Quote: Him "i just don't see any downsides to a heritage round. Each club seems to produce a 3rd shirt most years anyway now so why not make it a retro one.
Ideally I'd have started it off this year with it being 120 years since the sport was founded. Those clubs who are founder members have an obvious target for what they'd make their heritage be about this year.
I'd also be tempted to join it up with Sky. Instead of just a heritage round I'd give each club a separate heritage round, so say round 1 would be Leeds, round 3 Wigan etc. Get Sky to make a programme on each club and their history which could be shown in the days preceding that weekends game. If possible tie in the fixture list with the heritage rounds so if Leeds wanted to they could celebrate say the 68 Final v Wakey and so play Wakey in their heritage round. Really get behind the thing.
I'd have an armed forces round the week prior to the Magic Weekend. Where all the clubs would be encouraged to invite their local regiments and units. Then at the Magic Weekend I'd have an Army vs Navy game in between 2 of the SL games. Invite a load of servicemen & women along, they can fill in some of the empty seats.
We could do a healthy living round. In the build up to the games that weekend all the clubs engage with their local communities on healthy eating/exercise etc. Again get Sky to do a programme on one of the clubs they'll be showing that weekend on how the players stay fit and healthy, can show clubs conditioners etc. These kind of programmes cost sod all to make and fill up a nice segment for Sky. I reckon they'd be willing to make a few one-off programmes throughout the year.
At the moment all these kind of things are left up to individual clubs to do as and when and how they feel. So it's all a bit disjointed and varies widely in the time and effort and professionalism put into it. But if the RFL started actually leading this sport then I think things like this could have an impact.
I'm glad to see Wigan are taking games to London, I just hope they come up with a consistent venue and time of year and stick with it. But it could do with RFL support too.'"
Uh hum!! Army v Navy? I think you'll find the dominant RL side of the services is ours. Perhaps have an Inter Services Grand Final. This year an Inter Services Origin match was played, the only issue being that it was at Salford.
