Richard Lewis moved on then we had Maurice Watkins.well feom reading a lot of posts a lot of pl rhink the game is run by incompetent bunch and we are falling way behind the Nrl and Union.So who do you think we should bring in to get our game to were it should.id like to see someone like Barry Hearn come in.wgat he as done for snooker and darts as transformed them no end?????

The biggest problem lies in the lack of empathy with/from the media, so any such figurehead needs to be very media savvy or to come from that industry. There's some bloke down at Warrington, Simon somethingorother who's sold a few tickets down the years .........

I think you probably need a commission of 6-7 incorporating people from within the game, business leaders looking at purely the marketing,financing and running of the game and representation from the championship. The clubs chief execs would report and be directly accountable to them.

Head of the corporation? Hmmmm. If money was not an issue then John Whittaker CEO of Peel Holdings, a company with history in our game, or someone of that ilk (be handy for stadium redevelopment too!).

I think at times maybe the committee of the Wheeltappers & Shunters Social Club could do a better job than this lot .These people need to be out there attracting investment & top drawer sponsors & need to employ the right people to lift the profile of the game...a Max Clifford type character perhaps.We need professional business men on board to revitalise the game instead of having it run by amateurs with a workingman's club mentality.We all know what happened to workingman's clubs & unless the RFL buck their ideas up , i fear we are entering the beginning of the end of the greatest game on earth . TBH i can see next years dual registration causing nothing but problems when the injuries start piling up on 2 fronts & where will the teams be made up from then ? Will matches have to be cancelled because of player shortage ? Success will depend on who has the fittest squad at the sharp end of the season.

I think you've misunderstood the purpose of dual registration - it isn't there for first team squad members, it is there to replace the loss of the u20s side (which was allowed a no. of overage players to play in). So we still have our first team squad PLUS around 9 homegrown players now too old for the new u19s side. We are able to send up to 5 players (from either inside or outside the top 25) to Swinton - so, depending on injuries, there will be quite a few not getting a game every week.”

If we have a massive injury crisis, then Swinton will have to manage without anyone from us. We still have a huge squad of well over 30 players to pick from plus we could even dip into the u19s if we really had to.

As for professional people running RL - always makes me laugh this. I know there are a few who have messed things up at various clubs but broadly speaking RL suffers because it doesn't have a massive national profile like football or RU. Hence we don't get the media attention we deserve, hence we don't have TV companies and sponsors queueing up to throw cash at us. This is not something that is simple to solve. Look at us - we have Simon Moran at the helm who someone has pointed out has no trouble selling zillions of tickets for acts with big profiles. Yet we don't sell the HJ out very often do we?

Right, so the first team squad has not been affected.
As for the RFL , they need someone with media clout who will draw good sponsorship & spread the word about our game to the masses , instead of it having a couple of column inches & a BBC programme at a time suitable only for recording & hardly likely to attract channel surfers to watch it.

The trouble is - it's not that simple. People liked to blame Richard Lewis for everything when he was at the RFL - well Wimbledon tennis has not exactly crumbled since he took over there has it? Lots of people have tried different things but we have decades of media bias to work against. Things are changing, just very gradually. The BBC coverage is not perfect but go back a few years and you'll find it even worse.

I don't think there is a magic answer, sadly. We just have to keep on improving bit by bit.

Maybe we could all start by being positive about the game of RL. People talk about the financial problems at Salford and Bradford, but no-one mentions the progress made at our own club, at Wigan, Saints, Les Cats, Hull, etc. Wakefield have really picked up financially and are looking forward to a new ground. HKR are making major improvements and Hudds announced today that they've just purchased a shedful of land for a new training HQ.

Think most of you missing the point of my post,im not saying anything is wrong with the actual game its the running of it that concerns me,as i said we are falling way behind NRL and Union,i accept sebs point we are getting better slowly but the others are getting better faster,example the GRAND FINAL
we get some bird swinging around under a big balloon,the nrl grand final what a show that was,we had eddie and stevo banging on and bigging up the grand final like it was something amazing lmao.well anyway thats why i suggested someone like Barry Hearn snooker and darts were going nowhere now look at it,all im saying is we need someone or something like that,an earlier post said its run like the wheeltappers and shunters social club he probably not far from the truth,we badly need something.

I think it has to be acknowledged that the game is a good product ...going back in the 60's the BBC thought we had a good enough game to help it to get BBC 2 off the ground & more recently Sky used us as a stepping stone into peoples living rooms for its sports channels but ,as for sky, the game seems to be no more than a convenience these days with kick off times to suit tv & yes, i know that happens with football as well. What we need is a media manipulator , someone who could say negotiate with sky to get the game more exposure...for a start why can't the game as a whole be advertised on the normal entertainment channels between programmes ? What i would like to see though is for sky to put superleague as a freeview programme outside the rugby league heartlands to give the heathens outside our area the chance to at least see the game & form an opinion of it.It wouldn't cost sky anything because sports fans in those areas would still buy sport packages for football/cricket etc. Also the BBC need to be persuaded to put SL show on at a proper time to appeal to a bigger potential audience.

I get the points you are making and agree we lag behind other sports and the NRL in some aspects. BUT - this isn't through lack of trying. Some of the ideas listed above are made as if the RFL hasn't tried these things. You can't force broadcasters to do what you want. Either they'll do it because it helps them OR you pay them. RL can't afford the type of PR it needs and so changing the media's attitudes has to be a slowburner, sadly.

You have got to remember wheather you like it or not that we are a product of the M62, why would a national company (orange, o2) for example want be a sponsor for us and pump millions into a game that has tried and failed at expanding away from the M62. I am not against expansion, but i think that we need to realise that its what you are brought up with. I bet there are not a huge amount of people that were brought up on rugby union switching to rugby league, just as we would not switch to say basketball. Basket ball is a world wide sport with huge audiences in some contries yet failed to take off in the UK. It doesnt matter how much money you throw at advertising, you wont change most peoples minds.
We have a great game which is forward thinking and we have a good following and we need to look after that before chasing the big buck, i know that the big buck may well help, but money didnt help Bradford, and a new stadium hasnt helped Salford. I hope the powers that be concentrate on what we have at the minute rather than chasing round for viewers form all over the country and wasting money.

Well, listening to the news tonight at some of the mega millions that were thrown at the various sports for the Olympics i think maybe rugby league may be better as an amateur sport under the umbrella of sport uk. There is no way a professional sport like rugby league will ever attract such amounts from sponsorship.

And now according to sportinglife sport england has cut the funding for RL by £10.1 million over four years. Oh dear .

Lots of RL fans should be careful what they wish for.

If the RFL really wanted to take the game forwards and break its flat cap backward image and target the real big sponsors and raise the game's profile, then those big sponsors would be calling the shots. Would those big sponsors be wedded to nostalgic ideas of small northern clubs like Castleford and Wakefield....would they heck. The game would move on and if it meant mergers and clubs scrapped to set up franchises in other parts of the country so be it. They did that in Australia and look how well Australia is doing.

Also the audience would change, you wouldn't get the plebs that go watching RL now, they wouldn't be able to afford it just like they can't afford to watch the football Premiership any more. Taking the game forward means it will become more corporate and more expensive but that will also mean the product is a lot more stylish and presentable in the media. Maybe it would be time to start thinking about getting closer links with RU and their clubs. It hasn't done Leeds any harm and its what Peter Deakin wanted to do with us. Maybe even (shock horror) think about bringing the codes together and trying to find some form of common rules that would allow RU and RL teams to play each other and form a large and popular competition with a presence all around the country. Major corporations merge, thats what you have to do to survive in a global marketplace.

Once the game has got people in charge that are actually efficient and focused on making the sport bigger then the money and sponsors will come in and we won't have to listen to the flat cap brigade any more that have bigoted views on RU and are wedded to their traditional clubs. The RFL in the past has just rolled over at opposition from the flat cappers but new and strong leadership at the top would not be afraid of ruffling feathers in the short term to make the game more commercial in the long term.

Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?

Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?

Good post Charlie. Unless the game does respect its limitations it will tear itself apart , i would rather see it played at a lower level than disappear altogether but in its present state it does need to concentrate on better sponsorship.

Quote ="Winslade's Offload"Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?'" Good post. The doom merchants have been saying the game is about to die since 27 August 1895. Red Hall is an easy target for every little problem. If you actually look at the RFL objectively they do a good job with limited resources compared to other governing bodies. If Lewis was as bad as people made out he wouldn't have got the Wimbledon job. 2013 really needs to be our year, and I have every faith it will be, IF the fans get behind the game instead of knocking it. Not saying RL is perfect but no sport is!

Quote ="Winslade's Offload"Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?'" Good post. The doom merchants have been saying the game is about to die since 27 August 1895. Red Hall is an easy target for every little problem. If you actually look at the RFL objectively they do a good job with limited resources compared to other governing bodies. If Lewis was as bad as people made out he wouldn't have got the Wimbledon job. 2013 really needs to be our year, and I have every faith it will be, IF the fans get behind the game instead of knocking it. Not saying RL is perfect but no sport is!

I think a lot of the frustration from RL fans is that they know it is a fantastic sport. I know darts fans, snooker fans etc. probably think their sports are the best but people who are not traditional or even regular RL supporters acknowledge it's a fantastic sport played by fantastic athletes and which retains much of the honour of true sport (unlike football). They are probably as baffled as us as to why the game isn't more widely watched, played or promoted.

Conversely you have the footy Premiership and RU (as obvious examples) which in terms of entertainment are certainly no better than RL but whose bosses appear to have no problem courting the media and securing sponsorship. There may be a perception they've sold their soul for the corporate dollar but let's face it football, RU and RL have all sold out to Sky .... it's just football and RU seem to have done rather better out of it.

Regardless of your view of how well or poorly the RFL are doing the fact is, on the brink of one of the biggest seasons for years, we have no sponsor for a flagship league tournament, no sponsor for our flagship cup comp and no sponsor (that I know of) for our sports major international comp.