Humphreys' proposal for a longer season may have legs: officials

[Spot On]

I don't know how you do it without placing further stress on the players, but a longer season is necessary. Any other sport in the world has way longer seasons then the NRL, and they get maximum value from it. Of course league isn't as soft as football/soccer, but still, you need to work it out somehow.

Obviously you weren't referring to body contact sports. Right?

 

[ipswich eel]

If you want to increase league's revenue I would;

1. Play a 30 round competition where each team plays twice and get rid of the byes and pre season games. Pre season games are useless. Clubs normally don't field their best team and don't generate much money. If the NRL what to use preseason games as a way of bring games to the bush, then they can play games that really count by bringing a few of these extra games to the bush.

2. Play 4 * 25 minute quarters which would give everyone an extra 20 minutes of gametime. To combat player fatigue I would just increase the amount of interchanges that can be made in a game and maybe a 5th interchange player.

3. Schedule times and days of games to suit both fans that attend the game and the TV viewers. For example in Brisbane on friday night football they always show either Broncos, Titans or Cowboys games live first all the time even when they play a team at the bottom of the ladder at the expense of a Sydney game where it's a battle between 2 of the top teams. If you are televising a free to air game live to the local audience you would hope that the game is already sold out, otherwise their decision is having an effect on crowd numbers.

 

[ME SO HORNBY!]

No thanks. Keep the games as it is more or less. Its the right mix IMO.

The only thing I would change is the structure of the season. Id have 31 weeks of football with no byes.

Week 1: NRL All Stars v Indigenous All Stars

Weeks 2-5: NRL

Week 6: Australia v New Zealand
City v Country

Week 7-9: NRL

Week 10: NSW v QLD

Week 11-13: NRL

Week 14: NSW v QLD

Week 15-17: NRL

Week 18: NSW v QLD

Week 19-27: NRL

Week 28-31: NRL Finals

Thats 22 weeks of regular season football like the AFL with stand alone weekends for rep games.

Post Season: World Club Championship
4 Nations

 

[Jono1987]

Terrible idea for so many reasons. If anything the NRL regular season needs to be shortened with a greater emphasis placed on International fixtures. The proposal assumes we have negotiated the next TV deal and have increased earnings. My ideal season structure would look as follows;

Week 1 - NRL All Stars vs Aboriginal All Stars
* Match that kicks off the season
* To be played on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon only

Weeks 2 & 3 - Pre-season trial matches
* Every club plays 2 trial matches
* Trial matches to be played in country/regional and areas like Perth, Wellington and maybe even PNG only

Weeks 4-21 - NRL regular season
* NRL regular season runs over 17 rounds
* Every club plays each other once during the season, and over a two year period will play home and against every opponent ( E.g. Roosters play Titans at SFS in 2010, at Skilled Park in 2011)
* Every club receives one bye during the season

Weeks 22-27 - NRL Finals Series
* 1 week after the Grand Final the State of Origin teams for NSW, QLD, NZ North(?) and NZ South(?) are announced

Weeks 28-32 - State of Origin
* Players are in camp 2 weeks prior to the first game
* Games between NSW/QLD and NZ N/NZ S are played on three consecutive Saturdays
* One week after the last State of Origin matches are played Test teams are announced

Weeks 33 - 37/39 - International Test matches
* Players are in camp 2 weeks prior to the first game

My proposal probably lengethens how long the season will last but never will a player have to back up before the following week. Most players would play less games in a season, therefore prolonging their careers. The representative players would more or less play the same amount, take a game here or there but with increased payments for playing those games the players would be rewarded. There is plenty of rest time between the end of the NRL Finals/SoO/International Tests. There is a more logical progression to the season. There would be no WCC, City/Country games. No unfair disruptions to teams during the regular season as there is now with SoO etc.

The most obvious question would be how do the NRL shorten their regular season but continue to get top dollar with broadcasting rights? Firstly less is definitely more in terms of league. With every game during the regular season meaning more, no useless games, players will need to bring their A-game every single week. Secondly when the IC is introduced and the TV rights as Gallop has previously stated with be sold in blocks (E.g. selling the NRL regular season separately from the SoO Series), collectively they will receive more money. Not to mention we undersold our rights last time, once the average crowd numbers especially in Sydney increase because of less games to attend the quality of games increasing, and the likely increase in TV ratings stations will have no choice but to pay what our game is truly worth.

 

[the beavers]

may have been previously mentioned but what about a tri series at the start of the season with the all stars , indigenous and polynesian all stars
possibly generate morwe income than a few extra rounds of sub standard nrl