fev out 80 past rochdale sunday

Seems quite worrying that the average winning margin in SL seems to be increasing and the proportion of games where the final winning/losing margin is less than a converted try is going down.

Last season:
Ave points per game: 45.0
Ave winning margin: 15.2
% game won </= converted try: 30.2
% game won </= 2 converted tries: 51.1

This season
Ave points per game: 43.5
Ave winning margin: 15.69
% game won </= converted try: 25.2
% game won </= 2 converted tries: 43.5

Those are pretty worrying trends and, whilst I don't have the numbers to hand, I seem to recall that it's not just a trend from last season to this.

If the game isn't holding attention, because so few games are competitive (more than half of our games this season are being won by more than two scoring plays and only a quarter being won by one scoring play or less), it may explain a lot about why our TV product is struggling.

By comparison, for the last Aviva Premiership season the same stats were:

Ave points per game: 47.2
Ave winning margin: 12.12
% game won </= converted try: 45.9
% game won </= 2 converted tries: 64.7

Surely this just means the defence is getting better and teams are becoming more competitive? How is that worrying?

I don't think so.

The NRL has a crazy amount of games every week that are undecided with 10 mins to go. Games are still in the balance with 1 score separating teams until the final stages of games on a regular basis.

Superleague will never have the same kind of competiveness as long as we don't have every side spending the full salary cap as well as have players interchanging between clubs top to bottom.

In Australia you can have a player leave a top side to go and play for the side that finished bottom the year before and its not seen as a big shock as its more than possible that a team finishing outside the top 8 can go and achieve something a year later.

We don't really have that in Super league. The better players at the top clubs tend to sign long term contracts and if they do leave its to the NRL rather than a super league side.

Teams are winning by bigger margins and fewer games are being won with a one-score margin. How does that show that the game is becoming more competitive?

Apologies mate, misread the comment.

Bradford 124
West Wales 0

But how many of their try’s were scored by Leeds players

You can't really compare it to union though as the points awarded for scores is different, plus with the losing bonus point teams quite often kick a penalty at the end to get within one score whereas in League there is no point doing that, you might as well lose by six as lose by four.

They are not exactly damning stats.
Average points per game down by less than a penalty
Average winning margin down by less than a drop goal.

So, from the OP, 7 of the 12 SL sides have taken a pasting this season (Leeds, Salford, Hull KR, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Catalan and Castleford). One team not in that list is 12th placed Widnes Vikings.

We've taken the narrow defeat to new heights this season.

I believe the question is a valid one.

Jean stood and gloated at the banning of the 20k+ poster Gutterfax and yet is more guilty of trolling than that poster ever was. I understand that Gutterfax is a GOLD level sponsor of his local RL side now in NZ, but because he posted "non conformist" ideas he was subject to a ban for the word w-nkr inserting @ and 3 wheRE a AND e should have been, being used in a jestful manner towards Chris Dalton......I see both Widnes fan Chris and the moderator that banned GF for such a petty infraction, St Simon don't post here any more.....as do a great many others who added to debates and instead we have trolls like Jean et al running free on the site......because the removal of reasoned debate resulted in a dramatic fall in traffic and the need to beg for advertising.

Gutterfax would rather give $5,000 to Petone Panthers than the steam of his proverbial to RLFANS.COM who for some reason decided to be like "fascistotal rl" and only have positives things posted......

.....so yes, it is a valid opinion that the only reason Jean exists here is that he delivers click bait....

Having an opinion differing to yours does not make someone a troll and the sooner people realise that the better this place will be.

I don't always have a different opinion to Jean, but that's not the point here. The poster in question is deliberately provocative in many threads and that is trolling of the highest order. Back in the days of the CJ voluntary tackle thread and the likes of League Freak posting on here, the moderators rarely got involved and if they did they were adhered to.....but a few years back that all changed and as a result, the traffic on the site is decreasing as the number of adverts that we get hit with increases.
As I say, I am not calling Jean a troll because he/she has a different opinion, I am doing it because he/she does troll.....The multiple user ID conspiracy theories are based on similar styles of posting as well as detrimental comments about Leigh and/or Wakefield, but I suppose that group trolling is a possibility. Back in the halcyon days of CJVT, such "banter" would have been stepped on quickly, but here it is permitted because without LeBron, Sir Kev and Jean, the traffic on here would be 50% down, such is the bed that the over-zealous moderation of a few years back made for itself.
An example of his/her trolling in page 2 of the poll he posted


Banter between rival teams is expected, but this is scattergun insulting with the sole purpose of winding up other posters...ergo, TROLLING. He/she is very adept at it, but it is trolling.

Giving teams a silly name isn't against the AUP, nor is it trolling, it's simply showing them up for the childish poster they are. I chuckle to myself and ignore them and I can 100% guarantee that if others did the same they would get bored. It's done for a reaction, and they get it in abundance unfortunately.

So they are doing it for a reaction, and yet when posters react they are scowled at by moderators while the poster who causes this is ignored.

And you wonder why posters are not bothering with this place anymore.

You're a mod, but don't understand that the primary objective of a troll is to generate a reaction?

Trolling – (verb), as it relates to internet, is the deliberate act, (by a Troll – noun or adjective), of making random unsolicited and/or controversial comments on various internet forums with the intent to provoke an emotional knee jerk reaction from unsuspecting readers to engage in a fight or argument.

Maybe you need to update the AUP?

Don’t abuse people and you won’t be banned Gutterfax, that’s not a difficult rule to follow. Calling Wakefield Woeful cannot be compared to such abuse, whether it was intended to be jestful or not. Ironically Wakefield are having a good season, although I’d question how long they can keep splashing the cash on players with their pitiful attendances.

do you know how annoying u are ?

Point of order. It is trolling and trolling of the highest order as it is designed to generate an angry or irate response...it's a wind up and therefore by definition, it it trolling


Indeed...and if Gutterfax ad actually abused someone then he's be right to have been banned, but he didn't. A decision was made to ban him because he was seen as provocative. The fact that nearly all of his predictions regarding the state of the game in the UK and Australia as well as the fate of the London Broncos were spot on is either here nor there. As the owners of the site said at the time, "this isn't a democracy" and I for one am pretty delighted as to what a shambles these boards have become since the senior mods and owners decided that they'd ban him with no warning. The word w-nk-r with @ and 3 used instead of a and e is a minor infraction of the AUP......Gutterfax wasn't banned for life with no warning for a minor infraction....he was banned because the site owners said so! Reaping what they sow is an apt term....

You were comfortably thrashed at Wakefield and St Helens last night despite the "close" scorelines.

Leeds Rhinos 48 Toulouse Olympique 22. And with 3 conversions missed, could have been 54. swings/roundabouts chorleyjean.

Unless a Mod constantly deletes your posts because you question his rumours and have opposite views to him to the point you send abusive posts when your private messages complaining of his behaviour don’t change a thing.

I've question this act of allowing the trolls to take over myself but had posts removed and basically being told to ignore them and shut up as i suspected the mods were in on it, this almost confirms it in that one of them is actually defending them