LUKE Robinson joined the growing chorus of voices calling for the abolition of loop fixtures ahead of Huddersfield Giants’ third meeting of the Betfred Super League season with Wigan Warriors.
Loop fixtures were first introduced to Super League 25 years ago following the first failed expansion to 14 teams of 1999, and returned for the 2019 campaign after the licensing and the Super Eights years.
A return to a 14-team competition is heavily rumoured to be coming, with one of the advantages being seen as the removal of loop fixtures for a home-and-away plus Magic Weekend slate, and Huddersfield head coach Robinson believes they are damaging to the wider perception of the competition.
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“My wife’s got loads of friends who are Mancunians and they don’t actually watch rugby league,” Robinson told BBC Radio Leeds.
“They’re footballers and when I explain to them…at the end of the year you play some teams twice and some teams three times, they can’t fathom it.
“They can’t get their head round it, they just think it’s bonkers and, let’s be honest, it is, isn’t it?
“You can play certain teams more than other teams and then play other teams twice within a couple of weeks of each other and it doesn’t make sense.”
Huddersfield’s Round 18 match away to the reigning Super League champions comes less than a month after their agonising 22-18 defeat at home to Wigan in their second match of the year, which has been another criticism of this season’s fixture list.
A 14-team Super League may solve the problem of the uneven fixture list where teams have to play some opponents three times a year and others only twice, but comes with concerns about diluting the standard of the competition due to the size of the playing pool.
Nevertheless, Robinson is in no doubt it is a situation which needs to be addressed for the sake of Super League’s competitive integrity.
“If it was a bit of a fairer competition where you play teams twice and potentially have a Magic round, which I love and think should stay in the calendar – I think it’s great for rugby league and a spectacle for the fans,” Robinson said.
“But to make it a more even competition, getting the scheduling right is just common sense.”