if i want to watch wigan fringe players, i'd go to orrell

feeder club footy doesn't sit well with me.

If we're playing the pies on the 24th then the 1st match will be on the 31st Jan. NR Cup I assume. I believe the season has been brought forward another week. Gradually going back to winter rugby.

Me either. If I get a sniff of that becoming the norm and the club not moving forward then I'll simply vote with my feet.

Until we can offer the best local youngsters a good career with the best of facilities (yes like Wigan/Leeds do) then we will always get the 2nd best talent, but chasing the holy grail every year ensures us of never having enough cash to spend on the youngsters, its the old chicken and egg story and as long as the RFL insist on this second class culture and the 'lower' teams stand for it then feeder clubs will become the norm outside of SL and clubs like us will not be allowed or have the facilities/cash/nouse/willingness to be anything else.
Its a mindset that the RFL have perpertrated over the last 14 years, and the 'cash cow' that is the SL clubs get the best and we get the rest.
If it was down to me Id stop chasing the SL dream, enquire about buying something like the Kings Park site and set up a proper academy of Sport move all the operating offices from LSV to there, enquire about football rugby league and union grants even bl**dy tiddleywinks if it would get grant money, and aim to provide the best coaching in partnership with the local amateur clubs in RL soccer (Inc Genesis) and RU that can be got.
It wouldnt go down too well with some as the pro RL club would probably have to tread water for a couple of years but lets be honest thats what we are doing as the 'holy grail' gets farther and farther away, and then when the house of cards thats is SL comes a tumbling down we would be in a great position .
I HAVE A DREAM
Yes it would cost a small fortune but thats whats being spent at the moment on the wasting dream that is SL for those of us outside of the 'SELECT FEW'

Good post agree 100%

forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php? ... highlight= Is there any point in producing players at our level ?

forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php? ... highlight= Is there any point in producing players at our level ?

It's a great idea but the one factor that is the major stumbling block is that the young people that will be coming through this type of club will be the ones that aspire to play in the highest leagues and get payed the most. You are never going to suppress the want for success at the highest level and that is SL. I believe that the glut of players that is supposed to be happening this year could be excellent for this league and the championship. I dont think moving from the LSV will be productive. The whole of RL outside of SL need to walk away from the RFL. Thats the only way they will sit down and talk with the lower leagues. A form of industrial action. The first thing I would personally do is make it very difficult for SL clubs to pick up the best young players and if they do make them pay heavy. Get them to produce their own stars of the future. We need to get players to hate SL and want to beat them. I think the only way is to over the years instill in a player that the championship is the league to play in, a bit like we used to do with RL an RU or Pro RL and Barla. If you play SL the life after can only be amature and not in our leagues. They put so many constraints on the lower leagues, why cant we fight back?

I only proposed moving the OFFICES from the LSV, that cost would then go to the 'new place'

Because there are only 4-6 clubs with any ambitions of SL, so the other 75% of Championship clubs will vote against anything that would widen the gap between those 6 and the 15 also rans. Hence the cut in the Champ and Champ 1 salary caps at the same time widening the gulf between the Champ and SL at the same time.

True

Like the Toulouse thing the RFLput out the sweetner of paying for a micky up in France to the clubs and they thought hey that,ll be good and didnt think that the RFL had ulterior motives and Toulouse would go in front of them in terms of Franchising.

Don't forget that when the Toulouse inclusion was announced, it was stated that they still had to tick the boxes to be able to apply. As yet they have not ticked any boxes, and if they are not entering the NRC then they only have the 2010 GF left to be able to 'tick the box'. Gateshead v Toulouse GF 2010 anyone. The RFL will be working out the strategy as we speak

championship clubs need more TV money. if superleague and sky wont allow more funds to filter down then these club shoud be allowed to search for ther own TV right. ther must be a market for it remember the grand final a few years ago on ITV.sky and superleague have never allowed it since

I agree completely with TV Boy. But why can't we fight back to break away or change the system?

1. SL clubs have all the power. 2 votes in every RFL decision compared to 1 for each NL club. So even though there are more NL clubs they'd never get a decision through unless they were all 100% united and had the backing of a couple of SL clubs to boot.

2. SL clubs won't support NL - turkeys voting for Christmas etc. And any club that even thought of supporting a NL-led initiative would be put under massive pressure by the SkyFL. The top SL clubs won't want to change the system thats built to suit them and the lower SL clubs won't want to rock the boat knowing there's another round of franchises round the corner and few (if any) can boast that they ticked all the boxes last time. All the RFL would have to do would be threaten to look at attendances (for example) in the next application process, or stadia facilities, or some such, and certain SL clubs would go very quiet.

3. Similarly, ambitious NL clubs won't be quite so cocky with franchise applications coming up. "Listen, Arthur (or insert name of any other chairman of an "ambitious" club) this isn't going to look very good on a franchise application, is it? Pity really as we thought you were making such good progress..." That'll be silence from those clubs then. Look how quick the clubs were to sign on the dotted line not to challenge the franchise decisions when they were told they couldn't apply without doing so.

4. And the rest of the NL? Well they won't want to upset any applecarts either. They've been starved of cash for so long most of them are living hand-to-mouth anyway - just a simple threat to cut funding to the lower divisions, or to scrutinise a club's finances in the name of salary cap compliance, or to introduce some mandatory but costly procedures or improvements in the lower divisions, and it'd put the futures of some clubs at risk. Most of them wouldn't take that chance.

So why can't we fight back? Because the SkyFL have a stranglehold on the game. As much as I'd love to see us return to an honest game by breaking away from the whole bent lot of 'em, I don't see how it will happen. Personally I think the best chance we've got is for somebody to prove that what sky or the governing body is doing is illegal and challenge the system that way (or at least force an investigation that would uncover some of the corruption and bring about some changes), but who's going to stand up to them?