And here we go again. To kick things off, a state of the (Northern) union review.
Domestic
It’s the second season of the ‘new era’ and we got through the first year without anyone’s head exploding at the various permutations of the divisional system, but we also got through it without any the championship teams making much of a dent in the Super League dominance of the qualifying eights. Bradford went close against Wakefield in the ‘million pound match’ and maybe that’s as much as the championship teams can hope for, to get lucky in the sudden death play off though with a raise in the cap Leigh are hopeful of going further.
Things were tighter at the top of Super League though, with the top four closely matched right to the end of the Super 8’s. It would be nice this season to have a couple more clubs staying closer to the top four right to the end. Leeds will be missing their departed stars, Saints won’t get to Easter without half the squad getting injured (my one wish for the year is for Lomax to get through it unscathed and realise his potential), Wigan have got Sam Tomkins back and look the best bet for the title.
Whoever makes the Grand Final, we'll be there - poignantly it's the last Grand Final before Thing One goes off to university, something which dawned on us on the way to the last one. I'd be disappointed if it turns out to be the last one we ever go to together, but it will still be the end of an era. We've come a long way together since we cheered Sean Long's late drop goal for Saints as it sailed over our heads behind the goal, and a terrified (then four year old) Thing One leapt into my arms when the first firework went off at the trophy lift, and proceeded to run in mid-air, like Scooby Doo.
Further down we have a new outpost of the empire with Toulouse re-joining the English system at Championship 1 level. They aren’t doing it to play Oxford and Bramley indefinitely and it will be interesting to see how quickly they progress.
Further down the ranks and closer to home, Kells have joined Wath Brow and Egremont in the top tier of the amateur game. This means that a quarter of the clubs in the National Conference League come from a small triangle of West Cumbria, and it also means six local derbies, so that I’ve got a much better chance of making it to at least one. Said derbies pull bigger crowds than many Whitehaven and Workington home games.
NRL
South Sydney have signed a new forward, he’s worth keeping an eye on. Might even make the England squad if he puts the work in. They’ll be in there at the end with the other usual suspects, Easts, Brisbane and North Queensland.
Off the field the NRL has got its biggest ever TV deal, but is no further forward in securing further expansion. The current view is that there'll be no expansion until the existing sixteen are all financially stable - meaning indefinitely given the complex and varied backgrounds of each of the existing clubs. It’s hard to keep track but I think two clubs are fully owned by the NRL itself (Newcastle and Gold Coast), there are long running financial issues at Wests Tigers which may eventually result in a de-merger, and others (like Cronulla) are hanging on. ‘Expansion’ therefore may take the form of one of the basket cases being moved out to Perth, Central Coast or Brisbane, rather than a wholly new club.
International
We get to host the Four Nations in the autumn, with Scotland making their debut in the tournament. Nice for them and a good warm up for the 2017 World Cup for them but they’ll struggle to keep things respectable.
At the time of writing an ‘all roads lead to’ title for the thread wasn’t feasible due to the fact that we still don’t know the venues of any of the games. London will get one after the success of the second test v New Zealand (presumably the Olympic Stadium again, but not sure how that fits in with any work going on there); Anfield has been mentioned for some reason. Scotland are likely to get a home game, with Scotstoun in Glasgow most likely, but Aberdeen has potential.
As documented in last year’s thread, the end of the season will also see the final round of European qualifiers for the 2017 World Cup, including a sudden death play off at Leigh. Serbia, one of the six teams in for the three places, have brought in Brian Smith to help with their preparations which begin with a tour of Australia starting later this month including an international against the Philippines which I think is the first proper international of the year, though Leeds are playing the US national team this month in Florida.
Much to look forward to, stay tuned.
Domestic
It’s the second season of the ‘new era’ and we got through the first year without anyone’s head exploding at the various permutations of the divisional system, but we also got through it without any the championship teams making much of a dent in the Super League dominance of the qualifying eights. Bradford went close against Wakefield in the ‘million pound match’ and maybe that’s as much as the championship teams can hope for, to get lucky in the sudden death play off though with a raise in the cap Leigh are hopeful of going further.
Things were tighter at the top of Super League though, with the top four closely matched right to the end of the Super 8’s. It would be nice this season to have a couple more clubs staying closer to the top four right to the end. Leeds will be missing their departed stars, Saints won’t get to Easter without half the squad getting injured (my one wish for the year is for Lomax to get through it unscathed and realise his potential), Wigan have got Sam Tomkins back and look the best bet for the title.
Whoever makes the Grand Final, we'll be there - poignantly it's the last Grand Final before Thing One goes off to university, something which dawned on us on the way to the last one. I'd be disappointed if it turns out to be the last one we ever go to together, but it will still be the end of an era. We've come a long way together since we cheered Sean Long's late drop goal for Saints as it sailed over our heads behind the goal, and a terrified (then four year old) Thing One leapt into my arms when the first firework went off at the trophy lift, and proceeded to run in mid-air, like Scooby Doo.
Further down we have a new outpost of the empire with Toulouse re-joining the English system at Championship 1 level. They aren’t doing it to play Oxford and Bramley indefinitely and it will be interesting to see how quickly they progress.
Further down the ranks and closer to home, Kells have joined Wath Brow and Egremont in the top tier of the amateur game. This means that a quarter of the clubs in the National Conference League come from a small triangle of West Cumbria, and it also means six local derbies, so that I’ve got a much better chance of making it to at least one. Said derbies pull bigger crowds than many Whitehaven and Workington home games.
NRL
South Sydney have signed a new forward, he’s worth keeping an eye on. Might even make the England squad if he puts the work in. They’ll be in there at the end with the other usual suspects, Easts, Brisbane and North Queensland.
Off the field the NRL has got its biggest ever TV deal, but is no further forward in securing further expansion. The current view is that there'll be no expansion until the existing sixteen are all financially stable - meaning indefinitely given the complex and varied backgrounds of each of the existing clubs. It’s hard to keep track but I think two clubs are fully owned by the NRL itself (Newcastle and Gold Coast), there are long running financial issues at Wests Tigers which may eventually result in a de-merger, and others (like Cronulla) are hanging on. ‘Expansion’ therefore may take the form of one of the basket cases being moved out to Perth, Central Coast or Brisbane, rather than a wholly new club.
International
We get to host the Four Nations in the autumn, with Scotland making their debut in the tournament. Nice for them and a good warm up for the 2017 World Cup for them but they’ll struggle to keep things respectable.
At the time of writing an ‘all roads lead to’ title for the thread wasn’t feasible due to the fact that we still don’t know the venues of any of the games. London will get one after the success of the second test v New Zealand (presumably the Olympic Stadium again, but not sure how that fits in with any work going on there); Anfield has been mentioned for some reason. Scotland are likely to get a home game, with Scotstoun in Glasgow most likely, but Aberdeen has potential.
As documented in last year’s thread, the end of the season will also see the final round of European qualifiers for the 2017 World Cup, including a sudden death play off at Leigh. Serbia, one of the six teams in for the three places, have brought in Brian Smith to help with their preparations which begin with a tour of Australia starting later this month including an international against the Philippines which I think is the first proper international of the year, though Leeds are playing the US national team this month in Florida.
Much to look forward to, stay tuned.
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