By PHIL CAPLAN
IT’S the start of the long haul to Old Trafford, calling at the World Club Challenge, Las Vegas, Everton, Paris and all points in between.
If the opening round crowds are an indication – sellouts at York, Warrington and Leigh and a 20-year non derby high in Hull – then there is reason for optimism on the field, although the journey is long and will contain the usual twists and turns, not least around injury avoidance, squad depth and junior development along such an arduous track.
(As an aside, how come, in celebrating 30 years of Super League, what began on the final weekend of March and was called moving to summer, now kicks off in the searing chill of early February?).
So what should we expect? Three new teams added to take the total to 14 in 2026, will that dilute the overall competitiveness or give Super League a freshening up, with three major cities – Bradford, Toulouse and York – now included?
New champions Hull KR, Leigh and, last season, Wakefield have shown that, built sustainably, incomers can add value, but will there be another London or Salford cut adrift?
One thing you can guarantee about the sport, no matter what the ‘state of the game’ and existential crises it regularly faces, the players almost always deliver, this time York’s who turned the table upside down after only 80 minutes.
Much debate followed their sensational, come-from-behind 19-18 home win over defending treble winners Hull KR, as to whether it was the biggest upset in the competition’s storied history.
Alongside the initial kick off in Paris, where almost 19,000 saw newly-formed PSG beat Sheffield and last season’s 1-0 golden point, extra time win for Leigh here that was one for the aficionados, a promoted side of, predominantly, Championship players defeating the champions put it right up there in terms of sporting narrative and cut through; David slaying Goliath in week one.
It contained sufficient storylines to feed social media, led by Mikey Lewis’s reckless trip and sin binning, allowing us to talk about and sell the stars for their good and bad which drives the media these days.
In many ways, the riveting encounter was the blueprint for what Super League should look like to the unsuspecting and commercially influential; vibrant, exciting, modern, fresh and with uncertainty of outcome to the last play, as well as unexpected.
York and the noise inside their full, boutique stadium brough the atmosphere, elation, glamour and wider recognition on their debut as the 25th side in the elite league, one that has encompassed 74 venues, seven countries, over 2,500 players and seven title partners.
York head coach Mark Applegarth, the personification of dignity and a terrific story himself on his return to the top-flight after showing similar qualities with relegated Wakefield under a very different guise, talked about the need for consistency and not making this a one-off, while also going out of his way to wish his opponents the best of luck and saying he and has his charges would be supporting them in the World Club Challenge.
Opposite number Willie Peters didn’t shy away from placing some of the responsibility for the shock loss on his star man Lewis either, all refreshingly newsworthy.
All of that should help entice a bigger and, more importantly, new audience to the LNER Stadium for the Knight’s next game against Warrington on March 6, together with more of North Yorkshire’s potential commercial partners in a part of the world where there are many head offices.
It’s likely to still be three leagues within a league in ’26, but who finishes where is subject to any amount of conjecture (although, spoiler alert, Forty20 predicts Wigan to be top in the new issue!)
The only thing 30 years of history tells us is that it will be a long, hard slog to success.