I don,t think you could be any further from the truth, these players at "that club" do lots of charity, community and school function to promote rugby league.
They train in a professional manner and when that professional entity is taken away with a RFL gimmick, I think they have a right to have an opinion.

"That club" has given high entertainment value for the past 13 years and put their bodies on the line week in week out."That club" has always has always had emphasie on quality thant quantity. Until we address the issue we can forget any international status.

I'm sure the club does a hell of a lot of valuable work in the community, and the players do within that, and there's no doubt they've set standards for the sport to follow on the field. But to say that being asked to play a game in a non-standard location ONCE A YEAR somehow takes away from all of their work to build professional standards is surely just nonsense? They're not being asked to go out on the road all the time like the Harlem-bloomin-globetrotters, just gracefully make a few compromises ONCE A YEAR in order to help develop our game beyond its current boundaries.

I'm sorry, but the amount of bleating about this "problem" is totally disproportionate to any genuine impact on them as individuals and a club. Add into all this the fact that our sport generally struggles for publicity at the best of times, so all stakeholders should be professional enough to choose when, where and how to air any grievances in the wider interests of our game, and you get close to seeing why things like this really wind me and many others up.

...but there's no getting away from the fact that being able to use the Worlds Best Hooker [TM] might have given Great Britain more of a chance of beating the Aussies over the last decade, is there.

I think the St Helens players are a better judge of the non standard locations and the demand of professional organisation after all they play in 3 non-standard locations (MM,CC,GC) every season for nearly 3 years.
The players opinion therefore of the MM is likely to be an accurate one as regards the standard of organisation required for such an event.

Also John Wilkin won the cooperative award last season for his work in developing and promoting the game nationally and locally, so when he expresses an opinion, you don,t have to agree with it but I should imagine he knows what he is talking about.

What annoys me most is most,clubs are run in a very proffesional manner but the RFL is still run at amateur level, they are completley devoid of any projective plan to make the game internationally sound. But prefer to tweak the domestic game in a gimmicky way. We have the top 8 for instance why don,t the RFL just make it a top 14, so that the bottom club who may have lost more than 20 games more than the leaders get the chance to be superleague champions.

Given the comments he made demonstrated that he clearly had no idea what he was talking about, in terms of the ability to access and play League in Scotland, I beg to differ.

I still cannot see how having to travel to Edinburgh to play a game of rugby is such a hardship, or affront to their professionalim as elite athletes. I imagine having to travel to Rome to play a game of football this week may well result in Man United's training schedule being different to their average Monday and Tuesday at Carrington, but I'm not entirely sure you'd hear their players bleating about this insult to their professional preparation standards. FFS, that lot need to get a sense of perspective. If you don't want to have to flex your standard pre-game routine, then play in the amateur leagues and stay in the same area all the time.

Anyone would think they'd lost...

I happen to agree with James Graham , though possibly for different reasons .

The integrity of a league system is based on playing each team home and away , if the result of this extra fixture alters the final standings in any way , then that integrity has been destroyed .

As for expanding the game outside the M62 corridor ..... why ?

The game has done perfectly fine for over a century , without being played all over the UK . If others want to come on board , let it be a natural progression , rather than a contrived result from the Magic Weekends .

Has anyone considered the possibility that after 114 years , the reason the game is still confined to a small area of the country is because only we are intelligent enough to "get" it .

I'm not sure what you mean by the integrity of the league. Certainly it would be wrong to claim that the team who was top of the league at the end of the regular season had won something. Fortunately we don't do that and the competition is won at Old Trafford.



Some people might have briefly considered that. However there's plenty of evidence (on here for a start) that not particularly intelligent people "get" it as well as intelligent people.

Choosing to wait until after you've lost an important game to complain about something that both Sky and the BBC have done for years without anyone raising a whisper makes him look a small minded idiot.

I've had to accept that the winners of the League are not crowned Champions .

However the integrity of the league means that it should be a fair competition to qualify for the play-offs .

Imagine that Huddersfield pip Castleford for the last play-off spot by a mere 1 point . Given the current standings that is a possible scenario . How fair would it be , that Castleford had to play an extra fixture against Hull , whereas Huddersfield played their extra fixture against Celtic Crusaders ?

If everyone has played each other home and away , at least it's a level playing field .

Very fair, seeing as they're the rules of the competition and the extra games were decided by a random draw.

this is a spoof post, right?

The integrity corrupted because there isn't a home & away league? There hasnt been one of those for ages.

Expansion away from the M62? Because it's vital and the game will wither without it.

The game hasnt done fine for over a century, and probably hasn't 'done fine' since the 50's and 60's. It was withering away since the 70's, unable to grow, nor attract player numbers or sponsorship or media attention or spectators to speak of. The game was dying and summer rugby, SL, initiatives like MM etc werent even in existence when the game was dying. Without expansion, whichever way you choose to measure it, the game would be on its knees by now.

Thanks to initiatives like these (though not really MM itself) people do want to come on board and there is now a pathway for clubs to do that, which there never was even when the game was 'doing fine'. There never was natural progression, but there is now. Anyway, it's only during threads like these on message boards like these, where people use expansion and MM in the same breath. MM isn't an expansion tool; it never was and never will be. It may have some positive effects in that regards, equally it may not but it doesn't matter because that isn't what it's about. Mind you, if people are exposed to the game and like it - purely as a result of attending MM - how can that be contrived? I'd call it good planning or marketing, or good fortune, maybe even lucky, but it isn't contrived.

too intelligent - what? the average RL supporter? The supporter who only knows 6 laws and couldn't be stuffed about any other club but his own, the very supporter who couldnt get off his ar$e and travel 20 miles to watch their country play an international? The supporter who cant see past his own self-interested nose? intelligent? Dont make me laugh. You were doing well with your post until you let that absolute pearler through!!

good trolling though!

Personally I don,t like the Magic weekend in a way its the RFL clutching at straws and seeing what comes of it.

What I cant understand is the projective planning of it allGlasgow.. I know quite a few naval dock workers in Scotland and only 1 in 8 of them knew there was a magic weekend taking part.

Can,t wait for 2012 as it will probably be in Dublin.

I can understand that supporters who don,t get the chance to see there team in a final, will see the magic weekend as there final in substitute. But I really get annoyed when the RFL come up with these half baked ideas and its Joe Public who have to come up with the funds.

but we all know the reason for that and it's sod-all to do with having a Welsh team in SL. It would have been moved had there not been a Welsh team in SL - it has nothing to do with it. MM isn't about expanding the game in virgin territory, nor is it about attempting to start a franchise in Edinburgh.

In terms of marketing MM in Glasgow where there is RL presence already - why not? We'd be moaning at the RFL if they didn't! It seems to make sense to me - you fish where the fish are. It seems obvious you're going to be pushing on an open door advertising to people who already know about the game and have an interest in it. It seems to me you'd be more likely to get them in the door, rather than try and educate and convert a complete novice, then try and get him in the fonr door. Your comment about only 1 in 8 is a different thing altogether thuugh, isn't it? How much money would the RFL need to spend on advertising and marketing to achieve this 8 out of 8 penetration? I dont know myself but I am pretty confident in saying that the RFL couldnt afford it. To get more bang for your buck, you spend your money on that which will gve you the best payback.

btw - why will it probaby be in Dublin? what have you heard?

I think the avenues of advertising and marketing is the "achilles heel" of the RFL.

Sport is now Global with international company sponsors we are not going to get anywhere by advertising through Sky and the rugby league weeklies.

The RFL need to find money somewhere and fire up a professional advertising model to go on the terrestrials.

Even in the national players we are looking 5 pages in from the back.

Rugby League is a fantastic game compared to other sports but its promotion is probably at its lowest level. I,ve forgot what the magic weekend was about already.