A bigger Super League and listen to fans to stop ‘outrage’ at changes – Mailbox

Mailbox gives you the chance to get your voice heard and start the debate with the rugby league audience. Get your views in now via email to: james@loverugbyleague.com

I’m a passionate rugby league fan and have been for over 45 years and have seen many changes during this time, some good, some not so good.

As a Hull Kingston Rovers fan, most of our time in Super League has been pretty hard going, with relegation battles, highs and lows. However, despite this I believe the fans will always want to keep promotion and relegation, it’s what the teams fight for week in week out.

Without this the season would be somewhat pointless towards the end with nothing to play for. It seems ridiculous to me this would not be part of the game. Football is the biggest draw for fans in this country and we need to follow their model somewhat.

We need a bigger Super League with more teams, assist the teams which already have a fan base to get bigger, not starting random teams in places that have never heard of rugby league.

It’s totally unfair in Super League that that teams play each other more than twice, giving some an unfair advantage, this would never happen in football, there would be outrage at this idea, this is partly why we are the laughing stock we’ve become, with ridiculous decisions and rules.

The officiating needs an over haul, it’s becoming not fit for purpose, when you have video refs, looking at the wrong player for offside who scored the try, ridiculous, crazy, sending offs for good tackles, making the game soft, making players worried about tackling like they have done since their school days.

Please listen to the fans, I think it would be good to ballot fans when big decisions are being considered, after all without us they’d be no sport.

Thank you for reading

Sharon Holmes

Mailbox – Editor’s comment

While rugby league is right to constantly push for new fans, the sport has undoubtedly been guilty of alienating its existing fan base, which then makes the first task even more difficult.

To me, expansion should mean growth. 12 teams in Super League in 1996 to 12 teams in Super League in 2023 is not expansion in any sense of the word.

The lack of strategy to sustainably grow the number of teams is now being exposed. There have at times been up to 16 full-time teams within the RFL pyramid, yet save for a brief few years at 14, Super League as a competition hasn’t grown to accommodate.

There are various reasons given for this, largely down to the impact growth has on clubs’ share of central funding, but there is a sense among some fans that the competition is feeling a bit too ‘samey’, and loop fixtures contribute to that, as does the current Challenge Cup format.

But, the hope on the horizon is the changes led by IMG. Loop fixtures are set to go, and the grading criteria appears to be set up in a way that will encourage growth once the required number of Category A teams is reached.

A new Challenge Cup format is set to be implemented too, providing greater variety of fixtures and guaranteed home games.

Fans were consulted in the initial stage of the IMG process, but beyond that it is difficult to see just how taking in to consideration fans’ opinions could be practical. Clubs themselves could consult with fans, as fan-owned Hunslet did prior to their decision at the IMG vote.

The question remains whether it will be too little, too late. Here’s hoping that in maybe 10 years, we have a growing and thriving Super League (or whatever name it may be called) competition.

MORE MAILBOX: Super League shouldn’t be defined by a number, get the best and most ambitious clubs in

Mailbox gives you the chance to get your voice heard and start the debate with the rugby league audience. Get your views in now via email to: james@loverugbyleague.com