just thinking that people seem to be really down on the league at the moment with a slight attendence drop and people going to the nrl, but really is it that bad at the moment?

as long as we can keep the big clubs getting over 10k crowds, catalan has been a succes and there is now talk of pushing for a 2nd french team to come into super league, widnes are looking to be going into a very positive direction which will now eventually make our derbies huge again, id give it 3 years before the stobart is selling out and maybee a few more before the hj does due to away support

whatever people think of him dr koukash has bought a rl team and is planning to provide big finances to buy players, can we really degrade someone for doing this? he is only going to create another competitive team and therefore raise a club into a big club and attendences, if salford start winning within a few years theres no reason why they cant end up like we did since moving to the hj and id say the same for widnes without the huge financial backing.

so on the whole we could have a french derby in super league with a big crowd, more money in super league and now it has come that our sky sports viewing figures are going up and up? think the amount of negativity on the board is abit panicy

I have been thinking the same, i don't understand what all the fuss about the sport being in decline no club has gone broke this season touch wood. It seems that there is a lot more young british talent coming through at all clubs more than i can remember any seasons before hand. I don't usually agree with tony smith but he's comments about the RFL a couple a months ago were spot on and its consistency what will grow superleague not rash and radical decisions. I think that some reason the faces of super league all seem to be negative and never positive, phil clarke after the magic weekend wrote a piece for sky which i was bemused by saying how come it losing its magic? i watched the whole weekend thinking god i wish i was there and not here.
The RFL can do things better and theres always room for improvement such as finding the league a sponsor, and there shouldn't be any part time at the RFL it needs full time dedicated staff which will help the british rugby league.

I agree, it's not all bad. We are just coming out of the worst recession in living memory and we still appear to be more or less intact. I do think that the RFL should stop this obsession with innovation and also believe that they have taken their eye off the ball regarding the domestic scene due to concentrating on trying to make the World Cup a success.

Completely agree. The economy has been in a dire state since 2008 yet in the past 12 months there has been substantial investment in Bradford, Salford, Widnes, Featherstone and just the other week Leigh. We have three new clubs doing well outside of the heartlands in what is the first pro competition in the history of rugby league not to contain a single Yorkshire side.

At the time I was in favour of the Stobart deal but I will put my hands up now and say it was a disaster. It was good in principle but they should have kept quiet on the fact that no money exchanged hands. By the way let us not forget that it was the Super League clubs, not the RFL who decided to accept the deal and turn down Betfair. It is a bit worrying that there is no title sponsor this year but we have a pretty impressive 'partnership' portfolio in Tetleys, Foxy, Brut, Iron Bru et al. Outside of Super League we have the Tetleys CC, Northern Rail Cup, Kingstone Press Cider Champs and Gillette on the international side of things.

Super League has been unpredictable and exciting this year, just look at the number of close games and draws. The same applies to the Championships, anyone can beat anyone on their day. Not many other sports can claim that.

I think the biggest problem is that rather than coming out and saying all these things, Red Hall sits back and takes a lot of undeserved and ill-informed criticism, much of which should in fact be directed at clubs rather than the governing body. I am hoping that Brian Barwick will become a good no nonsense figurehead for the RFL on that front.

Lets be proud of the greatest game of all for once. I am not saying we should never criticise, far from it but criticism should be fair and constructive. It seems to me there is a culture of knocking the sport and putting it down at every possible opportunity. It saddens me that there are plenty of people who would love the World Cup to be a failure. I look forwards to them being left disappointed in November.

Personally I'm just obsessed with seeing Warrington win Super League. Win one solitary Grand Final and I'll happily go back to enjoying watching rugby win, lose or draw as I did for years before we became any good. Until then I'll continue to live in fear of this golden period in our history going ultimately unfulfilled, panic at every defeat and setback and generally be miserable.

I think a big problem in this sport is the outlook of a lot of fans. Many will moan about things when not knowing the full facts behind them. Plus they will moan about the state of the international game and low crowds and then not go to international games or not bother with the World Cup, or do go and boo Sam Tomkins.

This regular season has been the best for a while. I know there have been two scores over 80 and to be honest that's unacceptable at this level, but many games have been well contested close affairs. Investment was down but now Hull Windes Wakefield ourselves and now Salford have all benefitted from investment. Say what you want about Koukash but he is good for the sport. We need more people come and buy clubs with the intention to make them successful. He's shouted his mouth off a bit but I think he'll learn to reign that in. Magners have put a bit into a few clubs and I think they may be swayed by a good World Cup to put some more into the league.

While think there is not enough money in the game, i hate players going to Union, not sure about Macnamara as England coach, don't like the current Play-off system and miss the Great Britain test series...I think the game is still fantastic.