Yep, commerce has to trump sport every time.

How about the League Winners playing, you guessed it the League Winners?

You could even have it as a second completely different competition!

Not for commerce reasons but for credibility reasons, what's the point of having two NRL clubs in the WCC Final when you already have the NRL Grand Final.

You could fit in an expanded, proper WCC in 4 weeks/3 games or so.



Played in the hemisphere where that years international comp is,

Example using 2011 comps and dates (as that’s the last time a 4 nations comp was played) and assuming highest placed team wins each game



Co-ordinate seasons so GF’s on same Weekend.



23rd/24 of Sept, semi finals. Melbourne and Brisbane lose. Fly out to UK

1st/2nd of Oct Grand Final Weekend, On the Monday/Tuesday Manly and NZ Warriors fly to uk.

teams split in to two pots 1st and 4th from one league, go with 3rd and 2nd from other.

So Pot one Leeds, Wigan, NZ, Melbourne, Pot 2 Saints, Warrington, Manly and Brisbane



7th/8th of Oct Wigan v Melbourne and Brisbane v Warrington



15th/16th Leeds v NZ and Saints V Manly



22nd/23rd Wigan v NZ, Leeds v Melbourne, Warrington v Manly, Saints v Brisbane.



Top teams go through to final,



28th Oct Leeds v Manly.



You could even do it including the SL v NRL idea so building up to that final, you would need to drop one side from each pot in case two teams from the same country got to the final. So of the 4 teams left in, the lowest placed UK team plays the lowest place Aus team etc, so In this example



Wigan and Brisbane would drop out



26th Oct Warrington v Melbourne, 27th Saints v NZ Warriors, 28th Leeds v Manly.



2 weeks later international comp starts.



The main issue I would see is that it pushes the International comp back 2 weeks, but this could be overcome by bringing the GF’s back by a couple of weeks or just a week and pushing the international comp back a week.

In that case it would be best to just stick to the current one-off game(s) format. After all, we've already found out which teams should be playing in the 'final' because we've had both the SL and NRL Grand Finals.

It just seems like a complete rush job trying to balance an international comp and a WCC. Players involved in both would end up playing 40 odd games a season.



The idea of the expanded WCC is a good one IMO but I don't think there's a way to successfully integrate it in to the season so it can be played every year. Plus if it was say every 5 years, with alternating hemispheres it would give fans a lot of time to save up so there would be potentially huge followings. If you're only finding out who you're playing a few weeks before the event there's very little time to market it or for away fans to make plans.



We know there is going to be a 4N this year, likely a GB tour in 2015 and a WC in 2017. 2018 could be the beginning of a 5 year cycle with an 8 team WCC over here. No rushed, half-d effort, but a full tournament with 2 groups of 4 with semis and a final.

Every 5 years would just seem like a novelty thing, it wouldnt be a world championship, just a bit of a run around.



i think an away following, especially for a yearly comp, would be a bit of a stretch anyway so i woudlnt be to bothered about that.



I honestly dont think a once every 5 years job would really grab my interest like a yearly comp would. There would be no rivalry, no history in it. it would be a fancy set of friendlies.

But the novelty aspect could well work in our favour. Look at last year's WC, one of the reasons it was so well attened IMO was because we hadn't had one over here for 13 years.



Say in 2018, the expanded WCC was over here. It could be laid out so each of the top 4 SL clubs played each of the top 4 NRL clubs to qualify for the semi finals. Are you telling me 4 consecutive home games against the best of the NRL wouldn't grab your interest?



In an ideal world we'd have our own annual Champions League/Heineken Cup but logistically we've got no chance of that.

not really. I just couldnt rationalise it as a real world championship. It would be a set of 4 friendlies with a trophy at the end.



I think there will be a world championship in most sports soon. Its the way club sports are going and barriers are breaking down. We could get ahead of the game here and i think a proper World Club CHampionship would grab huge attention, comparable with the WC.



I just think a once every 10 years set of games between teams which happened to finish in a certain position that year would be largely ignored outside RL.

But an international WC is only every 4 years, in pretty much every team sport. Why would a club version have to be annual to make it more credible? We've got an international game to consider as well.

because international tournaments are pretty much always 4 years apart and that time generally is spent in qualifying comps. There is also a big difference in that those eligible to play for a country are always eligible to play for that country.



And internationals are always more spaced out. It feeds in to the process, it gives players time to stake their claim for a place. It fits in to the pyramid and narrative that the club game is a training and proving ground for the international game.



There is also a big difference in that those eligible to play for a country are always eligible to play for that country.



You could have a great side in 2014, that is completely dismantles by 2018 and completely misses any kind of WCC.



I dont think you could claim to be the best club side in the world because you won a tournament played every four or five years. It would lack legitimacy

I would keep the one-off Champions v Champions game in the interim years (though ideally at the end of the season so it is the actual champion players and coaches taking part), but the expanded version would only happen every 5 years.



It's unlikely that either the NRL or SL are going to change the structure of their competition to fit this in, and it's difficult to arrange any sort of meaningful mid-season matches. The system you proposed would have some players pushing 50 games a season, which is completely unfeasible. For an expanded WCC to work it would simply have to be at the expense of an end of season international tournament (it should have been trialled in 2012 instead of the shambolic European Autumn internationals we got).