Thursday 5 December 2013

A Fair NRL Draw (2013)

This week, after much self-promotion, the NRL proudly released its 2014 season draw, with the dates of every game in the first 20 rounds already locked in.

This undoubtedly caused a wide range of views, but the one thing that stood out the most was how some teams were getting more free-to-air coverage on Friday nights than others, while others had copped a heap of games on Monday nights.

This made me wonder if it were indeed possible to make a draw that can be as fair as possible for all teams and most importantly, all the fans of their respective teams.

I also wanted to find solutions to the major issue that the players had expressed, that the season is too long.

And I think I’ve come up with a solution that is fair to all teams and players and in a format that can be used every year.

Key Points
*Each club will play 22 games, 11 home and 11 away
*There will be 4 weekends allocated for representative football only.
*There will be no byes
*There will be no games with rep players rested (unless the clubs wish to do so), providing a fairer competition.
*There will be an International tournament between 4 Pacific nations teams.

The Representative Weekends

These are stand-alone weeks with no club football. They will contain a Pacific Nations tournament between the 4 sides that participated in the last World Cup, Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. The following year could contain 4 other completely different teams. They will play each other once in the first 3 weeks and play a final on the last rep weekend. This is designed to help give the game bigger exposure in these countries, and give them more rep football to help improve them, in preparation for the next World Cup.

Week 1 – Between Rounds 6 and 7. Friday night to have the City v Country game. Saturday night to have the Australia v New Zealand test. Sunday afternoon to have 2 Pacific nations games.

Week 2 – Between Rounds 11 and 12. Friday night to have the first NYC State of Origin game. Saturday night to have State of Origin game 1. Sunday afternoon to have 2 Pacific nations games.

Week 3 – Between Rounds 14 and 15. Friday night to have the second NYC State of Origin game. Saturday night to have State of Origin game 2. Sunday afternoon to have 2 Pacific nations games.

Week 4 – Between Rounds 17 and 18. Friday night to have the third NYC State of Origin game. Saturday night to have State of Origin game 3. Sunday afternoon to have the final of the Pacific Nations tournament.

The Mechanics
This is how the draw will work. Each team will be given a number from 1 to 16. This can either be chosen randomly, or an alternate method would be to base it on each team’s ladder position from the previous season. The teams numbered 1 to 8 will play each other twice. The teams numbered 9 to 16 will play each other twice. The teams numbered 1 to 8 will play the teams numbered 9 to 16 once.

The draw will see all team play either 5 or 6 Friday games, 5 or 6 Saturday games, 8 or 9 Sunday games and 2 or 3 Monday games.

This draw is designed to work best if the team’s numbers are their ladder position from the previous year as it would ensure the top 8 sides from the previous season will play each other twice, thus removing any prospect of favourable draws. It will also mean that the poorer teams will play each other twice, helping to ensure closer games for the majority of the season.


And so here is the draw. I understand and accept that it won’t be to everyone’s liking and that it may have its flaws. But it must be remembered that what I am attempting to do here is provide a draw that is fair for every team, their fans and the players, while still ensuring a strong competition, stronger representative season and still allowing for the NYC competition to have its own representative season to help with their development and preparation for the NRL, as well as giving more exposure and experience to the Pacific Nations.

Round Home Away Day
1 1 2 Friday
9 10 Friday
3 4 Saturday
13 14 Saturday
5 6 Sunday
11 12 Sunday
15 16 Sunday
7 8 Monday
2 2 10 Friday
6 14 Friday
3 11 Saturday
8 16 Saturday
1 9 Sunday
4 12 Sunday
7 15 Sunday
5 13 Monday
3 5 7 Friday
13 15 Friday
1 3 Saturday
6 8 Saturday
2 4 Sunday
9 11 Sunday
14 16 Sunday
10 12 Monday
4 13 4 Friday
9 8 Friday
15 2 Saturday
12 5 Saturday
16 1 Sunday
14 3 Sunday
11 6 Sunday
10 7 Monday
5 1 4 Friday
9 12 Friday
5 8 Saturday
10 11 Saturday
2 3 Sunday
6 7 Sunday
13 16 Sunday
14 15 Monday
6 2 9 Friday
6 13 Friday
4 11 Saturday
7 16 Saturday
3 12 Sunday
5 14 Sunday
8 15 Sunday
1 10 Monday
REP WEEK #1
7 3 7 Friday
11 15 Friday
9 13 Saturday
12 16 Saturday
1 5 Sunday
4 8 Sunday
10 14 Sunday
2 6 Monday
8 5 4 Friday
13 12 Friday
8 1 Saturday
15 10 Saturday
7 2 Sunday
16 9 Sunday
14 11 Sunday
6 3 Monday
9 1 15 Friday
5 11 Friday
2 16 Saturday
7 9 Saturday
3 13 Sunday
6 12 Sunday
8 10 Sunday
4 14 Monday
10 2 8 Friday
10 16 Friday
3 5 Saturday
12 15 Saturday
1 6 Sunday
4 7 Sunday
11 13 Sunday
9 14 Monday
11 16 3 Friday
12 7 Friday
14 1 Saturday
15 4 Saturday
13 2 Sunday
10 5 Sunday
11 8 Sunday
9 6 Monday
REP WEEK #2
12 4 6 Friday
12 14 Friday
2 5 Saturday
9 15 Saturday
1 7 Sunday
3 8 Sunday
10 13 Sunday
11 16 Monday
13 1 13 Friday
5 9 Friday
3 15 Saturday
6 10 Saturday
2 14 Sunday
4 16 Sunday
7 11 Sunday
8 12 Monday
14 4 3 Friday
12 11 Friday
8 7 Saturday
14 13 Saturday
6 5 Sunday
10 9 Sunday
16 15 Sunday
2 1 Monday
REP WEEK #3
15 7 5 Friday
15 13 Friday
11 9 Saturday
16 14 Saturday
3 1 Sunday
8 6 Sunday
12 10 Sunday
4 2 Monday
16 7 6 Friday
15 14 Friday
4 1 Saturday
11 10 Saturday
3 2 Sunday
12 9 Sunday
16 13 Sunday
8 5 Monday
17 5 1 Friday
13 9 Friday
6 2 Saturday
15 11 Saturday
7 3 Sunday
14 10 Sunday
16 12 Sunday
8 4 Monday
REP WEEK #4
18 12 2 Friday
16 6 Friday
9 3 Saturday
14 8 Saturday
11 1 Sunday
10 4 Sunday
13 7 Sunday
15 5 Monday
19 5 3 Friday
13 11 Friday
6 1 Saturday
7 4 Saturday
8 2 Sunday
14 9 Sunday
15 12 Sunday
16 10 Monday
20 6 4 Friday
14 12 Friday
5 2 Saturday
15 9 Saturday
7 1 Sunday
8 3 Sunday
13 10 Sunday
16 11 Monday
21 1 12 Friday
5 16 Friday
3 10 Saturday
6 15 Saturday
2 11 Sunday
4 9 Sunday
7 14 Sunday
8 13 Monday
22 7 2 Friday
15 10 Friday
5 4 Saturday
14 11 Saturday
6 3 Sunday
16 9 Sunday
13 12 Sunday
8 1 Monday

The current 8 team finals system would be in place at season end.

(Apologies for the format, it's the only way it would work)