Its pretty depressing we have got to the stage where 'Rugby League Fans' are running down rugby league, the game, and its acheivements just so they can have a pop at those running the sport

the game is great. Its in great shape. Its in a much better shape than it was in those halcyon days you are pretending to remember.

Richard Lewis has done a fantastic job, a wonderful job, and is a huge improvement in every way to those we had running the sport in the 70's and 80's and certainly better than those we had in the 90's. Each of those decades had administrators that nearly killed the game. Whether it be allowing the game to sink to a level where we would get half a game televised as a filler on a Saturday. Or allowing incompetent chairmen to waste millions on poor players.

From the position the game was in 10 years ago, we have had a decade of consistant success. Every year we have more people watching the sport. We have bigger tv deals. We have more players than ever before playing the game and more money supporting the grass roots (the actual grass roots, not a few clubs in the middle of the pyramid) than ever before. We have more nations playing the sport, more areas, more people.

Yes we have a way to go, and yes there may be minor changes we can make for the better, but to pretend we arent improving in EVERY aspect of the game is mental.

Sometimes people act as if prior to super league the game was healthy, like the top tiers of the game were making tons of money and playing in front of packed stadiums, as opposed to the game dying on its as it actually was

Lewis has generally done a good job but nobody is perfect and there are aspects of the game that are worrying even if (in many cases) they are better now than pre-SL.

but thats how we need to judge them. Against where they were not against the perfection we desire.

Its the same with Crusaders. Yes getting 10k a week would be nice, but getting 3k is 3k more than we were getting before. And if the next season we get 4k, thats also good. As long as we are moving forward we are doing a good job. Id find impossible to see any argument that as a game we arent moving forward

Leeds were sh[ii[/it. They aren't now. Is that why you're so happy now?

We judge them on whether each and every decision they have made have been good ones. You have to give kudos to Lewis over many issues especially I'd say for the huge amount of cash league was given from Sport England but his handling of the Crusaders "affair" was woeful.



Not at all. If the break-even point is 4,500 (as Samuel claimed) then improving from 3,000 to 4,000 isn't significant progress unless the owner is prepared to take the loss.

Whether you are bankrupt with a 3,000 average or a 4,000 average makes very little difference.

If we accept that the paranoid conspiracy theories are just that. How could it have been handled different, from an RFL point of view?


well i would argue cutting your loss by 66% in a year is pretty significant. I would also argue upping your income by 20% was fairly significant too.

And in the event they went bankrupt (which we should make clear they arent and never were) then it wouldnt have mattered if they got a million people attending every game

By giving them another three years to be ready.



No, it doesn't. If they had ten billion people watching it would still be a failure.

I don't think very many people consider the London Monarchs to have been a success story but very many people paid money to watch them. Now they are a mere footnote.

And what would have changed in those three years?
They wouldnt have got more fans than they did last year, or more sponsorship, or more exposure

so in three years time, what would they have had that they didnt have last year?

What is worrying is that when clubs were ' on their booty ' in the 80's/90's we didnt have a salarycap to prevent clubs overspending , we now do have a salary cap and most of SL let alone the Championship are still overspending and running up big debts

We can compare ourselves with football and Union all we want , but it doesn't matter what they do , what does matter is how our sport performs both on the pitch but more importantly off the pitch if it is to grow , having 70/80 % of our clubs reliant on large personal input is not good

This is what I said on the other thread, I think the next TV deal has to be all about consolidation

Yes, they would. Attendences had risen over their three years in the NLs.



An academy that had been going longer than 5 minutes for one thing.

it does matter im afraid, we dont live in a vaccuum. The bigger football and RU get, the harder it becomes for us to attract sponsors, fans and players.

Sport always has and always will have a large part of it reliant on Individual investors. There isnt a sport in the world that doesnt have the same pressures and the same outcomes.

Whether your the NFL or NRL or SL no sport is entirely self financing

higher than they were in the NLs, but not higher than they are in Super League. There growth has been boosted by SL not held back


their academy isnt dependant on which league they are playing in though. Or were you expecting in 3 years of NL rugby Crusaders where some how going to produce and a team full of SL players?

But surely it should be an aim to get as close to it as we can , as for how big Football and Union get , I would say they are fairly close to reaching the top and falling back down at the moment , when we have a situation where the biggest club in the world is paying a million a week in interest , things are close to popping

With the greatest of respect , any comparisons of Celtics growth of crowds has to be taken with a huge dose of Salt , you really had to be there to understand

They are what they are , and will be what they will be , The club , not it's fan base

If we get to a point where we are entirely self financing then we havent tried hard enough to expand the game.

We should get to the point where a well run club will some years make a profit, some years a loss, most break even. And as a game we arent miles away from that. We just need to have more clubs in that position

to spend their own money on growing their clubs/infrastructure and their fan/sponsorship bases

So your agreeing with him? Because that is what he has just said.

Now, where did Littlerich blame anyone else about Fax's problems?

so basically as long as the directors are willing to support the club and able, you guys are just talking a lot of s**t then.

so your idea of heartlands is a place where RL was minor compared to RU.

and even today is still dominated by it.

that means london is a RL heartlands too then

It's only since Catalans were moderately succesful has anyone even uttered the word heartland

and you talk about derailing threads. the guy was making a perfectly valid post.

lewis has taken RL on ahead in leaps and bounds

not that you can tell judging by all the anti Lewis bile coming from the bitter old mans club

and clearly only as an excuse to justify their belief that expansion doesnt work.

and following on from this, since expansion doesnt work, the RFL should just stick to english clubs for new positions in SL.

pretty desperate stuff from the bitter old mans club

Jesus Dally - you call others sad for posting in the early hours. Has the sun come up or have you wet your bed?