I agree. Which is why I think we need a mid-season 5 Nations every year and we need to focus funding and support on Wales and France to try and get them to a position where they're able to give England a game.

I've said it before but I also think we need some rule changes in the game to avoid blowout score lines. You only need to be slightly better than your opponent in RL to run up 40-50 points, that doesn't happen in Union or football. The nature of those games keeps the scores closer. So I think we need other areas for teams to compete in other than the play the ball, such as scrums and maybe look again at the kickoff and some other areas as to where we can allow teams to compete and avoid one team easily establishing dominance in a game.

What like letting the other side get the ball back after one team score like in U8s

Didn't they used to do that?

Just hire the s from the Salford incident and get them to get drunk and kick off every week, we'll be on the main news permanently.

We don't have a big enough 13-a-side game to change the Magic Weekend to a 9s comp.

As it stands Magic Weekend is our third biggest weekend of the year so it must remain in the form it always has been. I know non-RL fans who have gone down to Magic Weekend each year when it was at the Etihad (they never bothered with it moving up to Newcastle last year) who never attend another RL game all season and who just watch the CC final and GF on tele. They really enjoyed what Magic Weekend was. They liked the rivalry in the stands too. With it being a meaningful table game it's really intense with the fans of the clubs too. Move that down to a 9s comp and fans interests will be far less intense.

In fact, i reckon that attendances would plummet if we made Magic a 9s comp.

More people live along the m62 corridor than nsw,Qland and NZ combined. Making it more popular in heartland would be at start! I do agree that until the game is on free to air to it is always going to struggle to build an audience either in heartland or further afield.

We definitely need to make it more popular in the heartland.

We need big Manchester and Newcastle teams in my opinion too. Keep swapping Magic Weekend between the two cities every other year. Etihad one year, Sid James' the year after... Sell it to the public of both cities; "can you beat last year's attendance figures from the other city" and say they can attend a game for free at Newcastle or Manchester Rangers/Salford RDs with their Magic Weekend ticket or something.

Dont know if its been mentioned on here, but our Nigel, signed a new contract at the RFL recently, think he's here another 3 years.

If the game won't scrap the Salary Cap, just scrap it in respect of any current or future club that is based "outside the heartlands", however you want to define that. Might, for example, the Bath RU owner establish an RL team to enter League 1 and aim to rise to Super League within two years if he could "guarantee" success by there being no salary cap imposed on him?

For heartland clubs, allow a 2nd marquee player allowance to be exempt from the Salary Cap to apply only to the signing of a current "6 Nations" international Union player. Not compulsory, just an option for clubs. See it as marketing spend.

I agree with the OP that getting games on Terrestrial TV is a must. International games have seen a big boost in exposure since they've been back on the BBC (even in early morning slots for the games in Aus/NZ) and surely there is an incentive for SKY in that improving the sports profile might tempt more people to subscribe to SKY Sports.

I also agree with another poster that focusing on Manchester and Newcastle for expansion is a good idea. Both have shown they are receptive to RL, and are big cities not small time towns that we generally have in SL currently.

Yep. And crucially both places already have an RL presence albeit only small. I'd love us to be Nigel Wood's waistline and expand on all fronts, but we haven't got the resources for that. Expansion cant just be a team plonked in an area. All the previous "expansion" teams have proved that doesn't work. The one where there was some existing groundwork and basis to start from, Catalans, proves that it can.

So we have to pick and choose. I'd take approx £300k from each SL clubs TV money giving us £3.6m a year to use on publicising/grassroots/whatever in these 2 areas. And I know it artificially benefits 2 clubs over others but I don't particularly care if it grows the game. If we could establish a foothold in both Newcastle & Manchester in, say, 15 years time, I think that'd be a huge step forward for the game. We'd then have a decent sporting presence in Leeds, Hull, Manchester and Newcastle.
That should give us some ammunition when negotiating with broadcasters and sponsors.

He's way past his sell by date, I get the impression he will never be challenged and will have one of those rare Jobs for Life. Has anybody any idea what Brian Barwick has brought to the table besides a handshake at the finals.