What prompted Smith to say this yesterday? These aren't exactly new views from Smith, and he's entitled to them, but I doubt he was asked about the strength of his squad and threw it in there.

I wonder if Georgeyboy will still be hosting SLTV on the website this season? Nothing like biting the hand that feeds.

To be fair to Tony Smith, they could have been playing an old clip of him having his favourite whine rather than it being his specific reaction to the programme.

Riley is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! TGG is not open to scrutiny or criticism from anyone... inside or outside... not now, not ever. The role of the media is to act as "positive news only" PR agents for the sport and if they don't follow those rules then get the hell away and follow other sports instead. The same applies to fans or anyone else - if they don't like it, if they continually question things or address issues about the current state of the game, criticise the RFL, criticise the TGG, promote negative opinion, etc, then leave... GO NOW... and leave us all in peace to enjoy our brilliantly-run sport which is on the up-an-up and simply gets better and better. Anyone who doesn't follow these rules shall not be tolerated, be subject to an inquisition, heretics fork, judas cradle, stoned, hung drawn and quartered, burned at the stake and then thrown to the lions.

It was Phil Kinsella (BBC Radio Mcr) interviewing Smith at the Launch yesterday. I get the feeling if you asked Smith what the time was he's likely to launch into his favourite monologue about his 10 team gentlemens club .
there is a time when this discussion is relevant:- ( league structure- P&R is on the agenda for meetings in March I believe ) . but at the launch day the SL comp shouldn't more positive aspects be promoted ? He probably didn't anything else to say , " well I've signed nobody & my older players are even older...next "

No one is saying that. The game should be scrutinised, but, this report is based on the findings of one "expert" and never explains what this debt actually is. That's poor journalism and scaremongering based on nothing we didn't already know. Sports clubs are not sustainable businesses, and that's not a problem exclusive to rugby league.

Why release this report now, on the day of the season launch? Why splash it as the main story on the BBC website RL section when it's not news?

Why should the BBC care whats going on on sky sports

Yep. If it had been an in-depth investigation into the clubs financial positions then fine, I think most RL fans would be interested. But this was a pathetic bit of "journalism" that told us, explained and did nothing other than chuck out a guessed headline figure and a nice, meaningless quote of RL clubs "heading into a financial abyss".
Effectively all the bloke at Sheffield Uni did was look at the Companies House accounts and add up the debts. There's been more in-depth investigative work done by posters on RLFans than in that useless programme.

link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 5809999001 ian lenagan rips into the debate... i like the cut of his jib

link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 5809999001 ian lenagan rips into the debate... i like the cut of his jib

I hate to agree with a Wiganer but Mr Lenighan is spot on...

Good interview...

Interesting that he thinks that RFL are now much more commercially adept and links the Stobart deal to increased attendances and awareness.

I wish our chairman was that positive about the game!

Well said that man!

Thanks for posting the link Roughyedspud.

Never heard him speak before. Good guy. I hope someone who can do something about it is listening.

How dare anyone wash Rugby League's dirty linen in public. I hate all this bad publicity. Let's return to all the good publicity we made for ourselves last year, when all this nonsense about financial struggles didn't exist.

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19110189[/url

Isn’t it odd that the majority of criticism aimed at SL, is from people who don’t support clubs in SL.

Most SL fans have pretty much dismissed the negativity, and the people who are overly negative about the game as described by Ian Lenegan, are people aiming criticism at a league they aren’t involved in.

I think we are all well aware of why certain vested interests would like to do that.

Lets have a bit more of Ian Lenegans defiance and positivity and drown out those claiming the sky is falling in, only because they hope it does so the game drops to a level their club can compete

It is to be hoped that TGG does not suffer from a significant decrease in attendances and awareness in 2013 now that the ground-breaking and highly successful Stobart deal has been terminated.

Hear hear Smokey!! Well said. Bravo. Super duper.





That'll shut those irrelevant upstarts up. I mean - if 14 clubs were given licences under a franchising system and given the once over by KPMG then where do these critics get off? Pathetic, the lot of them. I'll be glad when all this is brushed under the carpet and we can get back to what we do best!

Bring on the World Cup!!!

Quote ="littlerich"Hear hear Smokey!! Well said. Bravo. Super duper. That'll shut those irrelevant upstarts up. I mean - if 14 clubs were given licences under a franchising system and given the once over by KPMG then where do these critics get off? Pathetic, the lot of them. I'll be glad when all this is brushed under the carpet and we can get back to what we do best! Bring on the World Cup!!! '" You can repeat that the sky is falling in as much as you like, it wont make it happen. I find it quite telling that your media reflection on the Bradford case was simply that it wads the article you quoted, why not this article from an actual, respected, investigative journalist who specialises in sports finance? www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-c ... per-league

Quote ="littlerich"Hear hear Smokey!! Well said. Bravo. Super duper. That'll shut those irrelevant upstarts up. I mean - if 14 clubs were given licences under a franchising system and given the once over by KPMG then where do these critics get off? Pathetic, the lot of them. I'll be glad when all this is brushed under the carpet and we can get back to what we do best! Bring on the World Cup!!! '" You can repeat that the sky is falling in as much as you like, it wont make it happen. I find it quite telling that your media reflection on the Bradford case was simply that it wads the article you quoted, why not this article from an actual, respected, investigative journalist who specialises in sports finance? www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-c ... per-league

I'm with you now Smokey. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the game. George Riley and that student should be shot. Can i go and shoot them? Shall we do it together?

I don't think anyone is saying that there is nothing wrong in the game - the grievance, I think, is that the things that George and his friend from Sheffield Hallam said are wrong with the game, simply aren't.

The numbers he quoted were without context and meaningless - that was either inept journalism or a deliberately egregious attempt to create a headline - I'm not sure which, but I suspect the latter.

I can't believe a SL chairman just spent so much time in such a short interview talking about football and union.
Did he really compare SLE attendances to Accrington,Morecombe and fleetwood.Oh and wheres Gelling from again?.

Another bucket of sand for those heads please.

FFS!

Can everyone STOP with all the negativity? Please?

I'm upset.

Skrunch yer eyes up - real tight now - and at the top of your voice start singin ohh hali hali,hali hali hali hali halifax and before you know it it will all have gone away



Alternatively you could sing ,woody is our hero woody is our hero na na na na

and is if to prove my point, we have the three stooges above.

^^^ this

Too right. Why the obsession with debt? Professional sport is run on debt - usually to extremely wealthy dreamers who lose money. Let 'em do it for all I care. In the end, teams generally survive even when holding companies go bust. We chased a dream of a self-sustaining world of equal competition where Wakefield would be as well supported and successful as Leeds, and its been shown up for the idiotic nonsense it always was. Professional sport is generally a loss making exercise - just make sure its the rich dreamers that are ones making the loss. We whinge about media coverage, but we've done plenty to drive away money and general interest. Oh, and guess what, I wish it weren't true, but money and media interest are very closely related.