I assume we are spending up to our cap limit this season?

I would guess it's certain it will be made, considering contracts have already been given to key actors.

I agree with you on the Union comment, there is no doubt the vast majority would be about that considering the players career is almost all in that sport. However, the movie would not be complete without the RL side would it, especially considering it was straight after his "coming out" that he switched codes.

Like I said, once it happens the commercial team of the super league sides will take every opportunity to gain off that movie, even if it only gets 30 seconds. For that Crusaders could then be thanked for it.

Presumably Huddersfield aren't.

Paul Johnson looked excellent in their game v Cas I thought.

Just feel really sorry for them though, yes they were mismanaged but to have a team ripped to pieces (and it wasnt great to begin with) one week into a season is so demoralising for the fans. I for one wish them all the best.

Can't we give them Kirke as a gift?

Like I’ve said before – why is it that just because Wakefield were a founder club of the Northern Union it somehow gives them the divine right to exist at the top level of this sport - today?

Wakefield can not sustain a top flight club so why should they be bailed out?

Their ground is poor, their fan base is pathetic and have not and never will be contenders – let ‘um sink, they don’t deserve to be in Super League.

On the other hand, let's not get all santimonious about other clubs doing it ... In the days when we had the biggest cheque book in the league, we use to bring all sorts of players in to stave of the knock at the door at other clubs. Someone has already mentioned Keighley, but perhaps up there as our biggest signings (Crooks & Schofield) were basically flogged to save Hull FC. A fact oft forgot by our Cod encrusted friends ... Basically, had those two not been flogged when they did, there might not have been a black & white team to merge with Gateshead. The transfer was offered to them more or less as a fate acompli. For Schofield, it was a chance to move back to Leeds and to the club he'd always had a soft spot for and for Crooks it was the collapse of his little world.

Likewise, there was a forward purchased by Leeds, who was basically known as the 'xxxxxx phone bill' and had he not been bought by Leeds, the club in question I understand would have been cut off by BT.

TYPO corrected.

This is hardly the first time even in recent years that Wakefield haven't been on their uppers ....

And before they all come on here whinging and accuse me of being uncharitable, yes Leeds were once like that and we came very close to being a wholly owned subsiduary of Risdale & Co. Since those dark days, we haven't looked back. We have good backing, a great on and off-field set up and most importantly one of the best youth development systems in the game. The question is, what are these other clubs doing to copy what we've acheived ?

It makes me giggle about the constant bleating letters to the likes of League Express especially from Widnes fans ... Just how many times have they been broke in the last 20 years ? Yes, they might have got it right now, but there's time to prove it.

Millards has now been confirmed to Catalans.

'"

I hope we don't get soppy and start loaning them our players to tied them over for the rest of the season.

And furthermore, when we were on our uppers, we got no sympathy off the likes of Cas, Wakefield and a host of other clubs.

As for turning clubs around, just look at what's happend at Hull KR ... A team that not so many years ago, was like Wakey, Widnes and others. They went away, spent time in the lower leagues, built the team up, built themselves up and now it could be argued they are the bigger of the two Humberside teams.

Said the same to A trinity fan at work today. Disappointed he's gone to Hudds. I'd have preferred him over Pitts when we got him.

As Meatloaf might of once said 'now don't be sad, cos two out of three ain't bad'

Farrell came to Leeds from Sheffield Eagles.

I was told by a Wakey fan that we tried to sign both at the same time and that the Club and Player turned us down!

One of the biggest disappointments of this board is that some people judge others by past behaviour on here rather than what’s been said presently. Keith Swiftcorn/AP has made a very valid point and I’ll do my best to extend his point even further.



Just like the film “This Sporting Life” has benefited the game in the long term?

The film was made in 1963 and is highly regarded as film critics across the pond. It won numerous awards and got nominated for even more including Oscars and BAFTA’s. The reality of most sport films is that they not really about the sport – they about the life that’s around sport. Sporting films are just good films and that’s all.

Now I really liked Micky Rourke in “The Wrestler” but it didn’t get me back into Wrestling. I watched and enjoyed “Any Given Sunday” but that didn’t even inspire me to become an American Football fan either. In fact my favourite sporting film of all time is “Raging Bull” and I stopped watching boxing since Ricky Hatton retired from the ring. The reality is that people watch all kinds of films and then don’t bother with them after they’ve seen them.



I’m afraid that the RFL have got this expansion thing very wrong. It seems to be at the expense of the traditional heartlands where the game has managed to thrive for a very long time.

Once upon a time Leeds was a rugby league city that had many top flight clubs including Leeds, Hunslet, Holbeck, Bramley and Leeds Parish Church. Apart from Leeds, the four other clubs are either lingering in a lower league or defunct all together. We all know the injustice that happened to Hunslet when they should have been promoted to super league. It’s clear that the RFL doesn’t like Yorkshire and has long wanted the game to be played elsewhere. I won’t even get started on Hull.

Personally I'd like to see the RFL make Leeds the sporting capital of the north and the way to do that is to awaken the spirit of rugby league once again. Yes I acknowledge that apart from the Rhinos, professional rugby league has gone wayside in this city. But it'd be awesome to see Leeds Parish Church rise from the ashes and compete with Leeds RL once again. If they could regularly beat Leeds in the attendances back in the day, then why not today?

The amount of top flight football clubs from London is evidence that having a load of clubs in a big city for a national league isn't all that bad. I’m talking about the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur. The average attendances of all five of these clubs dwarf the average attendances of the top five super league clubs by quite a lot.

Its not just football either - go and have a look at how many Sydney based teams there are in the NRL. I feel that this will be the same case for rugby league in Leeds. Once we improve the Heartlands, we can then go on to expand outwards properly. Until then, the likes of Harlequins and Crusaders will be little more than rugby league outposts. A film about Gareth Thomas won’t change this anytime soon.