I don't think the BBC go out of their way to deliberately show us in a poor light, but neither do they go out of the way to make the best of the coverage.

FWIW, back over on Sky, I think that whilst TV money should be distributed evenly, the actual games covered should be for Sky to pick based entirely on which they think will make good TV. If your team is no good, then improve and get on the telly by becoming a team the armchair viewers want to watch. It's true that rifht now, this will bias coverage towards the Leeds and Wigans, etc, but if that happens to be where the best players are at a particular time, then those are the players we need on the TV screens to build profile for RL. The problem is, that with our lack of press coverage too, there's not enough regular on screen exposure of the top talent to build up the story narratives, and rivalries, good, bad and ugly that keep the media interested.

A smaller super league with promotion and relegation for me, but failing that, more focus on the top as far as TV goes. As I say, spread the money evenly though to make sure clubs not getting much TV today get a chance.

Bit of a contradiction don't you think?

Seemed like a no contest, it was on TV and the point re: season tickets is a fair argument.

Remind me, how many seasons of SL have their been now?


As earlier, haters gonna hate.

no the RFL are not to blame at all. People love to blame them for everything!!

so,is that the best way to show support to your team then ?

Saints were there for taking and maybe a couple of thousand home voices shouting for their team may have made the difference ?

why are RL fans the most fickle of any other sport ?

Those extra couple of thousand of voices stayed away because the effort and commitment showed yesterday cannot be guaranteed with this coaching/team set up.

If the team can't always show commitment, why should the fans - that is the message that is trying to be sent.

Whereas the message that was actually sent was that rugby league is not worth turning up for.

.......and it has to be said that Widnes have been living on their old 'cup kings' history for years. It's clearly not all that it's cracked up to be as today's fans don't seem to be interested in building on that history.

That's as may be but the fans felt the need to make a statement.

It is unacceptable for teams/clubs to expect fans to make the effort to part with their hard earned and turn up if the players are going to turn up (or not as the case may be), not put the effort in and still get their pay.

One player has been sacked and if the rumours are to be believed two more a hanging on by the skin of their teeth. That sort of effort and commitment is not what the club or fans require. The display that the team unexpectedly put up yesterday is.

There's probably elements of truth in this.

When the shambles of the Superleague era occurred and we were in, then out then in then out, we were one of the few clubs who tried to get our finances in order due to the expectation of receiving Sky money. When we were finally told we were not in SL we were in a lower division with no money to spend on players and the club suffered. Many walked to take in the green pastures that are on show in the Premierleague & we went into decline.

We're now back in SL after some real hard work and commitment from Steve O'Connor but wth some of the shellackings we're taking on the field or indeed the manner of them is making it hard for fans to a) return or b)start supporting.

I witnessed the humiliation at Perpignan and you can't blame the Widnes committment even with such a bad loss - they never gave up, they simply wren't good enough against a powerful Catalans side on the day

Maybe DB isn't the man for the job but boycotting the players is showing disrespect to them - maybe they need to motivation of another coach - SOC isn't stupid and will get it sorted,in the meantime, do the decent thing and support your boys

every fan of every club has been there - just get on with it...

They don't go out of their way, and the sentence can stop there.

The BBC didn't show the game at all, up here in Scotland. There wasn't even an advert for the competition. Instead, we got five hours of the Melrose Sevens. Featuring the giants of Stirling County, amongst others.