The game is dying a slow death .
TV and media coverage is poor. Marketing is non existent.
SL has killed it . There has been too much emphasis on the top level.
The grassroots in schools , local amateur Clubs , and the lower leagues has been ignored. To build, you need a firm foundation.
The structure of the game has cut off pathways to play the game .
Clubs have been allowed at the top level, to throw everything at their first team .
Youngsters have been lost to the game through the greed of Clubs . No Academy , no Reserves ! And the RFL has let this happen !
RL is not a cash rich sport , it will implode within 5 years . Once Sky lose interest, the cash that most Clubs rely on will dry up . Clubs will cut their cloth , or cease to exist .

Totally agree that the grassroots of the game has been ignored.
A dozen Super League clubs have looked after their own self interest, believing that all the interest in the game stems from them downwards.
The game at a lower level will be cut adrift, and Super League clubs will take all the money from Sky, who will probably reduce funding as they know they can (as we’ve followed a path of total exclusivity with them).
The failure to grow the game (including lower league teams) with Sky money is nothing short of criminal.

Spot on about self interest of the SL clubs IMO. The most exciting moment I can remember for the sport was that night in Paris at the dawn of SL. Unfortunately the horizons of the game have shrunk and we are stuck with the paradigm of the 4 richest, dominant clubs. Of 42 GF appearances so far, only 8 have been outside this group, and 6 of those by Bradford who had an unsustainable model. Just 1 from us and 1 from Cas outside that. Maybe it's just a little repetitive. Although I don't think it's hugely different in football?

We get old and we complain that things used to be better.

Apologies to any posters above who are millennials, who got lost on their way to snapchat or insta. Your turn will come though.

Its bizarre that the league table itself is the most competitive I can remember, with only Saints and Catalan not having something to play for, and Saints of course still may not win the title anyway...yet I agree with the feeling of apathy.

But agree with others that the standard nas gone down, the teams of the early and mid 00s would walk all over most of the current league. Englands best players going to the NRL has had an effect (though is great for the National team) as has the decline in quality of NRL imports (a few better ones this year though such as Hastings and Austin)

Too many structure chsnges havent helped, a few casual fans I know were baffled by the Super8s, you had situations like last year where Hull had gone months without a win but were 'safe' yet Rovers were winning but still in danger. I also hated the franchising era as it made some teams including ours lazy. Current format is better but woukd prefer 14 teams with no loop fixtures.

For Hull specifically it doesnt help that we keep promising and not delivering, and the KCOM is a big place to fill and the atmosphere is getting steadily worse. Id like to see the club come up with some new matchday ideas for 2020, the announcer used to introduce the stands and try and whip the crowd up, now we just have the same music booming out that you cant even talk over never mind sing over. I also think they should look at reopening the East/North corner as an unreserved area at cheaper prices. 'Chav corner' had its critics but at lesst they sung.

Ain't that the truth - those of us of a certain age are such miserabilists Is that a word?

Agree with most of that, although Catalans do still have something to play for. I do think we suffer from the fact that 3 of the 4 the dominant forces are all within spitting distance of each other and there is no real prospect of this changing. I do wonder as well whether the fanbase is ageing and that presents a risk that the sport will die out, would be interested to see the stats on this. The KCOM is a great facility but simply too big for us, and, derbies like Good Friday this year apart, the atmosphere is poor.

The RFL have let control over the game to slip through their fingers. Grass roots rugby is largely left to its own devices and the international game is a joke. Kick and clap have built a global presence with their international set up. All we can manage is some stupid notion of a transatlantic competition! I despair!

Agree with most of what is said on here. AS a Bradford supporter we have had our share of troubles lately and looking at our current position I am not alone in feeling that if we go under then so what. I am just grateful we had our golden time when SL was in it's infancy and also it's hay-day.
I think the first pointer of SL exclusivity was when we were fined our Sky money for going into admin. It could have been put into grass roots rugby but the SL clubs decided to split it amongst themselves.
As some have said if you take Saints out of the equation the competition at top and bottom has never been closer and yet interest has fallen.

I am a Wire fan & i don't have sky sports or films or anything like ,just sports mix included in my package. When you look at sky's exclusive coverage ,they have actually marginalised rugby league & we could do with at least some free to air coverage ,probably Championship downwards ,to try & spread the game to a wider audience. Rugby Union has about 4 different fta tv companies showing different competitions.
Look at the sponsorship in RU ,they are mostly blue chip companies the heads of which probably went to school with the top RU bods ,whereas we have flat cap sponsorship.

The Championship would be a great comp for free to air TV.
There are some really decent teams in there, and the style of rugby is less rigid and predictable than Super League.

I do think the sport had more skill and flair when it was part time,but having said that I would still much rather watch rl than ru[ an upperclass sport that would be laughed at if it was the working class version of rugby] or football which ive never seen a game since the 70s.

Are any of those fta RU deals for competitions below the top tier? That I don’t know is maybe a sign that my awareness hasn’t been raised much.

Covering sports events isn’t cheap for traditional broadcasters, so they would need to know there is an audience, even if the rights were more or less given away. Streaming seems to be the way things are going for niche markets. And as audiences fragment, perhaps nearly all audiences will be niche.

Fta stuff, to create interest has to be big ticket imo. Test Matches, World Cups, finals. Pretty much as it is in fairness.

If we’re blaming poor management and oversight (and goodness knows there has been some of that), how much better a state should RL be in? Realistically and bearing in mind the sport’s history? When was the golden age (if you think it coincides with a glorious era for your own club, or your own youth maybe that is why, btw)?