Season length

[Whoosh]

18 week is perfect.

If they had the balls to chop it short they would increase crowds, increase the standard of footy, increase the pressure. TV numbers will follow as a result.

Throw in dedicated rep weeks and you have a longer season.

Oh and a bloody top 5 or 6 make the finals, not half the bloody comp!

It pains me to agree with a Queenslander - but this makes sense.

 

[Coaster]

It pains me to agree with a Queenslander - but this makes sense.

Is that Boyd in your avatar Whoosh,my dad bought me his 1980 test jumper against NZ as a kid but it was stolen. I wonder if that is the jumper in that photo

 

[kia ora storm]

52 weeks please...I hate the off season.

 

[BIKER_DRAGON]

apart from killing the players, the middle 24 weeks of the season will be terrible. the players will lose interest, the fans will lose interest, the coaches will lose interest.

it would be terrible. almost no one would put out a full strength team on any week, the std of play would suffer, badly. imagine Cronulla v NQ on a sat night in july in week 20 of the season with 12 rounds to go and neither team capable of making the finals. 2000 would be a good crowd.

What a complete load of utter crap

 

[skeepe]

32 weeks everybody plays each other twice

You might want to check your maths on that one.

 

[Gaba]

The major premiership should be

All teams play each other once
first past the post gets $500,000

minor premiership (top 8 teams)
Top 8 team comp where each team plays the other once

finals top 4
Every game a knock out
1 v 4
2 v 3

week 2 grandfinal

teams who missed on the finals , play in a knock out comp

 

[Firey_Dragon]

It should be 18 rounds
Play each team once, then 3 "rivalry" rounds. No expansion, we don't have the player depth IMO to support more teams in the comp. Quality props and halves are few and far between, the overall quality of the comp would suffer. Until the NRL gets their junior development program's right expansion should not even be considered.

 

[Hass]

I agree that the length of the main competition should be shorter.

I personally favour 18 rounds, but think 22 might be a more realistic compromise (it was 22 rounds afterall during the "glory days" before the Super League war).

Quite simply the comp loses focus in the middle months once the shine of the new season has worn off and the finals are still months away. It is only compounded by the intrusion of State of Origin on playing rosters, making the whole middle of the comp feel like an afterthought.

I agree with starting the season off in regional areas with something like the old Tooheys challenge. You could make it round-robin then finals, straight knockout, double elimination or even a Swiss system. This comp would still be broadcast on TV, bringing in the $$ while also bringing top-class footy to the bush. At the same time fans in the cities would not be going to games - they'd be able to save up their moolah for the shorter premiership season to come.

So let's say a four or five-week pre-season comp. Then an 18 round premiership, with stand alone weekends for Origin and at least one Test (perhaps a Sevens tournament could also be played on these weekends to ensure air-time is filled). Then a four-week finals series.

Sometimes less is more.

 

[BIKER_DRAGON]

You might want to check your maths on that one.

16 teams counting the 2 byes for each team

 

[skeepe]

16 teams counting the 2 byes for each team

Ah yes I wasn't thinking about the byes. Apologies.

 

[BIKER_DRAGON]

Ok try this one out with a 16 team comp. Everybody plays each other once. After this first 15 round season the competition then splits into 2 divisions, top 8 and bottom 8. Points start again and every team plays each other team in their division once. At the end of this 7 week block, the top 2 teams from the bottom 8 comp replace the bottom 2 teams from the top 8 comp, who are eliminated. At this point the minor premiership is awarded to the top ranked team in the Top 8 comp. The bottom 8 competition is now finished. The top 8 comp, including the 2 teams that have been promoted from bottom 8, is then continued as finals. This will run in the same way as the current system. 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 etc.

State of Origin, Test games and City vs Country are played on stand alone weekends between the regular 15wk comp and the divisional comp. This way there is no interference with regular club games and all teams have a fair chance in every game. There will be a 4 week break between the 15wk comp and the divisional comp where Origin will will be played on each saturday night of the first 3 weeks and City Country will be played as 3 round comp on the sundays. The city country teams will be selected from all states and all teams. Players from metropolitan areas will play for city, players from regional areas will play for country. The teams will be selected from all players not selected in origin squads. On the 4th weekend there will be an Australia vs NZ test match. Then we are back to the 7 round divisional comp.

This system forces the teams that just make the top 8 after the first 15 rounds to play hard to hold onto their spot in finals and also gives the teams in the bottom incentive to play harder to fight for those top two spots which will get them into the finals. All round we should see harder fought games as there is less time to recover from losses and big incentive to achieve.

 

[Hass]

Ok try this one out with a 16 team comp. Everybody plays each other once. After this first 15 round season the competition then splits into 2 divisions, top 8 and bottom 8. Points start again and every team plays each other team in their division once. At the end of this 7 week block, the top 2 teams from the bottom 8 comp replace the bottom 2 teams from the top 8 comp, who are eliminated. At this point the minor premiership is awarded to the top ranked team in the Top 8 comp. The bottom 8 competition is now finished. The top 8 comp, including the 2 teams that have been promoted from bottom 8, is then continued as finals. This will run in the same way as the current system. 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 etc.

State of Origin, Test games and City vs Country are played on stand alone weekends between the regular 15wk comp and the divisional comp. This way there is no interference with regular club games and all teams have a fair chance in every game.

This system forces the teams that just make the top 8 after the first 15 rounds to play hard to hold onto their spot in finals and also gives the teams in the bottom incentive to play harder to fight for those top two spots which will get them into the finals. All round we should see harder fought games as there is less time to recover from losses and big incentive to achieve.

That's not a bad system actually.

It provides some focus and excitement to the middle of the season ie. who's going to make the cut-off?

It contains a natural gap for a four or five week rep season during the dead of winter when people traditionally avoid going to matches. Although I'd suggest holding a knockout tournament in the bush during this period to fill the dead space.

Then you have a short seven-week run to the finals which should be more competitive due to splitting teams into divisions.

To make finishing in the top four after 15 rounds worthwhile I'd suggest these teams be allocated four home games and the bottom four allocated three home games during the seven-week bloc. Perhaps the top team could start on 2 points as an added incentive for good performance early on? Also, perhaps teams on equal points at the end of the period could be split using their ranking after 15 rounds rather than for-and-against. Otherwise a team could qualify for the top 8 division with a couple of weeks to go and have no incentive to keep winning, having already "done enough" and safe in the knowledge that points will reset.

 

[taipan]

18 teams in two conferences_the Churchill and Messenger conferences 2X9
each conference plays each other twice within the conference =16 games
Then play the other conference teams once only.=9 games
in total 25 games.This can be swapped around each year.
Each club gets 12 home games ,plus one to be played at a country,regional or other city venue,tallying up to 25 games.that promotional game profits to go to the area in which it is played.

Forget weekend stand alones for SOO,the Tv stations wouldn't have it,and it wouldn't rate like the midweek does.
Play tests no more than a couple of weeks after the G/F.One agisnt NZ and one against the Poms.

 

[taipan]

18 teams in two conferences_the Churchill and Messenger conferences 2X9
each conference plays each other twice within the conference =16 games
Then play the other conference teams once only.=9 games
in total 25 games.This can be swapped around each year.
Each club gets 12 home games ,plus one to be played at a country,regional or other city venue,tallying up to 25 games.that promotional game profits to go to the area in which it is played.

Forget weekend stand alones for SOO,the Tv stations wouldn't have it,and it wouldn't rate like the midweek does.
Play tests no more than a couple of weeks after the G/F.One agisnt NZ and one against the Poms.

 

[StormisBrewing]

Ok try this one out with a 16 team comp. Everybody plays each other once. After this first 15 round season the competition then splits into 2 divisions, top 8 and bottom 8. Points start again and every team plays each other team in their division once. At the end of this 7 week block, the top 2 teams from the bottom 8 comp replace the bottom 2 teams from the top 8 comp, who are eliminated. At this point the minor premiership is awarded to the top ranked team in the Top 8 comp. The bottom 8 competition is now finished. The top 8 comp, including the 2 teams that have been promoted from bottom 8, is then continued as finals. This will run in the same way as the current system. 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 etc.

State of Origin, Test games and City vs Country are played on stand alone weekends between the regular 15wk comp and the divisional comp. This way there is no interference with regular club games and all teams have a fair chance in every game. There will be a 4 week break between the 15wk comp and the divisional comp where Origin will will be played on each saturday night of the first 3 weeks and City Country will be played as 3 round comp on the sundays. The city country teams will be selected from all states and all teams. Players from metropolitan areas will play for city, players from regional areas will play for country. The teams will be selected from all players not selected in origin squads. On the 4th weekend there will be an Australia vs NZ test match. Then we are back to the 7 round divisional comp.

This system forces the teams that just make the top 8 after the first 15 rounds to play hard to hold onto their spot in finals and also gives the teams in the bottom incentive to play harder to fight for those top two spots which will get them into the finals. All round we should see harder fought games as there is less time to recover from losses and big incentive to achieve.

I really like that idea. The only problem I can see is that teams who finish 7 and 8 have considerably harder matches to finish in the top 6 than team 9 and 10 who are fighting for the top 2 in their division. To fix this, I'd have 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 (ie 7 in top vs 2 in bottom, 8 in top vs 1 in bottom) instead of automatically knocking out the last 2 in the top division. That does add an extra week to an already extended season though...

 

[BIKER_DRAGON]

I really like that idea. The only problem I can see is that teams who finish 7 and 8 have considerably harder matches to finish in the top 6 than team 9 and 10 who are fighting for the top 2 in their division. To fix this, I'd have 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 (ie 7 in top vs 2 in bottom, 8 in top vs 1 in bottom) instead of automatically knocking out the last 2 in the top division. That does add an extra week to an already extended season though...

Yep that sounds like a good idea

 

[RHCP]

This thread sparked my imagination somewhat. It's all purely hypothetical of course, but here's a system I think that could solve some problems.

18 teams in the competition. 19 rounds with each team getting 2 byes, 8 home games, 8 away games and one game at a neutral venue (Adelaide, Perth, Gosford, etc.). After the regular home-and-rounds, a 9 team finals series.

The top three miss week one of the finals, while 4 plays 5, 6 plays 7 and 8 plays 9. The second week the top thee all get a home final, playing the winning teams from week one. Team one plays the lowest ranked winner, team 2 the second lowest and team three the highest. The three winners and highest ranked loser make it through till week 3, where highest ranked winner vs lowest ranked winner and the second highest v second lowest in the semi's. Winners go onto the Grand Final. So, if we use the current Top 9 and assume those higher up on the ladder would win, the finals series would look like this:

Week One (Dragons, Panthers, Tigers get a rest) - Qualifying Finals
Roosters (4) v Warriors (5) - SFS
Sea Eagles (6) v Broncos (7) - Brookvale
Titans (8) v Rabbitohs (9) - Skilled

Week Two - Semi Finals
Dragons (1) v Titans (8) - Win
Panthers (2) v Sea Eagles (6) - CUA
Tigers (3) v Roosters (4) - Leichhardt

Week Three - Preliminary Finals
Dragons (1) v Roosters (4) - ANZ
Panthers (2) v Tigers (3) - ANZ

Week Four - Grand Final
Dragons (1) v Panthers (2) - ANZ

City v Country is played as a curtain raiser to the Grand Final, using players from the teams which aren't involved in the Grand Final. Two weeks after, State of Origin series is played, the Pacific Cup at the same time, perhaps a NZ v England test, followed by the Four Nations/World Cup to end the year.

There are flaws in this system as there are with all, but the pros I see are:
- Gives the top three a deserved advantage over the other teams in the finals series and the middle three an advantage over the bottom three
- Prelim's at ANZ to maximise revunue
- Increases the profile of City v Country (albeit slightly) so it's a true selection trial
- Clubs unaffected by Origin/Tests in the regular season
- Less pointless games in the middle of the year
- Interstate & International games being unaffected by injuries that may occur in the regular season