Won't go down well on here but Mick Hogan would have been my choice.

He's currently playing a big role in the RU world cup that will be held in the UK in 2015. It's interesting to look at the targets they are setting for that comp.

26 million to be reinvested in grass roots RU including training new refs.

rl][
Puts RL to shame. Get someone like Hogan who has HIGH level experience of truly international sports.

On one occasion, Brian Bevan the wire flyer, actually threw the ball into touch rather than have Boston tackle him at Wilderspool.

Boston was big for his time. Now players are much bigger in general.

I know its a bitter pill to swallow but what if Mo's vision of SL had come into place at the inception that is the Castleford ,Wakefield and Featherstone merger. Whitehaven ,Workington and Barrow to form Cumbria .Salford ,Swinton,Oldham,Leigh and Rochdale to form Manchester .
Catalans is a merger of French clubs and is widely watched witout malice they have built a strong team and financially viable.
15 years down the line the now 3 SL clubs from above Castleford,Wakefield and Salford are experiencing financial difficulties I know they were and still are contravercial changes but would SL and Rugby league be in a better position than it is now ??.I have watched Rugby league now for 60 years apart from 5 or 6 clubs the competetion is negative until we can get 14 clubs as strong as each other and more competeive games the game is going nowhere but heading for exctintion.
Changes are needed and soon as the club chairmen and the RFL directors wake up to this fact then we will always be a third rate sport .The game is not reported and promoted enough there is minimal write ups in the newspapers the only time we get publicity is bad press.
The standard of reffereeing is at all time low some of the glaring decisions made this year are atrocious .
I am 65 now and I love the game of Rugby league but feel fearfull of the game in the future yes changes are needed and we cant sit on the fence any more.Someone from RFL should grow some balls and tout the game to other TV companies other than SKY, ESPN is owned by Disney .Start a bidding war as the Football league did and sell out to the highest bidder we sell our game too cheaply as the viewing figures are through the roof. Its time to make our game more competetive and make every game world class our International game is a joke compared with RU there was once a statement out before RU went pro
RU a game played with ameteurs run by proffessionals
RL played by proffessionals run by ametuers .

Exactly.

The point I am making is that it's the ability of the player RELATIVE to the others on the pitch that dictates if that player is good or not, and whilst the overall standard of RL in the country may well have gone up, the amount of "stars" in the game by this definition has fallen.

I'd agree with virtually all of that. Mo's suggestion for mergers might have seemed like heresy and may well have resulted in teams no one wanted to watch but I think he could see the writing on the wall.

If no one [ihad[/i wanted to watch the merged teams that doesn't mean the retention of the separate teams as separate entities was a viable option. I reckon he already realised that wasn't the case.

He may have proposed a solution no one wanted but at least he could see the problem.

The lack of vision form those in charge since then and their head in the sand approach shows how poor they are in terms of their vision for the sport in comparison. Wood & Co fiddle while Rome burns.

I don't particularly like Mo, but I can appreciate he has done a lot for RL & was probably ahead of his time. I saw then, & do now, the sense in what he was putting forward, but I am not sure it would have improved the image of RL as a northern, working class sport, increased coverage or revenue, at a possible cost of destroying RL in some of its heartland.



I disagree totally. The referees in the 70s & 80s were not a patch physically or technically. The game has changed completely, it's not fat forwards trundling through the mud & then a deep attacking line. Aussie coaches, like Maguire, have brought in modern tackling, wrestling, attacking techniques that border on legality, so it is obvious there are going to be more contentious decisions. Coupled with a society that uses hysteria as a marketing tool, with muppets on Sky with more faux outrage, it's no wonder some fans think they are being wronged.



Do you think you are the first to think of this?

I actually think there is a lot in what you said there.