Oliver Clothesoff

Prize money, but are we going to get a blue chip sponsor likely to offer up such a sum that it becomes worth it for clubs? Unlikely.

I think it’s probably “too out there”, if I’m honest. The change of format of the game, e.g the loss of four players and various rule differences, while still offering league points is not really fair.

You mean like the Challenge Cup?

What’s a principal shirt?

9s replacing loop fixtures would be interesting. No one likes loop fixtures as it is, you could still have 22/23 (with Magic) rounds and then 4-5 rounds of 9’s with a trophy for each round and then an overall table at the end with the ultimate winner crowned Champions.

That’s exactly my point and why I cannot forsee this working.

Which is fine but Super League’s equivalent top players are likely to not be involved in this concept as they’ll play Good Friday.

Not disagreeing with you but would it be wise to use Bolton twice in a year, for this and for the Cup Semi’s?

This is a good point. I get that this may be to attract some new fans to the game but you still need to keep your existing fans happy and watching the same sides, albeit with four less men, is going lose its novelty, if it holds any, pretty soon. A World 9’s of clubs the world over would certainly be more attractive, IMO.

I’m presuming it’s at a neutral venue, I know it’s only one day but it’s likely to be 6-9 hours of continual use and what Football Club in their right mind, at the most important stage of their season, are going to allow that much of a battering on their pitch?

Think he showed signs of improvement in the games he did play in 2019 from some of the weaknesses in his game in 2018 but it was hard not being back Fages when he returned to fitness. Richardson provided some great memories in his short-time at Saints, Warrington at Home and Leeds away spring to mind, and I think some are doing him a disservice. I hope we don’t live to regret this move.

I totally understand that, however, I am not convinced on purely because of its scheduling. Our top players won’t play in it. I know that players have “backed up” Friday to Easter Monday for years, it doesn’t mean it’s right and I can’t see any coach allowing too many of their top names to do so for a 9s competition. If your big names aren’t likely to play, how do you market that? We have a prime time for an event of this nature. I’m as big a fan of Magic as you could get, I love everything about the weekend, St James’ and Newcastle as a city but replacing the Magic Weekend, which has potential to uneven a table as it’s an “extra” fixture, with a 9s weekend makes more sense than hosting it on Easter Monday, IMO.

How many years do we give this then before it’s in Rugby League’s Room 101 with PSG, the Super 8’s and licensing? Three? Teams are going to, naturally, play their strongest sides on Good Friday due to those games actually having a meaning, a purpose and being local derbies. You’re not going to get Saints or Wigan resting James Roby or Zak Hardaker with Monday’s 9’s competition in mind, are you? It seems a poor time to place it into the calendar, especially when people have moaned and campaigned for years about getting rid of the Easter Monday games from the calendar, only to see it replaced by something straight away. Also, how are we going to sell tickets? I’m not going to go on about trying to attract “new fans” and the other pie in the sky nonsense you see on here but how exactly do Super League expect to sell tickets when it’s likely to be players on the fringes of the first team and Academy players, who are likely to be taking part in this due to the scheduling? As I’ve said on another thread, there’s a general consensus, that I agree with, that we have too many regular rounds of league games, so to presumably drop zero and to add another event, is not a solution to this problem, it’s an addition to it. Also, events aren’t well attended in Rugby League. The Challenge Cup and play-offs are attended poorly, as are most non-Season Ticketed events, so I’m not sure this is going to be any better.

I think there’s a general consensus in the UK, one which I agree with, that we have too many regular round games in Super League. From a business perspective, I can’t see it changing dramatically in the next couple of years, so I cannot see how we could fit in another event into what is already a heavily congested calendar. I also think that ticketed events, your non-season ticket games, are poorly attended here, like the Challenge Cup, play-off games etc so I’m not sure why we’d add in another event and hope it would work. I also think there’s other areas of the game that are more important at present than a different format of the game.

You’re very aggressive and defensive when challenged. Apologies for daring to ask you to elaborate on your opinion.