Got to say we have been internationally appalling, protecting failing clubs from relegation has solved nothing on this front, what is the aim of the current structure, is it benefitting the game as a whole or staving off the inevitable for failing clubs.
Our games marketting may look good at home, but if were honest its Mutton dressed as Lamb.
Radical thought! stop copying the Aussies and Yanks and do something for ourselves, well always be behind the times if not.
Scrap Franchising now, scrap allowing development sides and foriegn teams to push out British talent and clubs from playing at the highest level, show some faith in the whole Rugby family, and stop focusing on Stevos cliched tripe spouted on Friday nights about how good his show is.

If you were expecting miracles after two seasons then your seriousley stupid.

anything good that happens is because of franchises
anything bad that happens is because franchises havnt had enough time

Exactly!

Any changes takes time to be a complete success, or at least needs to be given time before judgement on its success is made.

On a club level I think that so far the franchising seems to have been a success and it will be interesting to see how teams like Celtic go next season.

On an international level I doubt franchising had any impact upon the team being developed. In the long run though that (together with the rules on international players) should hopefully lead to more teams having a good selection of home grown players meaning in future there will be more competition for places in the squad.

Spot on, Phil Clarke said it spot on too, Clubs seems to focus on themselves, fans seem to too, i.e. I want my club to not get relegated. RL has become selfish and lost its way. Some good will come from Franchising no doubt, but lets stop pretending it wont also do harm. The RL family is now disfunctional in England.

Paradox alert!
So dispersing and dilluting the game makes it stronger, allowing clubs to play more foriegners helps develop youth? i think you will find the main reasons are clubs protecting their own interests and TV money being king, Sky dont want to fund a regional sport so we dance to there tune, Its the Pied piper in RL and nobody seems to be seeing it.

Every club is now bringing youngsters through, that cant be a bad thing-It will just take time

Mcnamara has taken a young side to Aus-That cant be a bad thing

Do you see the theme here

Clubs aren't allowed to play more foreigners though. Rules are in place to try to gradually reduce the number of foreign players. I know that some exceptions were made (mainly for those already contracted because contracts couldn't just be stopped) but on the whole the number of home grown players is increasing.

People don't want to wait though, thats the problem they expect miracles over night.

I agree-The problem is the old guard failed us equally as badly- youth and youth development is the only way to go

Spot which team after years of under-achievement in a half-built stadium have recently completed the stand and won a trophy! No clues!

Since 1982 all I have heard is the same old claptrap about X/Y or Z being the answer to beating the Aussies and so far they have ALL FAILED!!!

A complete and utter restructure of the game in this country is needed and until that happens all the claptrap about improving etc is just hot air.

Until the MY CLUB MY CLUB mentality is changed to the MY GAME MY GAME mentality then RL in GB is always going to be behind the southern hemisphere.

We've had a complete and utter restructure. The results won't be immediate, and the opposition aren't going to stand still in the meantime.

Really







When did this happen?

I must have been nearly wide awake

You missed it, and are missing it.

So how has this helped West Craven Warriors under 11's for example?

The progression of one of these players to top professional Rugby League international honours is there for all to see and is clealy mapped out, coherant, sensible and all the facilities, structures and methodologies are in place for this to happen.

If so then I missed it.

Summer rugby, Academys, Liecences?

What's your involvement in West Craven Warriors? Why are they having problems that we aren't having at Northampton?

Just out of interest what is more important, a strong SL or a strong England? It seems to me thatthe RFL has decided that at this time a strong SL is most importnat and the Int game comes second. Not surprising given the general disdain for the Int set up.

We could kick all the overseas players out and go back to P&R next year but it will mean 10years of inferior quality SL games. Anyone willing to pay that price?

ps if you really want to know why NRL developed players are better that SL consider this:

1) Australia has twice as many jnr's playing the game
2) One leagues club (Panthers) funds more jnr RL in NSW than the entire budget for jnr development in the UK
3) The avg budget for an NRL club is twice that of a SL club yet the players salary cap is the same. The extra money is spent on backroom coaches, conditioners etc

Without addressing those crucial points we ain't getting any closer anytome soon.

The franchising revolution hasn't even started. It won't start until you kick those crap clubs out that are still in SL. There's about six of them and there's nothing super about any of them. It's going to take time to weed out those sickly clubs and once that happens we may start to close the gap.

?

Whether people like it or not Clubs are in it for themselves, developing youth is not going to happen just because theres no relegation, clubs want bums on seats and big games to paper over the cracks in their accounts above giving a young half back a chance to develop into an international player, thats the reality and quite understandable, certain SL clubs have been treading water for years and getting in Antipodeans to give a false position, Crusaders and Harlequins aswell as a couple of the Yorkshire clubs, the best way to have a solid foundation is a merit based system, not a who can we market to Sky to keep the coffers coming in system. Making money and Advertising alone will not neccessarily improve the quality of the players. I see loads of them strutting round in tight TShirts, tattoos on show, hair gelled and loving the media exposure, what thats got to do with RL i dont know, but the product on the pitch has been stagnant for years now and it only looks like going down the posing in front of the cameras route for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we will get some dignity and good hard honest rugby league back before the games bled dry.

Quote ="JB Down Under" ps if you really want to know why NRL developed players are better that SL consider this: 1) Australia has twice as many jnr's playing the game 2) One leagues club (Panthers) funds more jnr RL in NSW than the entire budget for jnr development in the UK 3) The avg budget for an NRL club is twice that of a SL club yet the players salary cap is the same. The extra money is spent on backroom coaches, conditioners etc Without addressing those crucial points we ain't getting any closer anytome soon.'" In the build up to the four nations I have read one article stating that 40% of NRL juniors are from the pacific islands and another article on the kiwi's claiming that 1 in 3 NRL juniors are from New Zealand. So there mite be a lot of juniors playing rugby in Austrialia, but not many that actually should go on to play for Austrialia. sportal.co.nz/league-news-displa ... ess-100502 news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 127009.stm

Quote ="JB Down Under" ps if you really want to know why NRL developed players are better that SL consider this: 1) Australia has twice as many jnr's playing the game 2) One leagues club (Panthers) funds more jnr RL in NSW than the entire budget for jnr development in the UK 3) The avg budget for an NRL club is twice that of a SL club yet the players salary cap is the same. The extra money is spent on backroom coaches, conditioners etc Without addressing those crucial points we ain't getting any closer anytome soon.'" In the build up to the four nations I have read one article stating that 40% of NRL juniors are from the pacific islands and another article on the kiwi's claiming that 1 in 3 NRL juniors are from New Zealand. So there mite be a lot of juniors playing rugby in Austrialia, but not many that actually should go on to play for Austrialia. sportal.co.nz/league-news-displa ... ess-100502 news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 127009.stm

I wouldn't waste time talking sense - ever heard the saying that there's none as deaf as don't want to hear?

pretty silly statement that is,clubs have always brought youngsters through.

the differance is,once upon a time we had a production line of players coming through now we have a trickle.we also had a lot more quality than we do now in key positions.

we aso raided the RU ranks for players.