We are unique. Groundbreakers. Nonconformist.

Ergo, Rugby League is cool.

you know what rich? you sound more like dickie lewis every day

Kill me now.

ok

I am a supporter of a championship One club, the Cougars. I don't want to see our club lose it's identity by borrowing players on an ad hoc basis from a superleague club, believe it or not people we dont ALL see superleague as the be-all-and-end-all of rugby league. I would rather be proud of my club at this level than feel we had somehow 'cheated' our way up the league.
Good luck to all clubs in the superleague, it's a great competition - but it isn't the only one.

There are clubs and fans outside SL that want to be in SL, proposals such as this will kill off those teams and the majority of those clubs fans will be lost to the game, dropping out of SL saw Fax lose a thousand off the gate straight away and 500 fans a season for 3 years, now we're playing well they are starting to rise again and part of that is because we can see a return to the higher levels on the horizon. Take that away and the competition will suffer because the little crowds will become smaller, the clubs will fold and those fans certainly wont support Leeds or Bradford cos we lost all those fans years ago, they'll give up on RL or just watch the occasional game on telly.

It's strange really, football doesn't seem to feel the need to weigh the game in favour of isolated (geographically) clubs. I don't like the way it all seems so money orientated now in football, but at least a club can get promoted or relegated on it's own merits, purely based on results. It seems that no matter how well a club does in the west yorks or lancs area, it's fighting the 'anti' bias of the RFL, especially if there's a club from a non-RL area somewhere on the fringes.
Is there much of a RL scene in Cornwall - there's no big teams of any sport there?!

No one is asking you people to support a Super League club.

You can feel free to pretend Super League doesnt exist and go and sit with a few hundred people watching lower grade clubs and telling the bloke next to you how youre only a few wins away from being up to Super League level.

Its your right to be stupid in that sense.


The funny thing is, if the RFL removed all rules, Super League clubs would tear apart lower grade clubs because thats just how things work in sports. The best players want to play at the top level. They DO NOT want to stop and play for bloody Sheffield or York!

You take any player from a lower grade club and ask them if they want to play in SL. They would ditch their lower grade club in a second.


And so why does SL want teams to do well in areas such as France, Wales and London?

Because no one outside of the few people stuck in 1950 wants to see big league teams going to tiny little towns, playing parks with tin sheds for stands, against teams that are going broke to field lineups that are so far below standard.

although delivered with your usual lack of decorum i actually agree with you on this

Would you feel better about yourself if I sat you in a comfortable chair, turned the lights down, sprayed a bit of Lavenders oil in the air and rocked you gently while I talked about the game?

Please!

These lower level clubs that run on the smell of an oily rag need to stop their pie in the sky dreaming and have a dose of reality. A club playing on a field surrounded by picket fences, that is run by family and friends, that hold raffles to raise money to buy the jerseys for next year and who loses players to weddings, birthday parties and holidays is not ever going to make Super League.

Never.

Never ever!

Wow man!!!! You really are quite a piece of work. I just get this warm fuzzy feeling everytime I read one of your posts. Your family, friends, workmates, neighbour's must really love your gentle nature.

You've just described half of the clubs presently occupying SL places.

Kogarah?

Brookvale?

Redfearn?

Henson ParK

etc., etc.

So the Aussies did not play on fields behind "picket fences" !!

Hmmm.

It's amazing how history can be changed







PS don't forget the field with the BIGGEST picket fence!!!
SCG

You know what, you are right.

The SGC used picket fences in the early 1900's so any Rugby League club in England that uses them right now is obviously a mega club in waiting.....

So you have been to Brewery Field

I think you're missing the point a bit. It isn't the natural, evolutionary growth of the game anyone has a problem with, and a lot of your post is absolutely right; of course SL is the ultimate goal of many a championship player.
What seems unfair is the deliberate bias against clubs from traditional RL areas, in favour of clubs with no history, tradition or fanbase. Sure, help them along, but from the bottom up, not the top down.

Or do it properly from the top down , but that costs , a lot , and the point being who should pay for it

The clubs at the bottom ?, or the clubs at the top ?

I can undertand that for clubs with SL aspirations that this may seem like the light going out at the end of the tunnel but it doesn't have to be. Here clubs in the NSW cup, Q'land cup linked with NRL teams attract better players as the youngsters want to play for teams that put them in the shop window for top teams. A team performing well in the championship with a strong team of youngsters and SL team reserve/returning players has just as good a chance when franchise time comes around.

I am hoping the WA Reds can form a partnership next season with a NRL team to strengthen our club, allow us to move up a level and put us in a stronger position come expansion time. I see no reason why the same can't happen in the championships.

Read what you have just posted again , especially the bottom bit

Are the WA reds in the heartlands of Australian RL ?

Nope but the same could apply to any Q'land or NZ team with aspirations to move up to the NRL when opportunity arises

How about a Sydney team ?

Rugby League started in Huddersfield in 1895.


In 2009, the RFL is finally giving support to clubs outside of Yorkshire and Lancashire.....and you idiots are whinging about it!

I wouldn't expect dual registration will see lots of players moving clubs every two weeks on a regular basis. The main aim for SL clubs will be to give younger players not yet in the first team to get some serious open age experience.

As LF says, it happens all the time with the Qld Cup here - have a look at the lineups of most Qld Cup teams and you'll see the reserve sides of the Broncos and Cowboys, plus a large number of solid pros (solid enough in the sense that they have played a couple of NRL games). It's a damn good competition in its own right - and to be frank the level a lot of these sides play would put many SL sides to shame.

Playing against solid pros will do juniors immeasurable good. There is virtually no value in the best teenagers playing junior rugby for too long - they can coast and take the p*ss as much as they want because they can get away with it.

One big issue is that Championship clubs with SL aspirations don't want to be seen as feeder clubs. So maybe SL clubs could make short term loan agreements with:
1) Championship 1/NL2 clubs OR
2) expansion clubs in NL1 (e.g. Gateshead, Sheffield, Doncaster)

This would mean that traditional Lancashire or Yorkshire clubs challenging for future SL status, like Widnes, Leigh, Featherstone and Whitehaven, would maintain their individuality and not become feeder clubs to SL clubs. If M62 Championship clubs get relegated to C1, then they could reevaluate and receive SL squad members on loan. If they get promoted, then cease those loans and work with their squad.

English RL has the potential to have a more effective system for promoting/relegating players AND clubs than Australian RL.

Would you mind it if your club got to sign a SL quality/thereabouts player on-loan from a SL club for a year, at low rates? Would you mind signing a player from another team?
Either your club is entirely run from locals or at some point you accept signing players from afar, on loan or on permanent contracts. There is little/no difference between that and dual registration.

Yes, I expect this will not interest the top clubs in the Championship, biut the lower/middle clubs would be happy to take the help and compete on field, even if it made them less likely to get a franchise spot - that they are unlikely to get anyway.