The Magic weekend starting to live up to its name in Manchester

It has been staged at Murrayfield in Edinburgh and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The timing of the event has also fluctuated, with it opening the season under the Cardiff roof a year ago and also being played across the May bank holiday.

This year the organisers ditched the expansion theories behind taking the games to Scotland and Wales and had all seven games at the home of the new football Premier League champions, Manchester City.

The concept is inspired, but the way the games have sometimes panned out has not given the spectacles required to retain an audience.

Having the derby fixtures, as close as they can make them have proved to be popular. And there can be no doubt seeing Wigan v St.Helens, Bradford v Leeds and Hull FC v Hull KR all play under one roof should whet the appetite of most sports fans.

This weekend also saw Huddersfield narrowly fall to Salford City Reds in a 72 point thriller, Castleford just succumbing to neighbours Wakefield by a score and the Hull derby being nicked by the Rovers with the last kick of the match.

Some exceptional entertainment for not a lot of expenditure, all in a fantastic sporting arena.

The aggregate attendance of over 63k was a record for the event, which, in these testing economic times should be applauded.

Having the event in Manchester nearer to the majority of Super League clubs than previous events will have helped, but after years of apathy it seems the Rugby Football League, and the fan base of the clubs now believe they are on the right track with the product.

One crucial flaw in the whole scheme though, is the way the fixtures are derived.

The derby format is all well and good because it pits fierce local neighbours against each other, and gives spectators of other clubs the opportunity to watch these games where ordinarily they would not. Not every game can be a derby though, and it sometimes leaves weaker or teams with no natural derby with a harder fixture.

With competition points up for grabs, the fixtures have to be the most competitive they can possibly be. This weekend, is in essence the Premier League's infamous 39th game, and that has not taken further steps forward as a suitable format which does not skew the league has not been found.

Whilst is it hard to predict the outcome of any fixture, and three games at the weekend were won by a score or less the remaining games ended up being fairly one sided score lines. St.Helens will feel they did not play anywhere near to their potential, and only made the scoreboard more respectable after Wigan were reduced to 11 players after a ferocious brawl.

Warrington were pitted with their local derby rivals Widnes, and while in days gone by this would have also been an attractive fixture very few would have given Widnes any hope on this occasion.

Warrington won the league leaders shield last year after racking up over 1,000 points in the 27 regular league games. Widnes on the other hand are facing their first season back in super league after years in the wilderness, and have won only two of their games back in the top flight. The 60 point victory for the Wolves was not unexpected by anyone.

If competition points are up for grabs, teams should be playing teams around them. First in the league versus second. Thirteenth versus fourteenth, etc. There should be no guaranteed points for any side.

And with this being a showpiece event, may be there should be an added incentive to win the game, especially if it against the side closest to you in the table.

There are currently two competition points on offer for each win in Super League. Maybe, as this is an added game, no one is on home soil and it is a special occasion an extra point should be on offer for the winners. It would give this occasion a real reason for being an occasion.

Logistically, getting fixtures together against teams of similar league standing may be difficult. Supporters would want to know when their teams were playing and coaches would want preparation time.

This was round 15 of the season, so if the fixtures were announced after the round 13 games, there would be enough preparation time, and teams would be aware of who were their rivals to get an even fixture list.

So, it seems the magic weekend is here to stay and Manchester the popular choice of venue it is starting to bear the fruit of the RFL’s forward thinking.

With a few strategic improvements and genuine competition for extra reward and suddenly the Premier League chiefs maybe looking to their RFL counterparts as a blueprint for selling that extra mid season game.

image: © Ben Sutherland