Gus tables proposal that could trump V’landys’ 3rd v 4th game

NRL boss Peter V’landys′ idea for a third versus fourth playoff in grand final week should be dead in the water if he’s listening to the ex players who almost unanimously believe it to be an unworkable proposal.

But the conversation should continue. As Phil Gould said on Nine’s 100% Footy, the “thought bubble” should act as a conversation starter.

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Asking players who have just poured their hearts out to realise their grand final dream and fallen short to park their misery, leave their drinking shoes at home and carry on training for another week in the name of “entertainment” is a form of sadism.

Luke Keary described it as “the worst idea ever in the game” and that fairly accurately sums up the thoughts of the players. If you think a cash prize would change their mind you haven’t got enough regard for how much winning a premiership means. When you get so close only to fall short, the pain can’t be healed by a few pieces of silver.

Players who go through preliminary final losses need time to decompress, to get away from footy, to heal. They are not the right people to be rolled out a week later in the name of entertainment.

But that doesn’t mean finding extra games to fill the vacuum in grand final week is a bad idea.

Speaking on 100% Footy, Gould cast his mind back to the 1970s for the genesis of a proposal that could actually work.

“You kids were too young but back in 1970/71, it was only a top four (finals) competition back in those days, the next four teams played in a knockout competition called the Endeavour Cup down at Cronulla,” Gould said.

“And they actually used that competition to experiment with new rules for the following year, it’s where the six tackle rule came from, in that particular competition.”

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Gould’s next point really hit on something. This year is the Rugby League World Cup and some players will miss out on Kangaroos jerseys because of how early their season finishes.

It’s not always a World Cup year but at the end of every season there are rep jerseys up for grabs and they are more often than not filled by players whose teams play finals.

The likes of Ethan Strange, Mitchell Moses, Pat Carrigan and Reece Walsh could potentially miss out this year because of their lack of footy. If they do, the World Cup suffers.

What if there’s a fix for both problems? What if you could give the stars who miss finals more footy so they don’t lose out on rep jerseys and also address the issue V’landys is trying to tackle by adding extra content when it starts to get thin in September and October?

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Let’s flesh out Gould’s idea a tad. For argument’s sake, let’s start an end of season Cup competition next season, when 10 teams will miss out on finals.

It’s a knockout and the winning club gets $500,000, plus $1 million for the players to share (trust us, this kind of money would be a drop in the ocean compared to how much revenue would be gained from the extra content).

What could that look like? To make the visuals easier, we’ll apply the current ladder.

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Week one

Qualifier 1: 15. Titans v 18. (nominally Perth Bears)

Qualifier 2: 16. Broncos v 17. Dragons

Byes: 9. Bulldogs, 10. Sea Eagles, 11. Storm, 12. Raiders, 13. Eels, 14. Tigers

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Week two

QF1: 11. Storm v 14. Tigers

QF2: 12. Raiders v 13. Eels

QF3: 9. Bulldogs v winner of Titans v Bears

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QF4: 10. Sea Eagles v winner of Broncos v Dragons

Week three

S/F 1: Winner of QF1 v winner of QF2

S/F 2: Winner of QF3 v winner of QF4

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Week four

Grand final: Winner of SF 1 v winner of SF 2

This would ensure that on top of the NRL finals series, with the top eight teams playing for all the marbles, the other 10 teams could get as many as four extra games with a prize worth playing for on the line.

Fans whose team are long out of contention for the premiership have another reason to stay engaged and the NRL and its broadcasters get extra content and the extra revenue that goes with it.

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“I think football for teams who don’t make the eight just might be the incentive where players will play on because they’ve got rep football coming up, it keeps them in the picture,” Gould said.

“And it gives teams who have missed the eight something to look forward to, to make some cash and maybe blood some younger players and give them a run in first grade, or what have you.

“That engages all the fans across the league - the fans who have missed out on the eight, what do they do during September? Right, so it keeps them involved as well.”

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