Smart ass!



And a realist, like me, is one who spends his working life protecting organisations - from the damage that can arise from relying on over-optimism, whilst failing to recognise and take precautions against the consequences of what could arise if their optimism proves unfounded.

If we DO get Leeds, and if we DO get the points (despite the inevitable Ganson and the Vidref) then that is a superb bonus. But should we NOT, and that makes the difference between 8th and 9th (and based on the "where will we finish" threads most folk seem to be thinking we will scrape 8th) then I fear we may not have a club for the following season.

That said, if we play like last year, and anyway given how otehr teams have strengthened, we are unlikely to be favourites against ANYONE.

The derby thing is wrong, as indeed is the whole idea of an uneven fixture list when some teams play other teams a different number of times.

I for one am happy the magic weekend is being held up north so to speak, we have had the weekend at each end of the country for the past few years so why not have it a bit closer to home. I am sure some supporters have missed the experience due to the hard times and location over the past few years so this will give everybody a chance to enjoy the full game day without travelling to far for once.

I dont see anything wrong with playing it once every few years in the heartlands. It will attract fans that find it difficult to get to the more remote venues. For example. my 14 year old nephew is planning a day trip with his mates. And my neighbours are taking their kids. MM isnt particularly family friendly as its a long trip and the kids tend to get bored when their team aren't playing. But its more palatable if its a short trip and they can come home when the 9 year old has had enough.

There will be a lot fewer going for the two full days but that should be offset by more turning up for a couple of games.

Ehh???

Don't fancy your kind of puddings.

I've just remembered Manchester Magic is a Basketball team, though the name looked familiar.

Aside from my basketball observation, I don't think this is an awful decision by the RFL.

Manchester is a great city and one of the best, if not the best outside London, for hosting events. I've not been to the stadium before, but it looks pretty good. All that is near there is an Asda though and not a very nice housing estate, but there's lots of room for some 'fan zone' type things.

Manchester has a SL team in Salford a couple of miles away, as well as Swinton, Rochdale and Oldham in the periphery of the city. But actually within the city boundaries, there is nothing. It was always a nice surprise seeing someone walking around town in a RL shirt. I went to the University there and Rugby Union shirts at the uni were far more common than league. Plus Manchester is a world famous football city and near where I'd live 9/10 times the kids would be playing football, the other times basketball.

Manchester is arguably the second most important English city in terms of business, BBC Sport are now based there and the Magic Weekend could be a real opportunity to get people and businesses so close to the 'heartlands' into rugby league. It may appear to be lacking in ambition, but if this event is a success it could stand to gain RL a lot more than previous magic weekends.

Fingers crossed!

Maybe they could commit to taking it around the country, a different place every years, we've all banded out stadiums and areas, maybe somewhere new every year from Newcastle to London possibly even France and Spain during better times.

Do we know if there were ever any figure produced on the number of 'locals' that went to the matches or were they all people from the heartland that travelled. From my point of view I can justify going to watch a days rugby where no accomodation is involved.

There were figures published I think. From what I remember the number of locals was pretty low. The RFL had an issue with the people organising it in Cardiff (either the stadium people or WRU or someon) about the lack of marketing. That's why they moved it to Edinburgh I seem to remember. Certainly the couple of times I went to Cardiff for MM I hardly saw any posters or anything.

Edinburgh was no better for marketing. They showed it on Boots n All where they asked locals about it and most of them knew nothing at all about the sport or the fact there was this event on in the city over that weekend.

Personally, I'm in favour of expansion. Because the game needs to be spread to help improve it because the further the game spreads, the more people will watch and take part in the game. We therefore get a bigger player pool and more interest from sponsors. More sponsors mean more money in the sport. More money in the sport means more interest from the media.

Expansion beyond the M62 so far has failed beyond 2 teams; London and Catalans. London has it's well documented problems along with it's gypsy like status of being moved on every few years. Catalans has the obvious problem of away support, it's bloody expensive to go from the south of France to Manchester/Yeadon every other weekend. And vice versa, it's hard to get good away crowds flying down there, not that they don't do their best.

So with that in mind, why don't we focus on making the heartlands of the sport as strong as we can before we spread out beyond it. Therefore, having the Magic Weekend in Manchester is a better chance of getting a sellout than it would be in Cardiff or Edinburgh and makes the game much more of an interest.

I suspect you'll be right about Manchester getting more support, if only because it's easier (and less expensive) to get to.

If it had been in Cardiff again I would have given it a miss; too far and too long on the coach for a day out and neither me nor the wife really fancied the weekend in Cardiff as it just isn't really a 'destination' city with lots of attractions like Edinburgh. I do think the cost is becoming more of a problem too with the way things are. The annual trip to Perpignan is.., well, I was going to say sacrosanct, though that's probably putting it a bit strongly, and if it came to the crunch then it would have to be given a miss, but it is very enjoyable and I would hate to miss it, so if it comes down to cost cutting MM would go first for me.

All in all it's difficult for the RFL to bring in initiatives in a recession and whilst the move to Manchester will, no doubt, be called a retrenchment back to the M62, it's a sensible move to me.

The thing is, (and the marketing people at the RFL, who have been organising stuff with some very decent success of late, will clearly know this), they will always end up getting called, whatever they do, so they might as well just get on with it. They could get a 200,000 crowd while England thrashed Australia in Paradise Stadium with free admission, food, drink and transport for all, you would still get whingeing.

Personally I think MM has become a fixture, it is one rare upmarket, positive event which attracts a bit of wider publicity, and I am sure the fact it is in Manchester is a merciful and wise nod to the recession and people's wallets.

Well done RFL.

think the rfl need to focus on areas close to heartlands ie. brum south yorks and cumbria.

before moving back on with the magic gubbins in cardiff, london and edinburgh

What sized economic margin are we talking when comparing the income from the magic weekend and, say, an 8th-place play off qualification?

I still think its a development event. After all there are no Rugby League clubs in the city of Manchester.

This is a polite request for someone to fall into my trap.

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this is what is going on to expand outside the heartland, one step at a time, but lets hope that there are away games at Coventry, Northampton, Bristol etc in the not too distant future.

Be very careful what you wish for

I didnt say winning away games, one step at a time with both developments, the Bulls and the game. On the Bulls, fighting talk from Platt and Donaldson in the T&A today, so I wish that it turns into good games for them both this season.

This year CC1 consists of Doncaster,Rochdale,Oldham,Gateshead,South Wales,North Wales,London Skolars,Barrow,Whitehaven and Workington. That's one hell of a lot of travel fore a semi pro league. The top four teams will be promoted to the Championship at the end of this season to make way for four expansion teams, the first of which being Northampton. For the unlucky northern team who does not make the 'four' this is virtually a death sentence. They will be left in what amounts to an amatuer league, with huge travelling commitments and also have the added benefit of zero away support at their home games.

Not much difference from the semi-pro blue square north football league which has similar away trips and similar attendances.

No it isn't. Workington to London? Whitehaven to South Wales? Add to the list four more back of beyond places for 2013. Can you imagine the expense involved following a CC1 team from 2013 onwards? But as usual if the RFL deems it is 'for the good of the game' then the loyal fans of existing CC1 teams will just have to lump it.

You could always move to Toulouse . . .

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the soccer people have north and south versions of their 'conference' leagues, which I'd think would be the equivalent, in the sense that they are part-time, of the championship teams. Difficulty for RL would probably be the lack of clubs to make up two regional divisions. It's big price for the Championship teams to pay though.

Workington to Bishop's Stortford, Blyth to Gloucester.. its not far off. Though Bishop's Stortford are in there because of an administrative mess up, Gloucester genuinely are in the northern part of football at that level.

I wouldn't call Northampton the back of beyond either, can't get much more central than that in England!