Quote: OFFTHECUFF "What are the average attendances for the top Championship clubs?They will need better crowds and the Gulf is big.Look at Featherstone after games against Superleague teams, as took it out of them as got smashed in the Championship in the next game.Games are intense every week in Superleague.'"
NOt for the bottom teams they aren't. As Tomkins said last week, they play competitively for 20 minutes or so but if they go a couple of tried behind to one of the top teams they turn it in, because they know there's no danger of relegation so why pull your tripes out? The bottom of Super League is a joke comp. The lack of intensity week by week is why our top players are unable to beat Australia. We need some way to motivate the bottom teams and nothing motivates a team like fear. That is what all sport is about. Hopes and fears. It's also why crowds turn out. When Wigan's results became predictable in the late eighties, early nineties, despite their success their crowds actually diminished.
The classic example of what promotion and relegation can do in terms of international sport is English cricket. Under the old County Championship when by July most players were just going through the motions we were the world's easybeats. Now after the introduction of P&R we are challengers for the no 1 Test team spot.
