FIVE wheelchair teams will compete in Super League next season.
Warrington Wolves have dropped out of the top-tier competition and will play in the Championship after losing all ten matches last year and conceding over 1,000 points.
Halifax Panthers, Hull FC, Leeds Rhinos, London Roosters and defending champions Wigan Warriors will make up Super League.
Leeds and London finished joint-top in the 2023 regular season, with the Rhinos getting the League Leaders’ Shield on points difference, before both lost to Wigan in the play-offs.
There will again be a four-team play-offs, ahead of a Sky Sports-televised October Grand Final, meaning only one club will miss out. Last season an improving Hull finished fifth, only two points behind third-placed Wigan and Halifax in fourth.
The Super League season will not begin until June, however, with a four-a-side competition and the Challenge Cup taking place beforehand.
League Express also understands that Magic rounds, which took Super League fixtures to Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and London last year, won’t be repeated in 2024.
Magic rounds were initially conceived to showcase the wheelchair game across the country, but the focus is now on giving clubs more home fixtures and allowing them to build their attendances.
Wigan, after beating Leeds in last year’s final in Manchester, will also look to become the first outright winners of the European Club Championship.
The competition, between the English and French domestic winners, was inaugurated last year but Halifax and Catalans Dragons could not be separated in a 32-32 draw in Perpignan.
This year the match will be played in England, at Wigan’s Robin Park Arena, on Saturday, April 6, with the Dragons – who are also Challenge Cup holders – again the opposition.
