Wild Card Weekend - reports NRL looking to expand finals to ten teams

[Big Salad]

I'd be okay with this if we move up to 18 teams. For 16 teams it's ridiculous.

 

[Captain Apollo]

Omg the poll on nrl.com is somehow 51% yes
This sport truly has the dumbest fans

Polls are bullshit.

The tide is turning, this is what the NRL website poll was showing at the time of this post -

 

[Dogs Of War]

Omg the poll on nrl.com is somehow 51% yes
This sport truly has the dumbest fans

Parra fans out voting in numbers. Still won't let them qualify for the finals.

 

[TheFrog]

Why stop there though? Why not have teams 11 and 12 involved too? What makes teams 9 and 10 any better than 11 and 12.

There were 4 wins between 9th and 12th. That's a lot of wins.

 

[Valheru]

It will be interesting to see what the NRL do with this now as I haven't seen an idea so widely panned by supporters in a long time although the poll on their own website is conveniently close.

 

[Valheru]

Jesus there’s some dramatic motherf**kers on this forum.

I don’t see what the big deal is... it’s an extra week of football and provides hope for 2 more teams and fan bases.

Makes sense to me...

All this high and mighty argument about the sanctity of the competition is all horseshit...

If people seriously gave a shit about it they be running it home and away round robin like the EPL.

Except we all like the finals and the NRL are smart enough to realise this is an opportunity to make more money through 2 extra games as well as a whole extra finals week of publicity.

I see all this moaning about it but does anyone think it won’t rate well??

It just looks like easy money to me...

No, one of the reasons Australian sports has finals (and American sports) is because it is not a true home and away season. The whole point of the finals is to have the best teams playoff to be champions.

You have to cut off the qualification point somewhere, how many teams do you think the perfect number is?

 

[Captain Apollo]

There were 4 wins between 9th and 12th. That's a lot of wins.

Yes, but we are all looking at it through the prism of solely the 2018 table. In other years, the disparity between teams is far greater.

2014 Ladder



2015 Ladder



2016 Ladder



2017 Ladder



and just so we have it all in the one place....

2018 Ladder

 

[franklin2323]

It will be interesting to see what the NRL do with this now as I haven't seen an idea so widely panned by supporters in a long time although the poll on their own website is conveniently close.

An intern could be keep on voting for all we know. I am sure the poll on FB and Twitter will match the one on this site

 

[King hit]

Quote from Graham Annesley

“It’s a great product for tv”

Another impact of Super League. Tv stations are so dominant when it comes to scheduling

 

[shiznit]

No, one of the reasons Australian sports has finals (and American sports) is because it is not a true home and away season. The whole point of the finals is to have the best teams playoff to be champions.

You have to cut off the qualification point somewhere, how many teams do you think the perfect number is?

Lmfao... the whole point of the finals is to make money.

The NRL could do a complete home and away schedule if they wanted to... it would be the same length season when you include the finals.

The only reason they don’t do that is because they know they would lose out on all the money generated by the finals... especially the grand final.

Which is perfectly fine.... I love finals football.

As for what I prefer as the cut off... I honestly don’t give a shit.

As long as every team has about the same chance as everyone else at the start of the season then I could care less about having 4 or 400 teams in the finals.

All I see here is 1 extra week of finals football and 2 extra sudden death games... and more money for the game.

All good to me...

 

[Timmah]

Quote from Graham Annesley

“It’s a great product for tv”

Another impact of Super League. Tv stations are so dominant when it comes to scheduling

When you've got hundreds of thousands watching at home vs only tens of thousands at grounds that's what happens.

 

[shiznit]

It will be interesting to see what the NRL do with this now as I haven't seen an idea so widely panned by supporters in a long time although the poll on their own website is conveniently close.

If they have any f**king smarts about them they would ignore all the sooks...

Give it a go for a season or 2... see what the crowds and the ratings are for the wildcard games and if they do well then keep them... if they stink then go back to the current format.

The problem for the sooks though is they won’t want to even try it because common sense says it will rate the house down.

 

[2 weeks]

If it means extra weeks of Raiders wackiness then i'm all for it.
But bring in slight adjustments just for these 2 games.
I propose that instead of the coin toss, opposing captains should roshambo.

 

[Diesel]

1694 votes thus far, 80% to no, 20% to yes.

 

[Mr Angry]

Reward for mediocracy replaced by reward for failure.

1 point.

VFL will be onto this.

 

[Vee]

Jesus there’s some dramatic motherf**kers on this forum.

I don’t see what the big deal is... it’s an extra week of football and provides hope for 2 more teams and fan bases.

Makes sense to me...

All this high and mighty argument about the sanctity of the competition is all horseshit...

If people seriously gave a shit about it they be running it home and away round robin like the EPL.

Except we all like the finals and the NRL are smart enough to realise this is an opportunity to make more money through 2 extra games as well as a whole extra finals week of publicity.

I see all this moaning about it but does anyone think it won’t rate well??

It just looks like easy money to me...

It can actually apply to a lot more teams. E.g. 2018, the teams below Canberra would be trying their guts out to get 10th instead of being ruled out 6 weeks early.

 

[Surely]

Why stop there why not make every final a best of three

 

[myrrh ken]

Have a shield.
Then have a cup with all 16.

 

[Captain Apollo]

The No vote continues to climb on the poll on the NRL's website -

 

[Valheru]

If they have any f**king smarts about them they would ignore all the sooks...

Give it a go for a season or 2... see what the crowds and the ratings are for the wildcard games and if they do well then keep them... if they stink then go back to the current format.

The problem for the sooks though is they won’t want to even try it because common sense says it will rate the house down.

So ignore your core stakeholders?

It's not having a sook, there are logical reasons to be against the idea. Presumably one reason to have it would be to give the fans more hope and/or a greater chance of seeing their teams in finals footy yet the fans are vehemently against it.

May as well have all 16 teams make it because ratings!