The player pools are not exhausted though. The two largest conurbations in the North West have no SL presence neither in teams and very very little in terms of players (Kallum Watkins is from Gorton in Manchester - I don’t know of another Mancunian in the league. Are there any Scousers?)

Rugby Union is getting into schools all over Manchester and Liverpool. Rugby League is not! League is still relying on the local amateur clubs in the same old rugby league towns to provide players but the player pool from them is getting smaller by the year.

Why isn't rugby league getting into the schools in Manchester and Liverpool?

Quote: JEAN CAPDOUZE "Why isn't rugby league getting into the schools in Manchester and Liverpool?'" I don’t have an answer to that. Other than maybe - finances. Or maybe they are living so far in the past and not in the real world that they can’t see that those same amateur clubs in those same RL towns are not enough to keep the player pool going anymore. The RFU have spent millions and put this: www.englandrugby.com/about-the-r ... l-schools# into action and it’s got real legs. Wythenshawe (South Manchester, population 100000) have now got a RU amateur club off the back of it with all four local high schools providing players. Previous to this Wythenshawe had no RU links at all. RL has done nothing like this in high schools in South Manchester and a mate of mine works in a school in Liverpool and said RL aren’t in schools in his area neither. Manchester Rangers does have links to MMU but you’d imagine by that age they would already be RL players from RL areas. Plus they are a seventh division club (despite having money for five/six divisions higher if needed).

Quote: JEAN CAPDOUZE "Why isn't rugby league getting into the schools in Manchester and Liverpool?'" I don’t have an answer to that. Other than maybe - finances. Or maybe they are living so far in the past and not in the real world that they can’t see that those same amateur clubs in those same RL towns are not enough to keep the player pool going anymore. The RFU have spent millions and put this: www.englandrugby.com/about-the-r ... l-schools# into action and it’s got real legs. Wythenshawe (South Manchester, population 100000) have now got a RU amateur club off the back of it with all four local high schools providing players. Previous to this Wythenshawe had no RU links at all. RL has done nothing like this in high schools in South Manchester and a mate of mine works in a school in Liverpool and said RL aren’t in schools in his area neither. Manchester Rangers does have links to MMU but you’d imagine by that age they would already be RL players from RL areas. Plus they are a seventh division club (despite having money for five/six divisions higher if needed).

Poor old Canberra.....

I don't like AFL but there's no point belittling it. The only thing I find bizarre is how inaccurate they are generally with kicking over any distance, particularly from an uncontested mark.

Apart from the obvious troll nature of the OP did anyone really expect any of the teams to go to Aus at the height of summer and see them turn over 3 top NRL sides on their own turf. Seriously!

Over all I think all 3 clubs did OK without exactly excelling. Jean you're a very silly person.

And you would have heard that it was the Aussies first hit out whilst Hull & Wigan have had numerous pre season friendlies and 2 SL games. As I said, don't read anything into it. It was a way of trying different combinations of players. Its the same as the pre season derby Hull & Rovers have. Nothing to read into it but a chance to blow off cobwebs.

Summer is nearly over.
St George and Souths are not "Top" NRL sides according to where they finished last year.

Souths and St George games were friendlies with plenty of youngsters given a run.
The Storms tearing a new bunger for Leeds was a more telling game.

I was quite happy with the Hull game, we played a lot of young forwards who showed aggression and physicality - Jordan Lane, Turgut, Fash and Matongo. I thought we showed glimpses of attacking threat with Kelly, Connor and Shaul, so overall nothing lost by going over there really, and they will have a few days off and get ready to go against Cas on Saturday

In Manchester there is far more going on than just footy and there is still room for a SL team who could attract a decent crowd. Manchester Rangers were simply unfortunate in being stopped from being promoted as the title challengers were given the points instead after a frozen pitch stopped a game and they went up instead. But there’s still the backing there for at least the Championship long term and I think that’s where they’ll end up fairly soon. They already get crowds as big as clubs four and five divisions above.

But other than that RU is big in Manchester. Believe it or not Manchester was a rugby city up until the time City won the city’s first ever football trophy in 1904 (there’s a book by Gary James coming out about that soon). For decades before then Manchester RUFC was the city’s biggest sporting club. There are countless amateur RU clubs, could be upwards of twelve, dotted all around Manchester and Trafford. In six years there has been enough investment from the RFU to get teams at a number of junior age groups at Wythenshwe RUFC when there weren’t even any links to RU in Wythenshawe before then.

The city has more than enough people to count as a huge player pool but Mancunians RL and Manchester Rangers aren’t big enough names and probably don’t employ enough staff to reach across the conurbation yet. Outside a few postcodes in Salford you wouldn’t know Salford Red Devil’s existed across this conurbation (they may well be a city in their own right but they are part of the Manchester Metropolis and share a city centre with Manchester and Trafford). The RFL aren’t getting into schools like the RFU are neither. Swinton play in Sale now and do get into the Messenger and MEN newspapers but I’m not sure they get into the schools or amateur clubs in Manchester and Trafford.

I don’t know about how big RU is in Liverpool but I bet they have a similar situation has here.

The RFL are missing out big time on these two cities. It’s not that their efforts at Magic Weekends, Grand Finals and a Four Nations Final wasn’t attended by locals. Many of us went to Magic at the Etihad each year it was there and many of us attend the GF at Old Trafford every year. But it’s the grassroots where it is most important to entice and develop new players, not the highest echelons of the game (even though the citizens of both cities enjoy and attend those big games).