agreed

Don’t get me wrong guys – I really hope they succeed, just don’t think it will.

Im not having a pop at individuals here but rugby league fans do get on my wick sometimes



we moan about lack of coverage in the press, how we are not recognised



and you wonder why?





because some of the support our fantastic game is dead against change and it winds me up, we should be backing Celtic and Quins etc, not putting them down



the challenge cup tie against Crusaders last year, their support was outsanding and a joy to be with, why? Because they loved Rugby League too and was fascinated by it and wanted to talk to us about it, even some of the came to top part of the south stand with us and we had a sing song with them!





Yes there not so hot at the moment, but they won at Odsal which is more than what the current Super League champions could do AND remember...they nearly beat St Helens

I couldnt agree more



well said that man

i just take the point of view that more so in wales than 99% of places on the globe kids from an early age play rugby not football, not cricket but rugby, ok it might be union but they have the natural instinct of egg chasing in em.



i think their youth team set up results show they have a real chance of been a power in the game in years to come.



but like you say we will just have to wait and see

totally, their reserve grade beat us



however, this goes unnoticed by the average fe[ic[/ikwit fan as Sky Sports didnt show it, it doesnt happen

I dont wonder why. I know why.



The RFL want to attract new fans to the game but do this at the expense of the current ones.



Switching games around after people have already booked is a fookin joke. Why should people have to book extra days on the offchance the RFL are going bend over and take it up the rectum from sky, again?

batley by plenty after today

Would that be the same Widnes who got boned at Batley today?

:lol

one of the major changes that needs to happen, is the fans attitude. super league, and the championships are miles apart, and this is the only was its going to work currently. there just isn't the money or players to have 2/3 great league, we can either have 1 great and 2 good leagues (which our only major media coverage wants) or 3 average leagues.



then if we change the smaller clubs into more of a feeder club/little brother of a super league club. then it would be a chance for some of the nearly super league players, to easily play in the championships, thus raising the standards and also (in theory) bringing crowd numbers up. as the super league clubs fans would be more likely to go watch the feeder club, knowing that they'll get to see some good rugby & know that their money would be going to the overall well been of their super league club. Currently not many people in rugby will go watch 2 teams, despite the fact that of the massive gap, so talk of rivalry and such stopping them is bull.



as an example lets look and rhinos & hunslet and leeds united & farsley celtic.

would a leeds united fan, thinking anything of watching celtic on a saturday afternoon then united on a sunday? or the other way round, a cetic fan going to watch united. i'm willing to bet most would be happy to do both, knowing that the clubs are miles apart in skill and set-up, and its almost like they're playing two different sports.



would this happen in league...well the answer is no it doesn't. anyone who's been to hunslet games recently will know that the hunslet fans (still) hate leeds, and i think most leeds fans don't care enough about hunslet/rugby league in general to put up with hatred.

and although there is only two diversions separating them, the gap in set-up, skills, etc is in terms with the football example.



now i'm not saying a connection between the clubs would be a instant answer, but i do think it would open up more people's eyes, and with the right promotion/offers in would increase the crowd numbers and in the long run do our sport a world of good. the media would take much more notice, if the championships were getting 6/7/8+ thousand a game.

the more media, the more money, the more the sport grows, the biggest the player pool, the bigger the fan base etc



but at the moment, there's to many stubborn people for this, despite the fact that only a couple of the championship sides are any where near to been ready to offer the full package for superleague (e.g. staff set-up, stadium, general community work, junior development)



what would be best for our sport:

1) rhinos getting 17k, hunslet getting 0.5-7K (currently the case)

2)rhinos getting 10K, hunslet getting 7K (both playing in super league, which is was most hunslet fans want)

3)rhinos getting 17k, hunslet getting 4-8k (example/guess feeder club set up numbers. e.g. rhinos season tickets holders get in for £2 & hunslet get a lump sum of £5 per season ticker sold by leeds)

The obsession with crowd figures is a load of cobblers. Gate revenue will generally be no more than about one third of total income - the other main sources being TV and individual club sponsorship.



In negotiations with Sky et al a SL including teams from Wales, France and London is one hell of a lot more marketable than one where those sides are replaced by another 3 northern clubs (none of which are likely to be truly competitive). That's what Quins, Cats and now Celtic bring to all SL teams. If you don't think this is important, then you are certainly living in the past.



I have no problem with other clubs forcing their way into SL on the back of a solid case including fuinancial backing, ground etc. In fact, I suspect a couple of teams outside SL perhaps could offer more to the game in the long-run than a couple of existing sides - but only existing heartland sides.



Hopefully the franchise system will see teams like Wakefield pull their socks up or get kicked out. As for Celtic and Quins, if between them they are reasonably competitive and produce a couple of GB players every few years from non-heartland sources then they are a success. On that score as of today I'd say it's hard not to rate Quins a success.

Perhaps as a sport we should also be looking at how the AFL (aussie rules) do things ... They've not had a problem setting up a team in every state over the last 20 years, in non-traditional areas and turning them in to successful operations.