im not saying that.what im saying is,SLE was setup to expand the game out of the heartlands.at the moment eleven of the fourteen clubs in SLE are northern,that cant be right.everytime a heartland club loses its franchise it should be replaced with a expantion club.thats what im saying.

No, they are a business and like it or not, London audiences matter to advertisers and advertisers are worth more to BSkyB than all the dishes along the M62. Don't question the economics of Rupert Murdoch....he knows how to turn coin!

...did I hit a nerve





No, not at all. London Pro RL didn't exist....so we were allowed to field as many Aussies as we wanted for the first 10 years......but I belive HKR have been around a tad longer than London RL....or have I missed something? 125+ years of history and you can't find 30 local lads....outstanding. Regardless of you not being in SL, the fact you allowed your youth system to decay is the reason you need special treatment from the RFL.........and the 5k extra fans that you have added since you arrived at the top table shows how fickle and fragile your support was........glory hunters aren't fans...they will turn on the team or even worse, turn their backs on the team once the going gets tough.

I'd love to stay and chat but it's Semi-final day here in Wellington RL.....need to get stuff done before I can go and watch some grass roots RL in another "expansion" region.....

Do you think the attendance may break the 1122 barrier?

I'll let you know

2,500 turned up for the colleges final last year......I expect at least 1k at Fraser park today.....but the NRL, like SL/RFL aren't too concerned by attendences...it's advertisers coin that interests them. Wellington isn't as "wealthy" as say, Perth as far as advertisers are concerned....so it will be a while before we see a second NZ NRL franchise....that and the fact that if there were a second NZ franchise, the crims would have to look elsewhere to nick all their young stars

But we already have 2 expansion clubs in SL who are not up to the so called standards expected, so it would be insane to bring more in when the ones we have are struggling.

I am not against expansion, but why should it be at the expense of clubs who have been around for 100 years +. The RFL/SL treatment of some of the "smaller" heartlands clubs is bordering on criminal when you consider what they are doing to help the expansion clubs out.

Any new club in an expansion area wanting to join should be made to play in the lower leagues and meet the criteria that the RFL has set for Clubs in the Championship to be able to apply for a licence first - there should be none of this fast tracking clubs that aren't ready in and damaging established clubs who at least have the foundations to build from.

To anybody not involved in the game, the way RL is run must be classed as a joke, bordering on downright dishonest.

No P&R, constant changing of criteria to manipulate who is likely to be successful in obtaining a licence, a blind eye turned to the failings of certain clubs cos they happen to be in an area marked down for expansion.

They might as well just cut the pretence and say that the only clubs who need to apply for a licence this time around are :

Wakey
Cas
Salford

plus Widnes and any other Championship club that meets the criteria.

Lets face it, we all know it is one of the above three who is definite to be replaced (maybe two if the RFL can find a way to justify Toulouse being included).

Sorry mate, you talk sense and defend your club at the best of times, but that is one hell of a statement!

Perhaps London RL will continue in some way, shape or form for the next 10-20 years and beyond, however if attendances say dropped to below 1000, surely it would send out a message that nobody really cares? The problem is, the product is fine, but people just don't seem to care unfortunately.

I think every switched on RL fan knows that London and Crusaders aren't going anywhere, no matter how badly the club performs on and off the field. It is a straight shoot out between Wakey and Cas, and it will be a sad day for RL if either of these clubs take the plunge never to return. Widnes deserve a shot, good club, great supporters, and I'm sure it won't be long before Widnes are averaging 7000-8,000 every other week. There is a real prospect for growth at Widnes, something that I don't think we will see at London, Wales for a very long time if ever. Hopefully I'm wrong about these expansion teams, I just can't see it though.

I hope the franchise decisions are not broadcast live again like last time, it was horrible and would be a mahoosive bag of nerves come D Day and Richard Lewis' ugly mug pops up on Sky Sports News.

A team in London was a condition of the initial Sky contract.

I have already covered this but you seemed to want to ignore it.
Sinfield/Borrow/Briscoe (Tom) as 3 examples .
None SL clubs cant keep the SL quality players as you will understand.
You are clearly just trying to be smart.

which players did hull kr lose to a club other than Hull FC (where no doubt you will claim all of them, but it is irrelevant as we already have a club bringing those through)?

We have been through this before Smokey go and have a look at your old posts the answer is in there.

im not proving your point for you (mainly because i believe it to be nonsense)

Besides Wilkin, which SL quality player from hull, wasnt picked up by Hull FC?


BTW, Burrow was from Cas not Barrow and was educated in Leeds.

Quite possibly several who for whatever reason didn't make the Hull FC academy at any given point in time but if there had been another option might well have done

You have argued many times that it is the RL education provided by SL quality clubs that turn ' sows ears ' into ' silk purses ' , and that the amatuer part of a players career has less influence on the outcome of a talent

HTH

You have stated ad infinitum that it is impossible, by definition, for a club outside superleague to get to SL level. How are players any different? Would you expect SL quality players at a non SL club? You would normally argue not, so what exactly is the point you are trying to make?

Does Ian Kirke count?

If a Super League club gets turfed out next March, they will then be playing the entire season knowing they are not gonna be there the year after. And what if that tam won the GF!!!

OR will the club not be told until the end of the season??

will be announced next July

Hmm, so the relegated club could still be signing players for the following season right into July. That's clever.

i dont think the diggers matter were salford are concerned.its just a quick phone call to the LSV and it'll be sorted.the same as saints at widnes me thinks.

thats RL mate

Bill , no worse than in seasons past when Cas found out on the last day of the season , and what is the other option ? , playing 80 % of a season knowing you are being dumped potentially forever from the top tier

Then again all this was 1 st pointed out all those years ago when they 1 st got the idea , personally I think they were hoping it would never come to this and they could expand to 16 clubs then shut the door , but the economic implosion has cocked it up for them , I wonder how exactly they are going to do it ?

X factor style with 3 chairmen stood in front of a panel ?

Celebrity get me out of here style with a couple of ' flunkeys ' doing the dirty deed

Or via Text like that whatsitsface co did a few years back

Will big Nige and Richard be the harbingers of doom , or will they give that ' honour ' to Bev Risman

RL , great innit

The difference is when Cas got relegated, they had enough notice by looking at their league position (probably months before the end of the season) to think, right, hang on a bit lads, maybe we better see how this pans out.

I just realised that it is no different is it?

No



I notice Smokeys gone sulking somewhere

During the eighties, Soaps used to have a token black man, usually standing at the bar. Is this something similar? Hell, if BskyB wanted a giant rolling turd on the sidelines we'd accomodate wouldn't we? £60m is a lot of money.

TBH i'm not getting in your usual quotathon.
And it seems Bill and Starbug have saved me the job anyway.

The key word is 'was'. Apparently it isn't now (note - key word 'apparently').