[quote="Stu M":22lxi0ff]I believe Saints are livid. Any potential "walk ups" now won't happen. Salford have clearly looked at it and presumed that they had a good chance of losing with a weakened team anyway, so made the decision to completely rest everyone and go again in R2. That's how I see it anyway.[/quote:22lxi0ff] Many Saints supporters are not Stu. I don't blame them Salford. The RFL has instructed them to play a weakened team, they now cannot moan that they have decided to play an Academy team. I was looking forward to watching the game, I'll now give it a wide berth. Salford may not be able to play a full team for weeks, in which case it devalues the competition as some teams will get an easy two points. What happens if a team wins the LLS on points difference or fails to make the top six? Our game continues to be a laughing stock. Lions on the field donkeys off it!

[quote="NickyKiss":2pab51wl]Either way I think they should be looking at disciplinary action against Salford. There was a lot of goodwill shown towards them from across the game during this period of turmoil and it feels a bit like they've thrown it back in everyone's faces. This isn't a team resting players ahead of a Cup Final or Play off game. They were put under those special measures to help them and the other clubs voted to allow them an advance of the central distribution money and they then go and make a mockery of the first game of the season and to make matters worse, it's on the BBC. It feels like they've got this one all wrong IMO.[/quote:2pab51wl] The RFL did not think this through. The special measures they placed on Salford prevented them from doing certain things rather than making them do certain things. They will still be playing their players so, at present, their financial situation is not improving. It may yet come to it that the RFL expunge Salford's games/scores this season. Irrespective of what happens in the future it will be costly for the game.

Salford only named 16 players, farcical, hard to believe I'm saying this but I feel sorry for Saints, they've been put in an appalling position

I’ve made it to 22-0 and 15 mins and that’s all I can stomach watching this non-event. What a joke our sport is being made to look from Salford’s decision making.

[quote="DannyT":novcm80g]I’ve made it to 22-0 and 15 mins and that’s all I can stomach watching this non-event. What a joke our sport is being made to look from Salford’s decision making.[/quote:novcm80g] Any perceptions are completely validated. Our sport is sadly barely professional; the governance is amateur and most clubs are run in a semi-professional way. Our main TV deal is barely over £20m, that’s an incredibly low amount of money these days. How is that meant to support even SL nevermind trickle down to grass roots? The NRL’s is 10x ours and they’re about to get even more from a US TV deal. Women’s football gets 3x ours and they’ve only been professional for about 6 years. Anyway, gone off-topic… Saints will be alright this season I think, should make the top 4 and probably push top 2.