Until the game in this country stops trying to be what it isn't we will continue to see this the RFL pushing our game in a direction it doesn't want to go. Crus and Quins may carry on being propped up with money from the RFL for years to come, but what does that say about RL. Hell bent desire for expansion which financially doesn't add up while keeping well supported heartland clubs (Leigh, Fax and Widnes) out of the competition on solely geographical grounds. We'll probably see Widnes in SL next year and probably Toulouse in the following round of changes. Uncle Maurice had the right idea with 'framing the future' the problem was it couldn't have been handled any worse if they had tried. The process alienated some fans from the game and made the future of the sport even more shakey than before. The whole franchise system is poorly handled imo, it does nothing to help the development of clubs within SL never mind out of it and until each application is looked at on its own merits instead of being biased towards 'new' areas in which to promote the sport we will continue to see some being kept alive with assistance others would not receive. No other sport I can think of governs itself this way. Fantastic product on the pitch masking terrible administration.

A lot of fans got disorientated when Hudds/Shef merged and Hull & gateshead. They need a 15 year plan, and to bloody stick to it.

The RFL as you say are pushing RL in a direction it doesn't want to go, and that the game in this country needs to stop trying to be what it isn't but isn't that what the RFL are doing; making RL being what it isn't hence pushing it in the direction it doesn't want to go.

What would you suggest in order to stop this so called terrible administration from happening? Go the way of something similar in football and have the Super League clubs run day to day operations of Super League and then have the RFL run everything else from the Championship down to the bottom tier?

IF that happens, there will be new administration, new board etc that would focus on Super League matters. It will never happen; the football equivalent has courted plenty of contraversy with the FA and the Premier League at loggerheads on numerous occassions.

At this point in time, the RFL is the sole administrator of the game of Rugby League and the game will go in the direction that they want it to and at the moment, nothing can stop them.

I don't get these calls to reduce the size of the league because we have a few clubs who are struggling. Of course we have! That's the whole point of competition. Each year you get a few clubs who've done well and and a few who have done badly and some in between. Whether you have a league of 14 clubs, or of 4 clubs or 400 clubs, someone has to come last. Getting poor results on the field usually results in poor results off the field and vice versa. We had 12 clubs not long ago and for a few years the clubs at the bottom were quite a way behind the rest. Remember Halifax and Leigh? Huddersfield used to struggle too. Some people said we'd struggle to find the players to field 14 teams and we'd get even more massive scorelines against the clubs at the bottom. Well I don't think that has been the case.

Look at the following league tables:

2005
Team PLD W L D F A PTS
St Helens 28 23 4 1 1028 537 47
Leeds 28 22 6 0 1152 505 44
Bradford 28 18 9 1 1038 684 37
Warrington 28 18 10 0 792 702 36
Hull 28 15 11 2 756 670 32
London 28 13 13 2 800 718 28
Wigan 28 14 14 0 698 718 28
Huddersfield 28 12 16 0 742 791 24
Salford 28 11 17 0 549 732 22
Wakefield 28 10 18 0 716 999 20
Widnes 28 6 21 1 598 1048 13
Leigh 28 2 25 1 445 1210 5

2010
Team PLD W L D F A PTS
Wigan Warriors 27 22 5 0 922 411 44
St Helens RLFC 27 20 7 0 946 547 40
Warrington Wolves 27 20 7 0 885 488 40
Leeds Rhinos 27 17 9 1 725 561 35
Huddersfield Giants 27 16 10 1 758 439 33
Hull FC 27 16 11 0 569 584 32
Hull Kingston Rovers 27 14 12 1 653 632 29
Crusaders 27 12 15 0 547 732 24
Castleford Tigers 27 11 16 0 648 766 22
Bradford Bulls 27 9 17 1 528 728 19
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 27 9 18 0 539 741 18
Salford City Reds 27 8 19 0 448 857 16
Harlequins RL 27 7 20 0 494 838 14
Catalans Dragons 27 6 21 0 409 747 12

In 2005, the top 3 all scored more than 1000 points and the bottom 3 conceded 999 or more. Widnes and Leigh were clearly merely making up the numbers so the argument for a ten team league then was quite strong. However, move forward 5 years and with 14 teams the competition is much more even. Some will argue the quality has been spread more thinly. But I think that is an insult to all the great youth development work going on at many of the clubs.

Super League has it's problems, of that there is no doubt, but it also has great potential to really take off in the next few years. Don't forget there is a damaging global recession going on at the moment, it's only to be expected some of our clubs are suffering. It could be much worse than it is.

The lack coverage is not helping the cause.You get a bbc programme which is never to schedule,the red tops have little coverage in a monday edition.For the previous weekends games.Even in some parts of the nothwest you cant buy the League Express or the other paper.Skys coverage is rushed and needs freshing up.If the RFL want to reach a bigger audience, than the promotion of the game has to be improved.

Strange comment. We only have to go back a few years to a time when most clubs (including our own as a prime example) would spend every penny they had - and a good few they didn't - on players in the desperate hope of instant success. Facilities and youth development barely got a token glance. Look at us playing in a stadium falling to bits (even though most of us loved going there in our primrose and blue tinted glasses) with no local players in the first team. Now we have new and refurbished stadia all over the league, state of the art training facilities at some clubs and more investment in youth development than ever.

Super League and now franchising have done a tremendous amount of good for RL.

Valid point, I should have said something along the lines of in comparison with the UK and the percentage of players compared with other sports in that country. But I do believe their wealth of talent and depth is the difference on why we can't follow in suit like Aus.



That's exactly it. I really like Cas, especially the Jungle, great atmosphere, real RL ground. I just feel out of the rest of the teams which are on the corridor, themselves and Salford have brought the least to the competition IMO. Good point about Salford's signings, have to agree with the odd shock here and there too, but for me they will be in and around 8th but not much higher. Different catchment area to others of Greater Manchester but from going to school in Salford, RL wasn't even played and you hardly even heard a mention of the club anywhere. This for me is down to the club's hierarchy and no-one else. I understand with City and United a stones throw away, Manc is a tough nut for a RL club to crack but maybe things will change with the new stadium at Barton?



Again I have to agree to an extent, that RL will never be as big as football. But I do believe we have to product to be bigger than RU and that for me should be a long term goal. Unfortunately, until the game becomes far more competitive internationally, I don't believe we will be able to compete. That's a totally different debate again...



Definitely SL is more competitive now than ever, but no way over here can a team be wooden spoonists then make a GF the next year which the NRL has. That's the point I was trying to get across. If the league and the talent keeps developing at the current pace I believe we won't be too far from this, but then again I still think that 14 teams is too many for SL over here currently.

Wakey for me have to go, not financially stable, poor support, tipped to finish bottom this year, plus they are in a already densely populated RL region so offering nothing in terms of expansion for the game.

To the short-sighted, absent-minded cretin who typed that;
I seem to recall a team that played at Wilderspool that were in exactly the same position, until the local council bailed the club out. If that council had'nt have done so, then that club would have been like Widnes and Halifax.

Get a solid foundation in the lower leagues (this is the RL backbone) and for gods sake, bring back promotion and relagation, and give the promoted teams a chance that way. I have no doubt that Featherstone could have held their own in SL last season.

Agree that the Super League has changed the face of RL completely but since the franchise system was introduced it has suceeded only in promoting Crusaders to the top tier years before they were ready. The process in my view is a veil which the RFL use in an attempt to expand the game. If you look at Crusaders finances it clearly doesn't work. The whole idea was to make sure we had the right clubs with the right financial set up in SL. With Crus and possibly Wakey starting the season on -4 this doesn't reflect well on the clubs nor on the RFL.

Just because two clubs are having serious problems soon after franchising was introduced doesn't mean that is the direct result of franchising. Who's to say that without franchising we wouldn't have had more clubs struggling? In fact, go back through recent and older history and RL clubs suffering off the field problems is par for the course. Again, ourselves being no exception prior to the stability and security we now enjoy thanks to a) being well run, b) the new stadium and c) Simon Moran (in that order).

The idea of franchising wasn't just about finances. It was about forcing clubs to think about their long term futures in all areas of their business: facilities, player production and development etc. All promotion and relegation did was to encourage short term spending.

Franchising has only just started - we haven't completed the first term yet, so let's give it a bit more of a chance before giving up on it?

Agree with your thoughts about out club Seb, our clubs success and the move to the HJ has been fantastic and shows what can be done. Finance is a large part of the process and without a crystal ball
no one could have predicted what would have happened to the Crusaders. I believe they have become the attention of a process which is short-sighted and slanted outside of the heartland area for no other reason than just that. Widnes (despite their problems before the last franchise announcement) should have been included as they had successfully filled the criteria in all aspects except one which they couldn't change.

Several flaws to your post.

Even if you cut the number of Super League clubs to 10, you'll just end up with the same number of Aussies at each club. Meaning less opportunity for the young English players, and many of the overseas players do add to our competition we just need to strike the right balance. Also, a vibrant Rugby League scene needs as many professional teams as possible, providing encuragement and chances for young players to establish themselves. Finally, once many of the pre-2008 players start to move on the number of overseas players will reduce.

Typical elitist comment, that shouldn't be appearing on a forum one of the games great underachieving clubs!!!!!

I saw an article a while back in 1 of the papers, with the following idea;

Two 10 team leagues, Lancashire and yaaarrrkshire, with Catalan, Crusaders & London being divided.

You would play each team in your league twice, and each team in the opposing league once, therefore still having a 27 game season. At the end of the season, the top 4 from each league goes into a play-off system.

This idea would promote a few clubs with alot of history back into top flight RL, and would generate more local derbies within the season.

Sky could even then expand a little, replacing the thursday night game with a superleague game !!!!

Any thoughts on this idea?

Nail on the head there.

Our board really should come with a Sally Cinnamon health warning, that many people get caught out...

RL is not big enough or rich enough to sustain two full time divisions. Nor is it rich enough to sustain two divisions (one FT one PT) close enough financially so that clubs can swap places easily. In addition, it appears that precious few clubs are run anything like responsibly. Franchising helps to keep clubs in check and I don't see there's any other sensible alternative. As SEB notes, it's to save clubs from themselves. Now, the way it's been dealt with is hardly ideal but that's another argument.

As for this utter drivel that all the RFL cares about is expansion and doesn't care about the heartlands; get real. Yes, expansion is an important aspect but the RFL are acutely aware of the value of the established clubs and their importance to the game as a whole. All this crap about 'we should have a team based in Cumbria' or 'I'd like to see Featherston given a shot'. Why? Because they've been there a hundred years? Leigh are an excellent example of a heartland club that got promoted and died on their . Everything about them was a joke in Superleague from the stadium, to the team, to the nonsense with the squad numbers (Darren Abram...sigh). And why? Because they had about 3 months to prepare!!!

Similarly, widnes - for years they've been banging on and on and on about their history. Well, for years, that's all they had. Now, having been given 3 years to get their house in order, they are seen as automatics for promotion and most would say that will make a really good stab at SL.

Franchsing is here to stay.