According to the BBC the season will be split into two and the first half will see two groups (superleague 1 & 2) of twelve play each other home and away, presumerably no magic weekend at this stage and then in the second half of the season they split into three groups of eight with the top and bottom groups retaining their points from the first half of the season, but the middle group starting from scratch, these three groups will then play seven games against all the other clubs, (presumerably three at home, three away and perhaps one at an expanded magic weekend).
There's still a lot of unanswered questions:
1, It looks like the play offs have changed, instead of a cup style knock out system, it now looks like it has changed to a league system, so how do we know who the Champions will be? Will they simply be the ones who finish top of the league of eight? (If so, that will suit me as a Warrington supporter, who for years have seen teams finishing third and fourth being declared champions, which is ridiculous )
2, I am supposing that's how the magic weekend will fit into the great scheme of things, I may be wrong, so what exactly IS happening with the Magic Weekend? Will it be expanded to include all 24 clubs?
3, What happens to the four teams who will be relegated from the Championship this year? Will there be promotion to and from Superleague 2 or will that be a 'closed shop' like the way Superleague has been recently?
4, Obviously, the middle group of eight all start from scratch because they will be coming from two different leagues, and simply cannot carry their points over, that's obvious, but how exactly will the promotion and relegation work with this group? Will it be a case of the top four from that group going into Superleague 1 the next year, to make up the next group of twelve?
5, The most important point, how will the fans take to this incredibly complicated system? Were they consulted? Will it put some of them off? Will they have to sit advanced mathematics classes? Seriously, what will the fans make of this?
6, Finally, will this new system put some teams out of business? Teams like London and Bradford are already at deaths door, will demotion be the final nail in the coffin? And what about the four teams who will drop out of this system altogether, how will they survive?
Just some points which need clearing up so I hope the Rugby Football League has thought this out properly because it HAS to work. From a fans point of view, I know Warrington won't be in any danger from this new system, so we will just get on with it and from a Whitehaven perspective, well I have seen many comments on this forum from people who are obviously frustrated and infuriated about the 'closed shop' system so personally I am all for this new system, it has my support and it can only be right that the lower tier has something to play for at the end of the season, and there is some real mobility between the two Superleagues.
I sincerely hope Whitehaven make the grade and hope to see you all in Warrington one day, I will personally reserve you all a seat at the Halliwell Jones stadium if I have to
but I do worry about the four teams who won't be invited, so lets hope this works out for everyone, the future of our great game is at stake.
