I'm in a similar position, not watched a game of Super League now for over a year.

Was shocked to see that Chase was actually contracted to Widness when the drug test news broke. Definitely fallen out of love with RL

You're not alone Pumpy. I use to be an RL nut, constantly reading articles, stats crunching etc. Now i just can't be bothered. I watched the Leeds game on Thursday as there wasn't much else on (baring in mind, it was like a religion to watch Friday/Sat night SL for me) Leeds are second in the table, i dread to think what the Bulls, Leeds, Saints of the early noughties would have done to them. The sport is just a mess, from a bonkers structure to farcical junior development. Nigel Wood just seems to bury his head in the sand instead of confronting clubs when they decide to make scandalous decisions (Like getting rid of the U21s)

I only go on a Sunday for the social aspect, seeing a group of mates, have a few drinks then watch a game of RL. I hate the term "the sport is on life support", they will always be fans who go and watch it, but my god it's dire to watch at the moment. It's boring. Clubs are lazy in their marketing. In fact i think clubs have become lazy in all aspects. We've gone so far back since the mid 90s to early noughties.

Too many amateurs are running clubs. The people with the expertise are in other sports. Basic professionalism and attention to detail is absent.

It's ironic we're moving to a part time squad when the people running the club have been amateurs for 10 years now.

I genuinely think the game is in the last chance saloon, I noticed the other week Sky had more viewers for a Gaelic Football game than for a Super League game and the crowds at SL games aren't very telegenic with so few in the grounds, no wonder they're always at Cas!

A return to licensing and genuine minimum standards is desperately needed, doesn't have to be an exclusive club - if a team is ambitious and puts the minimum requirements in place consistently over the longer term it can be elected into the top tier a la NRL, NFL, NBA, NHL and a ton of other sports who cope without promotion and relegation and grow their sports perfectly well in a controlled manner, in conference systems which RL could emulate.

We must see a return to genuine pathways for young players including U21 and/or U23 teams, recruitment districts that respect geography, minimum funding levels and a cap that grows to retain and attract that young talent. Its all so self evident, surely the folks running the game and the clubs can grasp the self harm that's being done.

Those principals were all abandoned way too easily for gimmicks and the Super 8's - if the plank that instigated all of that turns up at Odsal as owner or part-owner god help us all....

Interest in the Bulls is at a seriously low ebb, and the new owners cant win at the fans forum either, even if they're positive we wont believe any of what they say until we see actual action. As fans I think we've finally reached our limit for hearing just hot air.

The game as a whole is struggling, and the sooner we return to a simpler format the better, but my worry is that its not the format at fault, just that not enough people like the on field product. Take a look at some of the attendances from the last two weeks;

Batley – Swinton =544
Bradford – Toulouse =2753
Dewsbury – Rochdale =629
Sheffield – Oldham =305
(Salford – Cas =2811)
(London – Fev =926)
Dewsbury – Toulouse =628
Oldham – Bradford =853
Rochdale – Batley =453
Swinton – Sheffield =434
(Halifax – Widnes =2291)

Wigan, Hull, Wire, Saints and Hull KR all managed decent crowds, but there are lots of clubs it seems where interest is really low, especially for these short notice scheduled games, even if the team is doing really well and pushing for success like fax and Salford. Our crowds could recover given some positivity and being seen to compete and looking to climb back up the league structure (frankly Im surprised ours was so high against Toulouse considering everything) but it will be a long slog. Attendance is a habit when its not about following a winning team (which we've not been for quite some years now) and we have lots of fans who are failing out of the habit or each person has slowly found their limit of suffering/taking a kicking from the game.

I'm not sure how some of these clubs survive on numbers like that, but there still a lot higher than some of the 150 type crowds some of our new friends in League 1 achieve. Depressing, but Im sure Nige and the RFL have it all in hand....

Only thing in his hand's a growler...

Speaking of amateurs, just seen an extract from Keighley's programme. Jeez no wonder the games on it's




There's an extract that says "Bulls are relegated, love the Cougars xx" I mean WTF! This is an official programme. Yes the low IQ twitter users love it, great banter man and all that. But imagine being head of a company thinking of investing and seeing that. You would walk away instantly as you would be thinking your sponsoring a fans banter page, not an official club.

It's not just Keighley. Rochdales twitter is clearly a fan behind it. Just unprofessional. Then you get ours with spelling mistake after spelling mistake. I mean the latest one wasn't even a typo. The headline was "Toovey APPLAUSES Bulls fans"

The stuff we use to see on banter pages, forums and just general ribbing between opposition fans, has now found it's way on to official programmes, twitter accounts etc. It's embarrassing.

saw 2 fans in bulls shirts at the shay :O

Typical Cougars small time chip on the shoulder type "bantz".

Usually the preserve of Fax fans ain't that right hooligan27?

If you've ever seen Keighley's "Head of Operations" on Twitter, it's not all that surprising. Professional certainly isn't the word.

Oh, RL isn't [ithat[/i bad really, just check the announcements from the president of the United States - can't even string a coherent sentence together, seems to get around half way through and then has to take break as his head is hurting.

Next RFL Chief Exec after Nigel?