Hopefully there will be a bigger crowd tomorrow. I've seen a lot of fans of teams playing tomorrow milling around the the city centre.

But that has no relevance to injuries. Danny Brough didnt play for wakefield today, not because he was injured but because he doesnt play for wakefield.

Saying Wakefield would be better with Brough is no different now to saying leeds would be better with Inglis.

the point made about Leeds injuries is that they have affected the quality of their play, and when these players return Leeds will improve, not that if player A who plays for a different club would improve them.

To include players who dont play for Wakefield in a list of players unavailable for Wakefield is clearly nonsense.

What was Tony Smith's comments about the commentators at the end of his interview? Something about it being a breath of fresh air to here Bill Arthur commentating and that he couldn't wait to get back and watch it again? What was that all about? Does he not like Eddie and Stevo?

Great times ahead.

Who does. They're worse than Waldorf and Stadtler off the muppets

Yeah I get that, but for a coach to make a remark about live on Sky is different.

True

No one has said why it is a flop & dont quote attendance figures they are totally irrelevant as the whole league is funded by TV & sponsors gate money is just a nice extra. What are we to open our eyes to? If those who attended & the TV audiance enjoyed the games then thats its purpose. The only argument I have against it is the extra fixture but I think we play to many games as it is.
What would you do/

The media ignores league when we play anyway, & yes we do carry on because a few fans enjoy it. If you cant be bothered to go why should the clubs RFL give a monkeys about you or me. League would look even more stupid if we cant stick with any new idea long enough to make it work.
A revamp maybe a new venue or a start of season clash in Cardiff, Paris, or anywhere that could play 7 games in a weekend might be a better solution.

Presumably so while Edinburgh continue to pay us £1,000,000 to do it.

Well everybody seems to agree. Crowds for this event are dwindling. IMO, it's nothing other than a way of generating funds for the RFL via the tourist board.

Leeds v Wakefield at Headingley would have drew about 16k, at Belle Vue, around 10k.
Warrington v Salford at the HJ - around 10k, at Salford, around 6k.
Bradford v Crusaders at Odsal - at least 7k, perhaps a similar figure at Wrexham too.
Hull v Quins at the KC would have brought in at least 11k and around 4k at the Stoop.

44k potential, 26k minimum. What did Murrayfield bring? 26k.

The first person to see it, you are correct & we should applaud the RFL for it. Edinburgh fund the stadium the fans that want it get a weekend away the RFL gets money to spread around the game every one is a winner & still people moan. Wake up Rugby league is a business.

At the end of the day, whilst I agree about the poor showing on the "terraces" - the actual event has managed to persuade me to sit in my trackie bottoms all day and watch every match whilst supping some beers! And I am looking forward to our lass going out tomorrow so I can do the same again. I'm sure there are thousands of others out there who have done the same. Success is measured in many different ways....

These are extra fixtures. Who cares how many people are at Murrayfield. Why don't people forget about the reasons why they might be doing this "mad weekend" and instead just enjoy it. Its ironic though that whilst people are criticising the Scottish event, that 2 expansion clubs have both recorded great wins today

I think its a great event, but it probably is better for the TV viewer. My TV has been on channel 454 all day, I'll be interested to see SKY's viewing figures for this weekend

Some thoughts from someone who bothered to go to the event...

Crowd - A little down on last year but being in the bottom of a recession and it p**sing down all morning only 3k down on last year isn't too shabby.

Fans - Great turn out from Warrington, Salford and HKR (who weren't even playing today)

Best chant - Warrington - "we're not y and more"

Beer - £4 a pint :-0

Food - Not bad value at stadium prices.

Games -
Bradford v Crusaders - Did Bradford turn up? Sammut looks good.
Quins v Hull - Spoilt by a pedantic ref. Saints better watch out next week.
Warrington v Salford - Salford wish they hadn't turned up...
Leeds v Wakefield - Just how lucky are Leeds?

[size=150A)[/size It's needs to be turned into an event all rugby fans want to see.

Wigan v Wire [u(evenly matched)[/u
Saints v Leeds [u(some great battles between the two)[/u
Hull FC v Hull KR [u(obvious derby)[/u
Bradford v Huddersfield [u(Local-ish derby)[/u
Wakefield v Castleford [u(obvious derby)[/u
Quins v Catalans [u(evenly matched)[/u
Salford v Crusaders [u(evenly matched)[/u

I'd pay to watch these games

[size=150B)[/size Move it around, have it in a different stadium/area every year. Play at least one in London (This is where the media live) probably The Emirates.

[size=150C)[/size Make it the Fifth round of the cup (last 16, eight matches) ???

[size=150D)[/size play it in summer

It should be the opening to the season. Start the season with a bang, not a whimper.

There seems to be a general feeling to keep magic weekend for financial reasons so maybe we should keep it? I think there is lots of milage in it.

If it were to go maybe replace it with a "heritage round" a la NRL. Old kits and staged at the Galpharm as a big opening round 1??

I agree entirely - that is why I put 'Brough/Cooke' as Cooke replaced Brough and is injured.

You know what they (don't) say "A Slash is not a Comma"

Sounds good in theory, but have you forgotten what the weather was like when this season started? Part of the attraction of Magic/Wacky Weekend, or whatever the RFL are calling it this week, is the al-fresco drinking and socialising in city centre bars and pubs and around the stadium. How many people will want to spend all day outdoors in Edinburgh (or most other UK locations for that matter) in early February? Most of us would have struggled to even get to Edinburgh with the amount of snowfall three months ago.

=#FF0000Agree. I enjoyed the Hull derby at the first Cardiff event, which immediately followed our own game. I'd fancy seeing most of those fixtures, but for the two Edinburgh events almost none of the neutral fixtrues caught my imagination.


=#FF0000Agree in principle, and Arsenal FC would be the best venue in London being much closer to the West End than any other stadium of suitable size, but I think you'd have to offer the club a huge wedge to persuade them to co-operate. They have the best pitch in the country by all accounts and M Wenger would surely do his best to keep us egg chasers off it! Maybe if it was scheduled for straight after the end of the football season to allow plenty of recovery time for the pitch (i.e. Whitsun Bank Holiday) there might be a chance. However that would produ ce a clash with the football play-offs at Wembley and I suspect the Old Bill would stick their oar in to stop our event being scheduled in London at the same time.


=#FF0000Again, sounds alright in principle, but taking this season as an example five SL clubs would have missed out altogether. Unless the competition format is altered so that SL clubs enter at 5th Round stage I can't see this happening, and that would mean most NL clubs having almost no chance of ever having a cup tie against SL opposition.


=#FF0000Ideally it needs to be staged over a three day weekend, so the closest you'll get to summer is the one at the end of May rather than the beginning.

I dont see that as being a problem - it doesnt have to be a Super League only event. If you miss out, you miss out - tough.

Looking at crowds - and not knowing how many Cas fans are travelling today, I would expect Barrow fans to enjoy their big day out and take thousands more than Cas would.

Also means that next year, the fans that miss out would be more keen to go than they would for a normal SL fixture.

It wont happen anyway, the BBC wouldnt screen all 8 games, even though they hvae the digital capacity to do so.

Or
1v2
3v4
5v6
7v8
9v10
11v12
13v14

No one would know who they had until a week before

Do they (not) say that at the same time they (dont) say "when you're playing for Brisbane, you're not playing for Wakefield"? and "When you're fired by Wakefield, you dont play for Wakefield"?