Email leaks have shown a few requests from Venues NSW CEO Kerrie Mather to NRL CEO Andrew Abdo. One of the requests was to make Parramatta v Canterbury a consistent Round 1 fixture from Commbank Stadium. In the leaks it also shows a request to have a sort of Sydney Magic Round out of SFS for Indigenous Round, 3 games played over 3 consecutive days. South Sydney v Parramatta being one of them. This also being a constant event yearly.
I mean it makes sense to have Eels v Dogs for Round 1 with them being one of, if not the biggest rivals in the NRL. Being at Commbank too gives us a slight advantage. Though i also like the unknown of how we open a season and different teams each year but that's me. Added positive though would be we would never have a bye in Round 1, that would be annoying waiting all off-season to see a competition match then having to wait another week.
The match v Souths in Indigenous Round seemed to already be a tradition now it will be at SFS. Similar to playing Wests on Easter Monday and Canterbury on King's Birthday. So at least we know now a handful of games guarenteed for 2025. Though the Easter Monday clash will be at Commbank this year, it will be a Wests home game as it alternates years. Usually on Wests years it would be at Accor but Wests made a deal to play out of Commbank for 4 games, Easter Monday obviously being one of them. Since Easter falls in April next year, it will be around Round 6 that match.
https://forums.leagueunlimited.com/threads/2025-nrl-draw-news-venues-info.491961/
Replies
I like the idea, rivalries make the NRL.
I believe once we go to a 20 team comp, or even 18, there needs to be two conferences, a Sydney based one and outer Sydney one. You play every team in your conference twice and every team in the other conference once. You would then have a play off series similar to the nfl with both conference winners playing in a superbowl type grand final.
I read somewhere the other day that the plan from V'Landys, when we get to 20 teams, was to only play each other once.
I wouldn't mind a top 10 conference and a bottom 10 conference. The bottom two teams from the top conference get relegated, and the top two from the bottom conference get elevated.
Only having 19 rounds in an NRL season would make it so much more exciting
+ a longer final series = more rev
NRL teams already voted no to this. 80% no to the idea of conferences. I think conferences are a bad idea. If you are doing 20 rounds, which I doubt as tv want more game, just keep how it is and do every team once and a bye or something.
Just to clarify, how would the conference you are talking about work? Two different competitions? If so TV's won't give money as the lower conference doesn't really mean much at all, if it's a thing to be promoted then again not much if it's year by year.
Theres no right or wrong way to do conferences since the non Sydney teams would travel every week. Though they do today they have 2-3 weeks home then travel. Conference it's every 2nd week.
TV controls it, the thought process is the extra two teams will generate an extra 2 games, therefore can limit the rounds. TV will want as many as possible and won't up their deal for less games overall. Extra 48 games is good but still reducing 64 games from other 16 teams.
With 20 teams you eliminate the byes as much so I would try and do 26 rounds and 2 byes as normal. Perhaps bring in the rep round again or simply Origin week to break it up.
No right or wrong way, conferences are just a bad idea I feel.
Alrighty then. Forget i said anything.
Sorry Byron, I feel bad. You are entitled to your opinion and it could happen. More so i think it wont work. I am sorry man for making it look like that.
No wories.
Conferences work well in NFL and other US sports where TV is God.
How about 2 equal conferences...how that looks is the question though.
Maybe Northern and Southern? Plenty of local derbies and then cross over rivalries.
That is possibly better than just playing everyone once.
That will be 28 games? 4 more than what we currently have teams playing. RLPA will knock that on head quick smart. What you could do is play have the conference twice and everyone else once. 14 games in one conference and 10 in the other.
I just fear how the look of split conferences will look for finals. Will it be top 4 of each conference? Then you might have 2-3 teams not worthy of being there, simply luck of the draw of a conference you are in. One team might win 1-2 more games and have 100+ F/A and miss top 4 in their conference and a team worse gets in.
V'Landys, god bless him, is trying to make NRL a world wide game. He takes influence from codes around the world and this is influenced by NFL along with GF being a Super Bowl type in where it is played. But the idea of taking a GF to Perth or Adelaide or even Melbourne does not sit right with me, as don't conferences. AFL actually do it right and leave it as is. Granted the game is not as hard on the body so the amount of games are not questioned but the format remains the same and should here. 24 games, each team once and 5 two times for maybe rivalries. So like Parra could play Wests, Canterbury, Penrith, Roosters and maybe Souths twice a year or something.
But i will say, i wonder if team 19 and 20 happens. Perth is guarenteed, PNG is sort of granted but still in cooling off stage. I think it is better the NRL brings in Perth and sits back for about 4 years. See how the league is going and how things change.
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