Peter V'landys - New NRL/ARLC Chairman

[Dr T]

Interesting thought …. I’m trying to decide if this means they are in a strong position to be able to start talking about less content or not happy with the initial talks to date ?

Yep I think you might be right. We need to read between the lines if this is coming from the NRL and not the imagination of a journo hack. Both of which are possible. I wonder what is really going on in the negotiations.

 

[Jetka100]

Stopping the season for 3 weeks for stand alone Origin is probably one of the worst ideas going around.

 

[Chins]

Stopping the season for 3 weeks for stand alone Origin is probably one of the worst ideas going around.

Its fantastic, the only thing better would be Origin dying off

 

[Captain Apollo]

Its fantastic, the only thing better would be Origin dying off

Yes, let's have the game lose 10% or so of its overall income stream. Thank you Magnus Magnesium

 

[Chins]

Yes, let's have the game lose 10% or so of its overall income stream. Thank you Magnus Magnesium

Origin being replaced by a International rep calendar is a matter of when not if.
They'll allow Australian born Kiwi's like Casey McLean to play to help milk it but its on borrowed time and that's a good thing.

 

[newc18]

Stopping the season for 3 weeks for stand alone Origin is probably one of the worst ideas going around.

It's fairer on the players as they don't need to backup and it's fairer on the clubs as they won't miss players they are paying so much money for.

The only thing going against it is that a section of NRL fans have no patience even though you could pack the weekends full of Rugby League games anyway.

Thursday night - Under 20's Origin
Friday night- Women's Origin
Saturday - Test matches (New Zealand, England, PNG, etc. all get to have their own rep games.)
Sunday night - Men's Origin

Overall it's better for the competition going forward, especially if we are reducing the rounds.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

One thing is a dead eye cert, if you stop the competition for three rounds for Origin you can forget selling the regular season separate to Origin or even an Origin /Rep three week break.

No FTA provider is going to put up with a three-week break in their schedule.

I`d be very surprised if the clubs would agree to it either.

 

[newc18]

 

[T-Boon]

Talking about cutting 8 rounds when you want top dollar doesn’t sound like a smart ploy

Just leave the number of games as is or cut by one but still have stand alone origin games and potentially an expanded international program with Tonga v Samoa mid season

They can get a lot more money for each NRL game by doing what all the rich american sports do which is scrap the boring English model of 2 halves and have quarters.

 

[Last Week]

I have previously heard of that reported proposal.

But I also heard about the one below - which to me makes more sense by maximising commercial interest. Commercial interesting maximised via the rivalries.

20 teams.
22 rounds.
19 home or away games against each team once.
3 extra home and away games against rivals (play twice a season).
220 regular season games.

stand alone origin weekend.
3 games.
223 overall games (220+3).

4 week finals.
9 games.
232 overall games (+9).

6 week internationals fixtures.
18 games
250 overall games (232+18).

Under this proposal let’s take Broncos for example.

Broncos would play 19 H&A games against the other 19 clubs. They then would also play rivals twice a season in H&A to boost commercial return.

So that would logically mean 2 games a season home AND away vs Titans, Cowboys & Dolphins guaranteed games numbers 20, 21 & 22.

If there’s more rivals then these extra 3 games could alternate clubs ie vs Phins and Cows (twice) each single season but vs Titans (for example) twice in seasons 2028, 2030, 2032 and vs Storm twice in alternate seasons 2029, 2031, 2033 etc. This is to keep rivalries burning strong.

Souths for example would play 19 games against each club and their 3 extra H&A rivalry games would be Roosters (twice each season), Dragons and Dogs or whoever. Etc

Internationals at the end of the season would resemble something like:

Wk1
Aus v nz
Sam v tong
Eng bye
PNG v Fiji
France v Cook

Wk 2
Aus v Eng
Tong v nz
Sam Bye
Cook v Fiji
PNG v France

Wk 3
Aus v tong
Sam v Eng
Nz bye
Fiji v France
Cook v PNG

Wk 4
Nz v Eng
Aus v Sam
Tong bye

Wk 5
nz v Sam
Tong v Eng
Aus bye
Final minor (png France cook Fiji)

Wk 6
Final major

4 international teams works better than 5 in compressing 6 weeks back into 4. But excluding England only hurts the game overall. Hard balance.

250 overall games. It’s the late international 6 week calendar that needs to be condensed whilst also keeping up momentum but also not pushing the overall season too far along. Fine balancing act.

22 weeks + 3 weeks + 4 weeks + 6 weeks
35 weeks of RL from the first week of March. Hard slog.

Honestly, it's not that hard and this works great, but there is no chance that the NRL season is completely shut down for 3 weeks. It's a loss in coverage and takes eyes of Channel 9 and Fox Sports. Best hope is split rounds. It would be a demand from broadcasters so that they can sell advertising space on a consistent basis.

There is also little chance of Origin being moved away from Wednesdays due to the 10 day lead in that the Origin coaches want and the uncontested content on Wednesdays.

NRL Round 13 finishes on the Sunday 1st June.
Mid season trade window opens at 12:01am Monday 2nd of June.

NRL Round 14a starts Thursday 5th June, finishes Sunday 8th June.
Origin 1 Wednesday 11th June.

NRL Round 14b starts Friday 13th June, finishes Sunday 15th June.
Origin 2 Wednesday 18th June.

NRL round 15a starts Friday 20th of June, finishes Sunday 22nd of June.
Origin 3 Wednesday 25th of June.

NRL round 15b starts Friday 27th of June, finishes Sunday 29th of June.
Mid season trade window closes at 11:59pm Monday the 30th of June.

NRL Round 16 resumes on Thursday 3rd of July.

*Dedicated trade window.
*NRL clubs are only without players for 2 matches.
*Origin coaches get their 10 day lead in to game 1.
*5 games a weekend which allows for Nine to have Friday and Sunday footy, and Fox to keep their 'Super Saturday'.
*Gives players a rest before and after Origin without the need to back up.

Test matches are not the solution to dealing with the Origin period drop in content. It lessens the prestige of both Tests and Origin by flooding the market with it aswell as detracting from the attention of each other.

 

[Captain Apollo]

They can get a lot more money for each NRL game by doing what all the rich american sports do which is scrap the boring English model of 2 halves and have quarters.

Yes. They can also have separate squads for offence, defence and kick-offs/punts. Give each team 3 time outs per half. Also have a special "TV time out" in the last 2 minutes in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

Dude, not everything from the US sports market is immediately transferrable to Australia and going to be a sure fire revenue raiser. In all honesty, reducing games to 20 minute quarters makes defending a lot easier as players get more rest during a game, thuis reducing fatigue. If you want an exhibit this was proven over 20 odd years or so, the old mid-week cup competition (KB/Tooths/AMCO Cup) they used to have at Leichhardt Oval on Wednesday nights showed that.

 

[Trifili13]

Yes. They can also have separate squads for offence, defence and kick-offs/punts. Give each team 3 time outs per half. Also have a special "TV time out" in the last 2 minutes in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

Dude, not everything from the US sports market is immediately transferrable to Australia and going to be a sure fire revenue raiser. In all honesty, reducing games to 20 minutyes quarters makes defending a lot easier as players get more res during a game, thuis reducing fatigue. If you want an exhibit this was proven over 20 odd years or so, the old mid-week cup competition (KB/Tooths/AMCO Cup) theyt used to have at Leiccahrd Oval on Wednesday nights showed that.

It might stop Ennis using the 'F' word so worth a try.

 

[WepnutV]

I

One thing is a dead eye cert, if you stop the competition for three rounds for Origin you can forget selling the regular season separate to Origin or even an Origin /Rep three week break.

No FTA provider is going to put up with a three-week break in their schedule.

I`d be very surprised if the clubs would agree to it either.

I agree it’s dead set stupid i idea. I reckon Origin needs to be put on at the end of the year when the season is over. The it won’t impact the season like it does.

 

[Dogs Of War]

Honestly, it's not that hard and this works great, but there is no chance that the NRL season is completely shut down for 3 weeks. It's a loss in coverage and takes eyes of Channel 9 and Fox Sports. Best hope is split rounds. It would be a demand from broadcasters so that they can sell advertising space on a consistent basis.

There is also little chance of Origin being moved away from Wednesdays due to the 10 day lead in that the Origin coaches want and the uncontested content on Wednesdays.

NRL Round 13 finishes on the Sunday 1st June.
Mid season trade window opens at 12:01am Monday 2nd of June.

NRL Round 14a starts Thursday 5th June, finishes Sunday 8th June.
Origin 1 Wednesday 11th June.

NRL Round 14b starts Friday 13th June, finishes Sunday 15th June.
Origin 2 Wednesday 18th June.

NRL round 15a starts Friday 20th of June, finishes Sunday 22nd of June.
Origin 3 Wednesday 25th of June.

NRL round 15b starts Friday 27th of June, finishes Sunday 29th of June.
Mid season trade window closes at 11:59pm Monday the 30th of June.

NRL Round 16 resumes on Thursday 3rd of July.

*Dedicated trade window.
*NRL clubs are only without players for 2 matches.
*Origin coaches get their 10 day lead in to game 1.
*5 games a weekend which allows for Nine to have Friday and Sunday footy, and Fox to keep their 'Super Saturday'.
*Gives players a rest before and after Origin without the need to back up.

Test matches are not the solution to dealing with the Origin period drop in content. It lessens the prestige of both Tests and Origin by flooding the market with it aswell as detracting from the attention of each other.

I do that they really should go for Origin squads of say 22 players. Play Wednesday, Sunday and then Wednesday again with around 10 days inbetween matches. Players at max miss two games potentially.

That Sunday game can be an international weekend for NZ etc as well. So you have split rounds around the Wednesday night games.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

I do that they really should go for Origin squads of say 22 players. Play Wednesday, Sunday and then Wednesday again with around 10 days inbetween matches. Players at max miss two games potentially.

That Sunday game can be an international weekend for NZ etc as well. So you have split rounds around the Wednesday night games.

Yeah I like this idea. Pad out the weekends with NRLW and other internationals. The ratings seemed to be around 400-500k for the Pacific Championships, not too bad.

 

[Manurewa_Marlins]

Be interesting to see how the viewing and attendance for tests involving Pacific nations would look without Origin stars in 2027 versus how it looked say ten years ago prior to the great defection.

 

[mccarthyj367]

That would be the most Rugby League thing ever to force Brian To'o, Stephen Crichton, Robert Toia et al to have to choose NSW or Samoa/Tonga on any given weekend. Then put out a weakened test match alongside it which is derided. We are so stupid as a sport sometimes we don't need any enemies.

Both products pack stadiums, both products have star power. Do not dilute them to prove a point over what it means to be a Blue or Maroon. The world has changed and is not going back.

 

[BuffaloRules]

That would be the most Rugby League thing ever to force Brian To'o, Stephen Crichton, Robert Toia et al to have to choose NSW or Samoa/Tonga on any given weekend. Then put out a weakened test match alongside it which is derided. We are so stupid as a sport sometimes we don't need any enemies.

Both products pack stadiums, both products have star power. Do not dilute them to prove a point over what it means to be a Blue or Maroon. The world has changed and is not going back.

Samoa and Tonga won’t be playing at the same time as Origin for this reason

 

[T-Boon]

Yes. They can also have separate squads for offence, defence and kick-offs/punts. Give each team 3 time outs per half. Also have a special "TV time out" in the last 2 minutes in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

Dude, not everything from the US sports market is immediately transferrable to Australia and going to be a sure fire revenue raiser. In all honesty, reducing games to 20 minute quarters makes defending a lot easier as players get more rest during a game, thuis reducing fatigue. If you want an exhibit this was proven over 20 odd years or so, the old mid-week cup competition (KB/Tooths/AMCO Cup) they used to have at Leichhardt Oval on Wednesday nights showed that.

Having quarter time breaks is absolutely immediately transferable and brings more $$. It is an easy one. Absolutely sure fire. The minor issue you raise is easily fixed as well.

 

[Wb1234]

Having quarter time breaks is absolutely immediately transferable and brings more $$. It is an easy one. Absolutely sure fire. The minor issue you raise is easily fixed as well.

They were talking about doing 4 x 25 minute quarters

Need to keep fatigue in the game