Exactly 10 years after the Gateshead Thunder disaster, it appears the same has happened again and nothing has been learned.

A move to Wrexham and the creation of a championship 1 club is an astonishing U turn, and im my opinion given Widnes is 32 miles away, totally pointless as its Widnes' catchment area.

Australia have done it with Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne. The only paralell is the failure of Adelaide and Hunter, neither of which had much time which seems to be so often the case in this country.

What do we need to do to create successful expansion clubs?

Ensure the game is stronger in the heartlands before attempting to expand into areas where no one gives a fat rats about league.

It's not a flat cap comment. It's sensible. The only expansion club who've done something and actually made a good go of it are Catalands.

Expansionism is needed for the game to survive in this country. But it's foolish to start pushing clubs into SL before they're ready. It seems to me that Celtic managed to sell themselves really well to the RFL in terms of where they were and where they were going. And it seems those estimates were not completely achieveable.

I'm a supporter of expanding the game and I was hoping celtic would take off. But I think they could have done with these 3 years still in NL1. Build up the fanbase, get some tradition going. Get the brand known in the valleys. You can't build up a fanbase when the team gets a kicking every week. No-one who's new to a sport will support a local team of losers.

The new NL2 team at Bridgend will hopefully do it right and learn to walk before they start to run.

Sorry, I couldn't find the sarcasm emote. I happen to share this opinion but have been derided as being a flatcapper so many times I thought posting an image of a flatcap was the done thing...

The rumours are that the Bridgend team will in fact be a Neath based Crusaders feeder team.

It is hard to put into words just how poor an idea this is.

I can understand some Dual registration connections but a feeder clubs a baad idea imo. Without an identity they'll never get past 300 watching

Catalans a success, well, maybe. But what sort of a hand-up did they have?...

merger of 2 existing clubs
the right to field a team in the French national tournaments
three years to prepare
an exemption from relegation for three years
the right to transfer any French player without paying a fee


Having said that I can't begrudge the French this 'success' as at least RL in this country wasn't officially banned! (Which is what happened in France under the Vichy Gov't : the players were 'invited' to play Union and RL assets were seized. As far as I can find out, the assets have never been returned. Oh, and it is still impossible for anyone studying to become a state registered sports instructor to take rugby league as their main option).

If Crusaders was a gamble, then, frankly, it failed. Now I'd rather see development around the fringes... maybe a franchise in Cumbria? Or maybe something novel like a 'club development competition' for areas in the hinterland with a AU$1m prize and a place in SL after 3 years for the club which does best in terms of development



Hehe, they could maybe sell the idea as a programme to Sky, and as a bonus, they could maybe get Raymond Blanc and the BBC to base a restaurant there

I think they won them back in a court of law but decided to move past that and let byegones be byegones, im sure they won them back a few years ago though

If you mean the return of assets ... I don't think so. An enquiry found in favour of RL but the court ruled that only the FRL could pursue the case further something that it wasn't prepared to as it was under continued pressure from the FRU and the (cost) risks associated with an action.

ahh fair enough, i just remember an article a few years ago, wouldnt have took much notice at the time

The value of the assets at current values would have bancrupted the French RU , so it was dropped

id have nailed them for everything they had personally.

we should only expand into areas which are RL heartlands.

this means places like toulose, lyon, mille and all over the south of france

Is that so?

Bit closer.

out of interest how being stronger in teh heartlands amke any difference to the success or failure of an expansion area club? Unless you are suggesting heartland clubs get less money and teh expansion club gets more of the TV grant?

At the end of the day it comes down to the criteria and more emphasis being put on the financial plan and the long term sustainability model. At times the RFL look desperate to expand and so take promises on face value.

Toulouse fair enough but Lyon and Mille?

Mille may have been a treiziste stronghold at one time but right now it is anything but. From memory, they tried to run a Elite club a year or two ago but folded.

Lyon, to my knowledge, doesn't even have a distant treiziste pedegree or even much pretence of an Elite club.

Plonking a club in SL doesn't work, as we have seen with PSG, Gateshead and now Crusaders. I think the way to go in expansion areas is to start teams in Championship1 etc, and let them get to SL the same way teams from the heartlands have to and score them on the same criteria. Don't make clubs walk before they can run.

We also need to continue with the grassroots work. Get development officers into new locations, get it playing in schools and junior clubs set up. Have the RFL produce a cheap magazine/free dvd for school kids and get the great game known to them! There doesn't have to be a professional club in the area for kids to play the game. North Yorkshire don't have a decent football club to speak of, but there are still 1000's of people playing football every week.

In these areas, get SL to link up with amateur clubs. For instance, Hull FC with junior/open age sides clubs in the North East, Hull KR some clubs in Lincolnshire etc etc. The SL could provide the odd training session and equipment, and in return they could get the pick of any emerging talent.

carcassone, veillenevue etc

What have either club got to do with Mille or Lyon?

It's like justifying a team in Birmingham by bringing up Fev.

You've gone up to a whole new level of irrelevance there

i just like talking about the heartlands.