The Magic Weekend has a controversial new home, the new Betfred Super League season will kick off with a Thursday night Hull derby and England’s Wheelchair World Champions head to Marseille.
Anticipation for the 2024 campaign can now ramp up after today’s confirmation of all of the Betfred Super League key dates, with the 27-game season opening with Hull FC v Hull KR on February 15. Leeds v Salford is another eye-catching opening-round game given the high profile departures of Red Devils stars Brodie Croft and Andy Ackers to Headingley.
The Grand Final will take place on October 12 at its spiritual Old Trafford home, with Super League clubs entering the Betfred Challenge Cup in March and the Wembley final now being played in June rather than August. There will be an international break at the end of June - if England can find a suitable opponent - with a Magic Weekend now in August rather than May.
This week’s announcement that Elland Road would replace Newcastle’s St James Park as the host for Magic was underwhelming at best. Many fans reacted with disbelief that this popular fan event was being relocated to the side of the M621 motorway out of Leeds while Australia’s NRL was moving its opening fixtures to Las Vegas. As far as IMG’s “reimagining of rugby league” has gone so far, this news felt like a step backwards that will probably see the Magic concept disappear for good.
In defence of the powers that be, the move to August for Magic to give the Betfred Challenge Cup breathing space in June, rendered Newcastle unavailable with the Premier League season back in motion by then, and Leeds United’s home has a strong track record of hosting international and World Club Challenge games.
But that’s not really the point of Magic, a concept borne out of a desire to take rugby league on the road to showcase the best of the sport to new audiences in new cities. It also allowed players and fans to experience the big-game experience of major stadiums in the process, walking out at the Millenium Stadium, Murrayfield and the Etihad. Playing out a full round of games on the outskirts of a city in an existing rugby league heartland with little for fans to do around the ground ticks very few of those boxes. And it feels unlikely that many fans will stick around after their own team has played.
It is worth remembering that IMG were keen to get rid of Magic anyway but the clubs demanded its preservation. This feels like a disappointing compromise that will have few winners.
As for the Magic Weekend fixtures, Saturday does look a cracker, with the Wigan v Saints derby headlining a Saturday that also boasts Leeds Rhinos v Warrington and Hull FC against newly-promoted London. It will form round 22 of the regular season, with the rest of the fixtures also released this week.
Elsewhere this week players returned to pre-season training to embark on lung-busting hill runs and muddy assault courses. Any player will tell you that this is the worst part of their job, arriving at work in the dark to be beasted every morning until the New Year.
Among those reporting for duty are the latest new signings, Australian Matt Moylan at Leigh - at his best a devastating running half at Penrith and Cronulla, and Joe Shorrocks at Salford, brought in from Wigan.
Speaking of Salford, last week’s RL Weekly reported how the escalation with a row with the council over their stadium and tenancy was boiling over into a threat to the Red Devils’ future.
This week The Sportsman can reveal that the Salford hierarchy is braced for a tough few months financially but expect to have an agreement in place to stay at the Salford Stadium by the first quarter of 2024. I understand the club felt it was left with no option but to be tough with a council it felt was causing considerable problems due to its inactivity on the issue, but that progress has since been made on the impasse.
Pre-season is not all frost and mud though. England’s World Cup-winning Wheelchair team have got it right with a trip to Marseille for the second Test of one of sport’s great new rivalries. England’s historic win in Manchester last year lit the fuse for a bitter feud, with the French claiming in their losing press conference that England’s non-disabled stars such as poster boy Tom Halliwell, were dominating the sport to a detrimental degree that was deterring athletes with disabilities from taking part.
A fired-up France avenged that World Cup defeat with victory at a raucous Leeds Arena in front of 2311 fans a few weeks ago, and the passion and energy in these games sets this one up to be another memorable occasion at the Palais des Sports.
And great recognition this week for half a dozen shining lights in the Betfred Super League, with six England stars nominated for the prestigious 2023 IRL Golden Boot award. The accolade recognises the best player in international rugby league matches played this year, with Mikey Lewis, Harry Smith, John Bateman and Matty Ashton making the men’s list, and Georgia Roche and Amy Hardcastle nominated in the women’s.
It is another milestone in a remarkable story for Lewis who looks every bit British rugby league’s poster boy for years to come.
*18+ | BeGambleAware
