Wigan Warriors owner Lenagan predicts an end of the ‘crazy’ Super-8s

[Levrier]

People keep suggesting things that have been tried and have failed already as though they will work second time around. P and R does not work if the structure below Super League is not right. Franchising protects mediocrity if teams are not held to ever higher standards. Bigger leagues mean blow out scores because the gap between top and bottom is too great and there are too many dead rubbers. Smaller leagues have too many repeat fixtures or you have to pay out the season with fixtures that will not attract crowds. A salary cap puts us in a poor position when competing for talent but no salary cap allows the same teams to buy all the talent. You cannot have fixtures that have to be announced at short notice because rugby league fans all take their holidays at the same time. Have I missed any out? Perhaps what we need to do is come up with a plan and promise to stick with it for ten years, or perhaps ditch it after one season.

[Rochdale Warrior]

Well something needs to be done because last night and tonight’s games have been very poor

[Caboosegg]

Carter on sky was saying he needs 14 home games so how will that work,loop fixtures to pad the season out?

I know one thing I’m tired of the tinkering in our sport,choose a format and stick with it not for a couple of years either 10 years with a review maybe after 7,this stupidity can’t carry on fans need to plan as much as clubs do,though again I doubt the exodus of fans Lenegan seems to think has been caused by the super 8s will return,that’s just down to summer rugby

I thought it was a combination of things

Wigan playing rubbish
Wane being the coach
Thursday games

I wonder if any of those using the first 2 will come back next year (i doubt it)
Does the club still give free tickets to wigan borough schools?

[catman]

Trouble with what IFL is proposing is it's very difficult for new teams to get into superleague and establish themselves. In the vast majority of cases the new team that is promoted would go straight back down again and the relegated team would come straight back up. This would prevent any expansion of our game as we would have a closed shop. We should have a 14 team superleague two up two down and a play off between 12th SL side and 3rd in the championship. This would give us some 'churn'in superleague and give some break from the same old same old which IFL's plan would give us.

[jaws1]

NRL does not have Promotion and relegation they have feeder teams in another competition ,why can we not go down this road .
14 teams in SL

[SJ]

You can’t restart the table it makes the whole season as not worth attending.

Exactly. Any form of restart is only designed to make the competition artificially closer. It doesn't matter how you do it, start at 0 or weight the points left as your Leeds fan suggested, unless it devalues the preceding rounds in some way, nothing changes.

Saints are well clear this year and so why should any team below them be given a better chance of catching them?

All doing that would achieve is it would make it even more obvious you don't need to bother that much with the regular season.

I have a better idea. We have this thing called the league championship. The winner is the team that finished top after (with 12 teams in the league) 23 rounds. Then there is a separate trophy to play for, call it the Premiership Trophy. The top 8 play off for with 1 v 8 etc in the first round.

No daft format, no artificial gerrymandering of the league positions to try and make it exiting. Easy to understand and rewards clubs for finishing higher in the league.

If this doesn't give enough games, bring back the Regal Trophy.

Spot on Dave. Back where we started. Circle squared. So to speak

[moto748]

Crowds are declining and will continue to do so. And honestly, for all people say, I don't think a lack of attacking footy has much to do with it. Saints are playing attacking footy, and have the best player in the comp at their disposal, but still aren't attracting the crowds they used to. The NRL is often held up as a model to SL, but apart from the big set-piece games, and Brisbane, crowds are terrible. The Cowboys, featuring the best half in the world, regularly attract crowds that Wigan would be ashamed of (and I don't just mean this season when they have relatively poor), the Dragons play to a near-empty ANZ stadium...

I think the sad truth is that people have other demands on their leisure time/can't be arsed to get off the settee, however you choose to look at it.

[moto748]

And yeah, I like Dave's idea too, and it has the further merit of simplicity. Or, we go for a much more complicated arrangement like they do in the NRL, which does a pretty decent job of rewarding teams proportionately for their finish, especially the top four, whilst still giving 6, 7, and 8 a 'dog's chance'. Either are much better than what we have now.

The only rider I'd add is I'd like to see more done to reward finishing top of the regular season. Seems to me that can be done in one of two ways: either by making the Minor Premiership, as the Aussies call it, a much higher status prize, by improving the cash prize, and a much better trophy, or, by tinkering with the play-offs (a bye to the semi-finals, even even the GF?) to their benefit.

[Caboosegg]

Crowds are declining and will continue to do so. And honestly, for all people say, I don't think a lack of attacking footy has much to do with it. Saints are playing attacking footy, and have the best player in the comp at their disposal, but still aren't attracting the crowds they used to. The NRL is often held up as a model to SL, but apart from the big set-piece games, and Brisbane, crowds are terrible. The Cowboys, featuring the best half in the world, regularly attract crowds that Wigan would be ashamed of (and I don't just mean this season when they have relatively poor), the Dragons play to a near-empty ANZ stadium...

I think the sad truth is that people have other demands on their leisure time/can't be arsed to get off the settee, however you choose to look at it.

Isnt the point to motivate people to get off their backside.

For example say a group of friends have stopped going its likely you wont get one just going by themselves but if they make a eveing of it (pub then match or vis versa) then you may get 3-4 people going.

It isnt just down to the club to turn crowds around fans who have stopped going need to do their part to.