We need somebody like BT to come in and show a genuine interest in us because if they do that it will put us in a really strong position when it comes to trashing out any new deal with Sky.

Fingers crossed.

Yes I think I would agree. I initially thought BT might go the way of the other Sky competitors, but apparently they now have 2m subscribers signed up and their consumer division is making money again. So it is looking as though we now have a real competition for sport broadcasting in the Uk...... only problem, the Sky deal lasts until the end of 2016 and anything can happen between now and then.

That is plenty of time for RL to gets its act together ready to negotiate a new deal. There needs to be some competition for the sports viewing rights. One bidder = sport sold on the cheap.

If Sky are the only interested party there won't be any negotiations. Sky will set the price.

Despite the harsh times economically there is clearly money sloshing around in terms of TV rights and I have no faith in Wood and Co having the skills to maximise the amount RL can gain in 2016. IL and Co have got to get the sport to into a position where we have at least two bidders if the RFL can't (or won't).

The RFL have two options. They can sell their rights as they always have and hope that the competition will force the price up.

Or they can go to Sky and basically say you have lost all this content, you have space and money, we want it, what do you want from us so we can have it? Nothing is off the table. Offer them unparalleled access to the players and coaching staff, before, during and after games, if Sky want Barrie Mac in the changing rooms directly after a game talking to players, that’s what they can have, if they want to interview the captain in the changing rooms before the games, go ahead. If they want a new midweek cup comp, a 9’s comp fine. If they want the game played as 4 x 20minute quarters to fit in 2 extra ad breaks do it.

The Champions League viewing figures weren’t miles out from SL’s. Sky were spending £100m a year on it, if we can do similar if slightly lower figures for half the price, then its win win. £50m would probably pay for 2 or 3 real expansion sides, make most SL clubs profitable, with a bit left over for investment in the grass-roots and a the hand out to the lower leagues they have been begging for.

Thought the BT deal was for European matches not Domestic matches.

And bring in the draft system, allow forward passes, helmets, shoulder-pads & 10 minute time-outs - are you mad man ?!

You can't have a draft here without the removal of all junior player development from clubs into some sort of unrelated centrally controlled system.

You would have to close down Wigan's academy and initiatives like Central Park would become pointless.

Unless of course you are advocating the clubs that do produce good players from their academies (such as Leeds, Wigan and Saints) allow others first pick in a draft system of the next batch of their junior players should the senior team win the GF! That would mean Cas, Wakey or Salford etc would get to sign Hampshire rather than us. That'll work......

Yeah. Ryan's next point of call - approx 10 seconds after being told he's going to Wakey - would be whichever RU club is first to pick up the phone.

All the other star kids would probably do it after a bit more deliberation - 15 seconds.

Yeah, I think you would have to remove it from the clubs. My preferred option would be for the RFL to take control up to 17 focussing on producing the best players rather than the best teams, using some amateur ‘super clubs’ where we invest in their facilities and coaching, at 17 they go to championship clubs, and at 19 to a draft.

I think that would be a far more efficient way of bringing talent through for a few reasons.:
1 it would mean the focus of a players training would be on making him the player he could be, rather than the player a club needs
2 It would mean that at a young age they would be playing in a higher standard of competition
3 it would mean a club could take the player it needs rather than what it has.
4 we would have a better distribution of talent throughout the league
5 that spread of talent would improve the quality of the league and as such improve the quality of the player.

A good example at Leeds would be wing and prop. Leeds have struggled to find props to come through the system, Singleton has been identified as a special talent and is being brought through now but he is pretty atypical. Wing on the other hand Leeds have seen a silly amount of talent. Since 05 Leeds have brought through Smith, Hall, BjB, Broughton, Fox who have all been in and around England squads, as well as the likes of Sunley and Chisholm who just didn’t make it.

The game would have been far better served if the likes of BjB, Broughton and Fox had come through at clubs who needed a winger (and who probably covered that position with some of multitude of awful overseas wingers we have seen) and Sunley and Chisholm would probably have had a bit more effort put into them if they were the best option at a lesser club, rather than being the 5ht or 6th option at Leeds. Leeds could have also addressed the prop position and probably avoided the likes of O’niell and Cross being brought over.

Club affiliations would be lost in certain areas, but be replaced in part by England/county/rep affiliations and the RFL being able to cast a wider, deeper, longer term, more altruistic net.

Yeah, im sure Hampshire would sit there thinking ‘ you mean I get to play first grade and don’t need to travel across the country every day, I can just travel 1 junction of the motorway, sod that. I demand to do something I haven’t learned and that is more inconvenient’.

Its surprising that Gareth Ellis and Ben Westwood managed to avoid simply throwing their contracts in the air and stomping off to RU when they weren’t gifted that amazing, wonderful benefit of their workplaces being miles away from their houses.

How is he supposed to progress, playing behind a beaten pack and being given substandard training and coaching?

The same way Ellis, Westwood, Brough, Clark, Shenton, Myler, Ratchford, et al did.

they didnt until they moved to better clubs