Mailbox: Replace the play-offs with a World Club competition
Mailbox gives you the chance to get your voice heard and start the debate with the rugby league audience. Get your letters in now via email to: james@loverugbyleague.com
Dear editor,
Regards any restructuring I would have a 14 team Super League with two up and two down. I would have the top team as Champions with the play offs scrapped.
The play off structure just sees the leading clubs doing what they have to do in preparation for the play offs. Top team Champions leaves no margin for error.
In their place I suggest the top four could play the top four from Australia in a Super Cup prior to each season. Straight knockout over three weekends.
It may mean some clubs travelling across the World for one game but that happens now with the World Club Challenge. The battle for the top four would be akin to the battle for Champions League places in Football.
I would also take Super League off Sky and get it on BBC. It exists in an almost alternate universe at present and Sky use it as filler.
Look at the viewing figures for Sport on BBC and the extra interest it generates in other sports.
Steven Howard
Editor’s comment: I like the idea of a 14-team Super League with two-up, two-down as it encourages more movement between the leagues. For a game that spends its time obsessed with expanding, to still have a 12-team top flight after 25 years of significant investment from Sky is baffling. The play-off idea sounds good in theory, but good luck getting any buy in from the Australians! I think a more realistic change would be to revert back to the old Premiership format, so restoring top spot to being champions and then the play-offs being for a separate competition. Unfortunately, taking the game away from Sky would be catastrophic – they underpin everything financially, and while the exposure on BBC might be better (assuming BBC want to show it, of course), there’s a reason why virtually every sport has disappeared from free-to-air.
Mailbox gives you the chance to get your voice heard and start the debate with the rugby league audience. Get your letters in now via email to: james@loverugbyleague.com