If you care to look at the 99 season, Gateshead where getting gates of 6-8 thousand towards the end of the season. That would be expected as its a new team building up etc. This was better than about half the clubs at the time and today. So the potential is there.

Please in future do your research before you speak.

I have never said that I dont want the game to expand , but I also dont want the game to die in places where it is much more important to the towns and communitys than it is in Gateshead and Bridgend

You may not agree with that statement , and thats fine , but the only identity that Leigh,Fev,Batley,Dewsbury,Swinton,Fax even Widnes have is because of their RL clubs , lose those clubs and those towns lose their independance and pride

Most will never grace the top tier of the sport again and I can live with that , but the actions of the RFL [ supposed the whole sports governing body ] to these clubs is disgusting

Yes I remember well the 20 odd australians all arriving with houses and cars waiting for them , they played well that year and finished in a good position in the league table , What I dont know is the other SL clubs fans opinion of them at that time

Was it , " Oh well done " , or was it " that team of aussies have stopped us getting a play off place " , what I do know is they lost a fortune , which is strange considering the crowds were fairly decent [ the cynic in me says many if any were not paying to get in to watch the games ] and tells me that without massive external funding no club outside the heartlands is sustainable

You will point out that if the game can expand outside the heartlands then more money will become available to invest in the sport and it will then susrvive and prosper , that is possibly true , but once again the cynic in me tells me that any monies made will not be invested into any existing heartland area's or lower tier clubs

So tell me exactly what benifit to my club and others like it there is to the RFL ' s expansion at all cost strategy ?

Would you follow another club if yours did not exist ?

Maybe you would and that is where we are different , I support my club because it is MY club , from MY town , I grew up following MY hero's playing at the ground I walked past every day

I have no doubt that this opinion is shared by fans of similar clubs to mine , If my club was lost to the sport my town then does just become ' a small town in W1g4n ' , if that was the case then I too would become lost to the sport

My anger is not with you , your club or any club , but with the RFL , they can do things differently , but that require them to work harder and be more open and honest , two things they are either not capable or willing to do

I have been a Leeds supporter since I was little. I’m from the North-East and always have been extremely passionate about my RL. I started to support Gateshead (not as much as Leeds) when they came around in 99 as they are my local club.

I suggest once again you do a little research into the Gateshead story seen as your well off the mark with what happened. Gateshead was a set up from the start by the RLF to keep Hull from folding. So the cost of a new club (you may not like it but the potential was defo there but build a great club) was removed to keep yet another struggling heartland club going that was on its way out. When a buyer wanted Thunder, he was refused and immediately after this the ruling came that Thunder had to “merge” with Hull. I ask was it worth it? Seen as Hull have done little to prove they where worth saving.

I agree the RLFs handling of some things are not the best, however, IF your team does go down, it does not mean it will fold and be the end of civilisation in your hometown now does it. With such a following, you have a much stronger chance of coming back up and recovering. Or are you trying to say that once if you go down, your fans will desert their club?

Your making out that any heartland club should not go down as they will loose so much and that you talk as if they deserve not to be relegate because of their history and fans etc. When Thunder where bottom and getting trashed each week, did you complain, NO. You couldn’t careless.

The rule of Thunder having quota players is coming down each year, we are allowed 3 I think (might be 4, I can’t remember). Has the rule made that much difference, Thunder have battled relegation all season, so this “advantage” isn’t proving your point.

So in a few years when Thunder and Toulouse (if not in SL) have to play by the same rules as all other clubs, fight for a top position or again look like avoiding relegation and sending a heartland club down, will you complain? I reckon so.

This is not aimed at you solely, but all who have this issue.

I am not insinuating that leigh getting relegated to Championship 1 will be the death of us , we are the second worst team in the Championship without a doubt , our points scored tells us that , we finish in a relegation spot we go down , no problem , we will bounce back

Longer term things are different , every time we have a club exempt from relegation or being able to sign players that other clubs cannot, that eats into our fan base and makes it more difficult to attract fans and sponsorship

So you understand the hurt seeing a club you support sacrificed for the benifit of another , well that is something we as fans of heartland NL clubs saw last season when it was plain to all what was going on at Celtic , Widnes most significantly , also the way the RFL blatantley refused to let leigh put the LSV into the application and yet they had several other clubs plans put on a par with our 90 % completed stadium

We also had Richard lewis making a total idiot of himself on TV stating that we at Leigh had a worse junior development than Celtic despite us topping our reserve comp 3 years in a row

I can live with expansion on purely location grounds as that is what we have , what I cannot take is the RFL not having the balls to come out and state it , they could have saved Leigh and Widnes a lot of much needed money last year , instead they promise everybody that they are wanted and that all clubs will be judged equaly

The RFL have been duplicit in the shambles of the Celtic visa's , they are now hoping that if it is ignored for long enough people will forget aboiut it and they will release a statement very quietly that they have investigated it and nobody can be found guilty of anything

But who is going to investigate the RFL about it

Maybe we have more in common than I first thought, Gateshead 99 hurt was a kick in the go nads.

Is there no governing body the RLF must answer to? I don't know of any

The only body that could question the RFL are it's member clubs , so will mr and mrs Hetherington and the other chairmen force the independant enquiry that Phil Clarke called for ?

If Mr's Lewis and Wood knew about the visa's not being legal should they walk ?

If they knew and chose to ignore it etc, then in any other position you would sacked would you not? If this is the case then that is what they deserve.

If, however, this is a mistake (as the UK boarder control are not know for their simple and straight forward process) then they may be innocent of all these claim that are being made.

The RFL should have to explain this as all as they are apparently the bosses so I am told.

maybe a supporters association should be made etc to help in these situations.

Whats all this got to do with Donny v gateshead ?

Nothing , but then again who really cares about Donny and Gateshead ?

Ok , Ok I am out of order , I apologise , anyway off now to watch us win , lose or draw our last game this season

lol Good luck Leigh.

56-0 Thunder, good result and we are also now safe

Well done Gateshead from a Donny fan. A very professional performance.

Well done Thunder!

Looks like it is us

well thats the way the cooky crumbles

See you in a couple of years

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