26 June 2018

Episode 187 - Rep Round Recap

The new episode of Super League Pod is up! You can listen to it HERE, or HERE if your an Apple Podcasts person, and you can also get it on the League Cast Android app, Podcast Addict or on YouTube. Also find us through rugbyleaguemedia.com!

This week Mark is joined by guest co-host and England RL super-fan Brian Davies. We break from the norm by startng off with a match review of the England v New Zealand Denver test. Brian was able to offer a unique insight of the big game build up, action and immediate legacy as a member of the near 20,000 crowd at Mile High.

We cover the news from the last week, leading with the loan/dual-reg blurred lines in Leeds, from 56:30. SLP news is sponsored by Little Warden.
If you have a website, then visit LittleWarden.com and see what they can do to help you. They can help you with domain expiration checks, redirects and all sorts of other important background web stuff that they’ll make simple for you. Little Warden – monitoring the tedious!

We recap the three catch-up fixtures from Super League and discuss the table implications of those games, along with your fan reviews and all the key stats, in our match reviews from 74:30. Match Reviews are sponsored by Rob's Toy Shop on eBay.
Find a wide range of toys, gifts, rugby league birthday cards and more at Rob’s Toy Shop on eBay. Visit stores.ebay.co.uk/robstoyshop and on any orders over £5 you can earn 5% cash back, and also 1% of your order value will go into the SLP coffers, by putting 'SLPDiscount' at checkout – and if you want to give your 5% to SLP too you can by messaging Rob’s Toy Shop when you make your order. 

We also cover all the other results from the Championship, League 1, Women's Super League and other rep. games, from 115:00. This includes a detailed recap of Origin Game 2, featuring adopted New South Welshman Rich Wilkinson.

We then look to the future with our predictions for Round 19 of Super League, plus key games in the Championship and League 1, from 165:00.

Finally, we finish with a quiz - see if you can get the connection before Brian does - and some cracking anecdotes from Brian on his journeys overseas supporting England. It's been another big weekend! So get listening to your favourite Rugby League podcast!

Please feel free to make a donation to support SLP: paypal.me/superleaguepod
All donations are hugely appreciated, large or small. Remember, anyone who donates £20 or more will now be able to get a free t-shirt as a thank you. Listen to the show wrap up for more details.

Other Results and Predictions are available for sponsorship. Please get in touch by email if you're interested in sponsoring the show. Email us using superleaguepod@gmail.com

19 June 2018

Episode 186 - What About Uncle Albert

The new episode of Super League Pod is up! You can listen to it HERE, or HERE if your an Apple Podcasts person, and you can also get it on the League Cast Android app, Podcast Addict or on YouTube.

This week Mark is joined by guest co-host and Hull KR fan Tim. We start off with a catch up what we've been up to and a first of many chats ahead of the international in Denver.

We cover the news from the last week, leading with the New Zealand squad for Denver, and going on to plenty of re-signings news, from 29:45. SLP news is sponsored by Little Warden.
If you have a website, then visit LittleWarden.com and see what they can do to help you. They can help you with domain expiration checks, redirects and all sorts of other important background web stuff that they’ll make simple for you. Little Warden – monitoring the tedious!

We recap the excitement Round 18 State of Mind round of Super League, with your fan reviews and all the key stats, in our match reviews from 54:00. Match Reviews are sponsored by Rob's Toy Shop on eBay.
Find a wide range of toys, gifts, rugby league birthday cards and more at Rob’s Toy Shop on eBay. Visit stores.ebay.co.uk/robstoyshop and on any orders over £5 you can earn 5% cash back, and also 1% of your order value will go into the SLP coffers, by putting 'SLPDiscount' at checkout – and if you want to give your 5% to SLP too you can by messaging Rob’s Toy Shop when you make your order. 

We also cover all the other results from the Championship, League 1, Women's Super League and the NRL, from 132:30.

We then look to the future with our predictions for rep. weekend and a few catch up games from Super League, plus key games in the Championship and League 1, from 150:00.

Finally, we finish with a quiz looking at Wayne Bennett's
England selections. It's been another big weekend! So get listening to your favourite Rugby League podcast!

Please feel free to make a donation to support SLP: paypal.me/superleaguepod
All donations are hugely appreciated, large or small. Remember, anyone who donates £20 or more will now be able to get a free t-shirt as a thank you. Listen to the show wrap up for more details.

Other Results and Predictions are available for sponsorship. Please get in touch by email if you're interested in sponsoring the show. Email us using superleaguepod@gmail.com

13 June 2018

Lamenting the Super 8s - by Alan

So the Super 8s are pretty much dead, with a return to a one-up, one-down approach to promotion and relegation. Putting aside the public spats over the announcement, it would be fair to say we’ve seen such a variety of systems in place since the start of Super League, I thought it would be remiss not to reflect on the merits of this departing approach.

I’m choosing to focus on the Middle 8 'Qualifiers'. As the mechanism to determine promotion and relegation from Super League, it could be argued that this is where the stakes are highest.  The Championship Shield 8s and Super League Super 8s have a relevance to the teams involved of course, especially if you are fighting relegation to League 1 or staking a claim for Old Trafford, but for some teams these games can be little more than fixture padding until next season.

I would argue that the primary measure of success is determined by the level of team movement between Super League and the Championship, with a secondary effect of providing exposure to a higher level of competition for Championship clubs.  If this could be achieved whilst maintaining a level of fan engagement - and therefore revenue generation - I’m not sure why you would seek to change the structure. So, how have those measures worked out in the three years to date?

Team Movement between divisions:

  • 2015 – no movement, Bradford losing Million Pound Game (MPG) to Wakefield
  • 2016 – Leigh promoted, Hull KR relegated losing MPG to Salford
  • 2017 – Hull KR promoted, Leigh relegated losing MPG to Catalan


So, in three seasons we have had two years where one team went up and one came down. Indeed, the MPG in 2015 was close to the same outcome.  The better funded teams in the Championship have been able to compete with their Super League opposition and come out on top.  I think 2018 could see this to an even greater extent! It would not surprise me to see two or even three Championship teams promoted this year.

But what about the other teams from the Championship?

Championship Participants in Middle 8 Qualifiers:

  • 2015 – Bradford, Leigh, Halifax, Sheffield
  • 2016 – Leigh, London, Batley, Featherstone
  • 2017 – Hull KR, London, Featherstone, Halifax


So, in three years, if you exclude teams that did win promotion, six other Championship teams have featured in the Middle 8s.  Whilst Bradford have faded away due to other reasons, you have seen London given a platform to test themselves to see if they are ready to step back up to Super League and the best semi-pro teams have also had the chance to go against some of the bigger names and gain additional TV exposure. In 2018 you have added Toronto and Toulouse to the mix, making qualification to, and potentially promotion from, the Middle 8s the most competitive to date.

Outside of the expansion seen with Toronto - and possibly New York to come - this is surely the best way to make steps towards establishing a larger pool of competitive teams, that could see progress being made towards a Super League of more than 12 teams, and maybe eventually we could avoid the endless debate about repeated fixtures and uneven schedules.

In effect this new proposal removes that stepping stone, and in the short term we are likely to return to the usual merry-go-round of players between the team promoted and the one suffering relegation.  As Sheffield and Bradford have proven, not every team who has tasted the Middle 8s is likely to be a candidate for promotion to Super League anytime soon, or possibly ever, but do we really want to extend a gulf between the divisions?

One factor in the decision is reportedly the uncertainty it creates for Super League teams, and the impact on revenues. So how did that effect the two biggest names to fall into the Middle 8s? In 2016 Leeds Rhinos hosted four Middle 8s matches, with an average attendance of 14,514. In 2017 Warrington Wolves also hosted four Middle 8s matches, with an average attendance of 9,300. Neither of those figures spells doom to me. They may be down slightly on their Super League averages but perhaps they should have played better during the year!

In summary, I don’t see how this reorganisation will address any of the fundamental issues affecting the game and in effect it raises the drawbridge to Super League to all but the best resourced.

But what do you think?

Alan Cale
SLP

Thanks for reading Alan's blog post, I think he's glad to get that all off his chest! If you want a bit more from SLP about the likely move away from the Super 8s, and about Robert Elstone's first press conference as Super League CEO, listen to our latest SLP Short with top RL journo Gareth Walker: https://www.spreaker.com/user/superleaguepod/slp-short-004-elstone-in-super-8s-out

12 June 2018

Episode 185 - Mini Rant

The new episode of Super League Pod is up! You can listen to it HERE, or HERE if your an Apple Podcasts person, and you can also get it on the League Cast Android app, Podcast Addict or on YouTube.

This week Mark is joined by guest co-host and Bradford Bulls fan Alan. We start off with a catch up what we've been up to and a general shout out to you great listeners.

We cover the news from the last week, leading with the England squad for Denver and covering your views on news from across league, as well as some news that broke during recording, from 09:45. SLP news is sponsored by Little Warden.
If you have a website, then visit LittleWarden.com and see what they can do to help you. They can help you with domain expiration checks, redirects and all sorts of other important background web stuff that they’ll make simple for you. Little Warden – monitoring the tedious!

We recap the excitement Round 17 of Super League, with your fan reviews and all the key stats, in our match reviews from 56:45. Match Reviews are sponsored by Rob's Toy Shop on eBay.
Find a wide range of toys, gifts, rugby league birthday cards and more at Rob’s Toy Shop on eBay. Visit stores.ebay.co.uk/robstoyshop and on any orders over £5 you can earn 5% cash back, and also 1% of your order value will go into the SLP coffers, by putting 'SLPDiscount' at checkout – and if you want to give your 5% to SLP too you can by messaging Rob’s Toy Shop when you make your order. 

We also cover all the other results from the Championship, League 1, Women's Super League, your views on State of Origin game 1, the NRL and more, from 115:00.

We then look to the future with our predictions for State of Mind Round 18 of Super League, plus key games in the Championship and League 1, from 139:30.

Finally, we finish with a quiz picking up on a few of the big news stories, and minor gin festival stories, from the week. It's been another big weekend! So get listening to your favourite Rugby League podcast!

Please feel free to make a donation to support SLP: paypal.me/superleaguepod
All donations are hugely appreciated, large or small. Remember, anyone who donates £20 or more will now be able to get a free t-shirt as a thank you. Listen to the show wrap up for more details.

Other Results and Predictions are available for sponsorship. Please get in touch by email if you're interested in sponsoring the show. Email us using superleaguepod@gmail.com

5 June 2018

Episode 184 - Rectum and Vacuum

The new episode of Super League Pod is up! You can listen to it HERE, or HERE if your an Apple Podcasts person, and you can also get it on the League Cast Android app, Podcast Addict or on YouTube.

This week Mark is joined by guest co-host and Hull FC fan Sarah. We start off with a catch up on the progress of SLP sponsored Myton under-9s and hear about the latest SLP Short about Widnes sacking Denis Betts.

We cover the news from the last week, including Wigan losing a rising star, Wigan players behaving badly, Wigan linking up with West Wales and also plenty of non-Wigan related news, from 08:00. SLP news is sponsored by Little Warden.
If you have a website, then visit LittleWarden.com and see what they can do to help you. They can help you with domain expiration checks, redirects and all sorts of other important background web stuff that they’ll make simple for you. Little Warden – monitoring the tedious!

We recap the excitement of the Challenge Cup quarter finals and the lone Super League game of the week, with your fan views, in our match reviews from 30:45. Match Reviews are sponsored by Rob's Toy Shop on eBay.
Find a wide range of toys, gifts, rugby league birthday cards and more at Rob’s Toy Shop on eBay. Visit stores.ebay.co.uk/robstoyshop and on any orders over £5 you can earn 5% cash back, and also 1% of your order value will go into the SLP coffers, by putting 'SLPDiscount' at checkout – and if you want to give your 5% to SLP too you can by messaging Rob’s Toy Shop when you make your order. 

We also cover all the other results from the Championship, League 1, Women's Challenge Cup, NRL and more, from 98:30.

We then look to the future with our predictions for Round 17 of Super League, plus games in the Championship, League 1 and Origin Game 1, from 105:00.

Finally, we finish with a quiz celebrating Hull FC's fine recent Cup run that ended where it began in St Helens. It's been another big weekend! So get listening to your favourite Rugby League podcast!

Please feel free to make a donation to support SLP: paypal.me/superleaguepod
All donations are hugely appreciated, large or small. Remember, anyone who donates £20 or more will now be able to get a free t-shirt as a thank you. Listen to the show wrap up for more details.

Other Results and Predictions are available for sponsorship. Please get in touch by email if you're interested in sponsoring the show. Email us using superleaguepod@gmail.com