Re: 12 team Superleague? : Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:52 am  

One reason for suggesting a reduction to 12 teams was the top players wanting to play less games. If we cut to 12 teams and all play each other home and away plus the edinburgh fixture then that's 23 rounds. At the minute we play 27 rounds. If the top players are whining about playing 4 extra games per season with the current training and conditioning they get then there is something wrong with them somewhere in my opinion. Maybe we should have a more australian type fixture list where you don't play everyone home and away every year? That would allow more teams into the SL without overloading the fixture list.

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Thu Feb 04, 2010 4:12 pm  

Gazemous wrote:

The one thing I'm truly worried about is the number of pathways young players have to the top level of the game. We want to encourage youth development and more international quality players, but then reduce the number of positions those youngsters can get experience with...

And the teams that would probably be chopped: Cas, Wakey and Salford, have all provided international players in the last year.

If the overseas is cut as it should be, there still wouldn't be enought young players coming through to fill 12 teams, let alone 14.

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:41 pm  

Gotcha wrote:

If the overseas is cut as it should be, there still wouldn't be enought young players coming through to fill 12 teams, let alone 14.

How do you work that out?

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:17 pm  

Wilderspool memories wrote:

One reason for suggesting a reduction to 12 teams was the top players wanting to play less games. If we cut to 12 teams and all play each other home and away plus the edinburgh fixture then that's 23 rounds. At the minute we play 27 rounds. If the top players are whining about playing 4 extra games per season with the current training and conditioning they get then there is something wrong with them somewhere in my opinion. Maybe we should have a more australian type fixture list where you don't play everyone home and away every year? That would allow more teams into the SL without overloading the fixture list.

Yeah and they will all take a reduction in wages to balance the books won't they

Lots a fans have made sacrifices in the current climate to attend games but the players won't take less money for less games will they?

SL needs to EXPAND not contract IMO.

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:24 pm  

I agree and if we adopt the current australian idea regarding fixtures(an idea that was in actual fact used in this country many years ago)then we could increase the teams in SL without affecting the number of rounds played that much. If we had a 16 team SL then a team could play 9 of their opponents twice,home and away(18 games)the other six only once either home or away(total 24 games)plus one edinburgh fixture. That's 25 rounds with 16 teams in the SL. Sounds okay to me! The edinburgh fixture list would also be evened up with 4 matches on each day.

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:05 am  

Surely everyone's a winner with that?

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:51 am  

Wilderspool memories wrote:

I agree and if we adopt the current australian idea regarding fixtures(an idea that was in actual fact used in this country many years ago)then we could increase the teams in SL without affecting the number of rounds played that much. If we had a 16 team SL then a team could play 9 of their opponents twice,home and away(18 games)the other six only once either home or away(total 24 games)plus one edinburgh fixture. That's 25 rounds with 16 teams in the SL. Sounds okay to me! The edinburgh fixture list would also be evened up with 4 matches on each day.

How can that even remotely be described as a fair league? It makes a mockery of a competition.

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:54 am  

Gazemous wrote:

How do you work that out?

Not that cracking on maths?

If you take that 6 or 7 current overseas players out of the teams, thats a minimum of 84 players out of the competition. If you reduce clubs by 2 then you can take 40 off those 84. Where are we finding the other 44 adequate youngsters to come through? we don't have them now, so why would we in future even if we stayed at 14 clubs, like the other poster suggested?

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:06 pm  

the problem is , everyone is brainwashed with the idea that soopo doopa league is the be all and end all. its not
rugby league was around before murdochs money and will still be around when the plug is pulled, what we have to worry about is how many clubs have survived after this brainless expansion experiment and how many will bankrupt themselves chasing this dream.
pah to new grounds, pah to expansion

god help rugby league

Re: 12 team Superleague? : Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:49 am  

Gotcha wrote:

Not that cracking on maths?

If you take that 6 or 7 current overseas players out of the teams, thats a minimum of 84 players out of the competition. If you reduce clubs by 2 then you can take 40 off those 84. Where are we finding the other 44 adequate youngsters to come through? we don't have them now, so why would we in future even if we stayed at 14 clubs, like the other poster suggested?

How many people play RL in this country?