NRL future planning

[Galeforce]

I have created this thread with the inclusion of a POLL on the number of rounds for future years.

Regardless of your vote preference include any other issues and suggestions you think the NRL should be planning on.

My own view

1) NRL must make plans now to make the game National by including teams from

Perth
Adelaide
and perhaps in the future Darwin

Could result in a MAX 18 team competition with any further inclusions by the reduction/relocation of existing clubs

2) As a club fan , my priority is Club , then Origin and then International . As such my view is that there should be no reduction in the number of NRL rounds to cater for Origin. Internationals are mostly played at season end which is great for offseason viewing. Origin just needs to be squeezed in .The Origin players are well paid to play.

3) I hate the NRL playing with the game allocation. This is a sort of FIX and is not professional.
The NRL should allocate the games each round based on a RANDOM Objective Draw of home team/opponent.This could become a TV event as each First round games is drawn fairly. Second round follows the first round , and home and away applies.

4) As for the allocation within a Round , there should be an objective that ALL teams have the same number of turnaround days between games , be it 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 days.

5) Reduce the FAT NRL bureaucracy with objective the NRL money evenly between the Clubs and grassroots investment and Player Insurance/superannuation and Facility Investment where possible for HQ/Owned Grounds. The NRL should stop funding clubs like Titans / Knights . It is up to these clubs to run their teams efficiently or lose their rights .

 

[Perth Red]

1. 20 year expansion plan to bring in Perth, Brisbane2, Adelaide and NZ2
2. National 2nd tier two conference comp on TV inc PNG and PI's, non NRL club attached and with a draft or similar out of it
3. Set admin and running of NRL comp at an agreed % of revenue
4. Introduce a salary and non player football cap at no more than max of grant amount
5. Develop a fan attendance strategy
6. Keep employing the membership staff at clubs
7. Stand alone Origin/International weekends
8. 5 year International calendar with full tours
9. World Nines in Feb
10. True World Club Grand Final series at end of year

 

[Saxon]

My preference

All Stars Round
Indigenous v all comers

23 Rounds.
Two pools - those who finished in an odd position last season (1st, 3rd, 5th ... 15th) and those who finished even (2nd, 4th ... spoon).
Teams play every other team once, and every team from the opposite pool a second time.

Anzac Round
Australia v NZ

3 Stand alone Origin weekends
Origin and one or more internationals from Pacific Nations, England/Scotland/Wales (not GB) /Ireland. Throw in Australia A and NZ A; the constraint here is you can't have played more than 2 Tests in the last 4 years and were not selected for the Anzac Test.

And 100% agree with Perth Red's point 10;
10. True World Club Grand Final series at end of year
To be played 2 weeks after the Grand Final alternating between UK and Aus.

 

[POPEYE]

My preference

All Stars Round
Indigenous v all comers

23 Rounds.
Two pools - those who finished in an odd position last season (1st, 3rd, 5th ... 15th) and those who finished even (2nd, 4th ... spoon).
Teams play every other team once, and every team from the opposite pool a second time.

Anzac Round
Australia v NZ

3 Stand alone Origin weekends
Origin and one or more internationals from Pacific Nations, England/Scotland/Wales (not GB) /Ireland. Throw in Australia A and NZ A; the constraint here is you can't have played more than 2 Tests in the last 4 years and were not selected for the Anzac Test.

And 100% agree with Perth Red's point 10;
10. True World Club Grand Final series at end of year
To be played 2 weeks after the Grand Final alternating between UK and Aus.

As long as your . . . and thousands of others . . . idea on Origin stand alone weekends is adopted the NRL could pull the draw out of a hat and it would better than what they dish up now

 

[Diesel]

I don't think the competition needs to start on 1 March. It's still f**king hot and the Titans always play home games at 1pm.

Smarter scheduling, few games in NQ in March/early April. NZ and ACT/Vic games to be played in the day or early evening and not to clash with AFL/RU. Games to be schuduled where a club has a PH on the Monday, play a Sunday night/Monday arvo game, f**k it if it doesn't suit NSW.

 

[flippikat]

1. 20 year expansion plan to bring in Perth, Brisbane2, Adelaide and NZ2
2. National 2nd tier two conference comp on TV inc PNG and PI's, non NRL club attached and with a draft or similar out of it
3. Set admin and running of NRL comp at an agreed % of revenue
4. Introduce a salary and non player football cap at no more than max of grant amount
5. Develop a fan attendance strategy
6. Keep employing the membership staff at clubs
7. Stand alone Origin/International weekends
8. 5 year International calendar with full tours
9. World Nines in Feb
10. True World Club Grand Final series at end of year

Yep. I like the 4 expansion clubs. 20 team competition makes sense.. the other points make sense to grow the game too.

20 teams is probably as many as we can have in the league, any further expansion markets would probably need to wait for any natural attrition in an over-saturated Sydney market.

 

[jim_57]

You don't even need to reduce the season length or amount of club games to have stand alone rep weekends for Origin.

Currently it is:
26 NRL rounds (24 games each team) + 1 Rep round = 27 weeks

You could easily have
24 Full NRL rounds + 3 Rep rounds (Origin, NZ V Eng, Pacific Tests etc) = 27 weeks

Gets rid of the dud half round cripple fights and with Pacific Tests, NZ/England, Women & Junior games and Origin there is more than enough content to fill 3 weekends.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

1. 20 year expansion plan to bring in Perth, Brisbane2, Adelaide and NZ2
2. National 2nd tier two conference comp on TV inc PNG and PI's, non NRL club attached and with a draft or similar out of it
3. Set admin and running of NRL comp at an agreed % of revenue
4. Introduce a salary and non player football cap at no more than max of grant amount
5. Develop a fan attendance strategy
6. Keep employing the membership staff at clubs
7. Stand alone Origin/International weekends
8. 5 year International calendar with full tours
9. World Nines in Feb
10. True World Club Grand Final series at end of year

4 new expansion teams?

lol

Keep jogging!!

 

[T-Boon]

1. Get the game right on the field. Existing fans are dropping off...why?

 

[M2D2]

1) NRL must make plans now to make the game National by including teams from

Perth
Adelaide
and perhaps in the future Darwin
.

lol. no.

 

[Lambretta]

Currently the Origin teams have almost two weeks to prepare their sides

If you do an Origin as a stand alone weekend, that will be reduced to less than one week in many cases unless you have the weekend BEFORE Origin as an empty schedule on the calendar

The State sides won't agree to a 6 day preparation
The fans won't agree to an empty weekend with no football

The current set up can be worked with if the scheduling is done correctly

 

[Captain Apollo]

Currently the Origin teams have almost two weeks to prepare their sides

If you do an Origin as a stand alone weekend, that will be reduced to less than one week in many cases unless you have the weekend BEFORE Origin as an empty schedule on the calendar

The State sides won't agree to a 6 day preparation
The fans won't agree to an empty weekend with no football

The current set up can be worked with if the scheduling is done correctly

They did it ok in 2001 with all 3 Origin games on stand alone weekends. Only reason it didn't stay was all the pissing and moaning like "I can't have a bbq before the game" type complaints that the usual suspects in the media played up in the lead up to all 3 games.

 

[taipan]

4 new expansion teams?

lol

Keep jogging!!

He's a live one ,our sandgroper .

 

[Timmah]

It'll never happen, but a 19-round, 20 team comp where all teams play each other once, is fine by me. To fill the other five weekends and bring it to a 24-week regular season, three Origin weekends, one All-Star and one International weekend scattered throughout.

E.g.

Rounds 1-6
All Stars
Rounds 7-11
Origin - three weekends
Rounds 12-15
International Weekend
Rounds 16-19

 

[Timmah]

3) I hate the NRL playing with the game allocation. This is a sort of FIX and is not professional.
The NRL should allocate the games each round based on a RANDOM Objective Draw of home team/opponent.This could become a TV event as each First round games is drawn fairly. Second round follows the first round , and home and away applies.

While this is all fine and dandy, fans would be up in arms. There are so many major marquee fixtures which encourage attendance. Is "having a fair and balanced draw" good enough reason to abandon those?

 

[Last Week]

They did it ok in 2001 with all 3 Origin games on stand alone weekends. Only reason it didn't stay was all the pissing and moaning like "I can't have a bbq before the game" type complaints that the usual suspects in the media played up in the lead up to all 3 games.

Pretty sure people were bored as there were no other games that weekend and had to wait until Sunday night.

It's a tough one. Stand alone takes pressure off of clubs so they don't lose players. The season is shorter so every game is that little bit more important.

On the other hand, having it on a Wednesday gives it media coverage unchallenged by any other sport due to there being no other games played.

I look forward to game two being stand alone on a Sunday next year with international games also played on the weekend. I think that's the right mix and hope it goes that way for all 3 Origin games.

 

[Galeforce]

While this is all fine and dandy, fans would be up in arms. There are so many major marquee fixtures which encourage attendance. Is "having a fair and balanced draw" good enough reason to abandon those?

Unqualified YES

You cannot predict which teams are going to be UP or Down on form.

Sports use Objective draws for FAIR seasons. Smart sports make an event out of the draw......take the FIFA World Cup draw as an example , which has a huge television audience. Or American Football NEW player allocation draw .

NRL pays for some "smart" folk to take a couple of months to FIX a draw , instead of actually making money by making an event of it and getting it done in 1 day. Go figure.
And new players are allocated based on Player Managers behind secret doors , working with media and Rumour mongers .

 

[Timmah]

Unqualified YES

You cannot predict which teams are going to be UP or Down on form.

Sports use Objective draws for FAIR seasons. Smart sports make an event out of the draw......take the FIFA World Cup draw as an example , which has a huge television audience. Or American Football NEW player allocation draw .

NRL pays for some "smart" folk to take a couple of months to FIX a draw , instead of actually making money by making an event of it and getting it done in 1 day. Go figure.
And new players are allocated based on Player Managers behind secret doors , working with media and Rumour mongers .

"making an event of the draw" is all well and good for short tournaments and knock-outs. It doesn't work for full-season sporting codes.

 

[Diesel]

Currently the Origin teams have almost two weeks to prepare their sides

If you do an Origin as a stand alone weekend, that will be reduced to less than one week in many cases unless you have the weekend BEFORE Origin as an empty schedule on the calendar

The State sides won't agree to a 6 day preparation
The fans won't agree to an empty weekend with no football

The current set up can be worked with if the scheduling is done correctly

Yet they expect the Kiwis and Kangaroos to. Announce teams Sunday night and play Friday night

 

[Timmah]

The fans won't agree to an empty weekend with no football

This particular issue is incredibly easy to combat.