1 Week to go and the BBC

Quote: gutterfax "Rugby League get's coverage that reflects its relevance to advertisers.......a Half page advert opposite Dear Deidre in the sun used to be the most expensive piece of print real estate in Britain.........the Sun know their readers.....they know what their readers want and they deliver it. If their readers wanted RL they'd cover it more.........'"

I know what you mean, but actually they don't. They massively underestimated public opinion when they got involved in the Hillsborough tragedy, the phone tapping scandals, the Iraq War and we could all probably come up with dozens of others. The Sun is run by bigots and chancers who have no clue about their readership.

Everybody likes football despite the fact that it is boring, nothing happens for about 89 minutes in total. I have introduced Football fans to Wigan Warriors and they are amazed at the pace, the athleticism and the honesty of RL players. The product is excellent. It is a family sport that offers value for money. But there is loads of competition for the public to choose from. The public are ill served by the media, as evidenced above by 'Him'. In a way we shouldn't expect to be treated fairly.

On the whole Rugby League is a working class sport, played by and watched by in the main ordinary northern folk. You need to be both skillful and tough to play it though. Skill alone doesn't cut it. It doesn't really chime with today's 'want it now/easy money' society. The sport embodies all that is good about the North of England in a way (I'm generalizing again), and that's hard for the southern media to understand. (That's not to say that it can't be played by anyone at all, but I'm talking about perceptions here).

I do think you are harsh on Blake Solly. He's only just started in the job. It seems to me that in the RL community (for that's what we are) we turn inwards quite a lot and criticize the administrators with no understanding of their roles and the difficulties they have to overcome. Sally Bolton did an amazing job with the World Cup for example. Unfortunately she's moved on. But credit where it's due. The fact that we haven't been able to build on that success isn't really the fault of the RFL.

The big tragedy of last season was the demotion of the Broncos. And the demise of Crusaders hasn't helped expansion either. But Catalans remain a shining example of success, though in a geographical area with some RL history and culture to tap into. I hope that London are able to get back into Super League and maybe a good news story in the capital will get editors to pay some attention. All of the underpinning work in London and the south-east mustn't go to waste.