Quote rollin thunder="rollin thunder"there is a big difference. association football is the biggest sport in the country and the world, RL is not, they can afford to have a 20 team league with practically unlimited resources and still only have 4-5 clubs as serious contenders the rest are cannon fodder just happy to be there. we cannot do that in RL.'"
Do you realise just how contradictory and ridiculous your statement is ?
Every pro sport in the world, with the possible exception of American Football, has bigger clubs and "minnows" and some of the great sporting moments are made up of "David v Goliath", with the small guy/team prevailing.
Thankfully every club is different, which is just how it should be.
Whether we like it or not, in RL there are 4/5 "big clubs" and the rest, like it or not, make up the numbers.
In recent seasons, we have seen Caslteford, in spite of their "traditional" ground, break into the top 4 and in some style as well.
Should we jettison them from the top flight because of their facilities or, sit back and enjoy the "product" they are serving up on the field of play ?
We have a salary cap in RL to try and level the playing field, which, rather ironically, came about due to the massive overspending by Wigan (and one or two others) and without Maurice. Lindsay brokering the plan for summer rugby, with investment from Sky TV, the game could have disappeared as a pro sport and whilst "we" have tried to pretend RL is a mainstream sport, the reality is somewhat different.
The sport blighted by the play station generation (just as many other sports are at junior level), is struggling like hell to encourage youngsters to want to get off their backsides and participate and yet, rather than invest more heavily in the grassroots of the game, those at the helm believe that we are better placed, chasing rainbows in a non RL playing nation.
IF we were doing this from a position of strength, maybe, it would make sense but, what we are actually doing is spreading what little resource and energy we have ever more thinly
The domestic game is dying on it's backside and yet it seems that may "fans" of the sport would be happy to see Salford, Leigh, Widnes or Wakefield go to the wall, as long as we have Toronto, a club without any RL roots whatsoever, playing in SL.
If JK Rowling had scripted this, we would say she was bonkers.
If any business is failing, usually the first course of action is to consolidate your asserts, control spending and work out the best way forward.
Has anyone noticed this happening within our sport, not on your life
