NRL to bring back two byes in Season 2008
[NRL] NRL to bring back two byes in Season 2008
Bowing to pressure that has been around for about 5 years, the NRL has decided to re-introduce two byes to the 2008 draw in an attempt to reduce the strain on their players.
The proposed draw structure has not been officially released but I understand that all teams will have two byes over a 6-8 week period (from the weekend of the Anzac Test to the end of the Origin Series). If this is the case then the NRL is on the right track but if they only give teams that may have the highest number of representative players involved byes on the weekend before Origin games - then they are significantly disadvantaging the other teams who will be forced to play games without their best players.
Ideally over the four weekends in question we would see all 8 teams have a bye on each of the 4 weekends that have representative football attached to them. While that would only mean 4 NRL games on each weekend you've still covered all your significant television bases with a Friday Night game, a Saturday Night game, a Sunday Afternoon game and a Monday Night game. The current setup gives 4 teams the bye on these 4 weekends and it has certainly worked the best of all the setups since the bye was reintroduced in 2002.
The next step on the road to respectability would be to have the NRL Judiciary actually judge cases objectively and the Finals System revert back to the Final Five that flourished during the late 80s and early 90s when only the best teams played off for the ultimate prize of a premiership.
Check out a few articles on this topic:
* http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/schedule-changes-a-good-step/2007/07/20/1184559965975.html
* http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/schedule-changes-a-good-step/2007/07/20/1184559965975.html
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