I agree and its the usual tactic of Melbourne , when they want to see a tight game out, to challenge decisions in order to reset their defensive line or just slow down a game if momentum is against them. Cameron Smith was the master of this. Ref's make mistakes, both ways and it goes for and against teams, with no real obvious bias and we as fans have to just accept it. If games are televised , then surely the "bunker" can advise a ref if they think he has made an obvious error, more quickly than a Captain's Challenge. It was always accepted that you don't speak back to referees and held up as an example to other sports of how a game should be conducted, but it has slowly crept into the game now and should be policed more, in my opinion, to stop all the accusations that used to follow Sinfield and Tompkins in particular, after they were always in the referee's ear.

People over here moan about the constant rule changes

But nrl are the big problem they change rules every season

And alot of them are just nonsense ( the 2 point drop goal ) been another

Wonder if it's a case of the clubs going against IMGs recommendations again? We were told there'd be no more Thursday games...and lo and behold there's Thursday games, seems to me IMG keep suggesting things, clubs keep ignoring them, fans blame IMG...cant see IMG sticking around much longer

The next lot are in the pipeline for consideration with a decision to be made before the end of January. They include a 5 min sin bin, Bunker having a bigger role including judging on critical forward passes and tweaking the head injury assessment rules.

I think it will be the other way round Steve
Dont think the RFL will want IMG to stick around
The idea of employing them is to enhance the game and given they are supposed to be one of the best in their field seems to me they have done sweet FA.
Its marketing that this sport needs not spreadsheet Charlies,and that could have been done much more efficiently and economically by employing a hungry small/medium sized company to market the game.
Its a bit like appointing one of the big four accounting firms like KPMG to do your companies end of year accounts.Cost you a lot more money than employing a small medium company but you get nothing extra other than a big name company stamp signing off your accounts

Simple answer is IMGs data can be flawed and they should be visiting all the clubs they are rating
Given that this is a sport played at a stadium or ground as it is at your club,it should be imperative that they visit the clubs facilities particularly when you play in a three sided ground with an open end now filled with street food vendors,made out to be an exciting development when its just an excuse for not developing a new stand or standing area.
If IMG have not seen this then they should.
Think what would happen to the rating of Leeds if they decided to remove the open end standing area and fill it with street food vendors.
If your point of why would IMG need to visit any club then HKR is a prime example and i think you got lucky

The point I am making is not that an obviously tainted Club Chairman is having a go at the RL board thats pretty predictable, but that the game is in turmoil and although they all voted for the IMG stuff almost en Bloc, as soon as their globally formed recommendation's don't suit the clubs involved ( as with the magic weekend scrapping idea and the grading of certain clubs) they turn on the people they are as a game paying millions to, over the next ten years, to sort the game out.

On another of your points of course its necessary for IMG to visit the clubs before their final assessment they need to get a feel for the place and the community and the supporters and where the game is doing reasonably well already and what can be learnt from that? They need to see the commitment around the clubs and most importantly the folks who are running the club, their visions, philosophy and aims for the future. They need to see the stadia in which they play and the atmosphere around the game that they generate, although it might suit some of the clubs for IMG not to visit the arena's in which our great game is played out!!!!! There is good practise around already, Is it not important to know where the game is now, where it is already doing OK and what plusses there are already to build on?? You don't get that from number crunching on a computer.

Then look at the money involved for it's important, of course it is, but certainly not everything!! For instance, has anyone on here , many of whom have invested thousands on our beloved club over the years, been approached by IMG to gleen their views?? there have been a few global questions asked but nothing down in the real grass roots of the game.

You can't do everything by looking at spreadsheets the future of the game isn't based on finance alone, but on the place of clubs is their community and the commitment they have going forward, their vision to build in the future and, although it might not suit you, the passion of the people who support them.

Wasn't it KPMG / Deloitte that designed the "every minute matters" super 8s/ middle 8s? Another idea the rfl probably spent top whack on and didn't really give it too much time to bed in

They would be better off employing the advertising company that work for Aldi.
They know how to market a company and its products.
That expertise could easily be adapted to marketing Rugby League

Don’t remember seeing so many people enquiring about the Catalans away fixtures, gonna be a big following for the July fixture in particular

If we know anything, in an ever increasing e-world, is that youth understand the value and reach of various online platforms far better than anyone else. We as a fuel company ran some brainstorming camps over a number of weeks to get some new ideas for marketing all of our products , including the newly established EV charging installations division. The ideas that fed back were varied and predictable, from the usual management members, but the younger guys were full of innovative and, to the less informed , alien concepts, that seemed too complex and away from our previous strategies , at first to many of us. We were wrong, I don't mind saying and its the very ideas that these colleagues suggested that have seen by far the better results, in terms of new uptake. We need to invite young and hungry marketing execs to forward new ideas, as the current ideas seem set to continue the games seemingly terminal decline and further constriction. A younger target audience require an approach that chimes with them, not just retweaking of previously failed attempts to market our game.

Was a huge following there in 2019, 2500 I think, boiling hot day and we lumped 50 points on them. Dont think we knew how good we had it sometimes

The game would be better off employing a marketing agencies for the big events. I get bombarded with online ads whenever Union have an event such as Premiership game at Wembley, Barbarians game etc.

Id also bring back free coaches for away teams to SKY games, even just 4 coaches means 200 fans in the away end. Even Huddersfield would muster that if its a freebie. Cost over the course of a season would be minor, could look at giving National Express or whoever free advertising in return. Even just a small number of away fans boosts the atmosphere.

I think IMG have already put a bill in for nearly half a million to the RFL .

As a fan of the game, I understand the sentiment.

Sending two consultants out into the field to assess those intangibles for 3 weeks, though - that’s not going to fly. If the RFL was paying them by the hour I’m sure they be up for it, mind you. But there’d still no doubt be some Chairman complaining that they only sent juniors, they only stayed a couple of hours and the ~£30k it cost could have been better spent. On the last point, I’d have to agree.