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.

The problem is Damo that things have moved on considerably from the days of Leeds Parish Church etc.

Whilst it would be good to live in those days again and have somewhere like Leeds supporting five professional teams, those days are never going to come back.

To reverse the arguement somewhat, how many kids these days support soccer teams where they have no association where the team comes from what so ever. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United. My office is 40 miles away from where I live, in the days of Leeds Parish Church, the seaside is something you saw a couple of times in a lifetime if you were lucky. London might as well have been on the Moon and abroad was somewhere you went either to fight wars with it or to drop bombs on it. It is not so very long ago that many fans WALKED to away games at places like Dewsbury, Batley and Wakefield.

I just used Leeds Parish Church as one example. It’s a team that probably won’t come back, so I won’t fight they corner in this debate.

However two other cities in Sydney and London (considerably larger than Leeds I acknowledge) seem to manage to support many professional teams in their respective top sporting leagues whenever it’s the NRL or Premier League.

It’d be hard work to bring the good old days back to Leeds, but it’s certainly more achievable than what the RFL is doing now with the likes of Crusaders and Harlequins.



I agree that many kids of today support soccer teams where they have no association where the team comes from what so ever. To make this rugby league relevant, there are a lot of people who support Leeds Rhinos despite not coming from Leeds. These Leeds Rhinos fans throughout England are far and plenty between. We even have some Leeds Rhinos fans on this board from other parts of this country and you should ask how many rugby league fans are they in their area - If it’s away from the ‘heartlands’ that is.

The same is with football clubs. They’ll be plenty of Leeds United fans scattered throughout the country. But the reality is that there’s less popular clubs than Leeds United in the Premier league. Wigan Athletic is an example.

The point I’m getting across is that if having so many top flight clubs based in one cit has worked for the NRL and Premier League, then who’s to say that it won’t work for super league?

Hand on Heart, If Rugby League had the right financial management throughout Leeds; I think that we’d be more than capable of holding a number of top flight clubs in this city for super league. Just look at how money (managed the right way) improved the professional game in Hull.

It’ll never happen though.

Damo soccer in London and RL in Sydney work because of three reasons - firstly it is the no 1 sport in each city - Melbourne supports more rules sides and gets far bigger attendances than RL does in Sydney.

Secondly the geographical spread is significantly larger than would be possible in Leeds the distance between Manly in the North and Cronulla in the south is approximately 45 miles so mid Leeds to other side of Manchester

Thirdly the available footfall - Sydney has a population of 4.5m+, London close to double that - Leeds has a population of <10% of London?

Get Chris Morris to direct it - then the players could wear some very interesting padding to boot!!!

I wouldn't want any players from Wakey really, however I wouldn't mind seeing us loan out a few of our U20s to them to gain some first team experience.

I thought Manchester was part of Leeds now. According to the Leeds CEO, Kallum Watkins is local and he's from there so I guess it must be.