British (English) Rugby League is struggling, why all the 'tampering' with our fantastic sport every season then. The RFL only ever come out with 'possitives' within our game, and rightly so, but the reality is so much different. It's a 'minority' sport, but some folk at RL HQ, are living in dreamland, ambition is fine, but a little reality wouldn't go a miss.
Swinton and Bramley are just as important as Catalans & The Welsh Crusaders.

This statement sums up everything i believe about the current state of the game.

RFL Dreamers take note.

Around the corner was at first having a fence around your pitch, later it was paying players, then terracing, then stands, then floodlights, then TV, then 2 divisions, then 6 tackles, etc

Around the corner was how all mainline sports have benefitted from the advent of subscription tv, its just that RL doesnt know its value and undersells the product allowing RU to oversell its.

In todays world we cant compete with RU, we can offer alternatives and grow from a genuine powerbase instead of throwing money into the wind called expansion hoping some will stick.

Heres a RL blueprint, central contracts for the top 50 players paid from the Sky deal (based upon individuals worth eg current £100k, emerging £50k) those players are then restricted on games played and attend regular GB training sessions. 2 divisions of 10 FT clubs with one up one down, no more than 2 non gb/France players at each club.

So apart from saving wigan as they had gone to the wall that summer,what other reason have we to thank sky for ?????

Great I can watch every match nearly every weekend but to be honest since the franchise nonsense I watch less and less super league action the only game I now watch is the national league game on a thursday.

This being the league that sky pay nothing too but own the rights to ??? figure that one out

The coming month is the big test for rl in this country,a 3/4 full old traffold and a half full 4 nations is the begining of the end to franchise in this country as the fans will vote one way or another on how the game is currently being run

I was going to give the tests a miss this year ,first time in god knows when,got talked into going to the piedome over a pint at the weekend.


Falling crowds and a dwindling tv audiance this year does not bode well...but as long as we can only spend 150k on players this year everything is ok money saved

Brilliant post....genius. The game deserves to go back to the way it was pre-sooperleague because it was so much better then
Enjoy Skolars away next year...."fans" like you deserve to!

When Catalans and Crusaders have contributed as much to the game as Swinton and Bramley then they'll be as important as Swinton and Bramley...it's all take take take. ]

Sulking....are you real?

It was at deaths door for the pro game. Leeds where on the brink, and so where W1gan - biggest clubs in the game. How many times was it that W1gan went to Wembley in a row (1987/88, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1994/95) how many times did W1gan win the league season after season (1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1994/95, 1995/96)- do we really want to see that again ? One club having all the best players playing FT and the books could only be balanced if they went to Wembley and continued to be successful. Clubs like Leeds and Widnes tried to break it up but ended up worse off. Great times indeed. Like I said lucky we moved into Summer, and got the Sky investment.




So let me get this right the game was dead because wigan bankrupt themselves...no one else just wigan


Oh and Leeds had won diddle squat for decades


At no point were leeds on any brink of going bankrupt,they were and still are the richest club

So one club blows all its money trying to win everything and the game was sunk

Lets say sky never came in..do you think the game would have folded?

or would it just carried on with someone taking over at wigan and restarting off again?

Plus other clubs just stepping into the breech?

And teams rising to the top instead of them?

What if keighley had been allowed that year to go up pre super league...5k crowds on and challening bradford...but no kill them off from going up and steal there ideas

You don't recognise a problem when 2 of biggest clubs in RL are in trouble?
You are quite happy to see clubs fold and start again ? I hate that because its people with lack of responsibility that do this, especially to the businesses whose livings depend on that clubs money they won't get.
In 1996 Leeds was in trouble......low crowds and starved of success and years of being ran very badly. SL gave them the platform to become what they are now, the biggest club in the country and successful with them doing more than their fair share to help the international team.
Regarding Keighley it was a shame. But at the start of SL there was loads of mistakes. SL/Sky happened so fast, but them lessons are being learned. In truth though their ground is too small IMO. I could put list forward myself of the mistakes and bad decisions the RFL made but thats too easy, and its sometimes worth looking just occassionally at positives.
Widnes under their own steam for example went up the wall chasing the dream the "right way" when they didn't get in SL. Mistakes mistakes. You carry on picking up on negatives. Who needs enemies of the sport when you are around.....
Deffo last on the subject. If you won't even open your eyes for a second then I waste my time.

Not going to quote all that, but what gives a 'big' club the right to remain a big club? If they can't run their club/business successfully then they should suffer the consequences.

Demon how dare you .........you`ve just deflated his/her baloon...........

Its some balloon to deflate on this subject, I think he is Lewis's love child or has been body snatched by him

RL was sticking 90000+ bums into Wembley for a CC final every year we were that far on our s

Leeeigh Leeeigh

You say that we don't want to go back to the days when Wig@n dominated the game - well after all these years of Stupid League we still have a situation where just 2 teams dominate (Leeds / Saints) - is that a success?

Years ago any one of 12 teams each season could win the league / Challenge Cup and the several other trophies available. Bigger crowds come from success in cup games - if the success is shared by several teams then gates would increase all around - even at clubs that had a slight chance of a little glory.

I have been a RL supporter for 40+ years and must admit that these days, even though I have access to Sky sports, I rarely watch SL games - I just can't be ar$ed. The Thursday games are more interesting but the choice of games is poo.