Toronto Wolfpack’s Brian McDermott offers solution to help complete 2020 Super League season

As the sport looks for answers to myriad questions during its standstill over the coronavirus crisis, it seems likely clubs will have to play up to three times per week to complete the campaign.

With the need to satisfy broadcasters, club finances and season ticket holders, there will be pressure to stage as many games as possible but that brings its own problems.

Toronto Wolfpack chief McDermott admits it will take something “remarkable” from the players. He added: “The physical welfare of the players is paramount and there is a way of preserving them to be at their best and give the fans and wider audiences what they want by way of the best possible product.

“Given the landscape we find ourselves in and the parameters of welfare, which cannot be dismissed, why not introduce the idea of four 15-minute quarters?

“From a coach’s point of view, in my experience, those who normally play 80 minutes but have been substituted for the final 15 or 20 have reported back how fresher they feel 48 hours afterwards, and have been able to train more fully the following week.

“Not only would that be preserving them but it would enable the quality to remain higher throughout this most demanding of periods, with more of the star names on display for longer.

“Condensing the match to an hour will add to rather than lessen the intensity, the game is more sell-able, and the welfare aspect considered by a sport that is seen as responsible and forward-thinking.”

McDermott, who won four Grand Finals with Leeds, outlined his plan in a letter to be published in the next edition of Forty20 magazine but that has been made public early to aid the debate. He added: “Of course, the counter argument to playing for an hour is that ‘it’s not what we’re used to’, but – and the players have to be the primary consideration – it has other benefits too.

“Plus, there is an appeal for new, younger audiences bred on shortened forms of sport, especially if the excitement generated is more relentless rather than less. The broadcasters have more, natural advertising breaks to recoup some of the income they have lost over this period and see a sport worth continuing to invest in that is not afraid to look at a wider picture.

“This is a way of helping to put the players first and move the sport progressively forward.”