FU - Super League 2014

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Momentous times for the Super League as it announces an actual cash paying sponsor for the first time in three years, with First Utility gamely putting their name forward for the inevitable abbreviation above.

More importantly, promotion and relegation of sorts returns this year, replacing the much maligned licensing/franchising system, before all hell breaks loose in 2015.

So as far as I can tell:
- The top 12 in this season's FUSL start in FUSL in 2015.
- A Championship (FUC?) in 2015 will comprise the bottom two from this year's SL *, the top nine from this year's Championship, and (I think) the winners of this year's Championship 1.
- A third division (C1) will then form from the leftovers **.

Then in 2015, the following barn dance will occur:
- The 12 SL clubs will play 23 games (each other twice plus the Magic Weekend). The top 8 of these then play each other again over seven rounds of fixtures (carrying forward their points from the original 23 games). The top 4 of these (hold on, I'll just switch to another colour of marker pen) then go into the play offs towards the FUSLGF.
- The bottom 4 from SL and the top 4 of Championship form a middle tier, playing seven rounds of fixtures, starting from scratch (no points carried forward), to then determine who goes into the following year's SL. Now you would think that this would just be the top 4 but there is already talk of a 4th/5th 'million pound match' play off to decide the last SL spot.
- The bottom 8 of Championship form a third tier, carrying forward their points, play out a further seven rounds of fixtures, presumably to decide who gets relegated to the next tier down for the following season - but I'm guessing only one or two relegation spots here, so a lot of these third tier fixtures will be dead rubbers.

* The expectation here is that if London Broncos get one of the two relegation spots this year, it could kill them off completely, a view they themselves seem to share as this year's squad seem to be mainly on loan or one year deals.

** Leicester (Storm) and Coventry (Bears) had already declared their intentions to join the Championship / C1 structure before the above was announced, so they should be in there somewhere. Toulouse (formerly of the Championship) were angling for a SL licence from 2015 and look keen to get involved in the new set up.

So Christ knows what will actually happen.

More on other aspects of the game later.

[Etienne]

FU - Super League 2014

I don't really understand the nuances, but promotion and relegation coming back has to be for the best.

My wife is a Warrington fan, and I think they are going to be dropping back to mediocrity this year, too many of their best players are coming to the end of their careers.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

I missed some details that I've just noticed - the bottom two of the bottom tier of eight (Championship) do get relegated, to be replaced by the winners of C1 and the winner of a play off of teams 2-5 in C1. The top 4 of the bottom tier / Championship then have their own little play off for the Championship Shield.

I should have done this on Visio in retrospect.

Anyway, what all this will/could mean:

1) The majority of pro/semi pro players will now be on one year contracts, as all but the very top teams won't be able to plan more than one year in advance. No mention yet of whether teams (say in the middle tier or 'Super League Qualifying') will be allowed to add new players to the squad for the last seven games.

2) An end to the 'partnership club' concept in most cases as (depending on the above) SL clubs could loan out a few promising youngsters to a Championship club only to end up playing against them in the qualifying catfight.

3) More demand (if that were possible) for reserve grade / second tier Australian players as clubs start to get more competitive to stay up / get up / stand still than before.

4) As noted, potentially the end of the London Broncos as they currently stand. This could be a blessing if it leads to new London / home counties pro clubs joining the set up, similar to Skolars/Hemel, so that the good work going on at junior and amateur level can continue, with players having a clearer route through to the pro ranks. If the aforementioned Leicester and Coventry applications succeed, and the existing southern clubs stick around, a couple more in the London area would be enough for a regionalised structure at C1 level.

5) This is the end of any speculation around a Cumbrian merger to form a SL franchise. It was never likely to happen but now Whitehaven and Workington will both be convinced that they can get there on their own, and have started to say this publically. I've no axe to grind in this debate but all that will happen is that they'll continue to poach players off each other, laugh at each others' misfortunes and bang on about the meaning of 'jam eater', playing in the same knackered grounds, while the ahem 'community funding' that flows through that area finds other things to spend itself on.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

Finally, for now, things further afield.

I'll be watching more NRL games than usual (usual being watching Cronulla getting beat by late tries every week) to see how Sam Tomkins gets on, I suspect he'll be targeted in the first few games and will do well to keep his cool and get on with his game.

Yet another new gimmick from the NRL, a pre season 9s in Auckland - they used to do this but the angle now is that there is a load of money on offer. Things looked promising with decent ticket sales, bespoke team jerseys, but Brad Fittler coming out of retirement after nearly a decade to play in it is making it a bit of a circus.

After the high of the RLWC the international calendar is a bit sketchy, the Four Nations is down under at the end of the season, with Fiji and Samoa having a mid season one off decider for who gets the fourth spot. Details of these and any domestic games for England this year are lacking.

Meanwhile in the US, the in-fighting of the sort that RL excels in (fittingly I guess due to its origins) appears to be coming to an end with talk of the AMNRL folding and the USARL adding three clubs in the South (Atlanta, Tampa and Daytona) - they are a long long way from any kind of pro set-up but seem to be getting more organised.

So if the USARL do emerge as the single recognised body, that just leaves the RL civil wars in Italy and Thailand to sort out. Like I said, RL excels at this stuff.

[Kevin S]

FU - Super League 2014

Great start to the thread, WFD. That's a lot of relegations/promotions from a small division - as you say, it makes it really hard to plan ahead. But it does give a lot more meaning for matches not just around the top four in SL and for the lower divisions.

So live matches on tv are on Sky on Thurs and Fri evenings. Challenge Cup is still (mostly) on BBC. Any ideas if there is a highlights programme on anywhere?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

That article caught the attention of the New York Times.

As far as I know, there will still be the Super League Show on BBC showing the highlights - as well as some of the Challenge Cup the BBC are showing the England games and the final (see what I did there) from the 4 Nations, and Premier Sports showing the NRL, SOO, the other 4 Nations games (including the fourth spot qualifier) and the Championship (plus lots of random stuff including student internationals, Canada's home games and so on).

[Kevin S]

FU - Super League 2014

Cheers for that. On internationals, a brand new team for Latin America made its debut against a Phillipines XIII on Saturday. By the look of things such as their Facebook, they just appealed for players to come and play for them.

You can see the game on that website. I doubt I'm spoiling much by saying it was a massive defeat, but RL is off and running in South America in 2014. The ultimate aim is to develop the sport sufficiently to lead to the formation of national sides and a continental tournament.

On the 4N, have we really no chance to finish above NZ for the honour of being hammered by Australia?

[ursus arctos]

FU - Super League 2014

I recently had the pleasure of watching The Game That Got Away, a 1969 BBC Documentary that does an excellent job of capturing the reality of the League game at that time through the lens of Featherstone Rovers.

It says almost as much as the North of England as it does about the game.

Part One.

Part Two.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

FU - Super League 2014

kevchenko wrote:

Here is the full NS article.

He's not wrong but neither is he saying anything particularly groundbreaking, of course professional sports are rooted in capitalism, industrialization and for that matter urbanization.

The corinthian, amateur ethos of the 19th century was to reject professionalism as it would lead to the erosion of sporting values in favour of win at all costs attitudes, cheating and greed. Now, when you look at the abomination that is the Premier League you can only conclude that these Edwardian gentlemen were exceptionally foresighted.

[Gangster Octopus]

FU - Super League 2014

We've got a team in Harrow this season. I'll aim to see a few games.

[Third rate Leszno]

FU - Super League 2014

Good stuff WFD, thanks for explaining that so clearly without the need for an embedded powerpoint slide deck.

As a completely lapsed and exiled Whitehaven fan, I should really pick myself a Super League side to follow from the Wigan/Warrington/Saints/Widnes quartet that are all within 40 minutes of TrL Towers. I can see pros and cons to all of them, however, and none of them has really captured my heart yet, so perhaps I'll just pop along to random games as the season progresses.

[nmrfox]

FU - Super League 2014

Thanks WFD - excellent stuff as always.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

The excitement continues with a new TV deal.

Sky have extended the Super League contract for another five years beyond the end of the current deal, which ran to the end of the 2016 season, taking their commitment to the end of 2021 which will, alarmingly, mean RL being on Sky for 30 years.

No official word on the figures involved but it has been reported by a couple of RL journos that the deal is worth over £200m. If true, this means £40m a year going into the sport from TV compared to the current £22.5m per year. The RFL, while not confirming figures, are describing the deal as 'game changing'. If the numbers are true this is something of a sliding doors moment for RL in this country, as the money could be:
- invested in elite youth development, facilities and in guaranteeing the funding of expansion semi pro clubs outside of the heartlands
- pissed up the wall on players' wages

The new deal means that from 2015 Sky will show both Super League and Championship, and will show over 100 live games per year (currently around 60). All of this means that Sky were fully behind the 2x12, 3x8 format described above, and suggests that the deal was secured before the restructuring was announced, with the announcement of the deal being held back for inclusion in Sky's 'super six' release today. It was long thought that Sky wouldn't back a return to promotion and relegation, as they preferred the license-based 12 team full time elite league approach.

The immediate consequence of this is that Premier Sports have pulled out of showing the Championship this year, reportedly in the huff for not being included in talks over the new deal. This may not be a bad thing as they were paying nothing / not much for the rights and the TV coverage and moving games to Mondays and Thursdays was hitting attendances. It also may be a good thing in that they apparently are going to fill the gaps in the schedule with NRL-related magazine shows from Fox/Channel 9 (which Setanta used to show but Premier have never bothered).

Weather permitting (and it very much did not permit last weekend when I got within five miles of Workington's ground before discovering that their game with Wigan was called off) I should get to live games on each of the next four weekends, starting this weekend with a visit to t'Moor for Wath Brow Hornets v Halton Simms Cross in the Challenge Cup.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

Further details of the TV deal are now available and the answers are 1) yes, £200m and 2) pissed up the wall on players' wages.

The £200m for 2017-2021 will be distributed:
£146m to Super League clubs (12 of)
£14.6m to Championship clubs (12 of)
£1.8m to C1 clubs (? of, probably 12-14)
£17.8m to coaching and youth development
£20m covers the Challenge Cup and internationals

SL clubs will get £1.825m each in 2015, which is close to the current salary cap (but would imagine the cap will increase over time).

Championship clubs in 2015 will get the following depending on where they finish 2014:
- The clubs relegated from SL get around £800k each
- Top two in the Championship get around £500k each
- The others get £150k-200k

C1 clubs get £75k each

So basically, the bottom two from SL 2014, and the top two from Championship 2014 will have a huge advantage over the others in 2015 and would be odds on to make the middle eight (the SL qualifying play-offs I mean, not the instrumental bit towards the end of a song). This in mind, the ambitious Championship clubs will be going all out to secure a top two spot this year, and there will be some casualties.

Apart from that, looking at the wider picture I'd have liked to have seen C1 clubs get more than £75k each (1% of the overall league distribution) though hopefully they've get some benefit from the central development funding and some trickle down from the SL clubs' big pay day (such as Wigan's existing development programme in Wales), also there is nothing mentioned this time but there certainly used to be central funding for coach travel and other expenses.

Meanwhile, less glamorously, the BBC have announced a step up in radio coverage, albeit on the niche 5 Live Sports Extra, but at least there is some regularity to the coverage, with over 70 commentaries and wraparound items rather than just the commentary feed.

Oh, and Wath Brow 18-0 Halton Simms Cross, played in atrocious conditions on the edge of the fells - the wind was so strong that one of the half backs kicked on the last tackle, the ball went 20 yards then blew straight back to him so he caught it and tried a run instead.

[Hamish! Dougal!]

FU - Super League 2014

Granted it's only 1 game, but Wigan replacing Tomkins with Bowen already looks akin to selling your Bugatti Veyron and replacing it with a push bike.

Looks like Hull FC are pressing the panic button already, trying their damnedest to pinch as many players from Bradford as possible.

[Hamish! Dougal!]

FU - Super League 2014

Certainly didn't see that coming last night. Warrington looked woefully bad, and Saints might have unearthed a gem in Luke Walsh.

[Etienne]

FU - Super League 2014

My wife is a Warrington fan, and I think they are going to be dropping back to mediocrity this year, too many of their best players are coming to the end of their careers.

[Gangster Octopus]

FU - Super League 2014

The Broncos did the Harry O wrap-around-ad yesterday.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

Not quite Super League, but I'm not starting another thread for it - made it to Workington v Doncaster (in the Championship) today. Workington had three players on loan from Wigan, including Jason Robinson's son, but a good start with two early tries was undone by poor discipline allowing Doncaster to score 22 unanswered to leave the final score looking like this:

[Me Old Flower]

FU - Super League 2014

Donny? That's the football club.Shades of last season up at Borough Park, only it was Doncaster 18-0 up before Worky fought their way back into the game. The Dons managed to hold on to win that time.

Brought back down to earth this morning with the news that Sam Burgess is off to Bath. Still, improved crowds so far,a superb Auckland 9s tournament and Dr Koukash's devilution under way.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

The world can exhale now at the news that Australia and New Zealand's bid to host the 2017 World Cup has edged out the rival bid from South Africa. Hopefully they will show a bit of ambition in the venues rather than basing most of the games in Sydney and Brisbane with token games in Auckland - apparently the bid mentioned playing games in PNG.

So now that's sorted, any chance of getting the international calendar sorted for the next few years? Getting this year sorted would be a start, but apparently (in the 'only in Rugby League' category) the schedule of the Four Nations has had to be re-thought after someone noticed that staging the final in Brisbane on the weekend of the G20 summit being held there wasn't really going to fly with the security types. One detail that has been confirmed is the Fiji v Samoa qualifier will be on 3 May.

Meanwhile the unstoppable Salford publicity bandwagon hits a new gear with the announcement of a cross code charity game with their housemates Sale Sharks, in August, though we'll see how that pans out if they get anywhere near the CC final or the SL play offs.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

I made the trip to St Helens v Hull last night - the Steve Prescott related build up was emotionally charged stuff, even for a basically armchair fan such as myself, and there were many moistened eyes visible.

In the game itself, Saints were a bit pedestrian and error prone in the first half and did well to stay within four points. Second half was a different story altogether, the forwards stepped up impressively and the backs got their game together. Roby was man of the match, Walsh continues to get the plaudits, but Lomax also had a great game and is developing well. Confidence is high and we could be back to the default position of Saints and Leeds contesting the GF.

It looked like this:

[Gangster Octopus]

FU - Super League 2014

I see that the Broncos didn't set the Hive on fire on Saturday. Anyone know why they were playing on a Saturday afternoon?

[Gangster Octopus]

FU - Super League 2014

Broncos move off the bottom.

BBC Sports WebSite wrote: Bradford Bulls are docked six points by the Rugby Football League for going into administration.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

FU - Super League 2014

The Bradford thing is getting messier, with the consortium behind the aborted takeover now in a public slanging match with the RFL. This is soul destroying stuff for the game, one step forward and two steps back all the time.

London is another basket case, looks like all but the hardcore have given up, and even their hardcore is pessimistic about their chances in this season and beyond. The club was all but dead before Christmas, has a makeshift team with no pre-season to speak of and a new home miles from where they used to play. Playing a home game on a Saturday afternoon when London was hosting a RU international and 7 or 8 PL/FL games wasn't a great move in terms of attracting fans or media coverage.

These two are looking likely for relegation, although Bradford's win over Wakefield last week is now looking even more valuable as they could get dragged into it - the question is what sort of state will Bradford end up in if there is no takeover.

Meanwhile Dr Koukash's latest wheeze is a 'golden ticket' scheme where every club gets a salary cap 'marquee player' exemption, which is tradeable with other clubs, therefore allowing the club with the richest benefactor - hypothetically - to buy up the golden tickets from the clubs that can't afford to pay for a marquee player, thereby allowing that team to basically disregard the salary cap cos they have so many exemptions, which is great for that club but no-one else really.