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By copying the Scottish Premier League’s (SPL) finals series, the NRL could improve a number of issues in one go.
The Scottish Premier League is a 12-team competition, so obviously it would need to be tweaked, however the season is basically divided into two phases.
During phase one, each team within the competition plays three games against the other teams in the comp – so a total of 33 games have been played by each team.
After this first 33-game period, the league gets split into two parts – the top six and the bottom six – and a further five games are played against the teams in their half of the league.
Points from the first half of the season are carried over on the ladder, but only for the points won against those in their split. As there is no grand final or finals series, the team with the most points is crowned champion.
With a few tweaks, here’s how it would work in the NRL.
Each team would play each other once at the start of the season, making the first 15 rounds of the competition very important. At this point the league would go on a three-week break, but I’ll get to that later.
After this mid–season break, the league would split into a top eight and bottom eight. From that point there would be a further seven rounds, where the top eight play against each other and the bottom eight play against each other. However I would recommend that all points achieved by teams in the first 15 rounds on the ladder are kept for the duration of the season instead of following the SPL model.
After all club games have been played, the finals can obviously no longer be an eight-team contest or else the final seven rounds would be a joke. So the finals must become at most a six-team contest.
In the bottom eight they would play for a ‘best of the rest’ plate instead of the premiership, which would act as a brilliant lead-up game on grand final day.
As for the three week break, this is a great opportunity to play every representative game.
Obviously of most importance is State of Origin, which would get a 3pm kick off on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon – you can’t beat that time to play football.
Of massive importance to the NRL must be to also introduce a New Zealand Origin series, featuring North Island versus South Island.
Other games that could be featured over the three week representative break would include a NSW City versus Country, and a Queensland City versus Country.
A Pacific Islands round robin tournament must be considered over this three-week break. To get the most out of this tournament the games could be played mid–week or over the weekends.
The u/20 State of Origin could be expanded to a three-game contest as lead-up games to the senior Origin Games, meaning they would start around 1pm or 12:30 in the afternoon.
The last seven rounds of competition certainly have questions that must be asked. Will it matter? Will the bottom eight teams care with nothing other than a runners-up cup to play for? Will the crowds come? Will teams lose revenue?