Injured. Apparently he was supposed to be the ref of the Saints Wigan match but was replaced by Ben Thaler.

I went for the full weekend, and watched at least part of every game, missed the second half of Cas Wakey to go for a walk and we didn't get there in time for the first half of London Catalans.

I really enjoyed the whole weekend (apart from the last 10 minutes of our game), and think Manchester is probably the best location for it, especially if it's not going to be on a bank holiday.

With the Grand Final being at Old Trafford, if we keep the Magic Weekend at the Etihad then it gives RL and good base in a major city for two of our big 3 club events, which can be built on.

I had a great Sunday, barring breaking a toe, and splitting my jeans on the 'activities', no complaints there though, they are great.
The weather was amazing, and Sun, Beer and Rugby with your mates, what more can you ask for? To an extent, all the games excl. Saints were great, even the Catalans game was close up to the last 25 mins.

I think mixing it up would be a difference.
I think the attendance would drive much higher if they had 'equal' games. I'm not just harping on about this because I'm a Saints fan, in the opening 2 magic weekends, we were better than Wigan.

I'd be having.

London Vs. Widnes
Catalans Vs. Huddersfield
St. Helens Vs. Leeds
Wigan Vs. Warrington

Cas Vs. Wakefield
Salford Vs. Bradford
Hull Vs. Hull KR

Or 1-2 3-4 so on, but don't announce it until the week before, adds to the drama as every game will be interesting, from todays table every game is close and would certainly be entertaining, maybe Hull KR-Leeds less so, but both take a big following so good atmosphere at least.
They need to get the fans to the ground for me, the opening games were dead. Having a 'bigger' game on first would attract more fans, get them to stay around the ground longer

So what was started to be about spreading the RL gospel, is now about an extra game that the players and clubs could probably do without. Pretty much most of the country north of Middlesborough and south of Sheffield have always looked at RL as being that game played along the M62 and now Wembley for the CC Final is the only time the game will take an event outside it's traditional heartlands.....

If it's not about taking the game to new audiences, I'd bin it and revert back to a 26 game season + Play-offs.....the season could do with be truncated as well......February is half as warm as March on average....and it's getting colder!

34 weeks between the start of March and the End of October.....the Exiles game can be played mid-week a la SoO....see how important it becomes with players pulling out all over the shop... 26 weeks regular season, 4 weeks play-offs and an end of season tour down under/or they come north.......

Even with it being in the heartlands, it can still be spreading the gospel.

During Wigan Saints yesterday I was sat next to two young Mancunian lads who'd never been to rugby before but won tickets from school and went along. They loved it, and were talking about going to watch Salford home games.

How much coverage did the Magic Weekend get, I'd say without a doubt more than a normal round of Super League, all weekend rugby league with the focus of a Sky Sports channel, that can't be a bad thing.

To improve attendances I think there need to be big incentives for clubs to sell tickets themselves as well as the RFL. I know Hull pushed it pretty hard, but how many other clubs did everything they could to sell it out? (serious question, not having a go here!)

Great News about the 2 competition winners.....but in reality, Saldfords attendances are not the responsibility of the RFL and I doubt there'll be a massive increase on Friday night.

With the exception of the French v London, no other "supporter" on Sunday would have had a journey of more than 50 minutes (Leeds-Manchester).......yet 33k in a 48k stadium is what we got.
Leeds Bradford attracts 20k.........Wigan Saints the same....Hudds v Salford 7k,................yet 14k LESS roll up to a game on their front door

The point of Magic was to spread the word......what we got was a weekend crowd 6% up from Wales 2011, played less than 1 hr away from the home grounds of 10 of the 14 teams taking part...

The general aparthy of RL fans is sometimes quite staggering.......

So basically your problem with it being in Manchester is the potential it may have to increase salford attendances which would hamper your own attempt to gain a franchise?

For most RL fans Magic Weekend is just another away game. 2 points are at stake, nothing more. RL fans generally only watch games as a neutral at the CC final and GF. How many neutrals travel to watch a routine league fixture between Saford and Huddersfield? And the number of fans that have the appetite to watch several hours of continuous rugby is strictly limited.

The event appeals to those of us who enjoy the social aspect, but its not a great attraction for families, young teenagers and others on limited budgets.

When the concept was first introduced I was derided on here for suggesting that attendances in the ground for most matches would be nearer 20,000 than 70,000. But it always seemed more realistic to expect the event to attract mainly those fans that travel to away matches rather than those that only go to home games and cup finals. Some might call that apathy but for me its just a fact of life that sports fans, not just in RL, are averse to travelling even short distances to away games. Where I live is almost equidistant between Odsal and Headingley. There are several Bulls and Rhinos fans in our neighbourhood who are season ticket holders but some would never attend the away fixture. And to them MW is just another away fixture.

Magic Weekend has its place provided that people do not have unrealistic expectations of the event.

If you can read that into my post...good for you.
What I said was that it's no longer about expansion or spreading the word and was just another round of games that wouldn't be missed by the players or clubs if it was removed.....

We're doing plenty to hamper our franchise on our own without Salfords help thank you...

Why be concerned what other sports think of RL?

Given the amount of RL that is played and watched by people in Manchester, how can it be considered anything but a development area? Grass roots expansion and development as well as engagement and attendence at some of the pro/semi pro clubs you mentioned earlier should all be goals for RL to achieve in and around Manchester.

If the Magic weekend is at the Etihad next year then i would like to see the RFL offering Manchester City fans some sort of concessionary ticket for the weekend, a 2% take up would be an extra 1000 people (ish) in the ground possibly attending their first live RL event.

They're more likely to flog to someone they know that would be going anyway!

Not sure how true it is, but a mate who went on Saturday mentioned that a lot of his City-supporting work colleagues were offered discounted tickets.

What a brilliant weekend! Saw every game and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Etihad was amazing but as someone else said no RFL merchandising, fan zone was fun and seeing all the Rugby Stobart trucks in one place a bonus!

Hopefully it will be at the Etihad next year, easy to park, easy to find - LOVED IT!!

I know City season ticket holders could get tickets for £20.