This man is as bright as a button and very fit and looks twenty years younger

Were they? I got my info from [url=http://the18thman.com/2016/09/28/super-league-attendances-down-on-last-season-attendance-review-2016/3/here[/url, which shows crowds were up last season and down, slightly. this season. Why you keep ranting on about 2012 every time someone mentions this & last season's attendances is beyond me. It's almost like you have some kind of weird agenda against the new format.

There's significantly more people discussing the game online these days but, like it or not, the bulk of them are choosing social media as their outlet.

I've no idea how those people can be tempted to use RLfans, maybe a bit of advertising or..... promoting the forums for free on social media might help!! Social media integration would also work. Giving people access to the boards by letting them login with FB or Twitter accounts would definitely increase usage.

The core of main posters on here are guys who started supporting/watching Leeds back in the 70's/80's or even earlier. Very few on here that started from 2000 onwards and that's the issue as it's showing RLFans to be an antiquated form of discussing the game online. Some will prefer this as they don't have much time/respect of the views of younger fans who were brought up in a different period/style of RL and are usually quite dismissive of them and thus why they're wanting the return of previous older posters but not questioning why we aren't getting newer posters.

Some older fans will drift away over time due to various reasons, for those of you who started watching in the 70's/80's who rip the game/club now I'm confident they'll have been fans who had been attending for 25-40 years when you were still new to the game giving it all the "the game isn't what it use to be", "it was better back in my day" etc.

The reality is that conditioning and skill development is way ahead of what it was in the 70s, if anybody genuinely believes that the part time beer swilling players of that era would on the whole compete with the players of the modern era they're kidding themselves.

Just watch videos from yesteryear, defences are dreadful, the contact allowed for a quicker more broken style of play, half backs had gaps a plenty to run at. And if anyone really wants a return to those 'scrums'...seriously?!?

What has spoiled the modern game is the rule changes and 'tactics' which have been employed. The current game is very far from perfect but I do think we've been spoilt for entertainment compared to the likes of football and Club rugby union.

I'd change the game to place a greater emphasis on athletic player and less on size and wrestling, remove some interchanges and subs and that would go a long way.

I've a player who's just signed for the U19s at Wakefield, he's the most gifted athlete I've seen at that age, Jason Robinson like abilities and very strong . However leeds and others wouldn't look at him due to his height, though they'd take on a back of 6ft without half his talent purely because of the potential of his frame, massive shame the games gone this way. He's just one example of a supremely talented player over looked due to this reason.

What position does this lad play?
If he was a half back then surely his size would be less important than his pace?

Has played at fullback for me as best suits his skill set/qualities he has, has played a bit at hooker and Wakey using him at 7 sometimes. Leeds were genuinely surprised he'd been offered anything due to his height, he is about 5, 3 (5,7 with the afro!)

Another Rob Burrow maybe?

Is there any scope for putting a page online for this / that links in to this so people can post either on this page or via Facebook and it will show in on both? Might make it a bit more personable too as you can see a tad more about each other rather than hiding behind phones / laptops like 21st century versions of knights from rival places that deride each other as they have the same passion but actually know little about each other about people?

Personally I was comparing the game now to 8-10 years ago. Never mentioned the 70's.

I think you're on to the right line of thought to keep this type of forum (RL and otherwise) relevant and sustainable, an integration between fixed forum and social media, with a feed into twitter/facebook for those that do that, and replies showing here (and there) appropriately.

Now we've new mods to make it happen too.

I watched a Leeds - Wakefield game from 2011 recently, that McDermott coached Leeds team would comfortable beat any SL team in 2016, IMO. That team ended the Regular Rounds in 5th and that's why I think the game is currently in the doldrums.

This isn't a case of looking back at a bygone era through rose tinted glasses in order to compare apples with oranges it's seeing a slide in skills and entertainment over a relatively short period of time.

The last two weekends have been the best of the season, as they should be but what went before has been a hard watch in 2016.

Why wouldnt we compare it to our high-watermark? Is this new format the donald trump of formats, so ridiculously bad it needs to be judged on a curve?

Comparing apples with oranges will often confuse a fool. For instance, you could simply take out 2 of your lower figures from your data set and claim the average has gone up, when in fact, the opposite had happened.

No, just compare it to the previous year or two and see if there's an improvement (which there has been). It's not rocket science but even then it's flawed as next year will show.



Nice. So the stats on the link I shared were wrong and crowds weren't up last season & slightly down this?

Your argument would have at least seemed a bit stronger if the article you quoted didnt compare it the same 2012 for the same reason.


They were down last season and down again this season.

TBF tvoc you mentioned a number of issues you had in your earlier post (scrums, play the ball, "sanitation of the game" etc) and these aren't things that have happened over a short space of time.

Team's have become more obsessed about the PTB since the 10m rule came in. Scrums haven't been competitive for about 30 years.

Are you sure you're not confusing a slide in skill and entertainment at Leeds with a slide in the game as a whole?

No, the table showed the last 5 years attendances. I compared it to the last 2 seasons where crowds were dropping before the new format came in.



So you keep saying, without providing any evidence. Are you Sal Paradise in disguise?

So is this table wrong then?

Point taken but I would still say (leaving the scrums aside - a long standing blight) that the game has been deteriating as a spectacle, IMO losing it's integrity as a skillful sport along the way. I haven't watched it back but I'd offer the set of play the balls that led to the winning try in our own GF on Saturday as a prime example.

Scrum (enough said) then Gelling tackled, stands, plays the ball with the foot - that's Rugby League - but then was it Isa then Sarginson then Bateman all just rolled it back without even attempting to lift a foot let alone play it correctly. The last of those so quick that Matty Smith had to rush to get in at dummy half.

No wonder the sport had to stop the video ref judging the legality of the play the ball.

It'll now be interesting to see the interpretations applied in the forthcoming four nations - what's the betting it'll back to playing the ball correctly, I hope so.

Think the PTB is going the way of the scrum. The rules for scrums still apply but are simply ignored.

I would suspect referees ignore the foot/heel not playing the ball as a way of speeding things up because so much wrestling is going on it can make it too slow. Trouble is once you ignore it in those circumstances you have to ignore it fullstop. The chances of getting us all on the same rule book internationally and domestically are slim to nil.

We were told that by allowing a slower PTB it would allow defences to be set and eventually help create an environment where players would have to increase their skill levels to break down a defence rather than rely on dummy half scoots or repeated one man drives. I'm not sure we've reached or will ever reach that stage of evolution. I don't even know if anyone is going to do any proper research to check. A lot of rule changes seem to be done on a whim.

Personally I would further reduce the number of substitutions as per the NRL. That should free up some space for skillful players as players tire. Refs could then police the PTB more. It does need tidying up. You should see the speed of PTBs in the championship, you can go for a cuppa and come back in the time some take.

iv already told you why, my only question is, if we are using deliberately misleading statistics why be so unambitious about it?

Sorry, what? Can you tell me again since i've obviously missed a post of yours somewhere.
Please also point out where these misleading stats are too. Thanks.

Psst: thats exactly what happens between 2014 and 2015 in that table.

Sorry but you're an absolute tool Smokey.

86.2% of the most accurate statistics are made up on the spot.