This one.Yer right mate .Justtell the poster to look at how many clubs who are not big city's that are playing and surving in the FA prem?

The moment you compare football with RL you are lost. Whatever we want to call the elite division of British RL it will never be the size of the Premiership. It is actually too big now!You are likely to see contraction before expansion. Look at the dominant clubs in the premiership are they not all big city clubs? Clubs backed to millions and millions by incredibly rich owners. When was the last time a small town achieved success in the Premiership? Blackburn? Why? Walker!

Far too many posters here become hostile and seem incapable of engaging in debate

It might have something to do with your smugness and I am all right Jack attitude because you happen to watch one of the best clubs in our game.

There is no future in a primarily regional pro game were unless the RFL get their act together soon and scrap licenscing and partnerships and stop imposing TV on top Championship clubs for no compensation whatsoever unless you want to watch a league which will soon have about 6 clubs left in it.

I suppose I better satisfy the baying mob.

Keith how on earth can you say you will match yourrecord against anybody in RL. You have done some very good things but you were a very ordinary player and briefly a coach in the professional ranks. There are many many who achievements and knowledge of professional RL is way beyond you. Hence, you ten man posture as a local hero amongst a small number of locals. You came into RL when the game was at its lowest ebb, we fell 30/40 years behind the Australians blissfully ignorant until the 82 Kangaroo Tour. Better more heralded RL men than you Keith were spewing the same nonsense you come out with now. The Australians cannot play attacking RL like we British can, we have far more skill. They sound very similar to Keith Lathom 2013 when crazily condemning Wigan 2013. That's how stupid you read Keith. My God even one eyed Leythers are admitting Wigan played superbly. How many tries came from out wide from decent passing moves.

The crazy thing is Keith YOUR generation screwed RL up in this country!! The Australians did not invent defence or defensive patterns. Ask Murphy, The Aussies use to cry n the 50's / 60's about our defensive systems. We are not talking thuggery or hard stuff here. Patterns and systems. It was the same in attack too. Yet Keith 2013 and Keith taking over at Leigh 1996 states oh I think defence is over rated, too much time is spent on defence. All players need is confidence. You were and are out of your depth professionally Keith. The only place your RL philosophy is successful is at an amateur level and even then it needs damn good players.

As I said YOUR generation Keith screwed it up. Previous generations were technically proficient with carefully honed crafted play JUST LIKE Wigan 2013. Sadly your generation was full of romantic hogwash that was meaningless drivel at every level beyond amateur. Your still full of it Keith!

It is incredulous that you can belittle another mans profession. Your a tradesman. Lindsay actually had a business and the bookmakers. He was doing 2 jobs not one. He earned his money and had nobody giving him a free hand up. Whatsmore your anecodotes are somewhat incorrect and perhaps embelished for a few hangers on. An internet forum, a clubhouse, a pub tap room. Do you repeat the same tales time and time again.

Andy Gregory signed for Widnes in 1980 so your post is reeking of bull. Lindsay became involved at Wigan AFTER Greg was already a professional and winning CCs. Yes, Maurice did come into RL as guest / friend of Murphy BUT he then put his money where his mouth was alongside Rathbone, Hilton and Robinson to move the club from the old days of overly big committees, people drinking and smoking whilst patting each other on the back and achieving nothing. An era you were part of Keith!

As the gang of 4, Wigan achieved an amazing period of success one that drag RL into a new professional era, one where bar a dummy being taken we could have recapured the Ashes. Wigan were not the only full time professionals Keith You know that but your jealousy and spit clouds any judgement. Leeds were. Leeds even paid more money, had more Australians and never achieved anywhere near the success Lindsay Et Al did at Wigan. The most important thing Wigan did was go Down Under for Top Drawer RL professionals not the dark age garbage that you still even spout in 2013. By God man, as a RL man you should have learned something from the likes of Lowe and Monie whome I daresay you found boring

Wigan went backwards when Lindsay left to become the RFL / SL chief executive. He did not desert a sinking ship. Jack Hilton and Tom Rathbone became too old leaving Robinson to become embroiled with Whelan. Ask Wigan players about Lindsay and they have nothing but praise for how he dealt with them. How many times did you deal with him Keith, half a dozen at best YET you know better than those who dealt with him for season after season. He even did a damn fine job as GB manager. If he was the person you say how odd nobody ever said so and everybody wanted to sign for him.

Your bitter and twisted Keith. Go to a clubhouse, a tap room or a few local and spout your deluded nonsense.

I am not fit to lick Lindsay boots re achievement and neither are you. Fortunately I can see it. You cannot and never will.

I wouldn't bother responding Keith.

As a youngster who played under your coaching in the 80's and 90's, your contribution to that alone far outweighs anything that Maurice Lindsey has done.

He didn't care one bit about grassroots RL ! All he cared about was ML and his wallet !

Fylde Warrior who are you? And what have you achieved in the game? You seem happy with yourself having personal digs at Keith. Have the balls to reveal yourself and your achievements.

I'll look forward to it.

Fylde Warrior you do come across as an extremely arrogant dismissive kind.
I for one won't miss your posts when you've decided to do what most would want on here.... Now Jog on.

Agree with most of this, but do want to flag: it's not the RFL's fault.

The RFL (unlike Football and Union) has kept - indeed brought (BARLA, SRL) - all its strands under one body. The 'price' for that is that the (SL) clubs decide where the money they raise is spent.

The SL clubs dictate to the RFL that the total money spent on development is.... nothing.

Union, like us, lost a chunk of its Sport England development money. Their solution - employ everyone centrally. Our solution - sack 2/3 of the development staff. Again, not the RFL's fault. Union fills Twickers ten times a year or more. We almost fill Wembley and Old Trafford, once each, which we have to hire. WE geet 40,000 at Wembley for a test with Australia. They get 40,000 at Wembley for a club game. Union has Zurich Insurance and the might of the city behind it. We have Peter's Pies.

I met with a high profile RL Chief Exec not long since, suggesting that if the RFL wanted to become a genuine, national, developed game, it would push places into a 15-20 year development plan... my specific pitch was for Bristol, where there is a RLWC game, 450,000 people, a million within 30 minutes, a RL Academy (who lost narrowly to Catalans u20s in France this month), a strong amateur team with a junior league they run, a huge tradition of rugby (its the principle sport in many schools), two university teams (and others close by, in Bath, Gloucester, Cardiff, and not too far off in Exeter), a big inner city population, particularly African Caribbean, who would respond to our proud history of integration in a way that they don't to the other code... you could play England v Wales there, and bring in locals as well as Welsh fans over the bridge... you could put magic there, and sell out Ashton Gate (26,000), rather than half-sell Etiad... oh, and no football team in the top 2 divisions, no union team in the Premiership, and only a second-choice county cricket ground, in a sports-mad city.

If you were looking at a 15 year plan, the 2028 Academy team aren't even in primary school yet.

Other, obvious big-city choices would include Coventry, Nottingham, maybe Milton Keynes, maybe Wolverhampton.... maybe Cardiff (not bloody Bridgendoftheworld) or Glasgow, maybe Reading or a South Coast Club (Southampton, Portsmouth), maybe Newcastle. Some (especially the east Midlands, but also the North East) already have good amateur teams, (Loughborough) Uni & College, an Academy pathway. Some (especially the Midlands towns and cities, again) don't have top flight soccer or union teams.

The august gentleman agreed... but also said, there is nobody planning for 15 years ahead. The 12 SL clubs control the money. They just want to pay next month's wages.

<<edit: when I said I was agreeing, it's because I'd only read page one, and therefore I am officially a bit daft>>