Welcome to Super League 2.0: well, the latest version of it, at least. For what has felt like an eternity, rugby league has repeatedly tried to reinvent itself. Super League and the switch from winter to summer was the sport’s biggest switch, back in 1996, but since then there have been plenty of other iterations all with the aim of broadening its appeal.
Somewhere at the Rugby Football League’s headquarters there is a room filled with marketing gimmicks – licencing, Super 8s, Every Minute Matters – gathering dust but this season maybe there is cautious optimism that things are changing. At the very least, 2024 provides the most intriguing glance into Super League’s long-term prospects with the full-scale rollout of IMG’s revolutionary plans for a sport that craves mainstream attention more than any other.
When the new season begins on Thursday night with a mouthwatering Hull derby, it will be the first official game played under the new gradings system. Promotion and relegation is now a thing of the past: from now on the 12 clubs with the highest score across a plethora of on and off-field metrics at the end of the year will earn a Super League berth the following season. The hope is that uncertainty will drive interest in the sport as part of IMG’s 12-year partnership in the years ahead.
“If there was a magic wand, we’d have done a one-year deal, fixed everything and I’d be doing something else,” says IMG’s vice-president of sports management, Matt Dwyer. “But it doesn’t work like that when you’re trying to grow a sport. None of us are unaware of where the sport was and what we’re trying to do to grow, and that takes time. The vast majority of people, I think, can see the changes happening in front of their eyes now.”
The mere presence of IMG steering the ship is cause for optimism given the New York-based agency’s track record. The fruits of this will start to become apparent this year, not least in Super League securing more mainstream coverage. Every game will be live on Sky Sports, the game has launched its own platform, SuperLeague+, to deliver games live but most importantly there is a groundbreaking free-to-air deal with the BBC for 10 games a season.
Super League has promoted itself on Spotify, there is branding across major rail networks and digital billboarding in some of the biggest cities in the country. It may sound quite basic but for a sport that has long dragged its heels it represents an exciting step forward. The goal now is that such unprecedented coverage will boost the game. “The amount of other sports that would love to have the exposure we’re having moving forward is … well, all of them, except football,” Dwyer says.
Rugby league’s leadership is frequently criticised but the the game itself is in good health: Super League 2024 has layers of intrigue aplenty. The biggest opening-night crowd for more than 15 years will watch Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers square off on an occasion that sets the tone for what will follow over the next eight months.
The defending champions, Wigan, start as favourites having strengthened even further in the off-season but just behind them are St Helens and Catalans Dragons, making up a leading trio a fraction ahead of the chasing pack. Another seven or eight clubs will fancy making the top six playoffs beneath them – with all eyes on how Sam Burgess fares on his return to Super League as the head coach of Warrington Wolves. If he can deliver a first league title since 1955, it will be another incredible chapter in an already stellar career.
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There is a welcome return for London Broncos too, after promotion from the Championship last year. However, with IMG’s provisional gradings placing them 24th – way outside the top 12 – this is likely to be a one-season sojourn in the spotlight before they are ushered back to the Championship. Mike Eccles’s side, who begin at St Helens on Friday, will fancy claiming a scalp or two though.
IMG is intent on making superstars of the game’s premier talent and the likes of the St Helens sensation Jack Welsby, the Wigan marvel Jai Field and Hull KR’s eccentric Mikey Lewis will be hoping to become household names beyond league’s traditional reach. In truth, the on-field talent and storytelling is all there for IMG to capitalise on – but league lovers have always felt their game has been sport’s best-kept secret.
To whose who know it best, rugby league has often felt like that one individual in your friendship group who refuses to get with the times. But the thing is, at some point, you either have to keep pace or you get left behind. IMG is intent on dragging the game kicking and screaming into the modern age and if it can’t, you really wonder who can transform Super League.
