I don't see what yesterday's Cup Final has to do with anything.

Two teams based on solid defence play safety first in poor conditions? Why I'm amazed! No teams have ever done that before in cup finals in any sport.

I wouldn't call what Hull produced 'safety first'! In fact, they seemed rather reckless with ball in hand (or not in hand, as the case was).

I've no idea whether RFL marketing is incompetent or not but that at McDonalds, Wonga etc certainly would be if sponsoring a sport watched by c100k viewers on sky was the best marketing strategy they could come up with.

Yesterday we still get letters in the weekly press, referring to Rugby Union as the minor sport compared to League, when will some take their heads out of the sand?

That was basic incompetence rather than an attempt as expansive play though.

I,d love to take a visit into Red Hall and see what actually goes on in there. Watching the Brian Barwick video I get the impression he is just a talker with a very limited role being part time and a non exec..
He obviously has the experience and contact to open some "doorways" for rugby league but the biggest problem is with Nigel Wood standing in one doorway nothing will get past him practically and theoretically.
The best way forward might be to create a working group from the best 4 clubs who have achieved marketing successes, business plans etc off the field not particularly on it. This is because nothing of any significant future developments comes out of Red Hall with any business sense, perhaps we need to get rid of the dead wood within the RFL epicentre.

I had quite a long conversation with a Super League coach back in April. He was scathing in his views on both Nigel Wood and Gary Hetherington, saying both had far too much influence on the direction RL was heading. I was quite surprised to hear him be so open about them.

How can we not have managed to get a sponsor for SL? There's no way to dress that up other than complete incompetence.

We've also seen the whole product cheapened with a ridiculous (and terribly structured) playoff system which involves 60% of the teams in SL, seasons that have (for example) seen us play wigan a ridiculous amount of time to exploit the derby day pull.

Absolutly no effort seems to be made to increase our media profile - we've just had the challenge cup final, an event watched live by over 70K people. During the weekly rounds, tens of thousands of fans are turning our and we allegedly have great viewing figures on Sky. So why, during my time in the car over the last week when I listen to radio 2, have I literally heard Rugby League mentioned fewer times than Dressage Eventing!?

Sometime I think everything about the presentation of the sport is at rock bottom. I'm watching SL Fulltime and looking at the stupid robot man animation during the opening credit. If we pride ourselves in having such great atheletes, why don't we even show them on the title roll of our programs? Remember the impressive "Rugby League of the Extrordinary" advert which we all loved? Where were the follow adverts?

Its all just so disappointing at times.

Great post.
At the beginning of the season we had the Sam Tomkins / Bradley Wiggins advert, superb, different. Why oh why didn't we do three or more of a similar ilk. Surely some of the Olympic Athletes from Leeds / Hull etc could have been used with the likes of Sinfield and Briscoe.

I think the RFL in there wisdom decided the young boxer from the Olympics was a household name to receive and award the Challenge Cup Final.
It just wasn,t the right image showing a young kid who didn,t look the part.........Frank Bruno would have been a much better option.

That advert was commission by Sky. The RFL aren't capable of coming up with something as powerful as that.

This is too much of a good idea to be considered by the RFL.
The sheer incompetence of our governing body is astounding.

They do have a problem also mind, the sport isnt exactly at its peak at the minute IMO, if we get a better product on the field then we have a better chance of selling it off the field.

They actually tried that. At the initial meeting four clubs were invited to go away and come back with ideas of improving things (particularly from marketing perspective)

At the following meeting when the clubs were to show their results, only half of the SL teams bothered turning up!!!!!

Unfortunately, to get a better product on the field, we will need our best players to stay in this competition. That requires more money, which in turn comes from better sponsorship and greater TV deals. catch 22.

I'm afraid our time of turning down companies like Bet365 and Wonga.com should be at an end. We need to take a couple of these deals to get the money flowing again and be content with the idea that upon the end of that deal, we'll be on better ground to negotiate with more reputable brands.

Unfortunately, I agree. Start with sponsorship deals which are available, which may, in the future, lead to bigger and more lucrative deals.

It would appear that the Stobart debacle has set us back years.

Considering they seem opposed to one another, im not sure how this would be the case. Leeds were one of those most opposed to Nigels crazy league proposal.

Post Watkins report a year or so ago, exactly this did happen. Different clubs formed working parties for different areas of the game. I think it was Leeds, Wire and two other clubs who looked in to the expansion of the WCC, Wigan and a couple of others did some stuff about marketing the game, etc etc.

Nothing happened, some clubs didnt bother to contribute, and half of them didnt even bother coming to the follow up meetings.

That's embarrassing. People give the RFL a lot of stick but the clubs are just, if not more, to blame

There's always a problem that a club led initiative will be filled with individuals trying to gain an advantage for their club, rather than the game as a whole.

RL just needs to find some half decent guys to lead their charge, don't they?

I got the impression that Richard Lewis left the RFL in a decent financial state. Maybe its time to stick their hands in their pockets and get someone with some real clout. Either that or a dynamic young thing that could use success in RL as a stepping stone to getting a FA job or alike.

The Clubs are to blame, they are the ones who have allowed Woods to continue to rule over a period of failure, they are allowing him to railroad changes through, when the right decision would be to sack Nigel Woods, and bring in someone new, in a few years time someone like Jon Wilkin, perhaps now Robbie Hunter Paul, someone who can sell the game on a better level than the Woods image conjures up.

A few clubs seem to fully back Woods as they are alright, and that is a problem with RL now, it is too short sighted by too many clubs, with their own interests only. The NRL don't act that way, some thought Melbourne would never work, but the NRL ensured it did and then let them stand on their own feet! here we are light years behind, but many supporters heads are in the sand and see no problems.

They'd mainly the ones of the team that would likely be dumped though.

Yea, perhaps Nigel's big idea next is a six club Super League, playing each other 4 times a season, and some clubs would love that, long as we are alright Jack!

I think a lot of people assume too much, they assume if only the system was different or there was another man in charge then it would be better for them, but it could be that with another system or man in charge things would have been different and we could be playing with only 10 teams by now.

So are we to assume then with a different man in charge, that we still would have had no major financial sponsor for Super League, that there would be still concerns at The World Cup?

Then we just carry on as we are, let failure continue, just assuming if we did get someone with more enthusiasm and more corporate experience, they would do exactly the same.

Sorry I don't think so many now are starting to assume, as you call it!