Tonight it's Leeds v Bradford, tomorrow St Helens v Warrington and on Sunday Wakefield v Castleford. Excuse me if I fail to struggle to contain my excitement but it doesn't seem two minutes since the Rhinos and Bulls last locked horns.

Actually over two months have elapsed since Leeds went to Odsal and won 30-15 while 10 weeks have passed since Wakefield's 32-16 victory at Wheldon Road yet here we are with some of the sport's biggest rivals preparing to go at it yet again.

If ever proof were needed of how it is possible to have too much of a good thing, the flat nature of the build up to this weekend's events at Headingley and Belle Vue offer just that.

There is a greater sense of anticipation about what might happen at St Helens, where the home side are looking to extend their winning run to 17 matches, 12 more than Warrington have won on the bounce under James Lowes, but even so the derby buzz isn't what it used to be.

Oh dear, there I go again, sounding like my dad. But it's true.

Super League has managed to all but milk what should be the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of the season dry of excitement by manufacturing fixtures to create a 27 or 28-round schedule.

Things will change next year when Super League adopts its new 14-team format and the clubs are to be applauded for their insistence that the fixtures for the extra Murrayfield Magic round be anything other than derby affairs.

But if supporters of Super League clubs are feeling the derby blues, they should spare a thought for their counterparts in the National Leagues who are tied to a fixture list which comes straight from the script of Groundhog Day.

The repetitive nature was eased this season by the fact that someone who failed their Geography GCSE was put in charge of the derby-based group stages of the Northern Rail Cup, which saw 'neighbours' Featherstone and Gateshead, Halifax and Whitehaven, Keighley and Workington, Doncaster and London Skolars, and Sheffield and Celtic Crusaders play each other twice in the opening months of the year.

The National League season itself did not kick off until the Easter weekend, by which time many fans were left impoverished or unimpressed from two months of watching their club play teams they had little affinity with in a competition they cared little about.

There were at least some exciting matches to look forward to, especially in National One which has been wide open until quite recently when Salford have emerged as the dominant force in the division.

The unpredictable nature of matches between Salford, Halifax, Leigh, Widnes and Celtic Crusaders has made National One an exciting competition to watch but it is hard to escape the suspicion that that will not be the case in 2009, when the City Reds and Crusaders join Super League to be replaced by sides from National Two.

Without being disrespectful to Gateshead, Barrow, Oldham or Keighley, none of them are likely to enhance National One in the same way as Salford or Celtic Crusaders while the clubs they leave behind in a 10-team National Two look very much to be a group of death.

The RFL have recognised the need for the National League to develop its own identity in the Super League licence era but as welcome as plans such as a 'Magic Weekend' round of fixtures for the lower divisions are, the plain truth is the Northern Rail Cup and two 10-team National Leagues is an inherently weak format which no amount of tinkering will fix.

Just what the solution is remains unclear but what is certain is that a fourth or fifth match of the year between Swinton and Blackpool is unlikely to be more appealing than this weekend's Super League derby repeats.