'"

Go on you tube, search for 'Rocky Mills Burnley' and try not to laugh.

I choose the bread and butter games - the league games and play off knock out stage games, where most are involved. I did give you examples already but I will do it again - our poor league games crowds in 2004, we'll leave 2005 out, Batley home in playoffs 2006, Donny at home 2007.
Crowds have gone down in P&R era for us especially. What you mention is a example of 1 game plucked from a season where there are actually 20odd games in a season, and well over 100 fixtures in any given season. highlighting a couple of games out of that lot is not proof enough IMO of enough interest. And certainly not proof enough that a PT club should replace a FT club - similar to relegating a premier league club and putting say Northampton in there.
We all experienced 2004 GF - you couldn't have written the the script. From being on the brink of disappearing to finally getting the holy grail with a match of high drama. The feeling was awesome. I know what its about. But looking back, it was one game, a season where had we not gone up would have most probably been curtains. Was it really worth the risk ?

We will never agree about this and I actually do respect your views but you are very selective when quoting examples as per above.

Lets face facts. RL is a regional sport it is not soccer, and, although it,s not my preferred sport ie soccer we need to be realistic.

We have the same potential as 4 clubs currently in Non relegation League and I,m not talking about Harlequins or Celtic Crusaders. One of those clubs is currently second in that league.

For professional sport to prosper, even a regional sport, you have to give every team the opportunity to reach the top level. Franchising cannot and will never, achieve this.

Demon.s point about the pittance paid by Sky to Championship clubs is spot on but the ignorant smug Saints fan,who is not typical, don,t have a clue about real RL.

Had a think about this today , you said they needed different rules as they dont have any junior RL players to draw from

No they dont , but they do have hundreds if not thousands of young men with 'Rugby ' skills galore

And you mentioned Leigh claiming the development of Easts and Miners

Please tell me what was in the RL Express last week then , and on SKY at Bridgend at the weekend

Celtic Crusaders claiming how well their development is going by winning the NYL and getting 4 players into the GB amatuer squad

So these players have been ' developed ' by the Celtic club have they ? , are you telling me that none of these players had ever picked up , passed ,kicked a ' rugby ' ball before they put a Celtic shirt on

All this junior development crap really gets up my nose , do Leeds breed kids to put in their scholarships and academies ? or do they do exactly like all the clubs Leigh Centurions included and just go down to the [ local in our case , whole of the north england in leeds case ] amatuer club and convince their juniors to sign up

It's double standards all the time

I don't use them "selective examples" to use as backbone to what I think is right, or wrong. I use this example because as this has done to yourself, it makes me shake my head in disbelief (a bit of exagerated drama) when many on here do exactly the same thing (Cas v Wakey), with added sugar coating of how it works in football.

The sooner they get relegated and take Hull City with them into Division 1 with their Millwall and Leeds brethren the better

Leigh Miners and Easts are the best aren't they - especially Miners (:winkicon_smile.gif. Put them clubs on Bridgends doorstep, and throw in a few SL clubs like W1gan/Wire/Saints. Then they don't need their own rules.
Junior development is beyond me as an outsider tbh. Mick Higham for example to some Leigh fans was developed by us and thats it. Surely a player progresses and gets better or worse as he goes along from school age right up to SL level. Doesn't matter if a player was playing dodge ball in jungle somewhere in Africa and was then taken on by a club to play RL then they have contributed to that player making progress surely - even if its a short period. Also to me postcodes don't mean anything either.
Regarding Leeds - I think you have a major gridge against them.

For me it comes down to the RFL being embarressed that the sport is a largely played in the North.
A RL game is worth watching if its in Bridgend or Batley so long as its played to the same rules for all and everyone has the same chance of failure or success.

The Heartlands died a long time ago and doesn't really exist IMO, I'd love people where I live to know about RL (circa 10mins from a local lower league team, circa 50 mins to a host of SL teams) but they don't.
I here " expansion , expansion" is what's best by people at Redhall - even taking the game to expand in France but the game is still a minority sport in the UK with vast area's near to where you or I live not knowing anything about RL - a huge untapped audience ignored .

Yes we should be alarmed at Leighs gates, but so should the RFL, Once old style clubs in what once was the RL "Heartlands" lose support then its time to start worrying, especially if support in the new clubs doesn't match expectations.
Mr Lewis seems to have a obsessive quest to overhaul Union in being a national sport, what he has compleltley missed is that Union knows its heartlands and largely looks after them as well as trying to expand , they know only a idiot bites off the hand that feeds them.

Bit like the Wire fans in our SL year.........