I like Dave Hadfields stuff, the Jon Wells column and that George bloke who does the blog on BBC. He is very good.

Ive always thought it would be good if League Publications tried a monthly kids style RL mag in the style of Match Football magazine. I loved Match as a kid for the stickers, posters and easy to read articles. Something like that for kids might really help promote the game to a young audience.

Im confident in the heartlands it would sell well enough to be a goer? Maybe SOR for amatuer clubs??

To be accused of stating "the bleeding obvious" makes me sympathise with Gordon Brown when he is accused of bullying.

No doubt Gordon would like to bully his accusers, if he could be alone in a room with them, and similarly I feel like coming out with "the bleeding obvious" in response to this criticism.

I suppose I could have said that Leeds have had a bad start this season because it's the Chinese Year of the Tiger (Cas Tigers, geddit?), combined with the fact that Brian McClennan stopped going to church, Gary Hetherington forgot to pay the groundsman, and Wakefield employed a witchdoctor to cast a spell on Leeds at Belle Vue.

None of that would have been obvious, so maybe I'll point it all out in my next column.

I don't know whether I state "the bleeding obvious" every week, but if you read the column on 15 February you might have spotted a piece about the tendency of first-year coaches winning the Super League title.

A lot of people, including several coaches, have said to me since that column came out that they had never spotted that particular trend. But maybe it was obvious to you.

Anyway, having got that off my chest, thanks for reading League Express, and criticism is always more valuable than praise, so you are doing us a favour. Obviously!

Was it your cat that we ran over?

You hit upon a problem that confronts anyone who is producing a weekly newspaper in the Internet age - how much space to give to news that is already in the public domain!

Ideally we would like all our news to be completely exclusive and new. And yet as a newspaper of record, if a player has signed a new contract in the previous week we have to report that in the following Monday's League Express.

Having said that, a lot of the Super League news that features in League Express comes fresh into the newspaper after the weekend's games.

Some of the points you make are interesting ones, although putting together a newspaper that has to cover 36 professional clubs and the whole of the amateur game means that we have to ration our resources to some degree.

As far as the stats of every game is concerned, Opta don't complete their analysis until Monday morning, although I would like nothing more than to publish all the stats if they could be produced more quickly.

We also have the problem that some players are difficult for our reporters to get hold of straight after a match.

Furthermore, when we do reader surveys we find that not all our readers agree on precisely what they would like to read in the newspaper.

But thanks for your thoughts, which I'll take on board and consider carefully.

I also ran the line (once) for a St Bedes ARLFC North West Counties Division Six fixture so any suggestion that I lack an in-depth knowledge of the game is very hurtful.



Thanks Dad.

Some of Wadski's ideas are great. I'm not a huge stats man myself but i'd definately like to see more of a personal touch with interviews the man on the street can't hear regarding club life in general

Wow. That sounds like a smart piece. I assume you compared the performances of coaches who are in their first 2nd 3rd 4th etc year in post. And factored in the clubs' pre and post coach seasonss. The number of new coaches in clubs outside the Bulls /Saints / Leeds must be very high yet few manage to win SL! If it is merely an observation that a club finishing 1st or 2nd one year then finishes 1st the next year with a new coach it could be virtually meaningless.

With the backing of analysis it will be a meaningful insight. Without thoughtful analysis it is a dreary partial observation.

Too many RL journalists confuse surface observations with insight. I am sure your piece was the later. I will go and dig it out.

it was a very interesting piece, a lot of his editorials are. i think league express could be better, more interviews and features as i stated above and im not a fan of stevos column but i always read sadler's and more often than not enjoy it. he writes 52 a year though so theyre not all going to be memorable but he gets the balance right.

What we really need is a website where any tom, dick or harriet can post their opinions......especially when they are opinions that aren't always in agreement with those who write in the national and regional press or the RL papers that exist......
...now, let me think......


where would you find something like that

Any reason then why you could not publish it on a Tuesday




that would resolve many of the problems you mentioned ie Opta stats, contacting players. Coaches would have more time to digest teams performances, more time for injury position to become clear. ie a doctor explaing the nature of Richard Owens injury.

It would also allow you to have more of a balance between just reporting what happened at the Weekend which most people will have read in 3 or more different formats. I will have been to a game, watched games on Sky, read the clubs report, read the opposition teams website, possibly read something in the national press , read my local papers review on line, watched the tries on Sky etc. Why would i then want to read what would be old news to me.

You could even invite fans to answer set questions on the game and email them to you for a fans perspective ie MOM, teams performance etc

The balance of the paper could then shift with some extra analysis of the coming weeks games.

Look at the threads on here after the weekend. Lots of them are looking forward to what will happen next week. What about 3 coaches/ players/ pundits discussing is there life after Briers ?. that is what Warrington fans want to know for the next 3 weeks. A ref discussing why wigans second try was a try ( with diagrams so Dico could understand). Has Justin got it wrong at HKR with Webster at no 6?. That would make people more likely to buy it which is what you want.


=#FF0000Print reportage in a digital age does not really work. What we would want is analysis and something that makes us think. It would give a lot of publicity to RLE on here as we would all be talking about what we have read and disagree with.

What I'd love, whether from League Express or on the tv from Boots N All is more technical analysis of the game.

I watch both codes of rugby. Having played Union at school and at club level as a young man, I understand the skills needed to turn a man in the tackle, position your body corrctly in a maul, to present the ball correctly in the ruck, the importance of footwork in the scrum etc etc. Yet when Barnes, Morris and Greenwood feature the sublime skills of McCaw at the breakdown, I often learn something new, and it adds to my appreciation.

I was a relative late comer to League,and I never received any coaching in it, so I often miss the complexities, but I enjoy the physicality of the game. However I'm sure my enjoyment would increase if "expert" analysis was made of the core skills in a RL game. It would add to my understanding and enjoyment.

Many RU fans dismiss League as being one dimensional, no contest for possession, just 5 drives and a grubber kick/ high bomb etc etc. Perhaps more explanation of the tactics and skills involved would lead to more converts like me, and help spread the game.

Martyn,

The trend had been pointed out in RLE a few weeks previous by Richard de la Riviere (I think it was) in his preview of Wigan's season though admittedly not in much depth.

Durham Giant makes some excellent suggestions.

It would have an added benefit for subscribers as we'd then receive our copies sooner after publication than today.

I find the "Player in the news" interview a good addition. What DG is suggesting is more of this type of article but with people throughout the club infrastructure, not just players.

Carl Jennings used to write interesting pieces for RLW. Do these still go in?

Thanks for all the comments.

We originally launched League Express because of the lack of coverage in the national newspapers on Monday mornings.

Since then our audience is very much Monday orientated. All our market research suggests that to come out on any other day would lose readers. In fact I get a lot of emails from people who say that League Express is one of the things that makes their return to work on Monday morning a bit more tolerable.

On the question of content, I do take the point about analytical discussion about the game. One of the problems, however, is that current coaches are very reluctant to talk about and reveal their tactical approach to games, which they regard as akin to state secrets.

Having said that, I think we may have someone coming on board for Rugby League World who has the right experience and would prove to be very capable of writing some great analyses of some of the bigger games.

Generally speaking, in League Express we have to try to satisfy the fan who is only interested in his or her team at one level, right through to the kid who is playing for an Under-9s team and wants to read the results of all the teams in his or her league. And one of the things that has happened in recent years is that the game has expanded, with new clubs at all levels of the game all demanding coverage.

It's quite a challenge!

And that's before you factor in the current economic situation that affects us and any other business.

I remember when there were two issues. The Friday one covered what had happened in the week and did superb previews to the weekend ahead.

TotalRL, or something along those lines? A3 but folded down into an A4 form on the shelves. It was excellent.

Can I just say it takes a certain type of person to come onto a message board like this and answer critics.

Hopefully some of the comments/ suggestions we have made will make it into the paper. If just one does then this entire thread has been worthwhile. Whoever said "Well what would you do?" deserves credit for turning it on it's head.

Glad to hear you're looking at doing more in this area. I would argue that you don't necessarily need a current coach to start revealing their plays to LE but a coach with some recent high level experience could give more of an insight then we get at the moment.

For example in the Guardian they have David Pleat analysing soccer tactics and it gives a more detailed appreciation. Perhaps if you have someone coming on board with the right experience they could do that. I can think of a number of angles they could look at:

They could analyse the gamebreaking play of the week, showing what happened and why it worked and point out the various aspects of attack and defence. This would need to be in more detail than, "player x outpaced player y" obviously.

It may be a particular facet of the game that's the key to a win such as winning the ruck, this is such an important area in the game nowadays yet there's never any in depth analysis about what we see. We get the basics but a bit more detail of [uhow[/u teams win the wrestle, dominate the collision, apply good footwork etc would be interesting.

Another article could cover set moves and how these have changed over time. Is it me or do all SL sides now operate a similar backline move with the playmaker switching the ball to an attacking line behind the one facing the defence? Why the lack of variety these days? I can think of heaps of attacking plays from the past that we never see now, perhaps some coach could give us insight in why?

Just a few ideas. I have many more!

It's ironic that Martyn Sadler is being accused of stating the obvious, because I remember the times not so long a go when Mr. Sadler had some novel ideas on Rugby League. Amongst others, there was the time when IIRC, he debated the possible removal of the knock on law. I did'nt agree with him all the time, but he generally had something interesting and provocative to say.

Generally I think Sadler is a good RL hack who commands a deal of gravitas. There are times in the past when he has frustrated me when trying to defend hairbrained RFL attempts at 'xpanshun', or by trying to masquerade his opinions as 'common sense,' but his articles are generally the ones I turn to when I open the paper.

The old Sadler file was a pretty good read, even if you disagreed with its content.

The problem with any sort of RL writing is that the organisation that runs the game has disolved itself of any credibility so any sort of story on the game is like talking about someones mother. Everyone is touchy on the subject, and inevitably RL hourno's cop some stick.

That said, I think Martyn is wrong when he seems to think the magical cure to our game is marketing. It is the very credibiility of the RFL which is always in the doldrums that ruins our brand and hence our appeal, but that is another topic for another day.

That's the fella.

NRL Tactics did a great job of that sort of thing last year. Shame we could only watch it over here using nefarious means.

Agreed. Well done MS!

Chris Irvine please note. Your approach does you little credit.

Quote ="Bullseye"For example in the Guardian they have David Pleat analysing soccer tactics <snip> '" And today they've got the rl equivalent. Not the most insightful, but credit for trying. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/graphic ... urne-storm

Quote ="Bullseye"For example in the Guardian they have David Pleat analysing soccer tactics <snip> '" And today they've got the rl equivalent. Not the most insightful, but credit for trying. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/graphic ... urne-storm

Much preferred the old Sadler he was more interesting then. The new Sadler and I think it is Danny Lockwood of League Weekly have gone too egoistic and come across with a minority viewpoint. It's as though they have to write something different or controversial to draw attention to themselves, or maybe its because they do not want to upset the admin at red hall.

Dear Martyn Sadler

I’m wanting to turn my bedroom into a shrine to Keith Senior. However thanks to lack of Keith Senior posters you provide in your publication and many others I’m unable to fulfil this dream of mine.

I did used to have a lot of memorabilia however all this got destroyed in a great argument between myself and my sister. The only thing that was left unscarred from that bitter battle was these -



His testimonial top that was in the wash basket at the time or arguing.



Framed testimonial programme that I defended no matter what at the time.



A programme with his name on it. This was kindly given to me by someone who was finished reading it at the game.

I hope you understand and can help.

Damo-Leeds