Mid year cup?

[Warrior@Heart]

I was reading the latest On The Road article on Nrl.com about a mid year cup. With stand-alone origin weekends the preferred option from most players and the lack of quality NRL matches lately would you like to see a mid-season cup? I'd personally like to see a four way tournament played between Pacific Island All-Stars, NZ Maori, Barbarians (Europeans, Png, Caucasian Kiwis) & an emerging Australian side made up of fringe origin players. What are your thoughts? What would you like to see?

 

[Warrior@Heart]

Maybe even a rookies (u20's) vs outlaws game (nsw/qcup) and a couple of Jr Kiwis vs Jr Kangaroos games to fill the void of no toyota cup games.

 

[hutch]

Stand alone weekends involving origin, and either nz origin (kiwi roots), pacific test series (Fiji v png, Samoa v tonga), or pacific islands v nz test series! We dont need any more all star, barbarian type teams! We need legitimate rep matches and test series for all southern hemisphere countries to run alongside a successful Australia origin series!

 

[CC_Roosters]

do you have a link to the article mate?? Don't see it on the site

 

[Warrior@Heart]

do you have a link to the article mate?? Don't see it on the site

http://www.nrl.com/on-the-road-time-for-a-mid-season-cup/tabid/10874/newsid/63047/default.aspx

 

[Warrior@Heart]

Stand alone weekends involving origin, and either nz origin (kiwi roots), pacific test series (Fiji v png, Samoa v tonga), or pacific islands v nz test series! We dont need any more all star, barbarian type teams! We need legitimate rep matches and test series for all southern hemisphere countries to run alongside a successful Australia origin series!

Yeah I agree we do need more legitimate rep matches, but i'd rather see a genuine rep week.
Friday: City vs Country
Saturday: Fiji vs PNG & Tonga vs Samoa
Sunday: Australia vs New Zealand
Than heritage cup during origin weeks.
I'd like there to be coverage of the pacific nations & european nations cups too with the winners to playoff for a spot in the four nations.

 

[The Observer]

The Roar published a story on the mid-season cup proposal More Games For TV / Less Burden On Rep Players / Every Player Available For Every Premiership Game By Warren Young

Young's full proposal is attached in two PDF documents, 20 & 24 pages.

 

[simmo1]

I always liked the idea of having an NRL knockout cup during Origin/Test weeks. Taking the games out to the country or places which don't normally see much top grade footy.

But having Pacific Island matches during Origin is also a good one.

 

[Warrior@Heart]

Yeah I wouldn't mind something like the challenge cup. Would be good to take the games to places like Darwin, Port McQuarie, Cairns, Tasmania, Sunshine Coast, Hamilton (NZ) etc.

 

[Parraletic]

I thought of this idea a few years ago & emailed the NRL about it. I hope this can happen. We could then not have to worry about Origin hampering teams during the rep season.

 

[DecoyRunner]

Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

[The Engineers Room]

What about shortening the season by 4 rounds. And play during the origin weekends a knockout comp involving NRL + NSW/QLD Cup sides.

But played in an unusual format.

Three teams play each other and one team wins. Team 1 plays team 2 for 40 minutes, team 2 plays team 3 for 40 minutes and team 3 plays team 1 for 40 minutes. The team with the most points at the end of that is the winner.

Start with 27 teams, that is the 16 NRL + 11 invitees. Maybe 2 NSW cup, 6 Qld Cup, 1 NZ bartercard team, a country NSW and country Qld combined sides. Then new teams like the Reds/Bears etc could be invited in future years.

Later in the year maybe 5 rounds to go the winner plays against the winner and runner up of the pacific islands tournament whilst Australia plays NZ.

 

[Mark Rudd]

And whatever they have, call it the Panasonic Cup.

 

[babyg]

The thing that worries me about stand alone weekends is not maximising TV ratings as the games would be going head to head with other sports. Maybe have it on a Sunday night to give it a special feel.

Other than that -
NZ vs Pacific Islanders:f:
City v Country:f:
7s/9s tournament:f:

 

[DINGb@T]

I've always thought that if every NRL club was associated with two QLD/NSW cup teams then you could run a knockout comp where the NRL players not involved in Origin and other rep duties go back to their 'Cup' team and play.

That way every NRL fan has two teams to choose from - easy if it's St George/Illawarra or Wests/Balmain etc and they each had a team in the NSW Cup - and they can even play each other in the first round to make sure only one progresses and every supporter from the NRL team can follow their team through the rest of the comp.

16 games in the first round, 8, 4, 2 and the final. That covers the mid-year test, 3 Origin games, maybe a City/Country round and then the final which could be another bye round or something.

 

[Mark Rudd]

I'd much rather see something involving players from NZ and the various Pacific Islands.

 

[carlosthedwarf]

I think that's a fantastic idea. I'd love to see a mid-season cup, especially if it included some NSW/QLD/other regional sides. As others stated it's a good way to get the new teams in and have some more exposure for local sides. Seeing a NSW/QLD cup team string a few wins together against NRL quality sides would be a great story.

It would also give some exposure to players not playing NRL currently who have the ability to play in the top tier.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

I was reading the latest On The Road article on Nrl.com about a mid year cup. With stand-alone origin weekends the preferred option from most players and the lack of quality NRL matches lately would you like to see a mid-season cup? I'd personally like to see a four way tournament played between Pacific Island All-Stars, NZ Maori, Barbarians (Europeans, Png, Caucasian Kiwis) & an emerging Australian side made up of fringe origin players. What are your thoughts? What would you like to see?

Wow, this idea is actually feasible I reckon, well done as I normally hate any idea's to change the current structure.

Could be a cracker, do it over 2 weeks I reckon.

 

[The Observer]

In the Sun Herald today, Phil Gould published his Grand plan to beat burnout.

 

[jasonstevenswedgie]

The Roar published a story on the mid-season cup proposal More Games For TV / Less Burden On Rep Players / Every Player Available For Every Premiership Game By Warren Young

Young's full proposal is attached in two PDF documents, 20 & 24 pages.

good read and a great idea.

-like the school based ideas - change the u20s to under u23s to coincide with gaining a degree or finishing you trade off.

The kiwis need some for of origin or international series through the origin period to harden them up for the anzac test, to raise funds for the nzrl and to increase exposure in NZ during the rugby season