Middle 8 fixtures

[Amber Avenger]

I think the problem with fixture planning in the 8s is they essentially have a week’s notice to plan 7 weeks of fixtures with it being a very real scenario of not knowing every single participant until the very last moment (every minute matters of course). Whilst there is a logic to it should be you play a SL team then a Champ and so on in some sort of order, there is the nightmare that the 8s take place right at the start of the football season, so if you look at Huddersfield this year they may be limited as to when they can play their home games – especially if Sky want to broadcast them, last year it was 3pm on Saturdays.

 

 

Unfortunately you can’t plan everything out to the nth degree, however I do think it can be done, given a bit of luck. Last year the Bulls had to play all four of their SL opposition in consecutive games and still managed to get to the MPG. Ok someone has to, but they did have a shot a finishing 4th as well in the last game.  At the end of the day, it’s a league – a very short league – but you have to play everyone at some point. Perhaps there should be a limit of that you can only play a max of two teams from either given league within succession?

[longboard]

Now that Huddersfield have turned to Stone, he has a couple of games to get to know the team before the middle eights.

 

Interesting times.

[Saint Toppy]

I think the problem with fixture planning in the 8s is they essentially have a week’s notice to plan 7 weeks of fixtures with it being a very real scenario of not knowing every single participant until the very last moment (every minute matters of course). Whilst there is a logic to it should be you play a SL team then a Champ and so on in some sort of order, there is the nightmare that the 8s take place right at the start of the football season, so if you look at Huddersfield this year they may be limited as to when they can play their home games – especially if Sky want to broadcast them, last year it was 3pm on Saturdays.

 

 

Unfortunately you can’t plan everything out to the nth degree, however I do think it can be done, given a bit of luck. Last year the Bulls had to play all four of their SL opposition in consecutive games and still managed to get to the MPG. Ok someone has to, but they did have a shot a finishing 4th as well in the last game.  At the end of the day, it’s a league – a very short league – but you have to play everyone at some point. Perhaps there should be a limit of that you can only play a max of two teams from either given league within succession?

The fixtures will be already planned along the lines of;

Week 1 - SL9 V's CH 2, SL10 V's CH4, CH1 V's SL11, CH3 V's SL 12

 

All they don't have at the moment is the actual club names to go into the formula

[GaryO]

The fixtures will be already planned along the lines of;

Week 1 - SL9 V's CH 2, SL10 V's CH4, CH1 V's SL11, CH3 V's SL 12

 

All they don't have at the moment is the actual club names to go into the formula

Very informative Toppy, and your information source is............?

[Amber Avenger]

The fixtures will be already planned along the lines of;

Week 1 - SL9 V's CH 2, SL10 V's CH4, CH1 V's SL11, CH3 V's SL 12

 

All they don't have at the moment is the actual club names to go into the formula

 

I can imagine there is some vague plan, but I doubt that anything set in stone to allow for ground availability or just good old fashioned narrative (eg if Bradford do sneak in the top 4, you can imagine Leeds vs Bradford being first week whatever the original "plan" was for where those teams finished).

 

The wider point is more about it being planned out like an international tournament (Winner of Group C faces Runner up of Group E on 22nd) - in a league format that just isn't that realistic.

[Dave T]

It would be better if they could buy themselves a bit of time, they could easily have a three week break with a challenge cup semi weekend, an international weekend and a 9's weekend.

This could allow clubs to reengage with fans, start to sell super 8s memberships etc and build up to them.

[glossop saint]

What about putting magic weekend as the first weekend after the split?  It would give some time to get home/away fixtures sorted, it would address the imbalance of having an unequal number of home and away games and would get rid of the 23rd game in the first phase.  I would imagine the marketing would be fairly straight forward for it as well as you would be able to have it as a big kick off for the middle 8s.  4 games on each day, all the teams in the top 2 8s, and a chance to see a greater spread of teams.

 

The only drawback would be that for the sides who are on the verge of the middle/bottom 8s such as Halifax, Batley, Bradford and Fev at the moment.  But hopefully those fans can come along anyway and add to the atmosphere/experience.

[David Shepherd]

What about putting magic weekend as the first weekend after the split?  It would give some time to get home/away fixtures sorted, it would address the imbalance of having an unequal number of home and away games and would get rid of the 23rd game in the first phase.  I would imagine the marketing would be fairly straight forward for it as well as you would be able to have it as a big kick off for the middle 8s.  4 games on each day, all the teams in the top 2 8s, and a chance to see a greater spread of teams.

 

The only drawback would be that for the sides who are on the verge of the middle/bottom 8s such as Halifax, Batley, Bradford and Fev at the moment.  But hopefully those fans can come along anyway and add to the atmosphere/experience.

 

That's a great idea