BY MARTYN SADLER
I WONDER whether the people who run our game, as well as those who run the clubs, might reasonably draw the conclusion that we are playing too many games at the highest level.
At the weekend we saw Super League’s round-23 fixtures being completed.
Some teams went into their games severely depleted by injury, including play-off contenders St Helens and Catalans, while some others, like Huddersfield, who have had such a disappointing season, looked as though they had nothing to play for and the season couldn’t end quickly enough for them.
Of course injuries can happen at any time during a season and teams can play badly at any time.
Nonetheless, I can’t help thinking that the current structure of 27 matches plus play-offs plus Challenge Cup matches is far too many games and actually detracts from the quality of the competition.
The NRL clubs, for example, play 24 games plus play-offs without any additional cup competition.
My view is that we should schedule 22 games in the regular season together with the Challenge Cup fixtures.
In my ideal world that would be achieved by having 16 teams in Super League, with the teams split geographically into two groups of eight. There would be home and away fixtures within each group (giving 14 in total) and one fixture against the eight teams in the other group, alternating home and away each season.
Having studied various forms of league competition throughout the football and rugby world, I believe that a minimum of 16 teams is required for an elite league to generate a sufficient degree of interest. Twelve teams is insufficient to generate the variety a competition needs to be successful.
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