And the relevance of having a part time team that will need virtually completely changing is ?

Seriously what is the point , would they rather you spend your money on junior development or ' buying ' a tick ?

Winning the NRC in no way prepares you for playing Leeds,Saints and W1g4n does it ?

It is either a true franchise system or a sporting performance system , but as usual the RFL cant even decide that

Brilliant , excellent , wonderful , nothing to do with Leigh Centurions and the future of Proffessional RL in Leigh

Seems like you `re a tad unimpressed.....

At risk of self-indulgence, the first part of the quotation you took from me was;

[iThe government is about to announce that Local Authorities will lose the lead role in setting schooling priorities. In other words, if you’re not on a national agenda, you won’t be on local agendas. Union is, as you say, a national sport. If league isn’t also a national sport, the junior game will vanish from the school agenda, and then, more slowly, from the community game at junior level.[/i

That's what it has to do with Leigh Centurions and the future of RL (not just professional) in Leigh.

Consider a world in which every school in Leigh gets rugby union coaching from age 5 to age 19, but nobody is coached in rugby league. Where Miners and Easts are well behind Leigh RU in the pecking order for funding, because the RFL is no longer a priority sport. Where there is a performance pathway with regional development programmes for talented boys and girls playing union, and where union pro clubs regularly come into schools all year round.

There are people in power who avowedly want to kill RL and wipe it off the face of the planet. That doesn's mean, stop it spreading into Devon, it means make sure the next Chris Ashton never even considers playing RL as a kid. If we are not a national game, we will not survive as a provincial game.

Leigh's future depends on Devon' success.

Whislst it would be good to see RL continue to flourish in Devon and elsewhere I would suggest Leigh RLFC's future is more dependant on Arthur Thomas' but' even more importantly the Leigh and district public.

Are there long term plans in place at any club? Without any major income streams we will always have to pely on a third party bankrolling the club thats a fact of life.

No one can predict anything in this present economic climate after all who would have said that The Royal Bank Of Scotland and others would have nearly folded say 5 years ago?

All that I say is that we are run better now than at any other time in my association with the club behind the scenes.

thats good to here fred,long may it continue.

What would be your opinion of expansion done this way


A suggestion , how about the RFL find a nice little [ 5,000 ] capacity non/lower league football stadium maybe 40/50 miles from the heartlands [ maybe the west midlands , somewhere like Stoke ] they set aside 300 K per season to set up and run a club , they encourage some Lancashire/Cheshire SL clubs to provide 4/5 dual reg players , they give the club a 4 player oversea quota , find and pay a young ex SL player as a general manager/coach and enter this club into Championship 1

They commit to 3 seasons with a provision for another 3 financially , but they make this club excempt from being promoted to the Championship for as long as they are providing over 100 K funding

Expansion sensibly all out in the open without rushing things and without upsetting your existing members

?

I can only keep telling them Fred , if they dont want to listen

I'd take that.
However my preference now would be.......

SL
===
8 Clubs (Play x 2 games Home & Away v each club = 28 Fixtures)
(Wire , W"gan , Saints , Hull , Bradford, Quins , Catalans, Leeds)
Winner = SL Champion,
Top 4 Play off for RL Champions Day SL Trophy (1st v 2nd , winner through to RL Champions day final, loser meets winner of 3rd v 4th for right to get to final).
8th placed club into deciders (see SL2 below).

Winner of RL Champions SL match plays Aussie League Champs (Club Challenge) & New Zealand National Side before 4 nations

SL2
===
-14 Clubs ( Play x 1 game Home & Away v Each club = 26 Fixtures)
(Huddersfield , Hull KR , Crusaders, Castleford, Wakefield , Salford , Fev , Leigh , Barrow , Halifax , Widnes, Sheffield, Batley , Toulouse)
-Winner = SL 2 Champion & Trophy Winner (with prize money) also play Australia National side before 4 Nations
-Top 5 play off for Appearance at SL Decider day play off final along with 8th placed SL Club.
-16th placed club relegated to Championship
Week 1
PO1: 3rd v 4th
PO2 : 5th v 8th Placed SL
Week 2
PO3 : 1st v 2nd (Winner to final)
PO4: Winner of PO1 V Winner of PO2
Week 3
PO5 : Loser of PO3 v Winner of PO4
Week 4
'Decider day finals'
PO6 :Winner of PO3 v Winner of PO5
Whoever wins a Promotion to SL or a reprieve to remain in SL.

Winner of SL2 Plays Australian Club challenge team inn warm up game.

CHAMPIONSHIP
===========
-8 Clubs (Play x 2 games Home & Away v each club = 28 Fixtures)
(Dewsbury , Whitehaven, Keighley , Hunslet , Oldham, York, Rochdale, South Wales)

-Top 4 Play off for RL Champions Day Championship Trophy (1st v 2nd , winner through to RL Champions day final, loser meets winner of 3rd v 4th for right to get to final).
Winner of RL Championship Day Final Promoted to SL2
8th placed club into deciders (See Championship 1 below).

Winner to play England before 4 nations.

Championship 1
============
-14 Clubs ( Play x 1 game Home & Away v Each club = 26 Fixtures )
(Workington, Swinton , Doncaster , London Skolars , Gateshead , Plus 7 other sides (From National Conference, Summer Conference) & 2 from France.
-Winner = Championship 1 Champion & Trophy Winner (with prize money) also play Wales National side before 4 Nations
-Top 5 play off for Appearance at Decider day play off final along with 8th placed Championship Club.
Week 1
PO1: 3rd v 4th
PO2 : 5th v 8th Placed Championship Club
Week 2
PO3 : 1st v 2nd (Winner to final)
PO4: Winner of PO1 V Winner of PO2
Week 3
PO5 : Loser of PO3 v Winner of PO4
Week 4
'Decider day finals'
PO6 :Winner of PO3 v Winner of PO5
Whoever wins PO6 = a Promotion to Championship or a reprieve to remain in Championship.

-Winner to play Wales before 4 nations & Winner of SL & SL1 in pre season friendlies as the Home Team.

Other things
===========
Championship & Championship 1 to contest NRC.
Championship & Championship 1 to contest Lancashire & Yorkshire cups (renamed accordingly to whatever sponsor gets it).

Challenge Cup to start off with x 2 Amateur rounds followed by phased entry of Championship 2 (Round 3) , Championship & SL2 (Round 4) , SL (Round 5)

State of Origin during season (x 3) East v West.
Any European player unavailble unless medically seen as unfit by England & Wales team doctors is ineligable to play in Four Nations at end of Season.

Very sensible, and what a shame the RFL 20-30 years ago wasn't clued up or well run - qv Carlisle, Nottingham. IF we were going to keep the pro game separate, without the pyramid stucture, you'd say - Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Sunderland, Middlesbro, Newcastle, Stoke (horrible place, btw!), Wolverhampton, and work down the country.... although, that said, transport is pretty easy these days. Warrington went there and back in the day to Harlequins this season. Warrington is as close to Cheltenham as to Hull.

The distance problem is one of getting players/coaches to move though Joe , thats why you do it without making too large a step , Do you remember Fulham training at Lowton high school in the 80's , based in Leigh traveling down to London for their ' Home ' games ?

The key though is the funding , 1 SL club , or 3 Championship clubs ? , I'd arrange cheap travel for fans down to their matches , if you are going to do it , do it right , and that includes not upsetting the fans you already have

Short term, yes obviously, and the link between Devon and Leigh is notional (ie, me )

...but the principal is true.

Negative perspective - without becoming truly national, RL in the heartlands has an increasingly difficult future, and possibly no future at all.

Positive perspective - unlike all other major UK sports, RL has vast areas of the county where it was, until recently, effectively banned. It has far greater growth potential that any other sport. It has, also, proved itself in its core markets, despite those places being historically very strong in Soccer (Lancashire) and Rugby Union (Yorkshire). It is the only invasion sport played in summer, and its proposition to parents/kids (warm summer days, not cold winter nights.... suntans not mud and frostbite) is second to none.

Nothing I'd diagree with there, if we're talking about planned expansion of the pro game.

The pyramid model, though, implies organic growth from bottom-up.

Perhaps there's a place where the two can meet in the middle (or the midlands!)

That is what you will find most of us interested in on here , I understand the importance of expanding the grass roots/amatuer game but its relevance to what we see as the ' game ' is small