As much as I'm glad I live in the UK now, that is pushing it, if i never go to Blackpool again it will be too soon.

You are wrong.

It wasnt put as a landing page on the RLWC website

It was the latest article on the website. It was an interview with Nigel Wood, about the world cup. It just happened to be the last one uploaded when you happened to go on to the website. But your tery managed to exceed your usual level of asshattery and you decided to whine and moan about it.

Surely you cannot be as stupid as you first appear?

No worries Chris.
Thanks for the honest reply.
You know when you complained about your mortgage payments? you did not have to borrow $800k that was your call.
You know Sydney gets most of its rain in Summer?
I mentioned outdoor living which included BBQ's
I am glad there is no racism in the UK
If 8C is cool in winter why did you not invest in a $20 fan heater? is that hard to do.
I have lived in several places and I believe you have to settle with an open mind, many English people do not work out in Australia because they complain how different it is, there are flies and its hot and its not the same as the Fox & Hounds in Oldham.
That is the reason they move isn't it?

Just out of interest what do you do for a Job that pays three times as much in the UK?

I didnt borrow $800,000 the house was worth that, I borrowed half that, you have a look and see if you can get a nice 2 bedroomed house (not apartment) in a nice suburb for anything less than $500k housing is extremely expensive, not that Im complaining I did OK out of the Australian property bubble.

I never said there isn't racism in the UK, great strawman argument there. However casual racism (in the workplace and in the media) seemed far more prevalent in Australia to me, E.G the term WOG being used for some european people quite openly in conversation and on TV.

I dont know you, but you seem to be the typical 'pom' that cant quite understand why people don't just love Australia because it worked for them. The attitude of some Australians and English migrants for that matter when I said I was moving back to the UK was as if i'd sh@t on there door step, they just couldn't believe that anywhere was better than Australia to live, I find that strange but I liken Australia to a teenager (which it is in country terms) it seems to want to shout about how great it is whilst sticking its fingers in its ears and not listening, again this is just how I found it, I didn't want it to be like the UK and I didn't expect it to be, I went with an open mind but it wasn't the place for me.

Also I did have a fan heater and an electric blanket, it was cold in Winter as i said. I know its rains in the Summer, a lot!


As for work I am a Graphic Designer, but I now own my own business and as such my income has trippled to that of what I earned in Australia. If Im being fair I would say the average wage in Sydney is roughly around the same as it is here in my profession, but obviously in Sydney you have the more expensive living costs.

Australia is a wonderful country, and I may consider retiring out there one day, but I am just giving an honest opinion of what I found when living there, some people are very blinkered when it comes to Australia.

Good stuff Chris.
Will they let you back in when you want to?
I hope they do not allow whining pommies to pick and choose when they can just arrive in a Country, too cold, too hot, too e.

English immigrants were once highly regarded, nowadays they would be near the bottom of the list, whining, unhappy, not like England.
The ones that stay and stop whinging are like the Gypsies of Australia, selling car stereos at traffic lights,
So I am told.

That might that casual racism he was talking about

Im a permanent resident, so I can go back when I want if thats alright with you?

As for the rest of your post - I can see why you've integrated well with the Australians.

As for whining there is a real sense of irony when any Australian accuses an English person of whinging, they are the world leaders in it.

He is kind of proving my point for me

I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with pretty much all of that.

What I would add however, is that whilst franchising does indeed provide the framework within which clubs [ishould[/i be able to grow and prosper, to do so they are still required to be managed and run by competent people. Moreover, those competent people need to be overseen by an extremely robust governing body. As it stands, too many clubs are poorly run and the governing body appears to lack the courage of its convictions in terms of enforcing the franchising framework in a consistent way. Organisationally, there is a rather immature feel to the RFL, in that it lacks honesty about the things it gets wrong whilst making overblown claims about the things it gets right. I'm not advocating BBC style naval gazing and public flagellation, just honesty, a willingness to learn from mistakes and a bit of tough love in terms of allowing those clubs who insist on failing, to do so.

As for JP - I have terrific respect for him as a player; as a RL futurist - less so.

I don't care if it was 'put as a landing page'. For a significant period of time, it was the first image people saw when they landed on the site. I couldn't give a flying whatever why it was like that. It just was. And embarrassing. Thankfully it seems to have gone now. Good. I hope you downloaded the picture to add to the little shrine you have behind that curtain.

Yes, we should all be embarrassed because you don’t like Nigel Woods suit.



I know you like a whinge, but Christ almighty, it’s a mans suit ffs,.

Its quite funny that you have spent your time over the past few days whining about a problem you made up and admit you have no idea whether or not it exists or is even a realistic possibility, and the fact you didn’t like Nigel Woods suit in a picture headlining an interview with him. That’s not normal. Its quite funny, but it isn’t normal.

The voices in your head aren't the same thing as reality. Read, then try to remember what you've read. Then, after you've written your post, before you press send, go back and read the thing you're shouting about again, to check that you replied to the things written rather than the voices.

Im not sure its an immaturity, I just think that the RFL try and present the game in the best light they can. As they are paid to do.

The success/failures of franchising are I think, a bit irrelevant to the problems we are facing. We wont magically sell loads more tickets by going back to P+R, we wouldn’t have better sponsors had the criteria been changed slightly or judging system was a little different. Realistically the problems the game faces are pretty much the problems it has faced for years.

The success/failure of franchising is also difficult to judge because its supposed to give clubs time and space to grow. If those clubs don’t do that, is that down to the clubs or franchising? If clubs make a mess of their finances is that franchising or the clubs?

Right now, I see nothing in the structure of the game which stops clubs selling more tickets or bringing in better sponsors. The clubs do that, they are responsible for it. If clubs do that poorly what can the RFL do? We aren’t exactly besieged by clubs ready and capable knocking on the door of SL.

And i totally agree that we are dependent on clubs being run by competent people, Clubs need to get out there and sell tickets, actually sell them, not take orders for them, go out and sell. Make people who weren’t planning on buying a ticket buy one. Make those who were planning on buying one, bring a friend.

Clubs seem to think that sales and marketing consists of putting up a poster or a billboard if we are lucky, maybe a few things on facebook and the orders will come rolling in. How many truly innovative campaigns do we see from clubs? We seem to have an attitude within the game that if only the league structure was this, or if only club A got some success, or if only we got a tv ad, or more space in the papers, or on sky sports news a bit more, crowds will just turn up. They wont. The opportunity is there, clubs need to go and grab it and stop waiting for it to come to them.

Quote ="RLBandit"The voices in your head aren't the same thing as reality. Read, then try to remember what you've read. Then, after you've written your post, before you press send, go back and read the thing you're shouting about again, to check that you replied to the things written rather than the voices.'" Dont blame me, its you that got yourself all upset because you didnt know how the RLWC website worked and for some reason thought the RFL had decided to have the landing page of it as a picture of Nigel Wood. Only it turned out every bit of your though process was wrong. You even made a thread about it viewtopic.php?f=2&t=548760&tsmp=1366379836 Maybe you should set 'learn how websites work, and read the article before jumping to conclusions based on the picture' as some of your SMART objectives. You know, like you were some corporate big shot. Then you can put them into a list, like adults do.

Quote ="RLBandit"The voices in your head aren't the same thing as reality. Read, then try to remember what you've read. Then, after you've written your post, before you press send, go back and read the thing you're shouting about again, to check that you replied to the things written rather than the voices.'" Dont blame me, its you that got yourself all upset because you didnt know how the RLWC website worked and for some reason thought the RFL had decided to have the landing page of it as a picture of Nigel Wood. Only it turned out every bit of your though process was wrong. You even made a thread about it viewtopic.php?f=2&t=548760&tsmp=1366379836 Maybe you should set 'learn how websites work, and read the article before jumping to conclusions based on the picture' as some of your SMART objectives. You know, like you were some corporate big shot. Then you can put them into a list, like adults do.

There should be a Smokey High-jacked thread option, so i don't get them in my EGO threads.

One problem is, IF this 10 team SL1 is a success then after a few years people will want the cap increased again and again......will this SL2 be able to keep up with the raises or will the salary cap gaps between the two divisions widen to the point its almost virtually impossible for promoted clubs to compete.

A SL2 would just be The Championship but under a new name and with better attendances (but not enough to cope with continuous cap raises). IF a SL1 turns out to be better for having less teams then eventually you'll run into the same problem as now of the gap becoming too wide.

I think the reasoning behind that not happening is the yearly Promotion and relegation interest created

Yeah for the 4 or 5 SL2 teams who enter the season with a shot at promotion. What about the bottom few teams propping up that particular division. The mistake people make concerning this idea is comparing the likes of Cas, London and Widnes with Featherstone and Halifax and that they're easily interchangeable. But the comparison should be between the likes of Leeds and Wigan and whatever teams will be around 9th - 10th place in SL2.

Some SL2 clubs will be able to go with the increases in SC, not all will and theirs where your problems start again.

Relegation to the Championship , in fact I find it quite funny that several Leigh fans are quite keen on this format when we would given our current position by now starting a relegation battle to avoid dropping into the Championship

But then again at least the games would mean something tangible , even I might start going again if that was the case

But the Championship wouldn't be full time so still presents a problem of teams yoyo-ing between a full time £1million capped league to a part time league.

Yes but it is still a ' middle ' step between the 200 k and the 1.7 million it currently is

But how can SL2 teams (or SL1 for that matter) that are tipped to occupy the relegation spots go about signing quality players on say 2/3/4 year contracts when the club might have to go from full time to part time in the period of a player's contract and have to slash its wage bill from anywhere between 50%-75%. In salary capped sport P/R can't work that simple, hell even in football teams that get relegated from the Premiership are to be given £60million 'parachute payments'.

Look I dont think it'll work either , I'm just pointing out the idea behind it

There is no perfect system , and if you believe things are OK as they are then fine , stick with it , My solution is extra investment to improve the Championships , to bring them up to push the underperformers in SL to shape up or ship out

Your solution is ?

Could've settled this a few posts ago.

Aye lad. Like many places in the world it has its ups and downs. What people often mean is "it has nicer, warmer weather as a rule". Take warm weather out of the equation and what else?

Personally I can't see how you can seriously argue that quality of life is "better" in Australia, we have such a rich variety of old, new, city, country, hills, dales, lakes, coasts, rich heritage etc etc etc and given that I actually prefer a huge variety of weather to hot-hot-hot, that sort of clinches it.

It was funny when Leon said he preferred Blackpool to Bondi. But why on earth not? OK a few steps off the mile, Blackpool is a rough place but then that wasn't the criterion. Unless you're a sun obsessive and love being packed on a too hot beach like sardines, Blackpool actually beats Bondi into fits. It has character. A tower. Piers. And they have donkeys.