Tommygilf

No idea

You couldn't buy a team in Oz and take it to the NRL in the same way as with York to Super League now though.

Tbf Leeds had a dreadful start to last season with Injuries. I think Wigan could go one of two ways with either new coach bounce or a poor season generally. Catalans and Saints to be strong again. I expect Toulouse v Salford to be relegation 4 pointers. Do they have loop fixtures?

Its not just the specific dates as well, there is huge spillover and media attention.

Literally this year lol

The reason we hold world cups in the years we do, is, like Union, to avoid other major international events like the Football World Cup, Olympics and (given its popularity) the Euros. Dare I even suggest the Union World Cup too.

My two favourites, can't choose

New York, land of possibilities and one of the few truly global cities.

That's just owning a sports club to be fair. And Social media isn't real life. Its where people go to vent frustrations, fears and anger. In stadiums its often very different. When things get toxic in stadiums, then there is a problem.

And the 2016 Four Nations where Scotland drew with New Zealand and were beating England at half time

Thats why I put commercial concerns first. Nevertheless, you can't get to the Grand Final unless you have been one of the better teams all season, and then can show it on the big stage with the most pressure. Often teams that look great all year crumble under that pressure or come up against a side better prepared for it.

Watching England/GB has been a weird thing for a while now. We only really seem to play 2 sorts of teams. 1. France and Wales, who we are guaranteed to beat pretty heavily. Or 2. Australia and New Zealand, who up until very recently has meant playing in hope more than expectation. More English NRL players and the Kiwis losing players to the islands. The competitive matches, like Samoa, Tonga, PNG, Fiji, and mainly heritage based Ireland, Scotland, even Italy and Lebanon, rarely seem to get considered, despite them probably providing a good test that is closer to 50/50 than Australia, France or Wales would be. I hope this changes in future.

I think they don't need it in football because they have created it through other means. In RL we don't have big occassions beyond the Cup Final, which like all domestic cups has seen a general decline in status over recent years. Our only high profile international tournament is every 4 years. A guaranteed climax to a season That explains the commercial reasons behind why the Grand Final exists. From a sporting context too, the League then GF is chosen by competitions all over the world because it provides the best test of a team in both the long duration of a season and intense heat of a final. A team who can't do both isn't a Champion team at that point.

Race for the top 4 and the other European places. The ongoing two domestic cups and European Cups. And this is in a less than vintage year.

Take the premier league though, having multiple things to play for means there is more to talk about in any given season. The title race is effectively over, the bottom 4 now will be the bottom 4 in May. Yet there is still loads to keep people interested.

Even in a 12 team league I don't think that is particularly true. The 5 Teams in positions 6 to 10 (11th if the relegation fight is a non contest like last year) means that nearly half the League are out of it mathematically with rounds to spare. Reducing to 12 was supposed to be about tighter contests. 1st, 2nd, & 3rd shouldn't really be that much better than 5th - 8th. We shouldn't be worried about that too much.

Keep it simple. Top 4/6 playoffs with 2/3 game weeks. (I'd err towards 6). Any team who doesn't get to the final doesn't deserve to be there.

For the Euros Stade de France had St Denis as its halfway line location board, as opposed to Paris. So that fits too

Then we'd be having arguments about amateurism. The first person to say "corinthian spirit" has to buy everyone a pint!

Nobody gave a nod. Pure fantasy.

Absolutely, I'm usually of the view that you don't get rid of a player unless you have a replacement in mind. Cornet's signing in Summer could be a signal for where the "new Burnley" is going. If they don't replace him, they will find it hard not to go down imo.

It does seem a tad high, though potentially quite shrewd too. First and formost, he is a proven, capable Premier League Striker. He can also do a job in the Championship and is the calibre of player willing to accept Championship and good wages that Newcastle are likely to attract at the start of this window. A major attractive element of this must be that it is a metaphorical "6 pointer" though. It strengthens Newcastle whilst fundamentally weakening one of their direct rivals in Burnley. His goals, or lack of them at Burnley, could be what keeps the Magpies up this season.

I'm not sure if you're being intentionally facetious but I think that was actually Wigan

And there I was thinking London Broncos were the team who played at a Wedding Venue Don't remember them having to move a fixture for some Nuptials...

I'm sure all teams in all sports leagues prioritise some fixtures over others.