I'd be interested to know what his opinions are on the way the NRL is run. I'd imagine, he holds them in reasonably high regard, and looks at their set up as a bit if a blue print. Therefore, I wonder what his take on the Eels having points deducted this year for salary cap breaches in the past are?

IF what he has said regarding the RFL not deregistering Mullaney when asked is found to be true, then I'm sure the points will be reinstated for this year.

As above, this is the crux of the whole problem that Rugby League has got. After the success of the 2013 World Cup and the viewing figures the game was commanding on Sky, we should have been far more hard-nosed in negotiations and not snapped off the first maggot that was cast on the line which is exactly what the RFL did. It was shown in only a matter of months the kind of money that could have been had by an inferior under-watched similar sport. If we had got anything like that kind of money then there would have been no question about financing the grade levels required to run the sport at each and every club. Instead the game is wide open to poaching of talent by the NRL and Rugby Union worldwide whilst currently we have 20 year old kids with nowhere to play. Hopefully the day of reckoning is nigh!

Well this will cheer him up...

Widnes fined £2,500 for fielding 14 players on two separate occasions against us this season (thought it looked like they had more players than us that night ). Salford were previously fined £5,000 and docked two points for doing it once in a match v Cas.

if we side with the doctor, what's the betting that we get a few players up on 'dangerous contact' charges on various monday mornings?

I don't agree with everything Koucash says and does, but I back him on his comments about the RFL.

They struggle to get even the basics right. Refereeing is inconsistent, promotion of the game mediocre (only releasing international fixtures months before whereas in Union and Football you know when and where the big games will be years in advance) as others have pointed out it was ridiculous to commit to such a long SKY deal just at a time when sports rights prices are on the up due to competition from BT and others.

While Super League has become more competitive over the last few years, it's been more of a case of teams becoming more average with a lot less quality overseas imports coming over and some big name England players going to Australia or Union. The mentality seems to be keep costs low, play it safe and make small profits, but that only works for so long before the fans get bored and the kids don't take up the sport.

That said it is still generally a good watch, but the game badly needs more national exposure, the RFL need to convince SKY to allow a handful of games each year to be made available on free to air TV or free online, surely there is a benefit to SKY in getting a free advert for one of their main sports on free to air tv. Just look at the increased level of interest in England games since they've been back on the BBC.

As for expansion itself, putting teams in Oxford, Toronto and all the rest is all well and good, but there are major cities right on the doorstep of the heartlands such as Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield were the game is nothing more than a minority sport where time, money and effort could and should be spent. Instead we just take a magic weekend or international to these places once a year and hope that does the business.

Don't get comments regarding refereeing. You will always have discrepancies between various people and their take on an incident. It happens in all sports, anyone watching the Europa League final tonight will have seen that. Some calls that can go either way.

Not sure there's much the RFL can do about that. Not until we get a robot who is capable of officiating every game, anyway.

But what they should do is make the linesmen more responsible for the calls on forward passes.They should be in line with play and in a better position most times than the referee to make that call.
At the moment they take very little responsibility for anything on the field of play.

That's a fair point.

Would be great if the RFL would (or even could!) confirm the role of the referee's assistant, I spend a lot of time wondering just what they are there for...

Quote: EASTCOASTFC2016 "Would be great if the RFL would (or even could!) confirm the role of the referee's assistant, I spend a lot of time wondering just what they are there for...'" Here you go www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/rul ... _officials

Quote: EASTCOASTFC2016 "Would be great if the RFL would (or even could!) confirm the role of the referee's assistant, I spend a lot of time wondering just what they are there for...'" Here you go www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/rul ... _officials

I often wonder why RL fans continually compare the state of the game with Union and Football. Two entirely different animals.

Our international game was on a high in the early 90s. We missed the boat then. We had a team competing and almost beating the Aussies. A missed tackle by Lee Jackson of all people was the difference between winning and losing a series.

Union and football can name the dates of their internationals because they have their own stadiums. The best RL stadiums (KC, Giants and Pies) are shared stadiums. That means lots of different factors to consider when booking matches, thats before the lack of capacity.
It also doesn't help that the Aussies appear not to give a hoot about the international game. Compare that to Union where it is the be all and end all for all nations.

I'm certainly not saying all is rosey, but stop with these comparisions.

Koukash wants a situation where he can do as he pleases. I was around and well remember the late 80s and early 90s when Wigan did just that. They won the lot, and the rest of us picked up the scraps. You see a similar situation with Scottish football and in all honesty most football in the world apart from England. Do we really want that? Is Koucash aware of that? I very much doubt it.

Mr Koukash has issues with things that go on at RFL don't we all, but all out war and mutiny will not progress the game before it does serious damage to the sport in this country. He needs to quit twitter and get round the table and discuss these issues without thinking he can do as he pleases.

He makes my teeth itch. Surely he knew what he was getting into before he bought Salford. He has clearly broke the salary cap, will probably continue to do so. His arrogant and spoilt attitude grates on me, and he has zero class. I just cannot stick the man. He has been wanting to buy the league trophy since he first bought Salford, and has failed miserably. I agree the game needs strong characters, but I've never seen anyone in professional sport behave the way he does.