Quote: exiled Warrior "I think Sky are a big part f the problem of the nothern stereotype, as long as you have O'Connor and Mac as co-commentators(?) with their overly nothern accents and mannerisms it will always portray the game as nothern. Add in the average to poor commentry and the constant shuffling of times/days shown how can anyone other than a die ahrd fan get on board.
Sadly the whole idea of re-branding will not happen - too mamy clubs will maintain the status quo until they go out of business.
The Super League franchises at the start in '96 with the insistence on grounds/accedemy etc was the way forward but was fairly rapidly diluted and diluted until we have the current situation - we don't even have a decent resrves setup at most clubs now.
The game needs visionaries prepared to shake thinsg up but they are totally absent in the game and with the current world situation I think it is unlikely any will emerge. Just surviving seems to be enough for a lot of clubs now and in recent years with no more ambition than that.'"
You're bang right on the commentary team. They need some good lead commentators who generate excitement.....the sky ones are appalling since Eddie. The only decent RL commentator we have is woods imo. If sky wanted to present the game in a positive way they'd keep Carney and Wells, shift the rest of them off and get someone like woods.
Its why i hoped we'd go to BT sports to reinvent the presentation....Unfortunately, because of many of the reasons above, sky have also now lost interest and just see us as a filler.
The whole Super League 96 thing was a fudge, because they cowed to pressure of the small minded and self interested who wanted to keep the game as it was.....so all we have 25 years on is a re-branded Stones Bitter Championship plus Catalan!! It achieved nothing!
We definitely needs some visionaries who are prepared to shake things up for the good of the game, and not be scared about what a few thousand in castleford or wakefield think. Yes, they will be scared about being left behind, but a viable British championship could fit nicely beneath the top tier. If we want to be serious about a modern credible professional sport, there isn't room for so many clubs in the heartlands at the top level, playing in shoddy stadiums in front of often less than 5k fans!
We're at a cross roads...which is why re-branding some of the existing top teams to represent wider areas works so well for me....you're effectively bolting on the Super 15s model onto existing clubs to increase the attractiveness and commercial viability of the sport. Yes it goes against some of the tradition and grain, but those clubs would still be Wigan / Warrington etc to us, they'd just be something different to new fans and commercial markets.
Its time to listen to our heads rather than our hearts, and be prepared to collectively do things which may not sit comfortably but which we recognise is for the overall good of the game.
....otherwise i honestly think the game will be in such a state in 10 years time that the only realistic option for top clubs like wigan, wire, leeds, saints to remain professional will be to defect to become union teams....essentially the death of the game!
Would rather do something bold and drastic now which gives us a chance, than become a semi-pro regional northern oddity in 10 years, where our top clubs are lost to play an inferior version of the sport!!
