Is it just me or does he just state the bleeding obvious in his articles?

Sometimes when you read articles by a journalist/former player or pundit you think ''oh yeah, I never thought of it like that before, or, wow that's true how insightful''

With sadler it's pretty much a case of thinking to yourself ''yup, yadda yadda yadda knew that already'' *skims through waiting for something interesting* it never appears, article ends.

In this weeks league express theres a section on leeds poor start. Theres a whole bunch of things he could have touched upon. Instead it basically comes down to, headingly pitch is crap, brough was in great form...the end.

Only one in a long list of dreadful RL journalists. Add Richard De La Rivere, Tim Butcher, Steve Fox, Dave Hadfield and chums to it.
'Dicky Rivers' has practically ruined Rugby League World during his time at the helm.

I bought a years subscription to RLE last year (ran out in January) and it wasn't worth it. Bearing in mind it came on a Tuesday so the first I saw of it was Tuesday PM. By then the exclusives were generally released or on here already. I'll just buy it now if I'm in the garage on a Monday morning.

There certainly does seem to be a general lack of insightful columnists at League Publications...

The new magazine layout is promising though I reckon.

I don't mind Hadfield but agree that Sadler does state the bleedin obvious. As for Fox I find his style verging on the unreadable. As for Richard delariv I don't mind him so much but I thought he gave far too much latitude to Schofield in some of his columns. His sniping at union recruits particularly John Gallagher left a bad taste in my mouth.

Is it me or does RL journalism completely shy away from examining the technical side of the play itself? Never do we really see much going into depth about what we see on the field in terms of the technical aspects of play. The journos themselves obviously either never got much coaching when they played or have never played at all.

It's the same in RL biographies, only the Aussie journos like Ian Heads tend to tackle this side of things.

"journalist can't be d finding out how things work but writes about it anyway" shocker....

OK, here we are slagging off one of the few established journalists in the sport. What do supporters want from a journalist working in RL?

This I would particularly like to know.

Something interesting to read. Interesting opinions. Not just popular obvious crap.

Would be nice if it was written in a unique style and not read as if written by a robotic drone.

Journalists who actually understand the game and are insightful, rather than media school geeks who portray the sport in a completely inaccurate way.

Although I agree with the OP I find it hard to criticise any press related to Rugby League due to it's spness.

If people are willing to moan about the poor standards of RL articles then is anybody willing to write a mock article and post it on here to show journo's how it should be done?

LOL

Are journos who analyse and criticise players and teams willing to put on a pair of boots and show them how it's done?

I'm sure if you're a critic you can com up with something better and more interesting than the journo's by trying to correct where you think they are going wrong.

A lot of people on here criticise players, team work etc but that doesn't mean we would make better players, it means we are looking more from a coaching perspective than a players.

I await your article

There are two weekly newspapers and one monthly magazine.

The weekly newspapers are pretty much similar in their setup and style and even have the same style columnists.

I can only talk about RLE after being a subscriber but their layout is pretty much the same week in week out. Off the top of my head:

4 pages SL news (2 articles per club)
2 pages of Championship news
2 pages of Champrionship1 news
1 Stevo page
1 Sadler / news page
SL Match reports (one of the TV games centre pages with Opta Stats which we'd pretty much already know from watching it)
C Match Reps
C1 Match Rep
2 pages reserve / academy
Amateur News / Reports / Fixtures
2 Pages of Letters
2 page of International / comment
1 pages of scores.


The news is generally made up of things that have happened the previous week with a couple of exclusives. This can be found easily on the internet nowadays.
By Sunday night we can have seen all the SL tries.

I think they need to concentrate less on transcribing the games (1 or 2 pages per game is overkill) and more on 'how and why' - why was the try scored, who was out of position, was it preventable.

I'd like to see stats of every game, more post match comments, interviews with players after the games (for example MoM interviews).

More about training routines, diet and the different methods players use to get fit.
Info on 'sick lists' - updates on players who are injured - where they are with their rehab. What are they doing to to keep fit, interviews with them.
Info from the RFL on Referees, feedback and comment on the referees performance (ideally unbias)

That's off my head as I sit here - some of it may be impossible / out of budget.

The newspapers need to assume that people will have heard much of the news before they publish therefore they need to being it in a different manner. An example would be the Newton incident - rather than report he has failed a drug test 6 days after it was announced, report on Wakefields plans and problems caused by his suspension.

When I picked my copy in WHSmith, the back cover flapped open to reveal a young lady in an England shirt, heels and her knickers posing in changing room showers, with a weak pun about April Showers (ahead of the next issue). At the front was the 'Random League' section for bizarre stories and I thought 'poo, they've turned it into a Lad's mag'. To my relief the stuff in between was decent enough.
I was a bit alarmed, though, that Steve Mascord thought the Huddersfield 6 should be named, shamed, fined and suspended even if no charges are brought or successfully prosecuted. WTF?

What mag/paper is this? I'm suddenly interested.

the 2 papers are worth a read but league express is easily the better. league weekly has a bit of an old man's feel to it like the old rugby leaguer and news that's days old. league express news seems to be more like updated news after the games. but it needs more features and player interviews like it used to have

rlw is miles better after the redesign. it now feels like a proper mag in its thickness and professionalism. the random league stuff was a bit bizarre and the championship investigation didnt really investigate very much. it didnt really offer much opinion either. at least you got that from schofield and the last ed. but hopefully it will carry on improving.

Martyn Sadler and Tim Butcher were simply fans who were disillusioned with the standard of RL press coverage in 1990 (?).

They ain't been to no media school.

But they did something about it, backed themselves financially, and set up League Express.

All of those suggestions would improve RLE. I particularly lik ethe bit about the opta stats ( i am sure some arrangement with Opta could be agreed). What they always do is create thought and discussion and often give an extra insight into a game.

How often do you hear someone had a good game or a bad game then see the stats they made 40 tackles and missed none or made 5 errors and then rethink your opinion.

Also some information from the clubs who use the satellite technology would be interesting how much a player ran etc. All of this would be different , detailed and make it a lot more interesting to subscribers.

I can usually read the review of Giants games on the website, or Sl site two days before it is in RLE. I get nothing new from buying it. ( that is if i can get it at all in the NE). i do not subscribe because there is nothing different in it that makes it worth my while.

Dave Hadfield helped start up the Bolton team in the early 80's and i seem to remember he was an RL fan well before that. Ste Fox has followed the game for around 35 years I would guess. I could defend one or both but I don't suppose its worth it but the FACT is they are both RL through and through and have been for decades.

I was referring more to the newspaper correspondents than the likes of Sadler and Butcher. I have no issue with their reporting really.

Not creeping or anything just because Steve Fox has posted here but I have always found his articles,whether Widnes related or on RL in general, to be entertaining and informative.Likewise Hadfield.His book up and over was most enjoyable.But hey,we RL fans like to slate players,reffs,administrators,fans etc so why should journos escape the wrath.

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!