K
kman
QCup Player
- Aug 8, 2021
- 876
- 1,233
It's only 5 extra games that's not exactly that many, I would agree with playing each other twice.
McHunt
International Rep
Contributor
- Aug 25, 2018
- 17,984
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- Thread starter
- #668
Yes, they could play these games instead of taking a holiday.
B
Brotherdu
NRL Player
- Feb 20, 2017
- 2,233
- 2,152
It can never be fair......add onto that the origin affected period. Only certain teams get smashed and lose 5+ players.
BroncsFan
International Captain
Contributor
- Jul 28, 2016
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If they go with a conference AND division system similar to NFL then it could be fairer.
Assuming say 4 divisions of 5 teams each (20 team comp)... then teams within the division all play the same teams and winner of the division automatically qualifies for the finals.
In short each division play each other twice home and away, and then they rotate around the other divisions to play once... and rotation of the divisions is cyclical across a 5 yr period or whatever... so we wouldnt get stuck with playing storm twice every fucking year, whilst never 'drawing' the tigers.
So if our division was us, cows, titans, dolphins and PNG... then we're basically competing for a finals spot with those teams initially, but we all play the same teams over the course of the year.
Home and away for teams outside the division and origin affected rounds still impacts the draw, but at least cows and dolphins would have to play the same teams as us and whoever tops the group is in the finals... so at least it is a fairer system.
mitch222
State of Origin Captain
- Apr 4, 2014
- 8,698
- 8,740
Union normally ***** that game for a round 1 when they book Suncorp for a Friday night for the Reds to play in front of 5K people. There is a reason we haven't played at home in round 1 for quite a few years now.
Broncapz
NRL Player
- May 1, 2016
- 2,996
- 7,037
100% this.
Ingrain it into the QLD zeitgeist and it becomes the biggest thing behind origin. Round 1 Broncos vs Cowboys. Ratings and Crowd bonanza.
It's really the only way to fire up an NRL season. Cowboys might start to hate it after a while though.
Big Pete
International Captain
- Mar 12, 2008
- 32,129
- 25,779
It's certainly unfair, but it's not unprecedented. In the NFL, they have an eighteen round competition with thirty-two teams with each conference playing each other twice. It's a flawed system but it still draws huge TV ratings.
If Rugby League continues to expand in Queensland, then it should only be a matter of time before we see another Broncos/Cowboys season opener. Granted, it's been awhile since either team has a bonafide classic against one another. It's either been one sided or just a low quality game since JT retired.
If Rugby League continues to expand in Queensland, then it should only be a matter of time before we see another Broncos/Cowboys season opener. Granted, it's been awhile since either team has a bonafide classic against one another. It's either been one sided or just a low quality game since JT retired.
BroncsFan
International Captain
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- Jul 28, 2016
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The NFL system is what they'd have to go with if they keep talking up a conference system.
In Sydney's head I think they see a conference system as 10 'Sydney' teams and then the rest... so that would have the "other" teams travelling all over the shop to Perth, PNG, Melbourne, NZ, T'ville, etc. whilst the Sydney comp just harks back to pre-1988 days.
However what I dont think they consider is that under a conference system the finals would have to be split even across the two conferences... so under a top 8 only 4 'Sydney' conference teams could qualify any given year.
In this year's finals there were 6 'Sydney' conference teams... assuming they claim Knights and shaft Canberra to the also rans conference... so majority Sydney teams wouldnt occur again under a conference system... which I think would have Sydney media up in arms... but they havent realised it yet.
To make it fairer I think they would have to divvy up the Sydney teams and go with divisions instead of conferences.
Assuming 4 divisions of 5 teams each you could go North, South, East and West.
With the longest travelling team spread across each so
North - PNG
South - Melb and Canberra
East - NZ
West - Perth
And then divvy the Sydney teams across that.
North - Broncos, Cows, Dolphins, Titans, PNG
South - Melb, Canberra, dargs, sharks, 20th team*
East - NZ, rorters, souths, Newcastle, Manly
West - Perth, parra, dogs, penrith, tigers
* 20th team to be allocated pending location
Issue with the above is you lose some of the rivalries that go beyond the devisions, like Melb vs Manly, sharks vs manly, etc... maybe Manly moves into 'South' and NZ2 comes into East as the 20th team. It could also stuff around with future expansion plans... what happens with a 22 team comp and an extra qld team?? Who would drop out of north if central QLD came in??
Suddenly one division is out of whack with the rest.
NRL would still want every team playing each other at least once (19 games) and their division rivals twice (+4 games)... so we're up to 23 games already and no opportunity for teams to play each other twice outside the division.
That might be ok as long as they flip the home and away from the year earlier... so a rivalry like Manly vs Melb, if they're in different divisions, would have Melb travel to Brookie one year and then Manly to Melb the next and so on... which may not be the end of the world, because it just means more hype can be generated from that team visiting every second year... excluding finals.
It does end up restricting what the NRL can do promotion wise though (best teams vs best teams) and pretty much locks them into a set draw every year... can see Sydney media thinking that becomes stale... but their job would be hyping up division rivals.
Santa
State of Origin Rep
- Jun 30, 2020
- 7,045
- 12,883
Just expand to 20 teams - everyone play each other once - have a month break in the middle for origin/rep games. Easy.
Have some wildcard matches if you want it to be longer too.
Have some wildcard matches if you want it to be longer too.
Mustafur
State of Origin Captain
Contributor
- Jun 13, 2019
- 10,079
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Us playing a Sydney Team round 1 will get the most viewers and it's why it's almost always the case, playing the Cowboys does well in QLD but might lose a bit of the NSW viewers so while it's great for crowds it's not the ideal TV game.
If we got the ideal draw for our crowds it would look a bit different, but TV companies make nothing on that that's why we barely play on Sunday.
HarryAllan7
QCup Player
- Jul 20, 2017
- 938
- 4,184
If the NRL ever gets to the point where it has enough teams to establish a division / conference system then the sport will be dead.
There’s already too many teams as it is, with not nearly enough talented players to produce a consistent quality product (especially with the ‘faster’ game resulting in way more injuries than ever before). The fact that they want to add more teams and continue to fill them with sub-standard players and ruin the product is really baffling.
Dolphins shouldn’t exist. Merge them with the titans next door.
Sharks and Dragons merge.
Tigers and bulldogs merge.
Then each team can play each other twice.
Suddenly you have a fair draw, huge increase in roster quality and therefore game quality, and haven’t lost or sacrificed any geographic location. And you’ve also eliminated a bunch of garbage non-sustainable clubs that can’t win or turn a profit to save their lives.
Simple… but V’Landys won’t be happy until there’s 30 teams filled with third grade level talent playing games with scores like 80-78 every week in Vegas for all 10 American fans.
There’s already too many teams as it is, with not nearly enough talented players to produce a consistent quality product (especially with the ‘faster’ game resulting in way more injuries than ever before). The fact that they want to add more teams and continue to fill them with sub-standard players and ruin the product is really baffling.
Dolphins shouldn’t exist. Merge them with the titans next door.
Sharks and Dragons merge.
Tigers and bulldogs merge.
Then each team can play each other twice.
Suddenly you have a fair draw, huge increase in roster quality and therefore game quality, and haven’t lost or sacrificed any geographic location. And you’ve also eliminated a bunch of garbage non-sustainable clubs that can’t win or turn a profit to save their lives.
Simple… but V’Landys won’t be happy until there’s 30 teams filled with third grade level talent playing games with scores like 80-78 every week in Vegas for all 10 American fans.
Mustafur
State of Origin Captain
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- Jun 13, 2019
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Dolphins almost made the 8 and have one of the highest attendances of clubs in NRL, weird opinion.
The more money in the game the more we can get players of quality from elsewhere so I don't think it's an issue, Super league has plenty of players who are at an NRL level quality still and there is definitely still the untapped union player pool which is much larger than ours which will come available when our TV contracts get bigger.
Also with more teams in the game there is more top 30 players meaning more Full timers, what hurts RL depth at the moment is the fact players are not full time outside the NRL top 30 bubble, increase that and you increase quality with it too.
HarryAllan7
QCup Player
- Jul 20, 2017
- 938
- 4,184
The dolphins didn’t exist 5 minutes ago and were forced into the competition by the NRL for no reason.
If they ceased to exist tomorrow I doubt many would be bothered.
Mustafur
State of Origin Captain
Contributor
- Jun 13, 2019
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Dolphins existed as a Qcup and BRL identity longer than us...
HarryAllan7
QCup Player
- Jul 20, 2017
- 938
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Not according to the NRL, who are insistent that this iteration is NOT the REDCLIFFE dolphins despite even fox commentators referring to them as such.
Dolphins can return to their spiritual home as a reserve grade side. I’m sure lots of their fans would prefer to follow their actual Redcliffe team instead of this weird hybrid the NRL has created.
Mustafur
State of Origin Captain
Contributor
- Jun 13, 2019
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It's because of QRL rules, you can't have a one to one NRL team franchise in the Queensland system, unlike NSWcup.
HarryAllan7
QCup Player
- Jul 20, 2017
- 938
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I think you need to look a little deeper into the whole Moreton Bay drama and how ‘the’ Dolphins ended up the abomination they are.
Mustafur
State of Origin Captain
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- Jun 13, 2019
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The fact remains they can't call themselves Redcliffe dolphins atm even if they wanted to, and the club is still related, otherwise they wouldn't share the same leagues club because no other RL team in the country does.
