The whole point is about game development, how can the game expand, the game will never grow when the men in the board room simply look after their own interests before the game as a whole. We talk about P and R, franchise in SL, salary cap etc, but the game will never move forward when the smaller teams with the lowest crowds have the same salary cap as the largest and most successful teams. It's only recently that some teams have started their own academy, they know that they have the same cap as the big teams, the sponsorship from Sky just about meets the salary cap, and half their squads are built around other teams academies. Some of the grounds aren't fit to hold cattle never mind play rugby.
Why should these clubs have the same amount of money to spend as the successful clubs. This is not the way to develop this great sport, hence we could get relegated with an injury list as long as your arm yet other teams have half of our ex academy players in their teams and they hadn't spent a penny on player development. They are described as leaches of the sport.
No othrer sport would allow such rules to exist, no other sport does, even cricket are moving forward. No wonder the sport is in dire needs.
Which sport would allow a city the size of Bradford with a great support base not to have a SL club, yet we have clubs in places where you would get higher crowds in the Scottish football third division, P and R needs to be stopped and replaced with a franchise, and if that means new teams, old teams coming together then so be it. Trible support has to be a thing of the past

Best post I've read in a long time

Agree with a lot of that Brodie.
Whilst I do feel we need mergers and like you say some clubs coming back into the fold such as Bradford.
Whilst die hards of clubs such as Wakefield, Fev and Cas would not want it I think it is the only way to go before RL dies on it`s feet.
How can teams survive when for instance a local West Yorkshire derby last night attracted less than 5,000 supporters?
If we had 12 or even 14 highly competitive teams in one league it would make the game more entertaining.
However the dilemma is if a combined team such as Wakefield, Cas and Fev played their games at Featherstone than supporters of the other two teams probably wouldn`t travel the 5 miles to watch them play.
Something needs to be done but I think the damage is too deep seated and crowds will continue to reduce and the final nail in the coffin will be Sky sport pulling out of any TV deal as demand falls.

Sad as it sounds but the Hearns might be our only hope mate.

Very possibly

Hate the obstruction rule with a passion. Hudds had a well worked try disallowed from it. Was an embarrassing decision

I would get rid of obstruction full stop, simply because officials can’t get the rule right. There is zero common sense between them interpreting the rule.

I also think they need to get rid of the penalty rule if ball hits the opposition player around the play the ball. The cheating going on from the dummy halfs is embarrassing level now. And even more embarrassing to officials for not seeing it. That one from Leeming last night was just diabolical. Actually throwing the ball downeards to make sure he hit the Cas player.

But using your logic, it will be an even bigger must win game for Huddersfield which sort of evens things out!

How can you get rid of obstruction full stop?

Exactly. Maybe instead of getting North American teams to play Rugby League, we should just play Canadian or American Football.

What difference does it make. They can’t get it right anyway. Removed the concept of dummy runners now. Would be easier to rule on if there was no such rule, and allow it to happen. It’s a joke as it stands, so what harm to it can it do?

No it’s not that’s just daft. If you removed the rule you could have blockers like in the NFL.

The concept of dummy runners have not been removed either. There’s dummy runners on virtually every play, they just have to stay onside and not get in the way of defenders.

I’d agree there’s no consistency on applying the rule but that’s not the fault of the rule or the principle of the rule it’s the fault of the officials.
However I think too many attacking plays rely on dummy runners being offside and getting in the way of defenders and hoping they get away with it. In the end obstruction is still very simple to avoid. Don’t run in front of the ball.

Gotcha have you taken to the bottle in the last 24 hours?