i would say catalans have been a success. they haven't been going long but have made giant strides

The catalan Dragons have been successful, wembley and playoffs over recent years, good crowds, in fact they are rising, as more locals are getting into it.

how about Cumbria, is that a heartland place or a watse of time expansion,

Papua new guinea, Ireland, wales, Scotland, rugby playing and getting bigger, year on, where do you think all ther players come from originally, Imagine if the games extends to Cornwall as well.

Some of the so called big teams have sometimes taken 50 away, bradford the other year comes to mind, Huddersfield could be put in that group, sometimes very poorly supported away, fev have a better away support.

Take it, you will not be going to any of the RLWC games this year, they are all out of the heartlands, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi

Like i said, the game has to grow, it will make it better, its not about what we bring to SL, its about making SL

I said outside the heartlands.



Again, name me a success story or a team that could compete in the SL?



Link?



When did I say that I wont watch RL outside of the heartlands?



Why does the game have to grow? Every time the sport has been trialed in an 'expansion' area it has failed.

Why do people insist that for RL to survive it has to be a national sport? It's been around for the past 100+ years confined to the M62 corridor and the South of France - what makes you think that RL will die on it's arris if it's not nationalised?

And the reason RL struggles is that the international game is not great. It never will be until we can be competitive against the Aussies which we never will be with the narrow talent pool that is the M62 corridor.

We will never be competitive on the international stage and it has nothing to do with talent pools. Until the Aussies change their drinking laws we will always be behind them.

Let me explain.

Australia has these weird drinking laws which mean that local communities tend to congregate in amateur sports clubs – surf clubs, Aussie rules clubs, Rugby clubs, etc. Literally thousands of people go to these clubs on a weekly basis. They have several bars, slot machines, casinos, bookies, restaurants, café bars, all sorts and generate millions of dollars a year.

This means that they can afford to get full time, professional coaching at a much younger level. For example, I was out there for the World Cup in 2008 and we went to an amateur RL club in Newcastle. I got chatting to one of the blokes that worked there and he was telling me that from U11 onward they have pro coaches.
By the time these kids hit 16 they’ve already had several years under a trained coach compared to the English setup where all our junior teams tend to be coached by some kid’s dad that can be bothered to put the effort in.

We do not have the luxury of throwing the same amount of cash at our junior level and, therefore will always be behind our antipodean cousins.

There is simply more money in the Australian game overall, that’s why they’re better than us and it has very little to do with increasing our talent pool.

What law is that? I also drink in my local amateur sports club.




I would have to disagree on this one and say it has everything to do with increasing the amount of people who play rugby league.

I would say that increasing the talent pool would go some way to closing the gap, but if the situation is as above then we will not get to the place where we can coach our kids so well until later on in their development

I don't really know how their drinking laws work but you don't seem to be able to buy booze in your local shop or supermarket - they have 'bottle shops' where, from what I can gather, you have to buy beer by the case.

I really don't think that having a larger talent pool will have such a significant impact on our ability to compete on the international stage when the Aussie youth set-up is so far further advanced than ours.

Don't we usually compete pretty well at the Academy age level V the Aussies (?) which (if true) would suggest it's either a player pool problem or a development at open-age level problem rather than a lack of quality junior coaching.

Ironically the dearth of antipodeans cluttering up SL with their often holidaying, journeyman averageness and the added exposure for some to the rigors of the NRL could be the biggest boost to England's chances on the International front in years.

Taken a couple of years ago... at half time.

What point are we trying to make here Fat Boy? That London aren't well supported?

So what?

Since when did how many fans you get through the gate determine your value to the sport as a club?

Even if it's just for the development work they can do in the London area and providing a pathway for young non-heartland players, London still offer more to SL IMO than the likes of Halifax, Featherstone or any other of the speculated replacements would do.

How do you work that out AG?
Fev get better crowds and have a good Acadamy system aswell as a good local amateur club.
Halifax are the same and both have sponsorship and don't rely on their owner to bank-roll their whole club and both have their own grounds.
Now i agree the local development is very good and seeing young English Londoners playing RL is good for the sport but what does that do for SL really??
In terms of ££££ they don't bring the crowds to their own fixtures that's not a dig at the London fan base just a fact that they lack one in serious numbers.
Are they untouchable on the off chance they produce 2/3 England RL players or because they have young lads playing in SL because the other clubs can and will do both.
The Broncos/Fulham/Quinns have been around a while but did they ever build on the team that finished 2nd/3rd in SL a few years ago or the team that made the CC final??
Your post comes across as a matter of fact that London offer more to SL so what is it that they have over the other clubs mentioned and just saying exspansion isn't enough in this case.

However bad London are they are nowhere near as bad as Halifax were in SL.

Post office road is not an SL ground, its barely half the size it would need to be.

Were is key Smokey in terms of Halifax they've taken their hits and re-built their club including finishing their ground and whilst Post Office Road may not be the biggest it's no worse than the Jungle and their seating area is in better condition aswell.

There isn’t some moral imperative to reward Fax for taking their hits, they have proved time and time again that they cant attract SL level crowds and cant sustain themselves at that level. How many times have they had their begging buckets out?

As for fev they don’t even have the stadium big enough to attract SL level crowds never mind the actual ability to do so. Fev aren’t a sustainable SL club. They need investment in the tens of millions to get there. Promoting them to SL is pretty much guaranteeing they will go bust.