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

[Kilkenny]

The concept of a true home and away competition where everyone plays each other home and away should be given serious consideration.

I think we need to look at how we can achieve this outcome as opposed to why we cannot.

Yes, the weather would surely mean there would have to be 'midweek' fixtures to accomodate the increased number of games but I don't see that as a major issue.

It all comes down to funding. Provided the next TV rights deal is a significant improvement on the current deal then there should be the money available to accomodate such a proposal or competition.

 

[adamkungl]

Terrible idea. So many more meaningless games. Would definitely result in less rep games. No thanks. If anything there should be less rounds.

 

[Perth Red]

a 20 team league with 19 game regular season, top 10 play off, pre season World 9's, a proper 3 test series mid season v NZ and a 5 team Int tournament at end of season would be my ideal scenario in the future

 

[adamkungl]

Moffo, in reply to pretty much everything you've said in this thread, you're a fool.

I expect a few hours of preseason fitness training is much harder work than sitting on your arse in an office for 8 hrs anyway. How often is your body pushed to the point where you have to vomit in your job?

 

[adamkungl]

a 20 team league with 19 game regular season, top 10 play off, pre season World 9's, a proper 3 test series mid season v NZ and a 5 team Int tournament at end of season would be my ideal scenario in the future

Personally I'd go with

Jan-Feb - World 9s
2 trials each team, (in country areas but not really relevant to this thread) in early March
22 Round NRL Competition until September/October
The 4 rounds dropped are replaced by 4 rep weekends to coincide with the May Test/City Country and the 3 Origin weekends. Also schedule internationals with PI nations, england france etc for the same weekends.
2 weeks after the Grand Final play the WCC
1-2 weeks after the WCC play the international tournaments.

 

[BLKOUT!]

To the people saying it would burn the players out; I would imagine coaches would rotate guys a lot more to make up for the extra games. They'd be moronic not to.

 

[Billythekid]

To the people saying it would burn the players out; I would imagine coaches would rotate guys a lot more to make up for the extra games. They'd be moronic not to.

Diluting the quality of games even more... YAY!

 

[bobbis]

Terrible idea.

I'd shorten the season.
Start with a 32 team 5 round knock out preseason cup akin to the NAB cup and Challenge Cup, extra teams would come from the next best teams in the Q Cup etc. Games would be primarily played in centres that don't get regular NRL games.

NRL season would be 20-22 games, with 1 bye week thrown in making it 21-23 weeks long. Preferably the number of teams would also be expanded. Finals would then be the usual 8 team 4 weeks long. No representative fixtures would take place during the NRL season.

Post season the Origin period would take place over about 5-6 weeks. NSW would have their City v County game played first. Both teams would possibly play trial or representative warm up games in the first 2-3 weeks, then 3 straight weeks of origin games. NZ would possibly have its own Origin format otherwise it would have an international series possibly vs a combined Pacific team, both sides could possibly also play Qld and or NSW as tour matches to warm up for their series during the first 2-3 weeks.

After this the Australian team would be selected for the 4nations or WC. Other lesser representative teams could also be selected to go on tours playing lesser nations to help develop them and keep the next tier of players busy.



I think having representative and NRL games in clearly seperate periods would make them more valuable and less likely to detract from each other.

 

[Scarves]

No. There are already to many games in the season. This affects the quality of the competition and the quality of the players running around in the competition.

Players can't keep up high quality every week in a collision sport that runs for so long. People wonder why we lose players to injuries or why players have to play with so many injuries which affect their performance... then some fruit tosses up this idea.

Back to the drawing board.

 

[m0nty]

The people who thought this up are flogs, and the fans in this thread who support it are flogs. One of the worst ideas I have heard in many years of reading sports boards, and I've seen a good many terrible ideas. In World Cup years, the elite players could end up playing 40+ games, it's ridiculous.

No, rugby league is not like soccer. Soccer is non-contact. Rugby league is ultra-contact.

Among the many problems in rugby league, player burnout is already a big one. Exacerbating that in a desperate attempt to paper over the cracks elsewhere in the sport is a shockingly irresponsible proposal.

 

[seanoff]

one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

there are far too many games, as it is, and that's just the NRL, never mind SOO and internationals.

the idea isn't to kill the players and this would go very very close.

The had of the RLPA should be fired instantly for even semi entertaining the idea. the CEOs obviously have NFI. neither do the some of you in this thread.

these guys take an absolute f**king hiding for your entertainment every week, many will be left with lifelong injuries and problems as it is. asking them to take even more punishment is verging on evil. the players aren't robots. they are big men, but so is everyone out there, they hit hard. even the biggest guys feel it.

in a 32 week season most games will be played with no intent or purpose. everybody out there will be just trying to survive. games will be played at walking pace, with long breaks for scrums etc the standard will go down, significantly

 

[renouf]

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.

 

[renouf]

Diluting the quality of games even more... YAY!

Big deal, people will still watch the games.. friday nights game was pretty ordinary, but I watched it.. because it was a first grade game of footy.

 

[m0nty]

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.

Erm, no. Rugby league has just about the longest season of any full-contact sport played on turf. NRL and ESL have 24 regular season games. NFL has 16. English rugby has 22. Southern hemisphere rugby has 13, soon to be 15. AFL has 22. Only French rugby with 26 is currently longer as far as I can see, of the important ones.

If there's one thing that can be stated uncontroversially about the way Sydney crowds think, it's that they respond much better to big "events" than regular season games. The more games are played, the less meaningful each one is, and the less incentive there is to attend each one.

This proposal would destroy crowd averages, drive star players out of the game... and be exactly what the TV networks want. Which is the whole point of it, I reckon.

 

[kurt faulk]

.

the season is too long as it is right now. a team that can lose 5 games in a row and still make the finals means the season is way too long. every game should mean something, which will add to the interest of each game.

add in the dumb origin series thrown in the middle of the season, which totally stalls the momentum of the season and you have a overly long season.

there should be around 16 to 20 rounds only with origin played after the season.

.

 

[babyg]

Yes extend the season, but do it with more internationals. Soccer, union, and cricket all get the bulk of their income from internationals.

 

[Moffo]

I would say they train harder in the pre-season than regular season, without a doubt. Pre-season is all about fitness, regular season is working on ball skills and keeping fit. Anyone who thinks pre-season is easy doesn't have a clue.

i didn't say its easy, just saying its not a full time job

 

[Moffo]

Moffo, in reply to pretty much everything you've said in this thread, you're a fool.

I expect a few hours of preseason fitness training is much harder work than sitting on your arse in an office for 8 hrs anyway. How often is your body pushed to the point where you have to vomit in your job?

:lol:

if only it was 8 hours a day. i do training most days on top of my office job, same as many others

i wish i was a football player

 

[Firey_Dragon]

i didn't say its easy, just saying its not a full time job

What a crock. They play 1 game a week, train 4 days a week and 1 day recovery session (That's 6 days/week). Sure they aren't 9-5 hours but it's far more intense than most people deal with in their day to day grind. Plus then there is all the PR and community work. Anyone who doesn't think it's a fulltime job is delusional.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

full-contact sport

AFL

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: