I never said less product, I "quoted" [ulesser product.[/u The lesser product, being wendyball (last nights top class 0-0 draw underlines how easy it is to sell an inferior product to the uk public is) and the superior product being RL in general.

Bottom line is graham may well feel he is made to play too many games, but he is well paid to ply his trade and should either play.......or choose another trade.

Mav....you are a credit to this forum by the way

I think we are at the stage now as John Wilkin as already pointed out that the game has become a risk to the players body, harder impacts, stronger wrestling techniques, joints under more stress. Its a question now do we want quality or quantity.

There is only a sustained period when the top players can perform 35 + games a season as some players have already pointed out.

A superleague career is far shorter than a NRL one, the more games they cram into a season the more risk of your team not being at full strength for say 30% of the season.

If they want to have a magic weekend why don,t they do it over the easter weekend playing one full round over the 3 days.

So its the supporters individual choice, do you want to see lots of rugby or lesser but quality rugby with players at there full potential.

And godknows how players of the past had county cups, midweek games, Regal Trophy, international tours etc to cope with and many had a job too. Poor ickle babies that play the game now.

Not quite the same game mate, and I,m old enough to make the comparision.

eg. Fat colliding with Fat is not the same as Muscle colliding with muscle.

And the game is no better for it, we get basketball scores, no flare and there is more emphasis on the collision than avoiding it.

There certaintly is less skill but like I said its a different game now, perhaps we should eliminate the substitute rule and have an offence and defence on ball change overs, then we can forget about playing against the aussies and play the yanks instead.

We should keep it and move it to a new area each year, my vote for 2010 is 'Maldives Magic'

Or maybe "Maryport Magic" then Graham can stay over with his grandparents.

Sean McGuire did not have a particularly good opinion of the Magic Weekend in today's Liverpool Daily Post. Very critical of it, and his points were bob on.

what was he saying?

- Barring a few notable exceptions, the game has stayed within a set vicinity since its conception

- Good work has been done to get Universities, and amateur teams into the game, but there is a world of difference between playing in a public park watched by friends and family and professional sport

- That Cardiff was miserably attended by those it really wished to attract - locals - and Murrayfield is hardly likely to be better. it will in truth by attended by true RL fans doing what they are famous for - socialising, enjoying each others company and getting behind their team

- Half empty stadiums look crap.

Really? The Welsh Tourist Board, Cardiff City and Millennium Stadium approached the RFL with a wad of money because they wished to attract locals to make up for the loss of cup finals (both RL and Association Football) with the reopening of Wembley? Are you sure?

Do you think all the players in SL took a paycut last time the fixtures were reduced from 28 to 27?

Ah OK, sounds like "it's difficult, we shouldn't bother".

This is a bad thing?

What about mexico magic they will need some tourist after this bug going round.

or forearm too cheekbone

roofs would avoid that one on principle too

we stoped playing midweek wednesday night panasonic knock out cup . not enough recovery time

Oh I will.

It is a question of quality over quantity. Currently a lot of games are unimportant due to the amount of games in the regular season and the ease that some can get into the playoffs. Leeds current form is a symptom of this. The NRL has a fewer number of games increasing the importance of each one.

In the USA major league baseball has the same problem. Each team has over a hundred games in a regular season making each one as an even pretty pointless. The NFL on the other hand has on 16/17 regular season games that make each game intense and very crucial.

The increase in quality is also an increase in intensity so players would still earn their money. Also I doubt they were all given pay increases when the fixture list expanded. With the introduction of the salary cap at a similar time some probably had to take cuts.

If the locals they attracted constitue people from Rugby league areas, then yes. The point here is that the game failed to generate significant interest from people within Wales, which is true.



No it sounds like a sensible distinction between 'difficult' and 'unrealistic,' the latter of which Magic Weekends clearly are when you take into account primary objectives such as bringing the game to a new audience - i.e getting them to attend; potraying a vibrant image of the game - forgive me in thinking that the echo of 5,000 diehards watching Harelquins against whoever at Cardiff does the opposite; and generating significant financial income which the event can hardly have said to have acheived.

Don't let that get in the way of those who have convinced themselves such grandiose, sorry daft schemes are worth it, though.

The NFL is looking to play 17-18 games in the near future and as for Baseball.....the number of games they play has never been a problems for them. In fact the MLB is making a surprising amount of money right now and are getting good crowds despite the number of games they are playing.


The mentality of the British game means that no one really cares enough to change thee current structure. So why should anyone spend their time worrying about the number of games SL clubs play when there are a hundred other much larger problems Poms couldn't give a stuff about.

And the next point is that the weekend hasn't even happened in Edinburgh yet. How about we give it 2 years there and see what the result is before we write it off as a daft scheme?

I'm sure our group is not alone in bringing a dozen or so non-RL fans to the weekend - would be difficult getting the same people along to Knowlsey Road.



How much income does the weekend generate? How much are Edinburgh paying ther RFL? What profit do the RFL make?

Out of interest - did you go to either of the weekends in Cardiff?

1But it's only you and him who've said that was a primary objective. Neither the RFL or those pumping money into it from Wales said it was.

It's like me saying that given that your primary objective was to win the Pulitzer Prize for this post, it's obviously a failure.

[i2[/iThey gave us half a million quid to come and play some games in their stadium. The Scots have apparently come up with an ever better offer. That's not "significant income"?

Keiron Cunningham has joined in the nonsense now..... www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/sai ... gic_event/ do the players not realise they are paid to entertain, not to whinge.

Keiron Cunningham has joined in the nonsense now..... www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/sai ... gic_event/ do the players not realise they are paid to entertain, not to whinge.