All of this! They should stop with the next team in brisbane and have everyone play each other twice. I still can’t believe it’s not a thing.
I don't think it's viable to play each other twice as that becomes a 30 game season... squads are barely surviving the 24 game season as it is.
I think what they need to do is just have it on a cycle... it's probably been years since we haven't had to play Melbourne twice in a season.
Assuming the 24 game format, a cycle may look something like:
- 15 games (vs each team once)
- 9 games vs teams played twice
> 3 rivalry games selected by the clubs (cows, titans, etc. for us)
> 6 remaining games are cycled through the other 12 teams (3 home, 3 away). So 1 year we play dogs twice and storm once, the next year we play dogs once and storm twice... and you flip around the home and away games as the cycle continues on.
I think that works out alright, but even if it doesn't you get the gist.
I don't necessarily like the 3 rivalry teams, but at least the draw can't be manipulated to have a team play the top 4 every year.
It becomes chance or luck on whether you happen to get a team playing shit in the 2 game part of the cycle, but even then most teams cant turn things around from 1 season to the next, unless it was injuries that caused the drop in form, so you'll probably end up getting the shit team during both the 1 game and 2 game parts of the cycle