Oh yeah I completely agree with you, I thought you was hard done by. I was just making the point that blaing Maurice Lindsay when he had nothing to do with the decision was a bit pathetic. He's done an awful lot for Rugby League, not just Wigan.

Oh yeah, he was the fella behind the ill fated world club challenge debacle too....

I interviewed Maurice Lyndsey about 12 years ago and it was clear where his loyalties lay and it was not with the RL community as a whole. I remember the responses he gave to open questions revealed his vision of the future was very Wigan/large club centric. He had little time/understanding/respect for the roots of the game and was shockingly short sighted when it came to the future direction.

I would say he is not wholeheartedly to blame for the state of the game today, but he was a major instigator of the problems we now find ourselves in. As for being a saviour, dont believe the hype as most of it came from him. Sky were coming into the game irrespective, he just happened to be the one who undersold it.

I liked Maurice. He dragged this game up off the floor and with the concept of SL ensured the long term funding of the game. Don't blame him for the lying, cheatung and underhand way the current administrators run the game.

Sorry Rich I disagree. He was a primary cause of the game getting into such strife from the way he ran things at Wigan (who almost went under despite all the success). As clubs tried to match their model the game became unsustainable. It was he who put the game on the floor in the first place.

Sky were coming along anyway, he was just in the right place at the right time, the same as any chimpanzee who happens upon a bunch of bananas which fall from the tree. He had the opportunity to plant some of the windfall and create firm foundations and he blew it.

He spent money on consultants who knew sod all about the game and put together a half assed plan then sat back and waited to see what happened. Most clubs in SL's first few years nearly went bust because they were unprepared. Poor business planning (no guidance again from Uncle Mo), players agents, the Super League war in Aus, etc, etc all combined to put massive pressure on clubs and cause them to overspend massively. Where was the guiding hand from the leader of the game..........grooming the racehorses which are his main passion.

No, Maurice Lyndsey may not be wholly responsible for the mess the game is in, but never underestimate the role he played in its downfall.

FWIW

I too agree that ML has some blame to shoulder for the state of RL, he was a man who played to win, and in doing that he changed the rules so he could win, and he did, he is not the only one who has done this, A well know football manger has done this for years, and it got him knighted, The F1 supremo is well docmented at winning at all costs, its nothing new at the top of every tree, there are people who change the rules for the own gain

I keep saying it the way to relsove this rumpus is

Promotion and Relegation

Problem with this is that the game hasn't fallen. The attendances are up on the years prior to SL. It's a mess down here but at the half or so dozen "proper" clubs in SL their lot is a happy one.

Absolutely spot on.

Defnatley clutching at straws now. Agree with littlerich about not blaming him for the current administartion.

True. But, they are the ones who sought advice from the Aussies on how the NRL is run. We are heading that way. It'll end up a closed shop of 12 or 14 teams, and everyone else being feeder clubs. They are slowly, but surely, eroding away the resolve of clubs outside SL so that they will comply to every edict issued from Red Hall. ALL the Championship/1 clubs need to get together and fight back before those in charge kill off the game.

Ohh my God man, get a grip !!!!

Who else are you going to blame for your predicament ? get real.

You might as well blame the original members of the Northern Rugby Union or whatever name the existed under for starting up Rugby League, after all if you had stayed with the Union boys, you wouldhave had no problems, financially secure, large crowds, nation exposure in press and television on a weekly basis, and the support and backing of the upper/ middle classes.

You real are pathetic, looking for other people to blame for the position you find yourselves in.

Are you "special" Bluethunder? Who types for you?

Bluethunder, were you this understanding of situations and people's feelings when your lot were in the same boat 3 years ago?

I don't think he has a "your lot". Have you read his previous posts? He's the oringinal keyboard warrior 8.689453125:10