they have p and r in every other sport i can think of and it works.its the 1 thing about rugby league i hate with a passion.thats what makes football more exciting. knowing that teams like swindon town or bury can get promoted to the premiership by what they do on the pitch. not how big there fan base is or any of other of the daft rules that have been brought up.

Given that attendances yet again are on the increase this year and the buzz has been pretty phenomenal this season I'm surprised you can even suggest that.

Franchises are hopefully here to stay. We need to be a sport that allows its premier teams to develop talent. There's a debate to be had about the number of teams in the competition (twelve appears to be the optimum amount) and a few other things but not on franchising as a concept. Tinker with how it works maybe but going back to P&R will just turn the tail end of Super League into football where teams invest in players, not to develop talent, but to avoid relegation with no care whatsoever about individual player development.

Wakefield, Salford and London dont seem to be showing the same progress despite languishing in the bottom half of the table year on year without the threat of relegation hanging over them.

That's because they still have the threat of relegation over them.

Hth.

Oh, were you thinking P&R was gone?

Given their location, London are doing better at producing players than most SL sides. Wakefield have emerged from near oblivion, and have a fair number of homegrown players elsewhere in the comp - some as a direct result of their financial issues. Perhaps Salford have focused more on stadium development - the only club apart from Sts that has actually delivered one - and can now start to look more at player development?

Personally I can't stand franchising, it just has too bia a whiff of artifice around it.

But linking Bradford's current plight to franchising is tenuous at best.