You could always get in touch with Supporters Direct (that's me!) For the past two years I've been working on trying to develop supporter representation within individual clubs but I'd love the chance to work across the game as a whole as there are a whole host of issues that mean supporters are getting the rough end of the stick. Our work in football has been heading this way for a while and I see no reason why we couldn't do the same in RL. At the very least we need to make sure supporters at levels of the game are being heard and if we can implement some changes along the way then all the better. You can check out our website at [urlhttp://www.supporters-direct.coop[/url or email me at Laura.Harrison@supporters-direct.coop Cheers

You could always get in touch with Supporters Direct (that's me!) For the past two years I've been working on trying to develop supporter representation within individual clubs but I'd love the chance to work across the game as a whole as there are a whole host of issues that mean supporters are getting the rough end of the stick. Our work in football has been heading this way for a while and I see no reason why we couldn't do the same in RL. At the very least we need to make sure supporters at levels of the game are being heard and if we can implement some changes along the way then all the better. You can check out our website at [urlhttp://www.supporters-direct.coop[/url or email me at Laura.Harrison@supporters-direct.coop Cheers

I was in contact with Cliff Spracklen, the RLSA chair about a year ago, with similar thoughts of a revival and also about the campaign to get SLS broadcast nationwide at a reasonable time. Nice bloke, he issued a press release in support. Hopefully he won't mind if I mention a couple of the things he said.

He explained that the RLSA members were TGG magazine subscribers. The magazine was an "influencing document" that was read by many key people in the game. He said it became more difficult to get people to take up roles in the RLSA over time, especially editors for TGG. He said new ideas and volunteers would be especially welcome. So he would probably be pleased to hear from some forum upstarts, Damo! He mentioned the possibility of relaunching the RLSA as a Supporters Trust or IPS. I was interested in doing something and offered some ideas but unfortunately didn't hear back from him (hopefully because he was busy and not because of my ideas!).

It seems to me that Cliff Spracklen and others have become disheartened at running the RLSA and the TGG. After all it set its self standards that have since become unattainable for reasons that I can only guess on.

However there are people like us (and probably many others) that would chase for those standards again. Who’d be prepared to do the rebuilding that clearly isn’t taking place right now. If they are genuinely looking for new ideas to put into practise then they need to make it clear. It’s no good the likes of you and I sending a message every few years expressing our ideas and interest – only for them to become fruitless.

We are supporters too and we want a healthy RLSA. Well at least something that is better than the state that it is in now – which is anything. Hopefully we’ll hear a clear statement of Cliff’s intentions soon if he ever happens to come across this thread.

Quote SD1="SD1"You could always get in touch with Supporters Direct (that's me!) For the past two years I've been working on trying to develop supporter representation within individual clubs but I'd love the chance to work across the game as a whole as there are a whole host of issues that mean supporters are getting the rough end of the stick. Our work in football has been heading this way for a while and I see no reason why we couldn't do the same in RL. At the very least we need to make sure supporters at levels of the game are being heard and if we can implement some changes along the way then all the better. You can check out our website at [urlhttp://www.supporters-direct.coop[/url or email me at Laura.Harrison@supporters-direct.coop Cheers'" A SD and a RLSA partnership would probably go down a treat. Would Supporters Direct take on the responserbility of restoring the RLSA and TGG to its former glory?

Quote SD1="SD1"You could always get in touch with Supporters Direct (that's me!) For the past two years I've been working on trying to develop supporter representation within individual clubs but I'd love the chance to work across the game as a whole as there are a whole host of issues that mean supporters are getting the rough end of the stick. Our work in football has been heading this way for a while and I see no reason why we couldn't do the same in RL. At the very least we need to make sure supporters at levels of the game are being heard and if we can implement some changes along the way then all the better. You can check out our website at [urlhttp://www.supporters-direct.coop[/url or email me at Laura.Harrison@supporters-direct.coop Cheers'" A SD and a RLSA partnership would probably go down a treat. Would Supporters Direct take on the responserbility of restoring the RLSA and TGG to its former glory?

I don't think people became "disheartened" they just didn't have the time any more to run it like it used to be run and there where no new people coming in to keep it running like it was.

I'd certainly be prepared to take on some of the responsibility for it and I did a few months back have meetings with Cliff (who I'm in regular contact re Bramley anyway) and Geoff Lee but unfortunately the ideas never came to fruition.

My idea was to continue with TGG but to make it more of an online magazine which would save on the huge costs of printing and postage every edition. This is a great publication which could be used to air and galvanise support for the issues in our game with campaigns (where necessary) developing off the back of this but as with anything, it needs people willing to put in the time and effort to make it happen. Cliff is exceptionally busy and I know he doesn't have as much time as he'd probably like for this but with a joint effort by a number of supporters plus Supporters Direct, I can definitely see it becoming a much bigger and more prominent organisation.

I was one of the founding members hence my node name when 12 fans met in a pub at Criddling Stubbs ,,,,,,we were all involved with the fanzine scene then. We then set up via our fanzines the first meeting of people at a pub in Leeds prior to a Great Britain v France test match to test the waters so to speak .....with that meeting being a success we went on to form the RLSA at the George in Huddersfield before the next season started.

From there we set up a branch in East Yorkshire that held monthly meeting which always had a guest speaker from one of the Hull clubs present. This branch was the only active branch for all the time I was in it. I stopped being a member when the branch as a collective resigned from the organisation when the national group backed the super league cause and the merger of teams.

Organisations like the RLSA are a thing of the past. Like it or not there is a [ivery small[/i percentage of the RL fans base who care about the sport in a way that extends beyond the fortunes of their own clubs.

There are plenty of people who would like to see it revived - I daresay that people would [ilove[/i to have an organised, representative fans body who can call on organisations (broadcasters, printed media), with numbers behind them, to give the sport more coverage and/or respect.

The problem is, as soon as you present people with a membership fee (even if it's a small one), they suddenly shy away from it. They think "oh I won't sign up for it, it's a great idea though so I'm sure plenty will join, it won't matter if I don't".

If the RLSA is ever to get going again, I think it would have to be in a different format. It would have to move out of the realm of members travelling to a single location to have an AGM. It would need to be a more vibrant, active, entity that embraces the nature of immediate communications that are available today.

Maybe the supporters direct initiatives that are currently being cranked in to gear could breathe new life in to the idea of a body that represents the views of, and fights for the rights of, the fans. I'd like to hope so. But it would need the contributions to and membership subscriptions of the RL fan base in order for it to succeed, and in all honesty, I just don't know if people are willing to do that

Oh no there isn't , I've seen polls on this very board where the vast majority of fans say they put the ' game ' before their club



These ' views of ' , ' rights of ' the fans , what exactly would they be ?

The key aim for the RLSA, from it's own information, was to campaign on behalf of the fans to the clubs/RFL/whoever else to get better facilities available to the fans. Terraces that don't crumble. Clean/working toilet facilities. Edible food from the food outlets. You know, the kind of stuff that actually didn't used to exist at grounds until actually very recently.

If a body such as the RLSA is to exist, then it needs to have something to do. If you just want it to be a big love-in, where RL Fans can come and chat to each other, maybe have a competition or two to win grand final tickets, maybe operate a fantasy league competition where you can set up private leagues with your friends ... well ... erm, you already have all that on rlfans

Indeed, and it might be an idea to reflect that by removing the RLSA reference from the name of this forum.



That's also correct to a large degree, though I'd amend that statement as follows:

"Like it or not there is a [ivery small[/i percentage of the RL fans base who care about the sport in a way that extends beyond [uSuper League[/u and the fortunes of their own clubs within it".