Loop Fixtures

[sparky49]

The R.L. certainly knew what they were doing when the loop fixtures were done, it makes the league a total nonsense.
Look at the way the loops have worked out and tell me it's not to suit the big boys.
Castleford - Warrington & Leeds
Wakefield - Leeds & Wigan
Hull F.C. - Huddersfield & Salford
Hull K.R. - Catalans & St. Helens
Wigan - Wakefield & Leigh
St. Helens - Hull K.R. & Salford
Warrington - Castleford & Leigh
Salford - Hull F.C. & St. Helens
Catalans - Hull K.R. & Huddersfield
Huddersfield - Catalans & Hull F.C
Leigh - Warrington & Wigan
Leeds - Wakefield & Castleford

[Mucky1978]

No easy games for anyone anymore unless your saints at home.

[nottinghamtiger]

I hadn't looked at them all, but made the point on the 2021 Fixtures thread that Wigan seem to have a very favourable additional three games (don't forget Magic weekend is also an extra game). Wigan have Wakefield, Leigh and Warrington.

Saints have Hull KR, Salford and Catalans. The top two teams from last year have ended up playing two of their extra three games against teams who finished way down the ladder last season (or weren't even in SL).

With these fixtures, we have Wigan playing for 6 extra points and two of their games are against the team who finished 10th and the newly-promoted team (plus Warrington who finished 3rd).
Saints are playing for extra points against the teams that finished 11th, 9th and 4th - again, two games against teams who finished in the bottom 3 last season.

We're playing for extra points against the team who finished 3rd, the team who finished 5th and the team who finished 9th.

If you take a mathematical view, we're playing teams with a combined total of 17 of you add up their league positions, whereas Wigan are playing the teams with a combined total of 25 (if we assign Leigh 12th place) and Saints are playing team with a combined total of 24. It's unfair.

With twelve teams, these additional fixtures should have been been 'banded' into three groups based on last year's league table (top 4, middle 4 and bottom 4). Each team should be playing one team from each band. That would have been easy to do (especially as all three additional games are at neutral venues)and much fairer.

[tigerfeat]

I await to hear how the loop fixtures were arrived at...quite laughable when you look who Wigan and Saints have got
Anyway sod them win the grand final and let them put that in there pipe and smoke it

[westerbeast73]

No easy games for anyone anymore unless your saints at home.

Wigan have got Wakefield and Leigh, think I'd take that one to be honest.

[nottinghamtiger]

If we use last year’s league positions as a guide as to how difficult teams are to play and total these to evaluate the difficulty of a team’s three extra fixtures, this is what we have (higher number indicates playing teams lower down the table based on last year’s final standings):

Wigan - Wakefield (10th), Leigh (12th) and Warrington (3rd) = 25.
Saints - Hull KR (11th), Salford (9th) and Catalans (4th) = 24.
Leeds - Wakefield (10th), Castleford (8th) and Hull FC (6th) = 24
Warrington - Castleford (8th), Leigh (12th) and Wigan (2nd) = 22.
Hull FC - Huddersfield (7th), Salford (9th) and Leeds (5th) = 21.
Huddersfield - Catalans (4th), Hull FC (6th) and Wakefield (10th) = 20.
Catalans - Hull KR (11th), Huddersfield (7th) and Saints (1st) = 19.
Castleford - Warrington (3rd), Leeds (5th) and Salford (9th) = 17.
Hull KR - St Helens (1st), Catalans (4th) and Leigh (12th) = 17.
Leigh - Wigan (2nd), Warrington (3rd) and Hull KR (11th) = 16.
Salford - St Helens (1st), Hull FC (6th) and Castleford (8th) = 15.
Wakefield - Wigan (2nd), Leeds (5th) and Huddersfield (7th) = 14.

What we’ve got is the top two clubs from last year with the easiest combination of fixtures, which doesn’t seem that sensible.
I think some clubs can feel like they have a more difficult fixture list than others and this is supported the evidence of such a range. We’ve got one club playing the teams who finished 10th, 12th and another club playing nobody who finished lower than 7th.
This isn’t anywhere near a level playing field.

[nottinghamtiger]

Meant to add to the post above. I’m really not sure why they didn’t ‘band’ to get three extra fixtures.
Band 1: Saints, Wigan, Warrington, Catalans.
Band 2: Leeds, Hull FC, Huddersfield, Castleford.
Band 3: Salford, Wakefield, Hull KR, Leigh.

Magic should have been teams playing within their band:
Saints v Wigan and Warrington v Catalans (or a different combination in band 1)
Leeds v Hull FC and Huddersfield v Castleford (or a different combination in band 2)
Salford v Wakefield and Hull KR v Leigh (or a different combination in band 3).
This would give a competitive Magic weekend with roughly evenly matched teams.

For the additional two fixtures, clubs should be playing a club from each of the other bands.
Band 1 clubs play a team in band 2 and a team in band 3
Band 2 clubs play a team in band 1 and a team in band 3.
Band 3 clubs play a team in band 2 and a team in band 3.
For ultimate fairness, you could even have teams playing the equivalent team in each band.
Saints (1st in band 1), Leeds (1st in band 2) and Salford (1st in band 3) would play each other for the loop fixtures.
Wigan (2nd in band 1), Hull FC (2nd in band 2) and Wakefield (2nd in band 3) play each other.
Warrington (3rd in band 1), Huddersfield (3rd in band 2) and Hull KR (3rd in band 3) play each other.
Catalans (4th in band 1), Castleford (4th in band 2) and Leigh (4th in band 3) play each other.

If we’re going to have additional fixtures that mean some clubs play each other three times, there needs to be a clear and open system for deciding them with some kind of reasonable rationale.
At the moment, the fixtures they have decided leaves a big question mark as to why some clubs seem to have been given easier fixtures than others.

[SuffolkTiger]

You're on form today Notts - far too much common sense involved though. Hang your head mate....

[nottinghamtiger]

You're on form today Notts - far too much common sense involved though. Hang your head mate....

And it’s exactly why we end up with sponsorship deals based on free pizza and TV deals that do down in value; decisions are made seemingly at random and certainly without rationale and transparency.
And in competitive sport, fairness and the transparency of that fairness needs to be top of the list of things the governing body should be communicating.
What I’ve suggested isn’t some complex formula. It’s just a way to produce a fixture list that is fair and transparent in how it has been determined.

I’d love to see Magic Weekend as a 9s tournament though, rather than playing for league points.

[westerbeast73]

You're on form today Notts - far too much common sense involved though. Hang your head mate....

Or maybe far too much spare time to be spouting all that

[SuffolkTiger]

You're on form today Notts - far too much common sense involved though. Hang your head mate....

Or maybe far too much spare time to be spouting all that

Notts has a history of taking the time to post detail that helps and creates interest for other forum users.

[Tigers1926]

What the rfl have come up with is absolute b****x. Do we really need loop fixtures? Imo no we don't. Play each other home and away and the magic weekend should be against your neighbour. Seems like the only thought put in to this is to make it easier for the so called bigger clubs. SHOCKING but not surprising unfortunately..

[nottinghamtiger]

What the rfl have come up with is absolute b****x. Do we really need loop fixtures? Imo no we don't. Play each other home and away and the magic weekend should be against your neighbour. Seems like the only thought put in to this is to make it easier for the so called bigger clubs. SHOCKING but not surprising unfortunately..

To be fair to the RFL (and I’m by no means their biggest fan), the clubs have said they need more than 11 home games but don’t want more than a 12 team Super League.
The only way this can be achieved is with loop fixtures, or the ‘Super 8s’ format we had a few years ago.

I agree with your assessment of what they have come up with, though.

[Tigers1926]

13 teams would be a extra 2 fixtures per team if ive got my thinking cap on, and you would think not too detrimental to the tv money. 14 teams a extra 4 fixtures and surely extra money would be generated to make up for loss of tv money. Surely it's gotta be better than the loop fixture fiasco we have...

[heritage1926]

The R.L. certainly knew what they were doing when the loop fixtures were done, it makes the league a total nonsense.
Look at the way the loops have worked out and tell me it's not to suit the big boys.
Castleford - Warrington & Leeds
Wakefield - Leeds & Wigan
Hull F.C. - Huddersfield & Salford
Hull K.R. - Catalans & St. Helens
Wigan - Wakefield & Leigh
St. Helens - Hull K.R. & Salford
Warrington - Castleford & Leigh
Salford - Hull F.C. & St. Helens
Catalans - Hull K.R. & Huddersfield
Huddersfield - Catalans & Hull F.C
Leigh - Warrington & Wigan
Leeds - Wakefield & Castleford

Who do you class as the big boys? This is the first year where we go in to a new season where I don't see easy games anymore.

[Tigers1926]

The usual suspects. Pie eating t***s finish the season with 8 home games which is absolutely embarrassing to anyone looking at the game from the outside..

[nottinghamtiger]

The usual suspects. Pie eating t***s finish the season with 8 home games which is absolutely embarrassing to anyone looking at the game from the outside..

They don’t, but I can see why you might think that; those graphics of the fixtures need to be read left-to-right, not top-to-bottom!

[Tigers1926]

I'm sure Notts that's what it said on the pie eaters Twitter and I thought that can't be rate..

[nottinghamtiger]

I'm sure Notts that's what it said on the pie eaters Twitter and I thought that can't be rate..

They probably think that if they just change them the RFL will fall into line.

[Tigers1926]