Rugby League fans can now start filling their diaries following the announcement of the newly formatted Engage Super League fixtures.
Thousands of people around the world burned the midnight oil waiting to get the first public glimpses of the fixtures going live as the clock visited 24th November.
New boys Celtic Crusaders will kick-off the 2009 season against last years champions Leeds Rhinos at Headingley on Friday, February 6th.
From then on in the fixtures will be spread across 32 weeks cramming in 189 league games, 9 play-off ties before culminating in the Grand Final at Old Trafford on Sunday October 11th.
All 14 clubs that were successful with last year’s application will play 27 league games before the top eight teams will battle through the all new re-structured nine game play-off system.
And with the re-structuring of the play-offs being the biggest change to this years fixtures – the other is the venue swap of the Magic Weekend.
Although the number of fixtures remains the same as previous seasons, this season will avoid loop fixtures meaning teams will only play each other twice.
The only exception to the loop fixtures, where previously teams would play five teams three times, is the highly anticipated weekend.
The fixtures have confirmed that the venue for the magic weekend will be at
Each team will play there in an action packed weekend over the 2nd and 3rd May 2009 and is expected to be a massive money spinner for the Super League.
The other massive re-format is the introduction of an all new play-off structure.
The structure has been drawn up by the Rugby Football League and in an official statement added: “it will create great drama and bring an added dimension to what is already the most exciting period in the season.
“This new feature will also create more opportunities for broadcasters and the media to generate exciting coverage.”
The play-offs will operate over a four week period and is the first time eight teams have featured in the play-offs taking over from six created in 1998.
Explaining the structure takes some explaining and is difficult to get your heads round. But here goes…
Eight teams, from 1st to 8th in the league, will feature in the first week with league leaders playing fourth place, second playing third, fifth playing eighth and sixth playing seventh.
The top four team’s games will be known as the qualifying play-offs and the losers of these will play the winners of place fifth to eighth in week two.
Week three will see the victors of the qualifying play-offs against the winners of week two’s fixtures.
Here comes the twist – the winner of week one’s qualifying play-offs, who’s automatically progressed to week three and has the highest league position, will have the privilege to pick who they play.
And obviously the winners of week three will be the proud finalists who’ll walk out to over 72,000 at Manchester United’s Old Trafford.
This will be the first ever time a club can chose who they want to face in any play-off system worldwide.
Everyone who follows rugby league will be anxious to see how the new format runs but are glad to see the fixtures out in the open.
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