INCLUSION of weekend specials in the rugby league calendar isn’t fair and should be dropped.

Super League’s Magic Weekend and the Championship’s Summer Bash feature an additional round of games all played at one venue over two days.

But now that there is extra jeopardy involved with the top two competitions splitting into three groups of eight after 23 rounds, surely it is wrong that the one additional fixture could possibly provide a lopsided outcome based on the opposition a team plays.

Consider the possibility, especially now that the new-look 12-team Super League format has brought about a tight competition that currently sees only three points separating the teams sat sixth to 10th.

If Castleford Tigers, who face bottom strugglers Wakefield in their additional game in Newcastle on Sunday, squeeze into the Super 8s by the skin of their teeth then it could be that the side finishing ninth – possibly on points difference or a point behind – may have lost in a much tougher Magic Weekend fixture.

That, for me, would be criminal when the stakes mean dropping out of the Grand Final hunt and entering a separate competition where relegation is a possibility.

Because that team finishing ninth would then go into the middle 8s competition with the other three bottom-four Super League clubs and the top four finishers in the Championship. Only four of those eight would get to play Super League the following year.

Featherstone Rovers could end up looking at it the other way if their loss to unbeaten Championship leaders Leigh in Blackpool at the weekend costs them a top-five spot and a chance of promotion. The top three at the end of the middle 8s competition will play Super League in 2016, the sides finishing fourth and fifth will play off in the 'Million Pound Game' to take up the other Super League spot. The bottom three and the play-off losers will remain in the Championship.

So the stakes are high for every club!

And with a further mess having been made of the Challenge Cup competition as a result of rugby league’s new format this year, in my view the ‘carnival’ weekends should make way for ‘catch-up fixtures’.

We went into the sixth round of the cup with Championship clubs being ‘punished’ for their progress. Reaching that far meant the postponement of a league game that then has to be squeezed into the calendar in midweek at some stage - meaning three games in nine days at best!

Leigh Centurions, Wolves’ next opponents in the quarter finals, now have two league fixtures to rearrange and that schedule could take its toll on players’ legs when promotion-deciding fixtures come into play further down the line.

And the bottom-four Super League clubs, who in the new format enter the following season’s cup event a round earlier than the rest, also may have to squeeze in a midweek fixture.

Hull and Hull KR could be affected by this further down the line and we have heard about and seen the impact of short turnarounds on team’s results and injuries all through the year.

We had the farcical situation at Dewsbury a fortnight ago where coach Glenn Morrison fielded almost a reserve team against Wolves in the cup because of an important rearranged league game at Sheffield four days later.

I acknowledge that Magic Weekend provides an opportunity to take the game to new areas, and it seems the North East is buzzing for the feast of rugby league heading to Newcastle United's St James' Park this weekend.

And there will be fans from all club's relishing the opportunity to have a rugby league party on the Tyne.

But at what cost? Will those same supporters be dancing and celebrating if their side misses out on the top eight, end up relegated, and the Magic Weekend proves to have had a key impact?

Scrap the Magic, ditch the Bash, and instead give the Challenge Cup the credence it deserves as a prestigious knockout with its Wembley finale.