The World Club Series has been hugely successful in 2015, with three gripping ties folding out between the English and Australia rugby league clubs.
St George Illawarra edged out Warrington 18-12 in a gruelling encounter, Brisbane beat Wigan in an extra-time thriller 14-12, which was decided by a penalty goal, while the NRL premiers South Sydney humiliated the Super League premiers St Helens 39-0.
Three huge matches, all in front of sell-out crowds.
When the tournament was first announced I had two trains of thought on the concept. The first was that the World Club Series would take the spotlight off the World Club Challenge. In a way it did, with two tough and gruelling matches overshadowing a complete blow-out. However, it didn’t take the tradition away from the match.
The second train of thought was simply that there was more pre-season footy to watch. I found myself hauling myself out of bed for three consecutive mornings to watch so-called ‘friendlies’, but as we all saw they were anything but.
Now I have a completely different train of thought regarding the tournament. Can the World Club Series replace the NRL pre-season? The answer is simple. Yes, it can.
A knock-out tournament will be staged between all teams from the NRL and Super League, excluding the premiers of both competitions, who will later compete in the World Club Challenge. This means that a total of 26 teams will compete over a five-week period.
For the first round, all teams will be drawn except for those clubs that finished second, third or fourth on the NRL or Super League tables. The first round will feature 20 teams competing in 10 matches over a four-day period.
The second round will feature the winners of the first round ties as well as the clubs which were given the bye for the first round. This round will feature 16 teams who will compete in eight matches over a four-day period.
The third round will follow with the winners of the second round proceeding. The competition will be reduced to eight teams and will be the final round before the play-offs.
The semi-finals will be played between the winners of the third round matches. These two games will be the qualifying matches for the World Club Series final.
The final will wrap-up the tournament with the two winners of the semi-finals competing for the World Club Series trophy. The match will be followed by the World Club Challenge between the NRL and Super League premiers.
While the tournament is taking place the touring premiers will remain in their home country and participate in community carnivals and continue their pre-season training before flying out for the World Club Challenge.
The tournament will alternate hosts each year between Australasia and Europe. It will replace the current NRL pre-season structure in which clubs have the option of scheduling pre-season trials against other NRL, New South Wales Cup or Queensland Cup teams.
Hasn’t this been done before?
In 1997, all 22 clubs from the Australasian and European Super League championships contested the World Club Championship over six rounds in two hemispheres. It didn’t turn out well with an estimated five million dollar loss due to poor ratings and attendances.
This time around, however, the NRL and RFL will not make the same mistakes. This competition, unlike the previous, will take place in one region (Australasia or Europe) rather than in two hemispheres. The tournament will also feature high quality rugby league and close contests between each club, as has been shown in the 2015 World Club Series.
Television ratings will be strong, especially in the host region. Matches will be taken away from the big grounds (ANZ Stadium, Suncorp Stadium and Old Trafford etc) and will be taken to smaller grounds which do not normally host matches between elite teams (North Ipswich Reserve, Belmore Sports Ground, Caltex Oval and Langtree Park etc). Hence, creating a sense of occasion and delivering good crowds while strengthening the game’s relationship with these areas, especially in the NRL’s case with country areas.
The television broadcasters will no doubt jump aboard this concept. Twenty-five games will be played throughout the tournament (excluding the World Club Challenge) meaning the networks would have access to a large catalogue of matches. Although the tournament will alternate between Australasia and Europe each year, making viewing times difficult for both regions, the broadcasters will still reach a large audience if matches are played in the morning.
Added to this, the networks will also get to show the tournament in their own market at prime time bi-annually, which will result in large ratings and more revenue for the game. The tournament will couple with the huge broadcast rights deal and add to the value of the next deal.
The competition will take place two weeks after the NRL Auckland Nines and upon their return the teams will participate in the NRL Community Carnival a week before the opening round of NRL action. I think we may well have just fixed the NRL pre-season. It’s up to you, Roarers.
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Roar Guru
I'd love to see this eventuate, the best of the NRL up against the best of the English Super League. It's the perfect replacement to the pre-season. In fact, I would love to one day see an NRL All-Stars line-up come up against the ESL All-Stars, but here's a twist - the English vote for the NRL team and the Aussies vote for the ESL team (in the same manner we vote for who should play for the NRL All-Stars). Would add some intrigue to the contest and will be interesting to watch. And the home country alternates every year (e.g. Australia hosts it in the even years and the UK in the odd years), so that the fans won't be disappointed. And on a side note, the WCS should also alternate countries each year if the concept is retained for 2016 which I hope will happen.
pjm
Roar Rookie
I think we have to make it fair. Bottom 6 NRL teams Vs. Top 6 SL teams.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
The WCS is fine as it is now.
Epiquin
Roar Guru
My biggest fear about your proposal is that by the team we reach the eight-team third round (quarter finals), we will essentially be watching 8 NRL sides.
Epiquin
Roar Guru
Alright, well if turbo doesn't like All Stars, Internationals, Nines and World Club Challenges I guess we better get rid of them. I know these events have traditionally pulled great crowds, media exposure and ratings, but if turdodewd doesn't like them, what future do they have? He's right too about Origin being on a Wednesday. Sure it is one of the most watched (if not THE most watched) programs of the year and sells out every game, but obviously it's not working. He also makes a great point about crap crowds. I mean, 2014 was in the top 6 seasons for average attendance and top 5 for total attendance and (excluding finals) we had 14 games over 30,000 and 4 games over 40,000. But we also had some sub 10k crowds on rainy Monday nights between spoon contenders. So clearly crowds are terminal. We should just have 15 weeks of NRL and then forget about it for the other 37 weeks. Then EVERYBODY will be happy.
Epiquin
Roar Guru
Agreed Barry, I'm a big supporter of playing games between the two Leagues, but I think it's just as important to play trials in the bush. I think a top 4 tournament is the absolute maximum that we need.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
Would prefer half of the NRL clubs go to England, the other half come to Australia and they play nines, maybe the weekend after the Grand Finalist of both comps play each other. (The week after the nines, one match in Australia, one in England).
turbodewd
Guest
This WCC caper is getting sillier. I only care if my team wins the GF - i dont care 2 hoots if they win some lesser trophy vs Hull or Warrington. Where is the focus on the normal NRL season?! We have crap crowds...but rather than fix that, we have all manner of lameo contests adorning its edges. We have City v Country; Auckland 9s and the ANZAC Test...and the silly All Stars game. Origin is the only exception, but it needs its wednesday night timeslot moved. Why oh why does noone focus on quality in NRL circles, they just focus on quantity - MORE MORE MORE....no no no...
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
I agree.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Does the WCS/WCC have to be 'the future' of the pre-season? Can't it just be 'a feature' of the pre-season? This ground keeps getting re-trod. The concept is interesting enough to keep going with. Definitely. The footy wasn't anywhere near good enough to justify a 26 team, 5 week competition. I was a bit iffy (to put it mildly) about whether the expanded comp would work. 2 v 8, 3 v 12, etc. but I think it worked. It didn't really matter once the teams were out there. The next step is having four or five teams having one off games in England by invitation. We're a million miles away from a 26 team knockout comp. NRL teams won't support a 5 week comp at that time of year. You'd be talking about a start date in mid January, players just aren't ready to be playing full games of footy at that stage of the season. It's only really been in the last round of trials that squads have resembled full strength. Then there's the costs associated with five weeks abroad. Are NRL clubs that flush they can all afford that? Let's let the concept grow rather than forcing it to be something it's not.