FA is quite correct in his main point though; the opinion of the referee is paramount in judging what actually occurred.

We all believe that a try is scored by a player putting weight on the ball in the in-goal area, but not so - all that is necessary, is that in the [i:2ps7egawopinion of the referee[/i:2ps7egaw this occurred, the [i:2ps7egawactuality[/i to look at the piccie with no ball and assess its true position - and the winner was the person with the nearest X to their 'expert panel's' guess. Rather like the RFL, they reserved all rights, didn't allow appeals and the Editor's decision was final, of course..

So there you have it. The laws of rugby league are on the same level as a tawdry newspaper 'spot the ball' competition.

er actually per my earlier post its a bit more complicated than that. There are two levels of rugby league law, one that FA would recognise as those laws enacted by our dear MPs in Whitehall and that appear in black and white even in digital form, and the other the practical application/interpretation of those in case law. except in the RFLs case it was secret case law that you don't tell the fans about. It is that level that is the spot the ball. I have no problem with them getting together at the start of the season and agreeing on the interpretation of the play the ball for the season [uprovided[/u they told the fans about it. It would have saved me a whole season of apoplexy when Saints forever dived at the oncoming tackler. But their embarassing attempts to explain it indicate to me that they knew the fans would find it unintelligible, and not because the fans are stupid, quite the opposite. And those spot the ball competitions used to annoy me too, the panel were barking mad most of the time.

and interestingly they do now announce changes to not just the laws but how they are interpreted, at the start of the season. So we can moan for a whole season, not just the grand final.

Spot on, the reason so many perplexing reffing omissions / bloopers/ misses are made is probably 99% of the time because the refs are playing to a script written for them outside the actual rules. I too would have no great issue with that (same for all) if I only could be bloody well told what the fsck the "rule" is.

One glaring example is the PTB. Nobody has sent me a letter of confirmation, but it is 100% certainly the case that the reason referees ignore persistent and delibertae ignoring of the LAW to place the ball on the ground, and to then play it with the foot, is because this LAW has been disapplied by the back door. It isn't a question of "interpretation" either. When I see players barely lift their off the floor and immediately roll the ball to the acting half, maybe under a cursorily raised boot, it isn't as if there could be the slightest argument that the LAW has been comprehensively infringed.

The ethos of rugby league is to not get too hung up on the rules because we can't have the game slowing down for so much as a nanosecond. If you like rugby with a myriad of rules rigidly applied I believe there's a popular 15 a side version available.

Instead we have scrums that involve leaning gently near other players, one of which has the job of ensuring the ball doesn't go inbetween the opposition players (if the opposition got near it imagine the wasted seconds).

The quick play the ball needs looking at as currently it takes up so much time needlessly. Ideally I'd like to see people cutting to the chase and playing the ball before they get it.

This is the problem with the modern world - no-one has time for anything. I bet some folk today go shopping and don't even stop for tea and cakes, lots of them don't even [igo[/i shopping 'cos they use that interweb thingy - just no patience. Don't know what the world is coming to - going to the devil in a handcart if you ask me.

Speed speed speed, faster faster faster, that's all we hear - they won't be happy until rugby is played at 100 miles per hour with no defences and a try scored on every possession and we'd be wishing someone would just grab the ball and lie down for a bit of a rest.. The biggest shock then will be when a team with the ball [idoesn't[/i score after every other pass. Mind, I think we've been beaten to that by basketball....

Fill in the gaps. Can we put out a full team of people who played for Bradford AND Saint Helens?

1.
2. Jamie Foster
3. Paul Newlove
4. Paul Loughlin
5.
6. Lee Gaskell
7.
8. Paul Anderson
9.
10. Sonny Nickle
11. Paul Clough
12. Lee Gilmour
13. Bernard Dwyer

Harry Pinner

Ken Kelly, Brian Hogan and Kel Earl

Mickey Higham......

Mmm, I remember Ken Kelly also played for wire and [I think Leigh but I can't remember a Saints connection and Hogan played a few times for Widnes and possibly Oldham[? but again I don't remember him being at Saints. I do remember Kel Earl being at northern and playing in that ill fated cup final against Featherstone but again not with Saints - mind, my memory isn't what it was....and it wasn't brilliant even then!

Btw, you're not [i:27glb81sthe[/i seventies are you? If so, I'll go away forget I even posted!!

Now now, TT!

I think the criterion was 'played' for, not just 'signed' for! I don't think Mickey's signature had time to dry before he 'left' for Wigan so he definitely didn't even have time to lace his boots, never mind get a game in!

That [iwould [/ibe impressive: sadly, I believe THE Jack Marston is dead.

Thank you Ridlerbull, Jack passed away a couple of years ago I believe. My (also departed) dad was a Director at Odsal between 1972-76 and the keen as mustard teenager I was always fished for rugby gossip alongside actual reported news. I can therefore recall a few details about the 3 signings.

Ken Kelly was signed from St Helens for £8000 plus a player (Steve Gobey perhaps) at the start of the 1973/74 second division campaign. He played most of that season but asked Albert Fearnley if he could have his Winners Medal early to show his dad. Albert was too trusting as KK failed to appear at Charnock Richard Services on the way to an end of regular season away game at Workington. He stayed away until well into the next season I believe.

Kel Earl played as sub forward for St Helens in the 1972 Challenge Cup Final in a 16-13 win against Leeds. Signed for Northern for around £2000 in Autumn 1972

Brian Hogan played for Saints in the 1960's then went to Wigan before appearing at Odsal (can't remember the fee but he had a strange hair cut)!

Ha, thanks for that Jack.

It's funny but even reading all that, it didn't jog my memory at all - though I can still picture all three. Funnily enough, I think all three indulged [as did most of us back then in 'luxuriant' hair - Brian had probably the shortest, but it sort of stuck out strangely, Ken Kelly had long, shoulder length but fairly straight, blond hair and Kel Earl looked most like myself - pretty much the full Dennis Trotter, in my case at least, largely gone!

Leon Pryce

Bryn Hargreaves

Tom Winnard. Probably the single most significant signing from Saints, as he was the first component of the dominant post-war team. And as a 1935 (?) signing, he was at the club way before I was born.

Scrum half - Neil Holding

I can't remember how many games he played for Northern,think it was a season. Pretty sure that we signed him from saints though.

Good one, what a cracking player he was. Like Pinner he had his best years at Saints before he come to us

We drifted a bit on topic for a while so we need to be careful. I've noticed a recurrent theme across several of the threads where, in general, Bulls fans are asking if the answer to our halfback problem might be a giant Tortoise eating a Halloween Pumpkin. Like this:

Think this is a quantum thread, in as much as the topic seems to vary depending, both on the position of the observer, and which reality they're in at the time.

1.Jamie Foster
2. Paul Loughlin
3. Paul Newlove
4. Tom Winnard
5. Leon Pryce
6. Lee Gaskell
7. Neil Holding
8. Paul Anderson
9. Micky Higham
10. Sonny Nickle
11. Paul Clough
12. Lee Gilmour
13. Bernard Dwyer

Kel Earl
Bryn Hargreaves
Brian Hogan
Ken Kelly
Harry Pinner


Res: Sulcata Tortoise

Probably swap Harry Pinner for Bernard Dwyer at 13 and maybe, possibly change Ken Kelly for Lee Gaskell at 6, and put Gasky at no.1 instead of Foster, but that's a pretty good side, isn't it just!

I am planning on using this thread almost exclusively to offer barely lucid faff. However, I reluctantly accept that some of you may wish to make sense.

Well, yeah - I definitely set of with what was, [imore or less[/i, 'barely lucid faff', but then, think I maybe, took a wrong turn somewhere and it ended up[i looking like [/i'sense', though on closer inspection, I think you'll find it doesn't really even qualify as [ibarely[/i lucid faff..



Onwards and upwards!