Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Tue Aug 11, 2015 1:56 pm  

I think England should look to play a pacific nation and NZ mid season on the same weekend as stand alone origin. We could schedule the 4th round of the challenge cup at the same time, 1to8 in SL don't play in, followed by a 1 week break.

This would put the Aussies at a disadvantage to Eng and NZ come the end of season four nations/World Cup.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:42 pm  

wire-quin wrote:

The Aussies game is going the same way as English football.

All( a large % for the pedants!) the worlds best players playing in the Premier league with a useless national side. They will get less interested the more beatings they take. The clubs will dictate.

When was the last time a premier league player made the final 3 of ballon dor? The worlds best players play in Spain or Germany

Regards

King James

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:45 pm  

Its a real shame the NRL is doing it's best to make any progress for international RL much more difficult, for me nothing matters remotely as much as the international game.
I think we need 2 international windows, one mid season and one post season, so that we play at least one international series /world cup in the UK every year, we need to build the brand and be playing regular meaningful internationals and at the moment these realistically need to include Australia or NZ. It also helps when you leave at the end of the game that you know where and when the next series will take place, just like it helps the major finals we have every year in the club game.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:55 pm  

Hang on a minute, whilst I get disappointed in tne lack of prominence of int RL I think you need to take a ledger on who is doing what

NRL
Paying NRL PI payers to represent their country
Changed origin eligibility to reduce faux nsw and Qland PI and kiwis from abandoning their country
Putting hundreds of thousands into png including employing 25 development officers over there
Putting funds and marketing into Fiji and Samoa
Supporting png to have pathway for player development via Qland cup
Give nzrl a grant every year to pay the kiwi players rep payments

Just because the soft kangaroos don't want to play doesn't mean the NRL aren't doing far more than the RFL at growing the game in neighbouring countries.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Wed Aug 12, 2015 1:11 am  

JB Down Under wrote:

Hang on a minute, whilst I get disappointed in tne lack of prominence of int RL I think you need to take a ledger on who is doing what

NRL
Paying NRL PI payers to represent their country
Changed origin eligibility to reduce faux nsw and Qland PI and kiwis from abandoning their country
Putting hundreds of thousands into png including employing 25 development officers over there
Putting funds and marketing into Fiji and Samoa
Supporting png to have pathway for player development via Qland cup
Give nzrl a grant every year to pay the kiwi players rep payments

Just because the soft kangaroos don't want to play doesn't mean the NRL aren't doing far more than the RFL at growing the game in neighbouring countries.

From what I can grasp of your text (what is a PI?) your last point is correct. The NRL are certainly doing far more for neighbouring countries than the RFL.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Wed Aug 12, 2015 1:11 am  

I hope England travel over to NZ to play the Kiwis the same weekend as the middle Origin. Makes sense.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:54 am  

I've always thought there should be a dedicated mid-season International break, played over two or three consecutive weekends, observed by the whole of RL.

This would allow the time for sides to travel to the other hemisphere and play a couple of matches, and most importantly, have all of their players available to them. Let the Aussies play State of Origin.

A bit like the Autumn Internationals in Union, one year the Northern Hemisphere sides head South, the next year the Southern lot head North.

The main problem would be squeezing it into an already busy calendar.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Wed Aug 12, 2015 8:00 am  

Thinking about the RL calendar.

SL/Championship have 30 league games, and two weeks for playoff semi/GF. 2 games fall over Easter, so 31 weekends.
Challenge Cup - 4 weekends
WCC - 1 Weekend
Mid-Season International Break - 3 Weekends
End of Season Internationals - 4 Weekends

That comes to 43 Weekends of RL, leaving 9 weeks for players to have off & for pre-season.

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:11 pm  

Doom&Gloom Merchant wrote:

Thinking about the RL calendar.

SL/Championship have 30 league games, and two weeks for playoff semi/GF. 2 games fall over Easter, so 31 weekends.
Challenge Cup - 4 weekends
WCC - 1 Weekend
Mid-Season International Break - 3 Weekends
End of Season Internationals - 4 Weekends

That comes to 43 Weekends of RL, leaving 9 weeks for players to have off & for pre-season.

I agree, I'd love to see a dedicated mid-season international calendar.

Although, I think the top RL players already play too many games and this would add some more on, but that can be solved by limiting the amount of domestic games the top players play each season.

I'd like to see a calendar something along the lines of:

Year 1 Mid-Season = Eng v Aus, NZ & France (& France v NZ & Aus)
Year 1 End of Season = 4/5 Nations down under

Year 2 Mid-Season = Aus v Eng, NZ & Fiji (& NZ v Eng & Fiji)
Year 2 End of Season = 4/5 Nations here

Year 3 Mid-Season = same as Year 1
Year 3 End of Season = Test Series Aus or NZ 3 match series v Eng

Year 4 = World Cup

Re: NRL finally kick International Rugby League into touch. : Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:45 pm  

Him wrote:

I agree, I'd love to see a dedicated mid-season international calendar.

Although, I think the top RL players already play too many games and this would add some more on, but that can be solved by limiting the amount of domestic games the top players play each season.

It would, but only a couple of games compared to when we used to have the one mid-season international. Also, as they're 'friendlies' rather than tournament games, the players could be rotated and have some fringe players tested.

The only way to grow the game IMO is to have a credible International game, which involves a fixed 4-year International calendar & a has a nations best players available to them (rather than holding out for an origin/NZ place as we see with the PI teams).

We seem to be making baby steps towards progress, rather than any great leaps. This move I hope will aid the PI & PNG sides, although it'll hamper NZ.