It must be at least five minutes since the self-harming sport of rugby league enjoyed a good old league restructure. The late decision to expand the 2020 playoffs from five to six clubs because otherwise Leeds Rhinos wouldn’t have qualified doesn’t really count. The last real change was when we did away with the eights concept, whether super, middle or otherwise.
That was back in 2018, so it was surprising to note this week that the planned reshuffle to a structure of two divisions of 10 has been put on hold until the start of 2024. The original plan was to implement it at the start of 2023 but it has now been decided to delay to make it coincide with the start of a new TV deal. Whether it will it matter how many teams are in the league when games are being broadcast on niche DIY channels is a question we’re swerving for now.
The procrastination and can-kicking is nothing new for rugby league and not actually my main concern. The biggest problem with what now seems the certain introduction of 10-team divisions is that it is fundamentally A Shit Idea. It short-changes fans in offering each team only nine unique opponents. In a lame attempt to pull the wool over our eyes about this the self-preservation society known as the Super League chairmen will no doubt knock their heads together and conclude that they can still offer a 25-27 game season via the dubious gift of loop fixtures. All of which means we can look forward to five derbies a year again, just like we had in the days of the (checks notes...) super and middle eights.
The authorities can move the pieces around but the truth is we are still hamstrung by the fact that we don’t have a big enough player pool. If we did then maybe we’d have a sensible-sized league of 14-16 teams. A league in which all those clubs with the means to go full time could do so without becoming cannon fodder for the masters of the grind at the top end of the league.
Worry not though, for just when you need evidence that things could be worse along comes the announcement that the newly Super-Leagued Toulouse Olympique will not enter the 2022 Challenge Cup. Toulouse’s non-participation in the game’s oldest competition went somewhat under the radar while they were devouring lower league opponents. But now they are in the top flight their absence is a PR disaster for the competition. It was already reeling from the decision to move next year’s final from Wembley to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - thus giving it all the sense of occasion of a gritty 1-1 draw with Watford.
Toulouse are not a full member of the RFL and so not ‘obliged’ to enter. All of which makes entering one of the grandest competitions in sport sound like an irritating chore up there with loading the dishwasher or worse - actually washing the dishes yourself. It also highlights the discord in the game given that two of the elite 12 clubs in our game are not full members of the RFL. That hasn’t stopped Catalans Dragons from being successful - not only consistently entering but winning the Challenge Cup in 2018. Yet it does throw up images of the overcrowding by supposed authorities in boxing which has led it to a place where it is now basically controlled by a handful of very rich men. Like everything fucking else.
Lastly we must head back north (this is rugby league after all) for news of more deck chair shuffling on doomed vessels. Specifically, there was surprise this week when Hull FC allowed mediocrity’s Marc Sneyd to move back to his first club Salford Red Devils, coached by one-time Super League poster boy Paul Rowley. Remember posters? Remember Super League marketing?
“I've been at Hull for six years and absolutely loved every single minute of my time there, but I was ready to come back to family and things like that.” Parped Sneyd, who has done more than most to maintain FC’s long run as the game’s biggest under-achievers.
Filling the void at FC will be former Leeds Rhinos team trademark botherer Luke Gale. The former England man - whose drop goal for the Tigers against Saints in 2017 in no way still haunts me or fuels my disdain for him - insisted that the move had nothing to do with a high profile spat with Leeds coach Richard Agar last year which saw Gale lose the Rhinos captaincy;
"There was no hard feelings with what happened last year. We shook hands and we moved on.” He insisted, sticking another pin in a doll which bore more than a passing resemblance to the Leeds boss.
Gale also denies that his sudden hop east had anything to do with the arrival of Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin at the stadium formerly known as Emirates Headingley;
“There hadn't been a chat on that, and that's not the reason I'm here.” he claimed;
“I just felt the opportunity would be better moving on. That was really all there was to it.”
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