Think it's naive to expect other clubs to do anything for us if it doesn't also help them.

The time when SL clubs voted to share our TV money between themselves exploded any illusions I was under. The "RL family" is a myth.

It's every club for itself. I dislike it but there's no sense in pretending otherwise.

I don't understand why Cas want Larroyer back if they are not playing him. Ditto Murray just to loan him out to one of our rivals. I echo the OP, lots of clubs made a lot of noise about helping us but to be honest, without the Leeds contingent, we would be even more royally f**ked than we are already.

I'm pretty sure Murray was used by Salford yesterday. Foster is currently getting game time for Cas which suggests they are only one injury away from needing Larroyer.
The key thing to remember here is that loans carry a minimum length of one month with no recall. So clubs can't take the risk just in case something happens in the near future.
Dual reg is different in that they can send them out and call them back on a week by week basis, so essentially there is no risk.

When Murray plays for Halifax he is there on dual reg, not a loan.

Hull offered loan players but the Bulls never went back to them.

He was in the 19 man squad, but not the 17

What?

When we've been struggling so much why would we [inot[/i take up such an offer?

If you read Leeds' twitter during the game, it gets more confusing. They tweeted that there was a late change to the Salford team, and Murray had replaced Lannon on the bench. Only to later tweet that the stadium announcer had suggested that change had been reversed and Lannon actually was on the bench after all.

So he was either 18th man or played off the bench. Which one, you'd probably have to ask someone who was there to clarify.

Either way he's clearly in and around the Salford squad at the moment, which explains why he might appear for Halifax on DR, but not be with us on (at least a month's) loan.

You got nothing from London in return for the Bulls voting against us when we are in a mess and on the edge other than 3 poor players to add to what you had already taken from us. Enjoy Div 1.

You make my point for me.

Theres always the chance of another "big" club emerging though. I mean in the early nineties who would have thought Bradford would finish that era like they did? I can't see how you can make a decision good or bad regards any team on what their attendances either are now or have been in the past.

Disagree GFB. Who was the last "big" club to emerge since Bradford?

There hasn't been one.

SL titles have only been won by 4 clubs since 1996. You have to go back nearly 30 years to find the league won by anyone else.

You could even argue that Bradford were already a big club since they'd been league champions in 1981.

I really don't see how a small minority sport like RL can afford to allow areas where it was successful to wither on the vine.

By all means spread the game to new areas but this shouldn't be to the detriment of those areas where it is already established. Clubs like ours must stick together or we'll all fall by the wayside in the end.

Trouble is that fans and club owners often can't see beyond their own self interest and parochialism. Rivalry trumps sober judgement. I'm sure our demise has delighted a lot of Fax fans but that delight will be short lived. Unless fans and clubs see the bigger picture we'll see more clubs go to the wall and the game become more irrelevant to the wider sporting world.

Let's be realistic, we have no divine right to assistance and any help was much appreciated and better than none. It may not have been as much as was offered publicly but it still did its bit. What needs to be asked is where the offers of assistance for teams like Swinton. We aren't in any situation to assist but others clearly are and yet no one is offering publicly that I'm aware of. Conspiracy nuts may say the RFL don't want members to help them out

I feel for Swinton supporters. They're told they have a limited amount of time to raise some money or the club will go into administration.

That sounds familiar. I'd happily contribute to the cause if it was genuine and wasn't just a ruse to ensure directors could avoid any legal repercussions for overspending.

I'm sure the RFL are helping out. Perhaps they could give an advance of central distribution so they can clear debts and then begin with a side that cost less?

But that is the thing, how far do you want to go back? I remember Fax playing in front of 7-9k on a regular basis but go further back we had a crowd of 29k for a home cup match. At some point we were cast aside after living beyond our means, I cant remember anyone helping us or saying we were too important to lose when we were relegated and went bust in the early nineties despite getting crowds that a lot current SL clubs can only dream of. For me that is fine and clubs should be helped to stay afloat when in a bad position but they should not be helped in the way that some Bradford fans think simply because they attract large crowds. For me its just a circle of life type thing as Bradford edge towards their lowest point in a while some other team will emerge, when that team goes pop after living beyond their means should they be saved because of their overinflated attendances caused by spending too much money?