Super League ‘to restart in August’

[DavidM]

Well in my humble opinion the 2020 season shouldn’t be finishing in January 2021 . That’s silly 

[Man of Kent]

Wasn’t playing at Christmas Martyn Sadler’s idea?

No, ta. We’ve already had one season disrupted through no fault of our own, why make it two on purpose ?

 

[paulwalker71]

I don't think any proper judgement can be made on finishing in January 2021 without seeing a clear plan for the 2021 season.

I can't believe any serious person would favour a 2020 season finishing at the end of January, followed by a full 2021 season, running straight into a World Cup.

To be honest, I'd probably say the same about finishing in December. Clubs would be in pre-season in December, with friendlies from Boxing Day onwards. We'd just be flogging the players, and ruining the World Cup.

[Hela Wigmen]

1 minute ago, paulwalker71 said:

I don't think any proper judgement can be made on finishing in January 2021 without seeing a clear plan for the 2021 season.

I can't believe any serious person would favour a 2020 season finishing at the end of January, followed by a full 2021 season, running straight into a World Cup.

To be honest, I'd probably say the same about finishing in December. Clubs would be in pre-season in December, with friendlies from Boxing Day onwards. We'd just be flogging the players, and ruining the World Cup.

That’s the thing, while these may be the proposals for 2020, we need to know what 2021 could/will look like. 

[LeeF]

11 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

I don't think any proper judgement can be made on finishing in January 2021 without seeing a clear plan for the 2021 season.

I can't believe any serious person would favour a 2020 season finishing at the end of January, followed by a full 2021 season, running straight into a World Cup.

To be honest, I'd probably say the same about finishing in December. Clubs would be in pre-season in December, with friendlies from Boxing Day onwards. We'd just be flogging the players, and ruining the World Cup.

The 2021 World Cup is the big one and what everything should be geared towards.
A successful WC after an horrendous 2020 for everybody would give the sport a massive boost. A full 2020 season finishing in December or January followed by a full 2021 season is a complete no go 

[DavidM]

I think we should be finishing before the end of November ... I’ve always thought it stupid we start the season so early , so get a proper off season and could start in mid March with fewer fixtures . It’s a chance to reset but I’d doubt it 

[John Drake]

Whenever and however the sport resumes, it will be on an imperfect model.

Everything has changed now. 

No one would actively choose any of these scenarios in an ideal world, but no one would have actively chosen to have the current season shut down altogether for months on end either. 

We are where we are.

None of this might even happen at all, as it relies on external permissions being granted to restart anything, but at least it is a visible roadmap of how a resumed season could function.

It’s a glimmer of hope. That’s all. 

[paulwalker71]

18 minutes ago, John Drake said:

Whenever and however the sport resumes, it will be on an imperfect model.

Everything has changed now. 

No one would actively choose any of these scenarios in an ideal world, but no one would have actively chosen to have the current season shut down altogether for months on end either. 

We are where we are.

None of this might even happen at all, as it relies on external permissions being granted to restart anything, but at least it is a visible roadmap of how a resumed season could function.

It’s a glimmer of hope. That’s all. 

Would you not agree though, John, that World Cup 2021 needs to be the overriding priority?

If that can be agreed, then everything else should 'work back' from that. Otherwise the needs and desires of the SL clubs take priority and, effectively, the World Cup gets thrown under the bus.

[Oldbear]

My guess is none of these options is fully followed, but a modified version of one of them, almost certainly options 1 or 2 will be tinkered with. I think 3 is out, partly because of the issue of players contracts and partly because Sky will have a major say.( and 3 should be out, for player welfare)

If I were really guessing I would question there even being a challenge cup, as some have pointed out what do you do about part time teams still in the comp, clubs are unlikely to be able to take their players out of furlough for what is probably just one game, and so far I still don’t see how, and even why, the Championship and League 1 can start up, unless some fairy godmother plans to fund it. (The Super League clubs are looking at an August restart because Sky says so, don’t see Sky being bothered about the lower leagues).

[Hela Wigmen]

Get rid of the Challenge Cup games and move the midweek games into those gaps and the proposals look far better. 

[John Drake]

30 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

Would you not agree though, John, that World Cup 2021 needs to be the overriding priority?

If that can be agreed, then everything else should 'work back' from that. Otherwise the needs and desires of the SL clubs take priority and, effectively, the World Cup gets thrown under the bus.

I think the survival of the sport itself should be the priority. 

That will involve clubs and governing bodies worldwide having to honour all manner of financial and legal obligations to other parties. 

If the domestic leagues collapse, the World Cup will be fatally undermined, far more than it will be by any of these fixture proposals set out by SL, which is one small part of the overall equation. 

[Mumby Magic]

3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Where does this bizarre idea come from that we're guaranteed huge crowds on Boxing Day and New Year's Day? They tried it in the "whatever the league below Super League was called at the time" and it was so successful they don't do it any more.

It's been nearly 30 years. Let's not extend the season into January because the Chairmen are all getting mixed up between "when things were better" and "we were younger and it was all more fun".

Halifax bulls will get a big crowd

[Toby Chopra]

11 minutes ago, John Drake said:

I think the survival of the sport itself should be the priority. 

That will involve clubs and governing bodies worldwide having to honour all manner of financial and legal obligations to other parties. 

If the domestic leagues collapse, the World Cup will be fatally undermined, far more than it will be by any of these fixture proposals set out by SL, which is one small part of the overall equation. 

I have to say I agree with this, even as someone who's been saying for years that the World Cup is a make or break moment for English rugby league. 

I'm afraid fate has intervened, and the  financial damage done to all levels of the sport from truncating either of the next 2 SL seasons far outweighs a sub optimal World Cup preparation for the England team. 

Becasue thats what we're talking about - England, not the World Cup overall being affected. I'm still excited about seeing games, even if the England team is a bit knackered. And with plenty of warning, perhaps something could be agreed about giving players a couple of weeks off during the season on rotation. 

[Just Browny]

Doesn't it sort of depend on what we are doing with next season too? If the assumption is that we play next season exactly as scheduled, starting at the end of January, it clearly makes no sense to end this season in January. But if we decided to shorten next season, e.g. by getting of loop fixtures and starting say in mid-late March, I think that would work.

And this year, uniquely, I think you could well tempt out some big crowds around Christmas.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Surely the simple answer is to start the 2021 season in late March and forgo any loop fixtures, have a straightforward 22 round Super League with Good Friday and Easter Monday fixtures as before. - Either scrap the "Magic" Weekend or incorporate it into the weekly rounds with "home" clubs giving up a fixture at their venue. And before the incoming rounds are fired -seven of the Super League clubs had 2019-20 averages under 10,000 so they would play in front of more fans and potentailly make more money with the share of the days take at "Magic" split 3 ways 

As an advocate of Winter Rugby very pleased to see this, and I am not sure how anybody can say Christmas and New Year fixtures will not get bumper crowds with the Super League reaching a climax and hopefully local derbies scheduled. We will see will we not?  Of course, if it was a success then some people's narrative would be damaged

As for England and the world cup if you had an honest assessment on here - Regardless of when the 2021 season is played you still have the situation of the last man standing taking the field with the World cup constituting the fag end of the season. The same posters who want loop fixtures complaining about money for their club will be the same ones hammering the keyboards about the effect on the England team.

Take a leaf out of Unions book - Identify the top 30 England players and agree they should only play a maximum number of games over a set period (i.e. No more than 30 total in a 12 month period). It will impact the league less than people think because again like the Union premiership, Super League is a placings competition with a knock out cup segment at the end so if you finished fourth with your England players available for the knock out stages your still in it to win it.

More positivity needed on this board there is no problem with what is being proposed that does not have a solution.

 

 

[paulwalker71]

34 minutes ago, John Drake said:

If the domestic leagues collapse, the World Cup will be fatally undermined, far more than it will be by any of these fixture proposals set out by SL, which is one small part of the overall equation. 

Well, I don't agree that it's 'one small part'. The Government funding that has already gone into the World Cup isn't a small matter, for one thing.

I do agree that it's a case of finding 'the least worst option'. That's clearly going to mean compromises, but I'd still want to hear some plans for 2021 as part of the thinking about the rest of the 2020 season.

There's too much short-term thinking as usual in RL - we need a plan for 2020, 2021 and possibly for 2022 as well to navigate through this.

[Oldbear]

I see a lot of talk about big crowds over Christmas, have the UK authorities given any indication as to when crowds are going to be allowed to gather? The reason I ask is that here in BC (around 2800 cases in total, 80% recovered, around 160 deaths), we are being told definitely no crowds at sports till a vaccine is found, to put into context our daily number of new cases is around 10-20 and there are major concerns about things exploding, do you guys there think it is realistic to think there will be crowds at RL games before the 2021 season?

[welshmagpie]

Just read on Twitter if they opt for Option 3

2021 would start end of March with no loop fixtures and a June international round.

[Hela Wigmen]

I can see why Sky may want Proposal 3. If Amazon Prime have the rights to the Premier League on Boxing Day (and I think NYD) again, there’s a big sporting void on Sky, that I’m guessing they filled with second tier football last Christmas. And with it being the penultimate round on Boxing Day, there’s scope to build it up to be a big thing should games have big things riding on them. 

I’d right Proposal One off straight away. You’re out of the picture for five months and barely three months later, you’re back in the background again when other sports will be, likely, starting to get back into the swing of things. I can’t see clubs voting to go without matchday income for six or seven months of a calendar year. 

Proposal Two works best, IMO. If the Challenge Cup is voided, which is should be as it would be unfair to continue it if the Championship is voided and those clubs continue using the furlough scheme, the five midweek games becomes one midweek game, with the four Challenge Cup rounds moved to those weekend slots. Finishing in mid-December and having the normal eight or so weeks between seasons leaves Super League starting again at the beginning of February, which isn’t too far off of where our seasons have started for the past few years. 

[Hela Wigmen]

1 minute ago, welshmagpie said:

Just read on Twitter if they opt for Option 3

2021 would start end of March with no loop fixtures and a June international round.

Who said that?

[Clogiron]

3 hours ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Everything we do as a sport in this country should be highly geared towards England working towards, becoming and retaining number one status on the planet. 

To achieve that first England has to play some games and I don't see too many of them on the horizon for them, Wane could be going into a World Cup as a undefeated coach.

[Clogiron]

1 hour ago, Oldbear said:

I see a lot of talk about big crowds over Christmas, have the UK authorities given any indication as to when crowds are going to be allowed to gather? The reason I ask is that here in BC (around 2800 cases in total, 80% recovered, around 160 deaths), we are being told definitely no crowds at sports till a vaccine is found, to put into context our daily number of new cases is around 10-20 and there are major concerns about things exploding, do you guys there think it is realistic to think there will be crowds at RL games before the 2021 season?

To be honest no I can't see it, one problem is that sport in this country is lead by what the Premiership in soccer do and as seen very recently the vastly overpaid k*obheads who play it think that rules don't apply to them so the chance's of them navigating all the protocols put in place are slight at the most. They are wanting 5 or 6 weeks of training before they start up, possibly to work out all the social drugs they will have been ingesting out of their systems before testing starts up again. A couple of positive Covioid tests or steps out of line and bang goes any live sport again.

[Hela Wigmen]

42 minutes ago, Clogiron said:

To achieve that first England has to play some games and I don't see too many of them on the horizon for them, Wane could be going into a World Cup as a undefeated coach.

The only way I’d be a bit happier about the November season end proposal would be if there was an International competition at the end of it. 

[welshmagpie]

1 hour ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Who said that?

One of the journos, maybe Matthew Shaw? Can’t remember

[Man of Kent]

Option 3 has got Leeds written all over it. Desperate for the cash. Let’s hope there isn’t a second spike in the winter...