2018 Bradford Bulls

Quote: Nothus "It's a huge issue for the entire sport imo, and ultimately the blame lies with the governing body.
Go back a few years to the amazing world cup that was hosted in this country. The entire RL community was completely buzzing with enthusiasm because of how awesome that competition was. The sport was on a high in this country and the rfl should have been all over it like a rash - using that increased media coverage and international interest to promote the sport wherever possible.
Instead the competition came and went without them doing a damn thing. Instead of going through the roof, the number of kids playing RL actually went DOWN in the years following the world cup. To such an extent that RL actually lost some of it's sport england funding because our player participation numbers were so sh*t.

You couple this with the decision a few years ago to allow SL chairmen to vote on whether academy setups were mandatory or not. Like I said in another thread, these chairmen are selfish and to nobody's surprise, they voted with only the short term future in mind and chose to get rid of the reserves system and bring dual reg in instead. The rfl should never have let them vote on this. Since then, how many 19/20 year old kids have we lost from the game because there was no reserve structure for them to progress through?

To think that all this has gone on while Nigel sits there and earns more than the prime minister, it just blows my mind.'"

Very good post highlighting the main thing holding the game back! Selfishness! All everybody thinks about is how they benefit from something. No direct benefit to them no interest