News Round 1 v Warriors (away)

[Sword]

Better playing at Mt Smart in round 1 than later in the season, I reckon

 

[The Innovator]

Already bracing myself for the media wankery over the rorters souffs game at the scg.

6:30pm sunday game. Wonder if that's a one-off or possibly a regular thing.

Not suprising considering the premiers will be facing their arch rivals at the once home of rugby league for 80 years.
It’s easily the match of the round.

 

[magdog]

What? We played Storm, Rabbits, Broncos at Suncorp and Raiders in Canberra, Panthers twice and Roosters twice within the first 10 weeks. The 2nd half of the season was easier but the start was a very tough draw for us

Yeah, we were well and truly bent over to start 18

 

[JayBee]

That is a week later than normal. Tough start playing the Warriors first up away.

To answer - the league work backwards from the Grand Final when picking their calendar. So basically, the GF date sets out the rest of the year, because it ALWAYS falls on the day before the public holiday weekend in October.

Next year, the GF day falls on the 6th of October, which is a week difference between 2017 and 2018 GF dates (30th of September as opposed to 6th of October). The GF date can only ever be between the 30th of September (first available date based on the calendar) and the 6th of October. So go back 30 weeks from there (25 NRL rounds, 4 finals, 1 international break) and you land on the date that it started.

HTH

 

[Scoooby]

Not a bad round 1 game, will be a good test to blow off the off season “rust” and get a win an start 2019 with a BANG haha..!!!!

 

[_G-Dog_]

No we didn't we only had one.........

https://imgur.com/a/A0Mwn

No we didnt we had 3.. Pay was furious last year as was the Kennel
https://www.thekennel.net.au/forum/index.php?threads/our-draw-is-horrendous.108489/#post-3288821


New Bulldogs coach Dean Pay furious at his team’s draw for 2018
OCTOBER 19, 2017


NEW Canterbury coach Dean Pay has slammed the Rugby League Players Association for siding with the NRL over the issue of player welfare relating to five-day turnarounds.

Pay was far from happy that the Bulldogs were one of four clubs along with Wests Tigers, St George Illawarra and Melbourne hit with the equal most five-day turnarounds when the 2018 NRL draw was released.

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While those four clubs have three five-day turnarounds, other clubs like Sydney Roosters, Newcastle and Gold Coast have none.

Parramatta, Brisbane, Manly, North Queensland, Cronulla and Penrith all have one, while South Sydney, New Zealand and Canberra have two.

RLPA boss Ian Prendergast issued a statement praising the NRL for what he claimed was a “fair and balanced draw” that included a further reduction in five-day turnarounds.

Pay will coach the Bulldogs next season.
In actual fact, short-turnarounds only reduce by one game next season, going down from 25 to 24.

But citing an almost 50 per cent reduction between 2016 and 2018, Prendergast said the “balanced draw is a result of the ongoing collaborative approach that the NRL has taken in managing these issues.

“Five-day turnarounds have a significant impact on the overall health and safety of our members.”

Told of those comments, Pay responded: “Hip, hip, hooray.

“They (the RLPA) have obviously looked at it, haven’t gone into it, and said it is good for everyone.

“Like, seriously. You talk about looking after players. They talk about player welfare.

“It is what it is, we just have to deal with it.

Pay has wasted no time in going after the NRL.
“But we go from Townsville on a Saturday (in round six) to the Roosters in Sydney on Thursday (in round seven).

“And the Roosters don’t have any five-day turnarounds?

“There is nothing we can do about it but you would think it would come out a bit fairer than that.”

The Bulldogs also open the season with back-to-back games against Melbourne and the Roosters, who finished the regular season placed first and second.

All up, Canterbury has 13 games against top eight teams and play top-four sides seven times.

In comparison, the Roosters don’t play a rival top four team until round 11 against Brisbane and have the second least amount of games against top four opponents (four in total).

They also play the most games against the bottom four sides.

Parramatta also fared well with one five-day turnaround and only play top four rivals Storm, Roosters and Broncos once during the season, with six games against bottom four teams.

As difficult as it is to come up with a draw that is going to please every club, the 2018 edition certainly raises more questions about the fairness of the competition under the current draw format, where teams don’t play each other twice.