Super League fixtures FAQs: Thursday returns, annoying trends & internatonal break

The Super League fixtures are out and with it, supporters are dissecting the campaign heading into the new season. As ever, there are some familiar topics that have come up.

Why the obsession with Thursday nights? Why do some clubs play others twice before playing others once? Why so many home games in a row?

Well, we've got you covered. Here's everything you would want to know about Super League's fixtures.

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The return of Thursday nights

There's a love-hate relationship between supporters and Thursday night fixtures. Many dislike them due to the travel demands on a work night and many were pleased to see less of them last year.

But then others moaned last season when Super League Thursdays were no more. Crucially, Sky wanted them back too. Thursday games ultimately draw a good audience for the broadcaster, so this year, there will be Thursday night games on 23 occasions.

It feels like a good middle ground would be to have Thursday games be between two clubs within local proximity of each other. However, that isn't always the case. But why?

Well, the answer is simple. This year, Sky Sports have been given the role of selecting their two preferred games to broadcast as 'feature' picks for the entire season. Given Thursday night is popular, they have chosen games they would like to broadcast to take on that slot. Essentially, it is Sky who determines who plays on a Thursday night.

People might not like that, but ultimately, the sport leans on their financial support, so they have bought the privilege to ensure games are played on Thursdays and who plays in them. This also goes to explain why teams are playing home games on different dates of the weekn moving forward, as well as the scheduling change, which means only two games will be played on a Friday night.

Why are fixtures imbalanced?

There are a few examples that have already been flagged where the scheduling, on the face of it, doesn't make sense. One example is the fact that Leeds Rhinos play Salford Red Devils at home twice in the opening seven rounds of the season.

It's a common frustration, so why does it happen? The answer is incredibly complex!

The creation of the fixture list is a much more complicated process than you could ever imagine. For starters, the opening round will always be a round of loop fixtures, which is actually done to try and spread out games between clubs playing each other three times in a season.

But things start to get complicated once clubs have put their request forms in, which allow them to ask for certain things from their schedule. As an example, clubs may say they are unavailable to play on certain dates, or even for a period of time, due to pitch renovations. There may be other events on at the ground, such as concerts or a football fixture, or even in the local area. St Helens, as an example, don't want to play at home the same weekend as the Grand National.

These requests can be quite comprehensive and result in limitations straightaway, especially when you consider that many clubs have work being done on their pitch at the same time, the end of the football season.

Once all those requests are in, a supercomputer in Canada is used to draw up a fixture list, which acts as the first version. This draft is then sent to clubs to look over and they raise concerns that are then amended until everyone is as satisfied as possible. This year, six different versions of the fixture list were drawn up due to requests from clubs. If you were wondering, a request came in on the morning of the fixtures being released!

It is essentially impossible to find a perfect solution with all the constraints in place, and it is very much a case of finding the least worst solution. Organisers would very much prefer to not have instances like that with Leeds and Salford, but sometimes they have no other alternatives.

One thing you may not have known

Did you know Super League tries to create a strong set of fixtures during football international breaks? We certainly didn't, but that is the case. This year, that falls in rounds 5 and 25 of the season. As a result, round five features some marquee fixtures: Warrington v St Helens and Leeds v Wigan. Round 25 is a repeat of rivals round, so features the Hull derby and Wigan v Saints.

But why? Well, there is evidence that shows Super League gains extensive media coverage at a national level during the international breaks, so the competition looks to make a bang in those weeks to further enhance that.

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