Current play off system is a joke. Top 6 was perfect. Why change it. And don't give me the bull about the league being bigger. If you're not in the top six you dont deserve to be in the play offs.

AD - I actually think this comment says it all really. I think Jon Wilkin also said similar on beeb website.

It does say it all LL, quite right.

Its confusing, pointless, and is proving to be of little interest. Many will say 'ah yes, so did the plays off when they were first introduced' but come on, this is just embarrasing.

The RFL just can't sit still and leave things alone, and all the while things like this make a laughing stock of the game.

Business end of the season and the crowds go down? Give me another sport where that happens.

Fellatio World Series - Blowjobathon Championship Playoffs.

I bet the floor looks like mine does when I wallpaper a ceiling.

But I don't always defend RFL. That is the point I was making also. I think many many things are wrong in our game. You like others pick up on points I make and seem to just say here goes defending them again. You seem selective, because on other threads you will see I don't defend RFL and actually critize.
But problem is on this mb nothing is ever acknowledged as a positive in the game. Both sides of the argument get ignored. The arguments seem to be so simplified its untrue. As if derbies will really solve problems. They never did prior 1996, and won't now. As Thatch said if it aint hurting it aint working, and I'm far from a conservative. We could all have a popular governing body that leaves everything as it is and makes little effort towards the difficult decisions. But its usually the unpopular decisions that require sacrifices that make the differences. Popular decisions usually don't achieve much.

I think the biggest issue here is that what the RFL are sewing will take at least a generation to grow. It's had that long in London and whilst some will argue that grass roots might be blooming, the apathy for the game among paying adults is still very poor.

I spend a lot of time with lads from South London, Dartford, Erith, Charlton.....lads with kids my age, and the most they've had at school is a visit from a development officer and a few session of tick and pass before moving back to football. Yet I hear that thousands of kids in the SE are playing the game. It's laughable. I'd love for it to happen but the vast majority are not interested in the slightest.

This 20 or 30 year 'plan' for want of a better word is diluting interest in many parts of the heartlands. Towns that have for 100 years produced players capeable of beating the Aussies (though I dont really see the infatuation with that to be truthful). RL will always be played in Leigh, Widnes, Fax etc, but at what cost will this experiment (for that is all it is) be? Losing 20000 fans up here and finding 5000 is South Wales isn't expansion, it's lunacy.

None of us know what will happen but at the moment its looking to be highly detrimental. Playing with it, risking it, having a go, has serious side effects if it all goes wonky but if you raise these concerns you're viewed as some kind of halfwitted flatcapper.

Personally I think some posters on the VT (the bullies that spend 24/7 on there) do more damage than good, especially in their belittling of fans that critize them with the famous flat cappers remark etc. Which kind of highlights how I get annoyed on this very message board by just putting my own opinion across because it goes against probably a majority.
We can't stay still, and IMO no matter how long it takes we have to have goals to expand the game. With very little money available to the sport compared to Cricket/Football/RU there is difficult choices to make like Celtic being put in SL.
The brand names alone for the national sides of the sports I mention are worth staggering amounts of money for example. The intl games are money spinners too. It doesn't half give their governing bodies a lot of money to use to infiltrate ( of a better word

) many areas to keep their games as top dog.
RL have lost loads of momentum regarding the national side. Beating Aussies would be a good boost to us as a starting point.

Again though, and I'm sorry if it seems like I'm pulling you up all the time, you're giving me the dream solution without considering the real consequences.

We'd all love to be on a par with RU and football, hundreds of thousands watching top flight RL every week with millions more on TV, stuffing the Aussies every year. Only a fool would think otherwise.

I'd like to be a billionaire with a big yacht and lots of page 3 hotties fetching me Dawsons pies and ice cold Stella, but until I come up with a sensible plan to acheive that which wont have a potentially serious affect to what I have at present, then I would be blindly chasing an unrealistic and unsustainable dream.

You'd get bored , I did , let the ships plumber have it all and returned to Leyth to start again , What was his name again ?

Abro, Abramo , something like that

And the first thing he said was 'these pies have too much pepper in em'

Was n`t it Darren Abro................

I don't have the answers either, but I think including Celtic with a backer into SL are the kind of steps we have to make. But RFL should not be winding club fans up like ours by stating what is basically cr@p for reasons of Celtics inclusion, should they make similar decision again. They should have told us as it was, Celtic are in SL for expansion of the game.
RFL should be working on getting more new clubs with backers or getting backers/investment for current expansion clubs in Championship, and giving them a pathway to SL as a goal and incentive. Not easy especially at this moment in time.
Get rid of the salary cap and base it on affording to pay, and get rid of quota rules because Leigh for example shouldn't need them anyway. This then makes Championship comp more of level playing field, as this seems to be a major grevience from heartland club fans against Development area clubs. So wouldn't spoil our comp.
But also leave door open for heartland clubs, but not with the carrot dangling we had last time, like when Widnes was allowed to apply only for them to have the going under thrown in their faces at the death for example.
Our biggest problem is lack of money. But we need to expand to get in the big league of money like other sports.....its a catch 22. Heartland clubs may suffer, but because of lack of money what do you do. Its them difficult choices or popular choices again.

A few problems with your post

You suggest the RFL should be looking for investors for the current Championship expansion clubs , but not for heartland clubs ? , Why

You suggest they leave the door open ? how

You suggest that we need to expand to get more money into the game , very true , but would that money find it's way into Championship heartland clubs , or will it fund a bigger stronger top tier that will then want more and bigger expansion clubs ?

I have no empathy with the RFL quite simply because they have no empathy with the heartland clubs outside SL , they care not one iota about them

I do agree that the inclusion of Celtic was too good an opportunity to miss , but the way they did it smacks of conivance and mistrust

I dont want to mistrust our governing body , I want them to be truthfull and honest , I want to have faith in them that they want all clubs to prosper

Until I see that I will criticise them for all my worth

RL is skint. It makes sense to have outside investment in an expansion area. You yourself have stated you don't have problem with RFL investing in expansion areas - so why not have outside investment too or instead of.
Ideally the outside investment net should include heartlands. I was offering ideas about expansion.


Again I'm not full of the answers as I said originally. But for example if sky money can be increased so more clubs can be added to SL, then this could be option to work on. There would/should always be the option of replacing a club and that I hope will be a serious threat for clubs to keep them on their toes. Under P&R stopping clubs entering SL because of facilities would have been difficult while clubs like Wakey are in there. The licences should help to ensure Wakey do sort themselves out or they should be out - afterall they made promises they never kept about their stadium.


I remember Mr Chairman saying on here about a conversation he had with some RU bloke and the amount of money invested at grass roots etc was staggering. And the fact RFL don't get anywhere near. I would be interested to know just what that investment was in % terms of income the RU body brings in. Until the RFL can rake in the money then its not going to make its way down. I don't include SL TV money because in my book clubs by being in the comp earn it as such - I am not trying to wind anyone up by saying this. Its for the benefit of SL clubs to make investment at grass roots also. A lot of money goes in wages, but who begrudges them guys a reasonable wage whether they are imports or homegrown or whatever. The Chev Walker incident highlights this. Though bad injuries happen at our level and amateur level. Don't know the score with RL, but I do know even at Amateur level in RU that players that are badly injured (life threatening) are well looked after, as I know of a incident that happened at Eccles.


I don't obviously have any contact with them. But the shortage of money can't help the situation. But I do think speaking for our own clubs actions we don't help ourselves. But I know you don't agree but I do think Toulouse in C is good and makes a change from the norm. Toulouse is probably in my top 5 of away games even though we lost. The whys etc have been done to death though



Fair enough.

LL the rfl posted record profits last year so how are they skint??

The game had lasted 100 years without the meddling from sky

Before sky joined we were filling wembley and hiring old traffold

Now before we got oursleves in this mess was our competition not better run?

Season started ,lancs cups midweek(great local derbies)john player up to and just after christmas( ok some crowds were poor but compared to the playoffs now, positively healthyseason still running,challenge cup(played on regular basis} end of season run in(promotion and relegation ,bloomin 4 up 4 down lol) premership playoffs...end of season tour down under or even a touring sideover here playing for 2 -3 months against club sides...........now does all these not make for a more fun season


Instead you get told you can't play in this league or that league

You can't spend to improve your team,your handicapped by a salary cap[how do you fund a team on 150k?)

Then people say the challenge cup is pointless as the lower leagues get murdered( I wonder why lol)

We are given a cup to play amongst ourselves,and now a pointless play off system

We now play less home games than ever in history so how do we generate money?????

On the international front we don't tour? why? as all the players are full time so don't need to ask there bosses for time off as in the bad old days????


So you saying dumping a club in wales is progress,lets give the jocks one as well and a irish one and remove three more english clubs......so how do we produce players for england???????


Just imagine if the sky money had been spread over all the clubs over the last 13 years or so,instead give it to andrew johns and any other old crock to limp over here


whoopie doo

Spot on Jesus - agree tottally.

The crowds have been shocking IMHO

Great post jesus,agree with everything you have wrote,so that must make me a flacapper

Bring back David Oxley, I say!

Well at least he was better than todays supremo......

He could even organise tours and even the odd[failed expansion team..kent...scarbrough...failed welsh team etc

I was under the impression that its the heartland clubs that are generating poor crowds in the playoffs, as always this somehow gets blamed on Catalan and Celtic. If the Wakefield-Catalan fixture had taken place in Perpignan the crowd could have been twice what it was. I dont think its beyond the pale to suggest that a Celtic home playoff game would have beaten 4,000 either.
If clubs that have been around for a century can't establish a decent fan base or build a half decent ground then i'd say theres something wrong with the way the club is being run rather than the game itself.

Sorry not commenting on all that. Sounds like you have forgotten where the game was before Sky.
Its quicker just to say you prefer how it was prior to 1996, and you don't want expansion.
With this fixed in your head how will you ever take on board new ideas to keep the game alive at professional level.
RU and football dwarfs what the RFL take in.

I think what you say isn't totally true. The gates aren't great, but I think further back in the thread gave an indication of the possible whys. Top 6 should have been retained to give that achievement some prestige. This top 8 thing is too much......a team qualified by losing more than they won for example. The league is only 14 clubs. How many clubs get the 2nd chance this time round ? Its silly to say the least. I'm not saying it wasn't worth trying, but hopefully it will be binned for next season.
2 clubs out of 10 will get promoted from C1 to the Championship - again taking away the prestige of promotion by putting 20% of clubs up.
Fans aren't stupid, especially when their season ticket won't cover the game.