www.loverugbyleague.com/news_158 ... -2015.html

www.loverugbyleague.com/news_158 ... -2015.html

Sorry read it a number of times anything that take so much reading is to complicated, hope I am wrong but feel this could be worse than what we have now.

The jist is:
Top 8 in SL enter round 6 of Challenge Cup
No change in SL salary Cap
£1mil cap in championship
No parachute payment for London & Bradford
Kingstone Championship will have 12 clubs & Kingstone League 1 will have 14
Dual Reg possibly could be abolished

OK, so help me out with this one if I've got it wrong, to win the Superleague next season...

Regular season - Home 11 games, Away 11 games + Magic wknd.
Super 8 - 7 games: positions 1 to 4 play home games against the 5-8, the away games against the rest of the top 4.
Playoff semi final home and away - 1st v 4th, 2nd v 3rd.
Grand final.

Correct??

i see the playoffs have been sorted... 2 games and then the final.

That sounds about right to me, i have read it 3 times now and am trying to fathom what happens. It is so complicated and am sure all will become clearer as it unfolds especially the "Million Pound Game"

So a team progressing as far as the SL semis could potentially play the same team 7 TIMES in the same season if the CC draw went that way. Nuts!

Like the semi final format though, much better.

The play off's are good under the new structure but the rest is a pile of bull excreta.

Sorry if I'm being slow or missing something - there's a lot to take in and it's a hot day - but how does that work? The top four can't all play each other away

As clear as mud isn't it?

The top 4 of the top 8 will play 4 home matches and 3 away so would be as follows:

Top 8:
Warrington, Wigan, Saints,Leeds,Widnes,Cas,Hudds,Catalans

Warrington Games:

Warrington vs Catalans
Wigan vs Warrington
Warrington vs Saints
Hudds vs Warrington
Warrington vs Leeds
Widnes vs Warrington
Warrington vs Cas

You carry your points forward from the regular season so it would obviously help you in the long run if you had a good campaign so hopefully no more meaningless games!

This really isn't that complicated. Not much here that we didn't know anyway, I'm right behind these changes. Not convinced about the changes to the Challenge Cup though, win four games and you've won the thing? Seems to devalue it a bit for me.

Yup, that makes no sense at all.

Well, just to focus on SL - we have been moaning for a long time that the playoffs have become a joke because it devalued the point of the regular rounds. Surely this fixes this ? As Deckchair points out, you have to be top 4 to qualify and its a very simple 1st v 4th, 2nd v 3rd to pick the finalists. I am quite happy to accept a bit of complexity to achieve a more equitable result. Anyway, its not exactly quantum mechanics, just a lot to remember.

One thing which may seem a small point but which grates a bit of me is that theyhaven't taken the chance to sort out the "23rd game" anomaly, where you could find yourself playing Wigan 3 times or Wakefield 3 times, depending on how the smoke comes out of the chimney. If the weekly rounds are going to be more important - and look how close some sides are this year anyway - then it seems even more random in terms of fairness. If you need a Magic Weekend why not have it as the first round of games after the split, so that each team in that split stage can play 3 home and 3 away games, and one game at a neutral venue. It would need to be done a bit differently and wouldn't be able to be in May, but it would even things out a bit and the games should all be more competitive.

This is a very good idea, the only reason it isn't happening like this is presumably it would be around August time and close to the Challenge Cup final.

We also need it to be decided whether these 'Super 8' fixtures will be included in season tickets or not. If they are, we might see a hike in prices that speccys might not like.

Finally, can we not go down the route of 'bonus points' for losing teams as might be the case. Don't reward a team for losing.

I was cycling as I read the article but it seems fine to me. The top 4 going into the playoffs sounds great to me as one win and you're there.

As for the rest of the stuff, its not complicated, but if for some reason you can't work it out just WAIT until next season. Enjoy this season and stop worrying about something you dont have to organise. It'll play out itself and you can pick it up yourself.

Super league 12 teams, Championship 14 teams ,total 26 teams ....how can that split into 3 groups of 8 ?

I think you will find it is 12 teams in the Championship as well. They are relegating 5 teams out of the Championship this year.

1/4, semis for the challenge cup all at wembley?

I emailed the club a while back when I was looking at the season ticket standing order, they advised that they anticipate the Super 8 Series will be included. I believe Leeds have confirmed their season ticket structure already with the mini series included, I don't think they have upped prices.

There is great potential for selling a Super 8 mini season ticket.

Even with these new changes there is the potential of a team finishing top by a mile by means of having to play a really tough season, but going out in play offs and the team finishing fourth winning it.

A lot more credit needs to go to the team who finish top. Not just a crappy shield held up in a subdued celebration.

The celebration is no different to when a soccer team wins the season. I actually quite like the shield, it is different however I really like the idea of digging the old Championship trophy out from the Wigan trophy cabinet and using that.

The CC fixtures are confusing me - do they mean that the top eight of SL this year will enter the 2015 CC competition in what is now called the 5th Round but in 2015 will be called the 6th Round (whatever it's called it must be the "round of 16"icon_wink.gif. Then from 2015 onwards, whoever is in the Super 8 of SL will enter the following year's CC competition in the round of 16?

If it does mean this, a team from lower divisions are only even going to play against a team that is perennially in the top 8 of the SL if they make it to the round of 16. We'll not get any games ending with Wire scoring 80+ points that have kick started a spluttering campaign like in the last few seasons.

This new system is potentially miles more exciting than the current structure ... so well done the RFL. For those who find it complicated I think you are not really trying or you must find the rest of life a complete blur. Yes it's more complex than the current system but it's a doddle to understand ... and I'm not the sharpest tool in the box.

More incentive to finish higher so should be more exciting games, but I'm still not getting this Super 8 idea, can someone enlighten me please?

7 games, 4 home 3 away (vice versa if we finish 5th-8th)
How is it decided which games are home and which are away - what's to stop one of these top 4 teams getting 3 more favourable away games?

Apologies if I'm missing something but I think my brain just exploded.