If you're any good you may get a 2 year contract to play for us

he could get a 2 year contract even if hes no good

The Dragons will be a massive draw, should be 8k+ again.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/u ... tralia.stm If we can't get 5,000+ Aussies to watch a game of rugby league out of the 40,000+ who live in London and cluster in West London boroughs then we really don't get our message out there at all in terms of marketing the game. Hopefully this is something the RFL is to help us with.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/u ... tralia.stm If we can't get 5,000+ Aussies to watch a game of rugby league out of the 40,000+ who live in London and cluster in West London boroughs then we really don't get our message out there at all in terms of marketing the game. Hopefully this is something the RFL is to help us with.

welcome....Hammersmith Hoists are the ex-pat team that play in west London...I am sure if you raise your hand whilst sipping beer at any walkabout or the church you will get a game.

That play in the Aussie strip

What does this achieve though? What is so important about getting a few thousand Aussies in to watch a one-off match that warrants disrupting the SL season? This match should be outlawed as it devalues not only SL and the WCC but also Harlequins RL.

Are you sure you are a moderator; you wish to make a friendly illegal. What do you propose anyone who plays in that fixture to be banned from rugby league in the same way that anyone from rugby union was banned when found to be playing rugby league.

What would you propose bring Hull KR down to play at a random London soccer ground, make no money from the fixture and have to travel great distances. If friendlies devalue SL I'd imagine you will be recommending that all clubs cease all fixtures that do not carry competition points or have a cup to win at the end of it. You probably are in oppostion of charity games as well, they must be devaluing Super League by being one-off matches.

How does it devalue the WCC? Melbourne & Manly have won this fixture in the past two years after preparing against Quins. Are you suggesting they should travel from the other side of the world and go in cold and undercooked against our own champions? Or would you rather scrap the WCC altogether?

Frankly, having attended both the Quins v Melbourne game last February (truly insipid marketing to not even expect to fill more than one side of the ground) and last week's Cumbria v England match it's hard to make a case for preferring Quins over Cumbria as a pre-WCC fixture. Although that would cause greater disruption to the domestic calendar as Cumbria players would be drawn from various clubs.

You wouldn't get the Cumbria team as the rest of the SL calendar continues, and they are playing for their clubs. You'd also struggle to play it in Cumbria, because the grounds are not up to it, and perhaps more importantly there would probably not be much interest - certainly not as much as the Cumbria/England game, which drew just over 5000.
Having said that, Melbourne's team was largely reserve grade, so how much preparation it was for them is moot. It was probably good for ours though, although a drier pitch would have been better.

No, I'm proposing that the NRL champions should no longer be allowed to play a warm-up match against a SL side before the WCC, a rule which used to be in place until Harlequins were for some reason given an exemption two years ago.

I don't know what Hull KR have to do with anything or what point you are trying to make, but you're a clown if you can't differentiate between pre-season friendlies and a meaningless fixture in the middle of the Super League season which involves disrupting the fixture list for two clubs. There would be no issue if the game was played pre-season, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're being purposefully obtuse because I can't believe anyone would miss the point so explicitly.

The SL champions earn the right to play against the NRL champions by winning the league, to have them then also play another SL club who have not earned the right seems a bit silly. If the NRL champions want a warm up game then there are plenty of teams they can play without disrupting the SL season. To be honest I think the WCC format needs a massive overhaul, but that's beside the point. What does this game achieve for Harlequins RL, why do they agree to play it every year when most clubs complain about an already crowded fixture list? Could you imagine Blackpool postponing a Premier League fixture in order to play a friendly against Barcelona? The whole excercise makes no sense whichever way you look at it, hopefully the new coach will do the right thing and have the fixture removed.

Disagree. In 2009, the first time this was tried, the RFL paid for all the marketing and promotion and made a slight pofit from the game. They paid TNT as well as other organisations to promote the game and the result was a gate nearing 7,000 people. Given Quins RL average is 3,200 odd, then 3k and change turned up to watch the game, then it's safe to assume that 3,800 or so people turned up to the game that would not normally visit the stoop. The trick is in identifying these people and communicating with them...... the Mistake was Quins RL not collecting data and following up on this...............something that belongs in a different thread.
The Warm up game is designed to give the crims a chance to warm up......and for quins RL to try to attract fans from the transient bar staff population in London. The touring side would need a warm up game and given that there are more Aussies in London than anywhere else, that's why the game is v Quins RL.

I agree, the WCC needs an overhaul, but as it stands, the warm up game in London is a good idea as it serves 2 purposes.....even if one isn't properly managed.

But the Australian expats clearly know Quins RL exist and are clearly not interested in watching them. I don't think taking details would have achieved anything really, you can't force people to go, it may have led to a slight increase in attendance but so would any competent marketing scheme. I do not see what the game can achieve that warrants disrupting the SL calendar. Apart from anything else, Quins RL/London Broncos have been targeting the expat population pretty much since their inception and it has categorically failed for years. Australian expats are no more likely to become fans than anyone else, and the amount of effort invested in trying to attract this small group to games is one of the reasons the London club have been such a failure for so many years.