I hope she doesn't read this site or you're done for.

I think that's a really insightful point - not sure if it was meant to be mind you.



The RFL and the wider RL community would do well to remember the advice of Mr B Marley:



Wise words indeed.

=#FF4000I'm very close to walking away right now!

I've had enough of the ridiculous meddling that's changed the sport I played and watched into a sterilised shadow of the exciting skill laden and gladiatorial contest it was in the 80s & 90s. I cant stand watching games where a closed season meeting of the referees who never laced a boot in anger dictates how the game is going to be coached and played by the real people who matter.
The introduction of Franchising the neglect of the lower division clubs and the near amputation of Cumbria sickens me.

Agreed

Well said.

Find it very hard to disagree with every word of that, its sickening.

That what gets me about expansionism, what about Cumbria ? I the top flight, a dead heartland area

I missed a handful of games in about 20 years,,,,not been once since franchising started..just can't see the point without promotion and relegation

For me, the internationals lost a bit of magic when we lost Great Britain. That is our history, with England as some second string. I want GB tours, home and away, not Four Nations, with a three-match series, although I've enjoyed the Aus-v-NZ games.

I think there is a place for the 4 nations, sandwiched between years where we hve GB test series against NZ and Aus. 1 or 2 4-nation series, 2 test series and then a WC where the players get to revert to home nations - meaning Broughy can represent Scotland in a WC and still get to play tests against the best nations in the world. Is it rocket science really?

There was no finer event than GB, Kiwi & Kangaroo tours!

They were a unique element of our game and cannot be replaced by Grand Finals, 4Ns or any other Newfangled idea.

Watching the fringe Test players battle through midweek fixtures against domestic teams and the unofficial 4th Test matches against Wigan or Brisbane and then after weeks of speculation the much anticipated 3 Test series.

If GB were down under the 5.30am kickoffs preceded by a strong hot tea and a bacon butty then bleary eyes glued to the tv to see Hanley dive in at the corner.

Darryl Eastlakes tones proclaiming "he was too fast and too strong, the English fans ave gone mad, it's been a long time between drinks but there's a long way to go yet fellas", I can almost hear the echoes of his voice slowly fading into the past.

Only men not steeped in such history or ignited by those memories can be foolish enough to cast those tours into a black hole never to be seen again.

My sentiments exactly. I used to love the three match test series against the Aussies and Kiwis, but I'd also love to see the top eight club teams get a shot at them again as well. I'll never forget the Australia game at Belle Vue in 1990. Great night!

I thought you had a poorly foot?!?!

I totally agree

I just read the announcment for a return to Wembley...

at this stage I dont think that is a good call!

interest international football was driven by its scarcity... the club games built up anticipation and interest in forthcoming series I really miss that!

tours were the bees knees!

I think this franchising malarkey and the splitting of GB has lost a lot of good will with the core fans, maybe not the big clubs, but for the smaller SL and Championship clubs who feel excluded. These are the fans who make the difference at the big games, not the mythical supporters from Wales and London.

I really think the RFL believe that including Wales and playing it in London will make up for the reduced support from the heartlands. Times are hard. Can people afford another trip down to London? (Although Trinity's offer is a bargain).

It all seems like another cynical money-making exercise and we're becoming weary of them. Of course it would also help if anyone thought England had the remotest chance of winning.

Totally agree. I don't go to internationals, finals, semi finals etc. anymore, I haven't for years. All this franchising has done is turn clubs but particularly fans against each other. That's not the game I started watching and grew to love 50 years ago.

I'm no longer a Rugby League fan, I'm a fan of Wakefield Trinity.

If we don't get a franchise I feel like finishing with the game because I no longer want to be associated with a sport that values "artificial" and "manufactured" Clubs like Crusaders and Harlequins more than Clubs like Wakefield and Castleford.

For what its worth I don't think I'll be walking away as I'm certain that we and Castleford will both be playing in SL next season. If I'm right I still think that franchising needs looking at if we are not going to continue alienating fans and turning our backs on the lower leagues. We used to be a happy family of Clubs and I would love to return to that rather than a game driven by greed.

My first international was GB v Australia at Old Trafford in 86. Despite been well behind in ability (probably more so than today) a massive 50K turned out and atmosphere was simply brilliant. Them days will never happen again!

So what happened since then to the support of the national team? Well it’s already been mentioned, most fans of clubs out side of the elite don’t have the passion for the game anymore. Who can blame them, a lot of them will have simply walked away especially now the dream has gone for there own club.

It's amazing, 25 years on and in the era of full time professional RL was can only get 14K for an international and the games leaders claim it to be a roaring success!

I actually believe that that is exactly what would happen if we had a 3 test series against the Aussies in GB shirts once more - it's what the game is crying out for and I reckon the fans would get right behind it!

Exactly how I feel with the exeception that I don't think we'll get a franchise.

Agree with all that, in fact I was so close to walking away last season, that admin in a perverse way changed my mind (new start and all that)

Wakefield Trinity or nothing for me, flatcap an all.

I think the posts from clan and sandalcat, sum up what a lot of fans feel, particularly fans of smaller clubs.
The game has lots most of the meaning it had when i started watching and perhaps that is down to the belief of the RFL that new & younger supporters want a more modern game, and ours was a traditional old fashioned regional game and therefore not what the new consumer and indeed the TV consumer wants.
I think that this is hugely flawed, as i dont see the numbers increasing in any way, new are not replacing old and attendances at internationals are very poor.
For me the RFLs blueprint for change has been an abject disaster, for one reason.
It an old fashioned reason, particularly strong in our northern heartlands, its called community.
The Rugby family is largely dead, killed by its own, the supporters that once communed at Wembley and Old Trafford to watch Great Britain has drifted of because it no longer has much relevance or sporting chance.
The poor relations are no longer loved and respected by their self serving relations and are living a slow death out of sight.
How can we be in such a state, and how can we bring it back? Certainly nobody at Red Hall knows.

I don't think I've ever read a thread where there was so much unity.

Sad thing is if you posted this on say the Batley, Leigh or even Cas board you'd get the same respnse.

Post it on the Leeds, Wigan or Warrington board you'd get a very opposite response.

There folks lays the problem with the modern game - that's your split - the haves and the have not got a chance. It used to be the haves and have nots, it's only since SL came to be that even the chance was removed.

oh no you havent!!!!

I think international rugby will will continue to fail until the rules which allow players to change their nationality are changed.