Seven Betfred Super League clubs awarded Grade A status

[Southern Softy]

I wonder if in this brave new world, there might be a place for a revolutionary concept. Let's call it - winning matches.
In this, a team enters a league - wins more matches than anyone else and does something called Winning The League.
On second thoughts, it's a silly idea.
I assume the Cup Final will, in future, consist of a single match between the two sides who have the most followers on social media and the winner will not be the one who scores most points but does gain the most 'likes,'
I feel genuinely sorry for London Broncos who have achieved miracles and whatever they do next season will likely make buggerall difference.
Progress is always good but this isn't progress.

[nathan_rugby]

I wonder if in this brave new world, there might be a place for a revolutionary concept. Let's call it - winning matches.
In this, a team enters a league - wins more matches than anyone else and does something called Winning The League.
On second thoughts, it's a silly idea.
I assume the Cup Final will, in future, consist of a single match between the two sides who have the most followers on social media and the winner will not be the one who scores most points but does gain the most 'likes,'
I feel genuinely sorry for London Broncos who have achieved miracles and whatever they do next season will likely make buggerall difference.
Progress is always good but this isn't progress.

The sport has stagnated, it isn’t growing and it’s going backwards.

Doing nothing and just leaving it up to the teams and traditional promotion & relegation will not improve things.

Whether you agree with IMG grading and criteria or not, something has to change if the sport is to survive, let alone improve.

[Crossy210]

I’m seeing a lot of people going on about social media etc. you do realise that social media is now massive and helps gets eyes onto the game hence it being a component for fan engagement. Might not mean much to you personally but the whole point of IMG is to make the sport more commercially viable meaning more money coming into teams. More money in means more money put into clubs which in turn equals better product on the field.

[Raging Penguin]

perhaps this grading system is initial, and in later years it will be developed further as it does feel like there is a focus on presence more than anything, with quite a limited set of criteria in other aspects.

it seems odd that if London broncos were to win everything next season that they would still be relegated for 2025

[medlocke]

perhaps this grading system is initial, and in later years it will be developed further as it does feel like there is a focus on presence more than anything, with quite a limited set of criteria in other aspects.

it seems odd that if London broncos were to win everything next season that they would still be relegated for 2025

Why even bother bringing them to Super League, should have just kept Wakey up

[Raging Penguin]

I suppose it could be argued that London earned their promotion and Wakefield have been skirting relegation for quite a few seasons

[DaveO]

Why is everyone quibbling over this, we got an A grade?

Granted there are question marks on missing academy, the utilisation rule and the weighting of some other criteria but we got an A grade and we knew the rules just like everyone else.

Did the RFL or Super League clubs have any say in the criteria at all?

One think we can agree on is that the sport is stagnated and going backwards, something new needed to be tried and time will tell if IMG have what it takes.

We got the A with 4.75 points for winning the league and GF which means we aren’t as good as several other clubs on the other criteria so that is a concern. We won’t be winning the league and GF every season.

“Fandom” gets you 5 points max and Bradford got 3.95. How did they manage that?

Some of the criteria as I pointed out seem rather stupid such as a club averaging 7,500 on the gate gets the same two points as one averaging 13,000+.

The utilisation criteria is just stupid and while that and the primacy of tenure mean we lose out on about 1.5 points before we start it means we need to do better on the other criteria.

[Mike]

Why is everyone quibbling over this, we got an A grade?

Granted there are question marks on missing academy, the utilisation rule and the weighting of some other criteria but we got an A grade and we knew the rules just like everyone else.

Did the RFL or Super League clubs have any say in the criteria at all?

One think we can agree on is that the sport is stagnated and going backwards, something new needed to be tried and time will tell if IMG have what it takes.

We got the A with 4.75 points for winning the league and GF which means we aren’t as good as several other clubs on the other criteria so that is a concern. We won’t be winning the league and GF every season.

“Fandom” gets you 5 points max and Bradford got 3.95. How did they manage that?

Some of the criteria as I pointed out seem rather stupid such as a club averaging 7,500 on the gate gets the same two points as one averaging 13,000+.

The utilisation criteria is just stupid and while that and the primacy of tenure mean we lose out on about 1.5 points before we start it means we need to do better on the other criteria.

We're a solid A and that's all you need to be. There's no competition amongst the As. If you start to drop towards the B cut-off that's where you need to start worrying.

I'd prefer there to be an academy criteria with things like running the academy, fullfilling fixtures, numbers of players from your academy in top grade leagues. That sort of thing. I think this will come in a few years for sure (if we make it that far - just making it until 2025 with these criteria is not for sure given the game's constant chopping and changing mindset!). I'd also make all the criteria an average over the last 3 evaluations and publish interim scores every 6 months, maybe privately to the clubs, but probably publicly for transparency.

Overall, we all knew this was coming. We all knew what the criteria were. All the clubs agreed to them (except Keighly I assume because they never agree to anything). So let's give it a go.

I actually think we're back on the up as a game independently of this process. The entertainment on the field is going up, and I think TV audiences will gradually follow, as will deals. It will take a while even if we've done everything perfectly. Social media presence and quality content will help to drive a new younger audience so that a good thing in my mind, even if I steer well clear of that sort of thing. Especially message boards ... everyone on message boards is weird.

[nathan_rugby]

perhaps this grading system is initial, and in later years it will be developed further as it does feel like there is a focus on presence more than anything, with quite a limited set of criteria in other aspects.

it seems odd that if London broncos were to win everything next season that they would still be relegated for 2025

Why even bother bringing them to Super League, should have just kept Wakey up

All clubs in the championship were aware of what the criteria was.

It’s not the RFL or IMGs fault that a team has got promoted the season before grading applies and they aren’t going to score very well.

This was always a risk and there’s nothing that could or should be done.

[Raging Penguin]

Something can always be done, but the merits of such an action would be questionable.

Hopefully though it can be the advent of a positive development