IN case you hadn’t noticed, IMG have released their provisional gradings to all 36 professional clubs for the 2024 season.
Seven Super League clubs have been given Grade A status whilst a further 17 have been awarded Grade B.
With the eventual aim being a 12-team Super League full of Grade A clubs, there are five clubs within 0.95 points of each other – Toulouse Olympique, Wakefield Trinity, Leigh Leopards, Castleford Tigers and Bradford Bulls.
With that in mind, that would make 14 teams all relatively close by, with 15th placed Featherstone Rovers currently on 10.65 points.
Is there potential for a 14-team Super League in the near future? And does IMG’s Vice President of Sports Management Matt Dwyer expect change?
“The most change will be in the group of clubs that are quite close to each other. Movement amongst clubs is very likely because they are very close to each other,” Dwyer said.
“Clubs are effectively going into the second season in understanding how they are being looked at in gradings. We have seen clubs go up significantly from when we did a first pass on this. I would expect to see some movement and would expect those clubs close to each other to be conscious of that and push themselves up the gradings.
“I don’t want to speculate, as I’ve said from the beginning the objective is to get 12 category A clubs and then expand.
“This has accelerated it because we are close to 12 category A clubs than what we thought we would be. I think some of the improvements we have seen over the last 12 months means there are clubs not far below those seven category A clubs. And if they continued along that path then it is not unreasonable that they won’t be hitting A in the near future
“It does accelerate a 14-team Super League, that is the pleasing thing with how clubs have responded and how they have looked to change and grow their own clubs.”
When will clubs know their grading going into 2025?
“We will not know the performance result until the Grand Final is done. The absolute earliest we will have the results will be the week right after the Grand Final.”
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