The RL system in this country is shot at IMO.
Clubs sign 2nd rate players from down under, appoint a national coach discarded by his own country, allow SL clubs to loan players to the championship so overseas players get their place and watch even championship teams sign overseas cast offs never will be .
Unlikely to change but all I see is the slow demise of the game.

I surrender. RL in this country is a joke IMO so walk away from direct involuntary. Sadly many others have done and will do.
Shameful

Do you want me to go fetch the noose?

Can't argue with any of that - I don't even consider it a proper sport anymore in terms of structure and administration - some teams, coaches and players do their best but they are swimminh against a tide of stupidity.

You only have o read the VT to realise what a deluded fantasy world some are living in. With talk of reducing existing SL teams in areas where the game is popular and then setting up new teams where no one cares and no one ever will. Anow virtually non existant Academy set up, and a long gone reserve grade - all cornerstones of the much vaunted Aussie set up. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.

I wish I could warm to RU because it's now the far superior sport in almost every sense but above all it's run by clever people not the normal collection of self serving owners of Double Glazing firms or whatever other shabby little second rate business made their money. These people have no idea how to run what should be a national sport by now.

I agree, the dream is probably over - the only chance of redemption is winning the Four nations though I wouldn't hold my breath - that said we'd squander it by being the first sport to go for a franchise on Mars.

That arrived years ago.

I can't believe i'm saying this to you but...spot on

Olympus Mons Mounties sounds good

Don't forget the referees being utterly useless as well

And I thought I was feeling depressed what with our relegation.

I watch the RU Premiership on TV and agree that the sport seems to be run better than RL.

You may be right, might not be. I'm an optimist and prefer to look at the positive.

Firstly the England coach, he is probably the best coach this sport has ever produced. He's brought success pretty much wherever he has gone. He's one of the very few foreigners I'm delighted to have coaching England and hope he can do for us what he did for NZ.

Clubs have signed foreign players for decades. As a winter sport we were able to sign some of the best players who would play back to back seasons though most of those only played 3/4 of the season when they went back. Since summer rugby the antipodeans had to make a choice and couldn't do both consiquently most choose to stay in Australia. We still pick up some pretty good players, admittedly some not so good too. Home grown players will always be complimented with foreigners, IMO the diversity is good for a team. I think we allow too many non fed players at the moment and would prefer to see it reduced to a maximum of 5 in the match day 17.

I'm not sure I'm watching 'the slow demise of the game' though changes in administration need to happen to allow the sport to progress as it should do. The biggest single factor IMO is we need to reintroduce the pathway from youth to first team. All professional clubs (or at least super league clubs) should be forced to run both an academy and reserve team. If this is detrimental to the first team in the short term so be it, it will bear fruit in the medium term.

Football is the number one sport in the country and nothing's going to change that. When we compare ourselves to the others such as RU & Cricket the biggest difference is our lack of a proper international structure. To do that we need expansion and clubs based in countries like France, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Chucking them straight into SL has been tried, and with the exception of Catalan, has failed. I think the RFL have got it right by introducing clubs like Toulouse Andy Lowe levels and allowing themselves to develop a foundation before building. We need to do this with 2 or 3 teams in the other countries.

In short, I'm cautiously optimistic for the future but recognise the need for change in the administration at senior level. One thing is for sure I will never walk away from the sport I love, if I had to I'd start following the local amateur team if that was all that's left.

League has had the rugby headlines in the country before and they will again. Its cyclical.

I remain optimistic that the sport is more interesting to watch than a large number of other ball sports, including the Aviva Premiership and FA Premier League. I truly do.

Where the sport has fallen down has been the finances needed for marketing and promoting the game since the Union lot won the world cup.

I got into the game relatively recently for a number of reasons that we should preserve and promote.

The fans passion is second to none in this game. I have been in football crowds of 60,000 who can't generate the noise of 1000 Widnes fans away at London.

I also love that my wife and kids and I can go and watch a game in relative safety and with less profanity as even a local football match.

We need the right people in place to promote this as reasons to go to a game. Once people go and watch the game in the flesh they love it and become fans for good. Its making that jump that will grow the game.

WELL SAID sir I do hope before I die we see Rugby League talked about us been one of the best sports around and I mean by all people in all walks of life

When was the last time an England international sold out nearly 2 weeks in advance?

In about February I tried to get tickets to any of the NFL games in London this season. Within a couple of mins the 3 games in 80k+ stadiums were sold out. (at a ticket price of about 4x that of a RL international, in stadiums 4 times the size of what we are trying to sell international RL).

That is for a sport not even native to this country, with no home teams playing.

Maybe I judge success in different ways, but why are we not seeing that level of interest? How many internationals do we have this season, is it 4 with the possibility of 5? So we can sell out 3 games of a foreign sport with no home teams playing, in 80k+ stadiums 7 months in advance at extortionate ticket prices, but we are struggling to sell 4 games with an England international team in significantly smaller stadiums.

I'm going with RL being the best viewing sport on the planet.
The hardest physical game, played by the worlds best all round athletes.

The fact that the games administrators have been mickey poor at selling the game is no reason to go over to the Dark Side.

Lets just remember that Union has the full and total backing of the media and on the back of the 6N, the International scene is very strong and everything else rides on the back of that.

Their game is as dull as dishwater to watch (in the northern hemisphere) and I would rather take up fishing that watch their Aviva Premiership stuff and for those of you advocating watching it, give your collective heads a shake.

Since day one RL has had to fight for all that it has and whilst we could plunder the Union ranks for players in the 80's (before Union came clean and admitted to paying players), now, we have to work harder to produce our own players.

I've said many, many times that our game needs a plan for the next 5,10,20 years instead of looking for quick fixes and gimmicks.

The game has to help other nations embrace the sport but, whether including clubs from other countries into SL is the right idea, I dont know.
Certainly, Canada is too far geographically to be a regular spot for the weekly rounds. although if Toronto can be the springboard for establishing some domestic competition over there, it would be worth while.

On the home front, there needs to be some help.
There is little doubt that the game can be bigger than it currently is and maybe it's time to re visit the Cumbrian region.
Although not densely populated, there is interest in the region and thought should be given on the best way to increase interest.

Also, should the French be working harder to increase the number of full time clubs with a view to having their own SL (or equivalent), which would provide
England with some proper competition.

There is no magic wand and everything takes time but, the game is just drifting along, massively undersold by the people in charge, which is probably the main reason that the game is in such poor shape.