Every young lad in England may well own a soccer ball......but I very much doubt every young kid in Australia owns a Steeden or a Gilbert or even a Sherrin for that matter.

All three codes outside of soccer in Aus have worked very hard to make their game "mummy friendly" in recent years due to the massive growth of wendyball......soccer is a massive growth area in sports down here.

The ‘so called’ bigger clubs like Wigan historically attract the best kids who generally develop well in a professional environment working alongside quality players and coaches. Those few young lads who slip through the net and sign for ‘lesser well off teams’ are then an easy catch if they develop and show real potential.

It’s easy to criticise other clubs youth systems and compare them to Wigan and Leeds etc but the fact is clubs can put years into developing lads who then end up leaving on a free. Stephen Ratchford and Jordan Turner are classic example of this. Salford invested 6 years in these players only for them to leave for nothing because their agents advise them not to sign contracts beyond 21 so they get a bigger contract with a big club because there is no transfer fee involved.

wtf is wendyball?

Edit: Nvm realise you're refering to 'soccer'. We can only ever dream of being as a successful sport as 'wendyball' is, as you call it.

BBC shows it commitment to the RLWC:

"There will be live television coverage of all England’s Group games, including the Opening Ceremony and game against Australia on October 26, as well as a quarter final match, a semi-final showdown at Wembley and the Rugby League World Cup Final at Old Trafford on November 30.

Tanya Arnold will present a regular highlights programme throughout the tournament, incorporating all the action from games not shown live.

Every game at RLWC2013 will be broadcast live on either BBC Radio 5 Live or 5 Live Sports Extra, with expert commentary courtesy of Dave Woods, George Riley and Stuart Pyke."

Quote ="RLBandit"One picture is all that's needed to perfectly reflect the state of the game. www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/about_t ... _directors Dynamic leadership?'" Love the fact that the CEOs statement is talking about 2011.

Quote ="RLBandit"One picture is all that's needed to perfectly reflect the state of the game. www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/about_t ... _directors Dynamic leadership?'" Love the fact that the CEOs statement is talking about 2011.

Surprised by Dave Woods doing 5 Live commentary. I would have thought since Premier Sports have every single game live he would have commentated for them instead. Looks like he is sticking with the Beeb for this one.

Guess it will be down to Ian Ramsdale on PS then.

We call it wendyball as it seen as a game played by skinny kids who aren't quite tough enough for the countries main two footy codes. Quite an apt name when you think about it.