No chance Mate......I watched the Celtic v Whitehaven game on channel 4 Wales and the Haven fans travelled down in decent and vocal numbers and from the sounds & images on the TV they looked to be thouroughly enjoying themselves...and enjoying a good Game of rugby League to boot.....

We cant encourage that kind of positive behaviour now can we...??

Its not completely different at all, it just doesn't suit your argument.

Melbourne Storm being added to the NRL taking into account the games' popularity in Australia [iand[/i adding Celtic Crusaders to the SL isn't different?

Ok if you say so. Then let's hear your argument..

Leigh have gone abit nuts about it all on Sportinglife. It would be interesting to see the applications side by side and understand where the RFL believe that Celtic's application is of higher standard.

I would have admitted Widnes and Leigh personally with their new stadia built / nearly built. Advisory notices would have been sent to Salford and Celtic on what they need to do in order to achieve status in 2011.

Super League via SKY broadcasts has a biger profile currently in South Wales than the NRL had in Melbourne prior to their acceptance into teh competition. Not only that Celtic Crusaders already have some NL1 games broadcast on Welsh free to view TV.

Also as "rugby", as a concept, is embedded into the psyche of the local population. It is not as difficlut A job to sell the "summer version" of the game to an audience that already exists without having to educate them to the game.

You obviously know Melbourne well and therefore prior to the Storm what percentage of the population living there would you say had an interest in the game?

I believe Celtic have a decent chance of making a go of it. The one thing they won't receive to help them is the size of hand-outs that Melbourne have and continue to rely upon to exist.

I guess it comes down to those people who are willing to take in risk because they want the game to expand and be successful on a national level and those that are willing to accept mediocrity. If you rewind three years it will people the same people who forecasted the imminent disaster that Catalans were to be.

Feedback on Warrington from RFL Source: www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... __stadium/ THE RFL have paid tribute to Warrington Wolves' 'excellent' Halliwell Jones Stadium after confirming their place in Super League for the next three years. With promotion and relegation now banished, the current 12 Super League clubs will be joined by Salford City Reds and Welsh side Celtic Crusaders until 2011. That means Wolves' rivals Widnes will remain in the National League. Explaining the expected decision to hand Wolves a licence, the RFL said: "The club plays in a quality new stadium, which in all but one or two aspects is excellent. "Further ground improvements are planned and although financial projections are challenging, the club has a good record in this area. "The club has strong sponsorship packages and a good commercial plan. "The club has performed reasonably well in Super League and has invested well in its playing infrastructure and now needs to start contesting major finals and semi finals. "At this stage it is not yet developing club trained internationals."

Feedback on Warrington from RFL Source: www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/spo ... __stadium/ THE RFL have paid tribute to Warrington Wolves' 'excellent' Halliwell Jones Stadium after confirming their place in Super League for the next three years. With promotion and relegation now banished, the current 12 Super League clubs will be joined by Salford City Reds and Welsh side Celtic Crusaders until 2011. That means Wolves' rivals Widnes will remain in the National League. Explaining the expected decision to hand Wolves a licence, the RFL said: "The club plays in a quality new stadium, which in all but one or two aspects is excellent. "Further ground improvements are planned and although financial projections are challenging, the club has a good record in this area. "The club has strong sponsorship packages and a good commercial plan. "The club has performed reasonably well in Super League and has invested well in its playing infrastructure and now needs to start contesting major finals and semi finals. "At this stage it is not yet developing club trained internationals."

Cheeky barstewards.

A lot more than I initially thought to be fair. Their first home game, which I remember fondly managed to bring Olympic Park to it's capacity (over 20,000). And thats no easy feat given that Victoria as a state tends to side with Australian Rules Football.

Catalans do deserve all the praise in the world I agree. But I do feel that their initial potential was far greater than Celtic Crusaders. Don't get me wrong, I can understand [iwhy[/i the RFL are trying to expand. But they're missing the simple concept that RL will struggle to stamp it's mark as a leading sport over here, regardless of who they choose to invite into the competition. Take Millenium Magic for example. I loved Cardiff to be honest. I'm sure you probably went yourself, if not this year, then last year? The average crowd over the 2 days was about 60,000 but I doubt that a great deal of those were Welsh Rugby League fans.

In 3 years, if Celtic are pulling in over lets say 7 - 8,000 and contributing sufficiently to the competition, feel free to dig this one up Paul and I'll be the first to hold my hands up

Well surely London / Harlequins / Fulham or whatever they wish to be called should be in the same bracket. Didn't the RFL bail them out of financial trouble to the tune of about £3 million not too long ago?
Something the RFL haven't done with the likes of Widnes, Oldham and Halifax, still it's all in the name of expansion

Widnes should be in. They have the stadium, support and the potential to make an impact in SL. Now with the inclusion of the Welsh we are going to have 3 games (Catalans, Quins, Celtic) at the HJ with absolutely no or little revenue, or atmosphere for that matter, generated from the away supporters. As far as I'm concerned the idea expansion should be scrapped. We've had 1 real success story, Catalans, the rest including London, PSG etc haven't worked. Harlequins had just over 2,000 there on Sunday which isn't good enough. We've been trying expansion for many years and not got anywhere with it. We even tried a side in Bridgend in the 1980's where Celtic are based and that failed too!

No. Anything else you want to make up?

Apparently the guy or people who have been bank rolling Celtic Crusaders threatened to pull the plug on the financing if Celtic didn`t get a franchise this time round, the RFL have obviously buckled to the pressure and went ahead with a sort of now or never thing with South Wales.

Can you imagine the crowd at the Brewery field (with field being the operative word) between Celtic and Quins or Celtic and Catalan, the RFL have been telling us for ages that as a sport we are moving towards modern stadiums with modern facilities yet they have turned down 2 clubs with all this in place already for 2 clubs that are renowned for poor crowds and will have falling down stadums for 2009.

Was just kidding pal, ayee thought they were quite generous considering we have been in and out of the top 6 for a good few years now. And our achievements mount up to one play-off win.

Maybe the same with the Catalans with that they can be televised away from home but S4C have home games!!!