"I have been attending Super League meetings for 17 years and I have never seen anything like this before"
G Hetherington
And look where those 17 years have got us! Without a change of hierarchy at Redhall and some fresh commercial ideas from suitably qualified people we'll be lucky to see another 7 years of our great (on the field) game. How the RFL believe that they can persuade people like AP and Hudgell and the like to invest their own money into SL when the game is managed by parochial amateurs who seem unable to organise a p1ss up in a brewery never mind get sponsorship from one is beyond me. Clearly these guys have had enough and there'll be little chance of getting any more of their type involved unless something changes.

Totally agree, the game is being run by rank amateurs who haven't a clue. The game is dying, people are just losing interest, simple as that, and that is all down to the people running the game. Endless tweeks and changes to rules to try and appeal to tv audiences, franchise systems, getting rid of P & R, flogging dead horses in London, Crusaders, Catalan, 'Magic' weekends in Wales, Scotland. England internationals in Wales!!!, sponsorship deals with truck companies for zero ££, the list of idiotic, ill-thought out ideas goes on and on.
Perhaps they should look at the other version of our great game to see how it should be run! the ra ra boys seem to be going from strength to strength, over 60,000 the other day for a Heineken Cup 'pool' game for gods sake!!
People from outside our sport just look at it now as a joke! 'here they go again changing the system again!'. We need stability, we need to go back to 2 leagues with P & R for a kick off and then leave it. Stop tampering with the game. Most of all we need people running the game with a bit of nouse and who are going to look after the teams and supporters from the heartlands of the game.

How are we flogging a dead horse in Catalan?

I think a number of the initiatives have made sense , including Catalan , they've just managed many of the others poorly and allowed factions from all areas of the game to have their two-penneth thus diluting and undermining their position. My main point is that we need professionals running a top flight fully professional game. Managing from the bottom and in fact pandering to some of those"heartland" clubs that have a history of management failure , will just create a lower common denominator and eventually we'll be a semi pro or amateur game which will be ironic in the extreme! If we want investors to come into our game then they have to at least have a chance of not losing all of their their money and being able to influence what the game does with it.

Because it doesn't have a junction on the M62.

Because it was a marketing 'gimmick' having a team in France. An attempt to spread the games appeal from its traditional heartland, and make it more of a saleable product for Sky, failed imo. the money pumped into them could have being better spent elsewhere, same as London. Yes they have good support at home but imo bring nothing to the league what so ever, no travelling fans and one of the least attractive fixtures of the season. Would the football PL have invited PSG to join the PL? no. when Paris failed they should have given up on the idea.
People may think I am old fashioned but ive always believed we should protect what we have otherwise the game will die.
We will NEVER compete nationally or internationally with the ra ra boys and the sooner we accept that the better. People in London and the South are not and never will be interested in RL. I for one would rather us see us playing Leeds, Wigan, Cas, teams and fans with passion and real love of the game than London Catalan.

What money have we pumped into Catalans? Or for that matter London?

We did compete nationally and internationally for a long time, why should we give up now?

Interesting point to note that the 6 bottom clubs in SL in 2013, who did not walk out of the meeting last night, all have debts with the RFL that could be called in at short notice. I wonder if that swayed their decision somewhat? Leeds didn’t walk out as it’s clear their chairmen is after the RFL top job in the future. Puzzled as to why saints didn’t walk too?

How about a 12 team SL with 1 up 1 down P & R.
A 5 team play-off to decide the champions, with the league leaders qualifying for the grand final and 2,3,4 & 5 play-off to meet them. Gives more incentive, and meaning to topping the league.

Then along side that, 11 plays 12, with the loser playing the winner of the championship grand final, in a play-off for the 12th spot in SL. Would mean a few less dead rubbers.

P & R play-off could be played as part of a double header on Grand Final day.

Agree about Hetherington's motives. I distrust him and Kath increasingly and now even view their saving of Hull (grateful as I was) as a shunt up the slippery pole to greater influence within the RFL by the controlling of not one but two SL clubs.



And we see it again now. Pearson, Hudge et al have one vote in 14 at any debate. The Hetheringtons have 2, nay 3 if the Rule marionette at Widnes is also deployed. That's almost a quarter of the total vote and over a third of the majority needed for any decision to be carried. They only need to persuade 5 other clubs to their cause and they control SL.

Worrying. No wonder the 'rebellious' 6 feel the need to postpone the conclusions of important decisions by taking alternative action to prevent a vote. Particularly if the issue is governance of the RFL.

Warrington big club

they went in a taxi to the grand final

Quite.

Think you've hit it there. And, as others have said, Saints are the mysterious anomoly.

TV money?? do you like being obtuse or what?
The vast amount of money that London in their various guises have had over the years has being a complete waste in a vain attempt to 'spread the word' in the capital. No one can possibly deny that.

since Union went Pro they have only gone one way, up, where as RL in the same time has declined due to bad management and un-realistic ambitions.

As one of your posters stated on the Wigan forum of the other clubs IIRC Bradford, Salford, Cas and London all owe monies to the RFL.
The only unfathomable is Saints and I await that statement with great interest.

Problem with that is the big difference in salary cap. How often would you expect the Championship side to win? Not really promotion & relegation then, if that's what you want.

Could apply most of what you said to the a London club, but Catalan put heartland clubs to shame with crowds, passion and bringing through local players, especially the likes of Salford and Wakey, and after there initial season have competed very well on the pitch too. If you just don't like the French or the idea of having to travel there etc that's fair enough, can hardly call them a failure though, if so Hull and Rovers are failures, don't win anything, poor atmospheres especially in our case, and further out then most of the clubs in West Yorkshire or Lancashire.

Yep.
It will be the same normal 8 in the SL playoffs as they will be able to start to recruit earlier as they will know they are in SL the following year, then you will have 8 teams in the second playoff group that will be so unbalanced that there will probably be at least 1 battering a week. Add to that another playoff group that will again be unbalanaced so batterings all around in this one as well.
If you were to write down a league structure that is god awful I doubt you could write a worst one then above.
Some still won't have it that the RFL are useless though.

Do you not think those might be linked and that everything is not only down to bad management?

There's a difference between handouts and monetary reward for services rendered. The way you talk is as if you think London and Catalan are wrongly taking money away from others, when TV money is simply them being apportioned their fair and agreed upon share. Now you might not agree that they have given fair return for that money, but firstly that's beside the point, and secondly absolute codswallop if you're applying it to Catalan. Catalan are a great success and an asset to SL, pretending otherwise is just stubborn and/or misguided.

Agreed. France's world cup squad is a great endorsement of Catalan. It looks pretty strong and only contains one player who hasn't played for them at some point (Fages at Salford). It also contains only one antipodean, which is less than Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, and USA, and the same amount as us.

No, it's not, but it is a compromise, and like I said, it maintains an interest at the bottom of SL. FWIW I would like to see P & R.

like the idea of p and r, whatever happens something needs to be sorted,

The trouble is, thanks in part to Sky, 2 or 3 footballers earn more in a season than the whole of Superleague.

There just isn't enough money around to create a fair and realistic structure.

Agree..Hetherington has had his hand in Red Halls pocket for years, and I can't help thinking that the reason he never walked out with the six is because he has his own agenda on the matter.

FYI. Cas owe nothing to the RFL but contempt for relegating us twice , once on the back of the French being exempt and the other time on the back of wigans blatant cheating of the SC