswrl. Qrl product it should come under the guise of the ic
 

NrlCoach

Juniors
Messages
1,723
SOO on monday? LOL AFL will no doubt introduce monday night football which will take away media attention and audience from SOO in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide..
 
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