Very insular viewpoint, a symptom of the place that League finds itself in England. Lets look after ourselves and make believe that nobody else matters. If we are to make this a true sport of Kings then we need to help others build their capabilities and therefore improve our competition base. Then we can truly start to enjoy a significant interest from the rest of the sporting world. I'm afraid that keeping it to a small number of elite clubs will inevitably lead to isolation and is to the detriment of the game.

Can I just point out that from a Saints perspective, the quality of play we dished up for the first 65 minutes tonight was no better than the quality of play Quins dished up for their last 65 minutes.

And if we dumped Quins, Cats, wakey & Crusaders (or Salford, or Cas) out of the competition, then which of their players would we be taking on at the other clubs to hugely boost the standard, hmm ? The best players at all those clubs are arguably the Aussie/Kiwi ones, so the net result of cutting the competition, reducing the fanbase, shrinking the geographical footprint and reducing money coming into the game would be.....?

Peacock's a good prop forward. I think we should leave it there.

14 is just right for me.

Hopefully in the next 10 years or so all these teams will be strong:

1. Wigan
2. St Helens
3. Leeds
4. Warrington
5. Salford
6. Cumbria
7. Crusaders
8. Harlequins
9. Huddersfield
10. Bradford
11. Hull FC
12. Hull KR
13. Catalan
14. Tolouse

Twelve is about right i'd say, with a top 5 play offs in three divisions. Keep franchising and guidelines between all three divisions. Reduce the number of domestic games.

SL

Bradford
Castleford
Catalans
Huddersfield
Hull FC
Hull KR
Leeds
Salford
St.Helens
Warrington
Widnes
Wigan

Championship

Barrow
Batley
Crusaders
Dewsbury
Featherstone
Halifax
Harlequins
Leigh
Sheffield
Toulouse
Wakefield
York


Championship 1

Doncaster
Gateshead
Hunslet
Keighley
London Skolars
Oldham
Rochdale
South Wales
Swinton
Whitehaven
Workington
AN Other Expansion team

By the way, i've not put any teams into any division to cause any offence! Just off the top of my head, I think the championship looks very strong.

And how would Mr. Peacock arrange it so that there were still the same number of games as we have now? Or is he prepared to take a walloping great pay cut?

Two welsh and two french? Non-league football is more popular in those countries than rugby league. Why dilute the sports popularity??

Hmm lets see, we currently have 27 rounds, 9x3=27

With the sky money being split 10 ways as opposed to 14, he would get a walloping pay rise rather than a cut

Not sure how you think this would dilute the sports popularity? They should be included to help expand the game and get 3 competitive northern hemisphere nations

You're assuming of course that Sky would keep on paying the same amount!?!?

Often stated (by people who actually know) that Super League minus Quins/Broncos/London team = loads less cash for the game.

Nope, thats assuming there is a decrease of no more than 30%.

Personally I think 12 is probably the optimum number, adding a London team and the Bulls to my original list

You've forgotten the jewel in the RFL's crown - Fulcrubronquins. Gutterfax is going to go nuts!!!









Oh, and to have no Hull KR in SL but 2 Welsh clubs + 2 French clubs is IMO a little bit silly.

Peacock is spot on, it's just a shame that what he has proposed can't/won't happen.

And what a surprise he says it from the view of a bloke whose club's franchise is safe till the end of time.

Better to remain silent and have people think you a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.



(That goes for both Rugby players and people who suggest that their team which can barely compete in the Championship somehow warrants a place in an ultra competetive 10 team SL)

In that case, why not cut the league to 4 clubs playing each other 9 times? 9x3=27. With the sky money being split 4 ways, as opposed to 10, he would get a walloping pay rise rather than a cut. After all, there's only 4 clubs who ever win it anyway?

As for comparisons with non-league football, there were more people watching BlueSQ conference games yesterday than were in the Millennium stadium,

Im not sure why you feel it relevant to bring football attendances into this debate? Are you suggesting we pack up shop and stop playing the game?

If you were to take the trouble to read (and attempt to understand) some of the words in this thread, you will notice that an earlier poster commented that non-league football was more popular than rugby league in both Wales and France and using this as a reason to have fewer clubs from those countries.

I was simply pointing out that non-league football was quite well attended in England too.

I read the posts. I just cant see how football attendances have any relevance to how many or which teams should obtain a super league licence. Would you or the other poster care to explain why you think they do?

I don't think the current system of trying to push international teams like Wales, Scotland or Ireland when we have no roots in those countries and the players who play for them aren’t from there either is working. Lets face it we see the six nations and the money and coverage it brings in and we think this is what we need to go for.

For me as I said before we should try and make something different to any other sport in the UK and that’s a truly competitive league where anyone from number 1-10 can win it.

Without repeating myself to much we’ve already got five teams capable of this, three in Bradford, Hull KR and Hull FC who are very close and the other two teams would benefit from a 10 team league.

If we went for

Wigan
Leeds
Saints
Wire
Hudds
Hull FC
Hull KR
Bradford
Catalan
Widnes

That means Crusaders, Quins, Wakey, Cas and Salford are all out of SL. Think of some of the quality young players they have which would move to other stronger teams and improve them further. Just off the top of my head you’ve got Club, Purdham, Ratchford, Broughton, Smith, Gibson etc who would improve many teams in SL. I’ve not even named players like Patten, Chase, Feka or Witt.

SL would be the most competitive league in the country imo but it would more importantly be a quality product as well.

Off the top of my head

Purdham
Clubb
Melling
Broughton
Gibson
Ratchford
Smith
Sidlow
Blaymire
Aaron Murphy
Paul Johnson
Dale Ferguson
Ferres
Richard Owen
Arundel

It's not a complete list but there are some good players there and i'm sure a few SL clubs would be interested in them.

I’m also happy with seeing guys like Chase showing their potential at stronger clubs.

It's a good try, but if we're including the likes of Paul Johnson and Chris Melling on a list of top players who need to be concentrated to improve the quality of the comp, then I think you just made my point for me. If we were serious about bringing together all our quality players, then the purpose is to bring other teams up to the standard of Wigan, Saints, Leeds. So if there was to be any benefit of cutting clubs, then the redeployed players would have to be of a satndard which would get them a regular team spot at Wigan, Saints or Leeds.

Of your list, I could think of...

Purdham - as long as he isn't properly broken.
Owen - as long as his awful injury hasn't finished him

Umm....

As I say - if Peacock makes a proposal which has clear downsides, I think it's incumbent upon him to be able to present clear upsides. He needed to think this one through a bit more.

It's quite simple that if you cut the worst teams in SL took the few players from them who are good enough and redistributed them to the other teams the league will get stronger.

Either if you rate the players I mentioned or not the 10 team league idea isn’t about improving the national side but about making the league more exciting and competitive. For me the best way to do that is by cutting the number of teams and redistributing the good players between less team no matter what nationality they are.

We’ve got a few teams who are almost on the level of Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Wire and Hudds and this is the quickest way to get them to that level.

These are just the sort of short sighted posts from fans of clubs who think they have a divine right to be in SL that irritate the rest of us. How about Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Wire are disbanded and their players shared out amongst the remaining clubs? Not only would the quality of players in SL be just as high as if Cas & co were out but we wouldn't have to put up with obnoxious 'Big Four' supporters. That would be a win-win scenario wouldn't it?

Quite simply your right Wigan, Leeds, Wire and Saints DO have a divine right to play in SL. RL would be dead without these sides and if you think sides like Cas can carry the sport like these four do then your sadly mistaken. They have earned this right by hard work and progressing the game over the past decade.

But hey lets take your opinion and role with it and see what we’d lose

1-Four clubs all sitting inside the top five for attendances last season.
2-The current champions
3-The three in a row champions
4-The challenge cup holders
5-The most successful team of the SL era.
6-Three teams with a quality pedigree of producing world class talent including the likes of Tomkins, Farrell, Sinfield, Burrow, Mcguire, Cunningham, Long, Radlinski, Wellens, Roby, Graham etc
7-Three of the best stadiums in SL.

But hey lets run with Cas and Wakey instead.