I don't know about others but for me the season has been wrecked by constatnt stoppages and a lack of regular home games. Most clubs have had only 2 home games in 7-8 weeks.

Next season (to the annoyance of traditionalists- I accept the following is not perfect) I would start the season with 4 Northern Rail Games + 1 QF, then have a batch of league games and CC, before playing the SF of the Northern Rail at the same time as a CC Round.

Apart from the Finals Weekend, there would be a league game. There should be four/five extra games determined by a draw or the previous seasons ranking.

Although this system is not 100% fair- regular home games are required for a sport to gather a regualr support base. Gateshead in particular suffer from playing very ad hoc home games.

how can most clubs not be playing at home for weeks and weeks at a time?
Surely one club has to be playing continually at home.

No because there was no fixtures at all on Northern Rail Cup Q-F, S-F and Final Rounds, and no fixtures on a Challenge Cup weekend. Plus one team in the Championship gets 2 rounds off a year as there are 11 teams.

The fixture planning has been a farce. Blackpool went 5 weeks without a game in the best weather and conditions possible for RL. It's a joke. The Championship 1 isn't viable with only 10 teams.

1 Division with 20 teams and NRC as a straight knock out competition is the answer. This disjointed season has crippled a lot of clubs financially.

We have just had our first home game in 5 weeks!! Ridiculous really

But do you really want to see Leigh the way they are performing?

Workington Town have almost completed the worst season in their history having won only 1 game out of 13 played in the lowest professional league. As a result the crowds have dropped to around the 400 mark and with the current fixture list the financial implications are frightening.

A Championship 1 team is guaranteed 2 NR Cup home games but not necessarily against top Championship teams or large supported clubs. Town got Fev and York at home and Swinton and Whitehaven (a local derby match) away. Then they have 9 home league games and if they are lucky they may get a home draw in the CC, if they draw a French or Russian team.

By the end of May, Town were left with 4 home games to play - 1 in June; 1 in July and 2 in August - to see them through until February next season on crowds of around 400.

All credit to the club's board of directors for keeping the club in the black but isn't it time the fixture list was geared up to help the lower clubs to survive. All you get from the RFL is that thaey are always monitoring the system.

One possible way of doing it is 12 teams in Championship home and away (22 games) and then 9 in Championship 1 playing each other thrice (24 games). The biggest problem there though is byes in the Championship 1, but try to make no team have 2 close together. Ideally Hemel, Bramley and Nottingham could be put in Championship 1 but at the moment that would be a bad idea

The other possbility is to go to 10 in Championship and 11 in Championship 1 and go back to 6 NRC games as it was before (albeit then with 12 in NL2), as they've shrunk the NRC to suit the Championship clubs having more games, even though Championship 1 has less games in the league as well as less in the NRC

Yes we do.we will improve,Thats rugby!!!! now get your half a lager and shifty on home with your savaloy

With you on the first part, not sure about what to do with Championship 1. I think 12 teams in the Championship is definately the way to go, only relegate one team this year and promote from C1 as per usual.

3 games in C1 could well be the way forward, or could there maybe be a couple of touring sides organised to play the C1 clubs? Maybe some top Conferance and Amateur sides could tour the C1 clubs, or Championship reserves sides. To get the "third" game we would need to find only 4 teams to tour the C1 clubs and a "special" event could well raise a higher gate than a third match.

Ideally a 10th club could be found, but I agree that there probably isn't a club ready to match the mighty Skolars!

You seriously think fans would pay to watch a few ' show ' games

It is real competitive sport people want to watch , not exhibition games

Sorry but your post is garbage

But when they have a 3rd match against the same team the fans will complain that they have already seen the match twice and won't bother!

I reckon an exibition match is exactly the sort of match that could be used to bring in new fans to the club.

How about 2 conferences of ~10? East and West. H&A vs those in the same conference is 18 fixtures. H or A against those in the other conference makes 28. Top two from each conference go into championship semi-finals. More derbies and less travelling. NRC would have to go to straight knock-out.

Not a bad idea that, but which conference does TO play in? What about Skolars? Will the C1 clubs playing in that conference be able to afford the travell?

West - Workington, Whitehaven, Barrow, Swinton, Blackpool, Rochdale, Leigh, Oldham, Widnes, London Skolars

East - Gateshead, York, Dewsbury, Batley, Keighley, Hunslet, Doncaster, Fev, Sheffield, Halifax, Toulouse

Toulouse into the Eastern Conference so they can fly into Leeds-Bradford and not have long distances to travel in the UK.

Can't we just put Toulouse in SL now and spend the money the RFL dish out on travel on our youth structure instead?

As a York fan that would suit me fine.

Careful, you're getting scarily close to American sports there.



If 1 more viable team can be found, then surely a 12 & 10 system would work, the issue will be finding a team who can be reasonably competitive in Championship 1 and sustaining them for a period.

Up until 1974 the RFL adopted the conference idea, the teams were split into Western and Eastern regions and then the tables merged to provide an overall Championship table.

17 years before my time

Don't think conferencing is the way to go. The standards between the top of the Championship and the bottom of Championship 1 is way too big. Fax vs Skolars would be ridiculous.

The 12 and 10 system is the best way to go. Surely we could find another club to step up into Ch1? Promote 2 teams to the Championship still and relegate just the one for now, which would not affect the system for this year.

I don't see why the Ch1 doesn't just have extra games like SL used to to make the fixtures add up? They need the money, and it's better them playing someone three times than not playing anyone at all some weekends.

Bingo, the man talks sense.

I very much doubt it, and suggest that if such a club existed someone might have been able to name them by now