Rugby league is a game a lot of Australians love to watch and play.
There are many fans of the NRL and its 16 clubs, with plenty more tuning in for representative football such as State of Origin. But what fans are sick of is the unfairness of the NRL draw and how teams can play each other twice only three weeks apart.
Here’s my simple solution to fix the NRL season
Firstly, I’d cut the season back to 23 Rounds. Each team will play 22 matches and have one bye.
Matches will be played from Thursday – Sunday. The kickoff times will be the same every round
Thursday 7.15pm
Friday 7.30pm
Saturday 3.00pm
Saturday 5.15pm
Saturday 7.30pm
Sunday 1.15pm
Sunday 3.30pm
Sunday 6.00pm
Matches should have earlier kickoff times. 8pm is way to late on any night for games to begin. This is a factor of why the NRL gets low crowds. With Thursday’s kicking off at 7.15 that means the match will be over my 9.15 and will allow people to get home earlier. Afternoon matches should kickoff earlier so the game is played entirely in the afternoon.
The season format will look like this. From Rounds 1-16 everyone plays each other once, while from Rounds 17–23 each team will play seven teams for a second time.
But what about the rep season?
Now here’s a the big solution. Simply Origin should be played on Saturday nights.
After ten rounds the teams will be selected. Then during round 11. It’ll look like this:
Thursday NRL match
Friday NRL match
Saturday 7.30pm State of Origin I
Sunday NRL match
Sunday NRL match
Round 12 and 13 will be full rounds with eight games each. Then after Round 13 a stand-alone rep weekend will occur with Origin II on the Saturday night, Women’s Origin on the Friday night.
No Internationals will be played on this weekend
Round 14 and 15 will be a full round. Then Round 16 will be another split round with four NRL matches and Origin III on the Saturday night just like Round 11.
After Origin, from Round 17 onwards it’ll be the run in to the finals, with all teams to play every round.
A bye weekend will occur between Round 23 and Finals week 1 (exactly like the AFL). This bye round will allow teams to get a full seven-day turnaround for each game during the finals.
Finals week one will have matches on Thursday, Friday and Saturday Night plus Saturday afternoon.
Weeks two and three will have the games on Friday and Saturday nights. The grand final will be on a Sunday Afternoon 3pm kickoff
As for the international season, all international matches should occur after the NRL is completed. So matches between the island nation or the big three nations can occur at this time.
That’s my solution to fix the NRL season. What do you think, Roarers?
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