Playing twice will never happen though it will be far too many games, if we had a semi conference system where we played everyone once and teams in our conference twice that would be as close as it could get to being fair for all imo.
I don't like the idea of conferences... who determines the conferences and what will they be based on??
The NSWRL media pushes for a two conference system i.e. Sydney and then the rest.
What association do we have with warriors, canberra or melbourne to be lumped with them for the rest of NRL eternity??
Why do Sydney teams get the year off from travelling??
If they want to do divisions then do it, but have them rotate around year on year to change up the match ups.
When the draw is developed every team finds out which division they're in and off they go, but make it so teams play everyone an even amount of times over a 4yr or 5yr cycle.
If that means one year we only play the cowboys once... then so be it... it just means the next time cows play at Suncorp it becomes a huge event on the calendar. That or you just have two teams that will always play each other twice... a rivalry draw basically.
Broncos vs Cows, Rorters vs Souths, Dogs vs Parra, etc... except then you get left with teams that have no consistent rivalry or a manufactured rivalry based on something very flimsy... like Knights vs Manly because '97 grand final
American sports do divisions, because they can actually group teams based on proximity to each other... New York playing Chicago, Boston, Philly, etc.
We are nowhere near the Warriors, but would be required to travel there every year... because "Sydney".