as i said on one of the facebook groups, SKY don't give a toss as to how many fans, or their children or their fans can make a game on a thursday or a friday, they don't give 2 hoots if kids can't make the games because parents are reluctant to keep them out late
they run the game to all ends and they decide when games will be played, we took their pieces of silver so have to go with it.
it's not convenient for the match going fans but all our rulers care about is subscriptions to pay for their premier league coverage and viewing figures, they don't care if there is 1,000 or 10,000 at a ground.

a) the difference between the deals for RL and RU have currently signed is roughly 2m over a 4 year period (when you exclude Heineken cup, which we don't really have an equivalent for). Can't remember the precise figures but it certainly wasn't worlds apart.

b) sky pay RU very little as the current RU rights are held by BT sport.

c) the rfl have got a better deal then they ever have, why wouldn't they be happy.

I sort of think you have a point on Sky not being bothered about the crowd but moving kick offs to 7 30 has to have come from somewhere, cynically it is perhaps to catch an audience before the 8.05 ko in Europa League matches but I think the fact we are not on at home that often is due to the empty seats but saying that RU outside the internationals and the top flight in England and France is not in that good state and the region's in Wales in particular are a shambles playing in front of gates we'd be embarrassed to have and only propped up by the money the WRU makes from the National side.

I thought I had read somewhere that the union got app 3 times from TV what league gets, and I think the current deal for league was 90 Million over a 5 year period, I wouldn't argue it cause I can't even remember where I read the figures, But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Union pulled in more than the entire League funding for the 6 nations alone. They have plenty of it anyway wherever they are getting it

You are right about Wales, and it's the very reason League used to get so many quality players from down there, Going back a few years a big number of Union players in England were professional men and were not short of money, Not so in the Valleys.

But there is enough money in the game to fund all the players down there, How many do we see coming to League now ?.

Got no Stats but I would guess the Union premier league will be on a par with super league for crowds, and I don't reckon their top clubs go bust with the same regularity as the Bradford's and Wakeys.

The unpleasant truth is that we are virtually owned by Sky, Union can play TV companies off against each other, The 6 nations is really popular and the world cups are just something different to what league can offer. We cant Haggle with anyone about price because nobody but Sky want us. It's not nice to think about but if Sky for any reason decided to pull the plug, we would be down that well known creek in no time flat.

The problem in Wales is knowing who the good players are as below the 4 regions the top club division is meant to feed them but for example Llanelli who are basically the reserve team of the Scarlets region lost a home game 96-0 last season to a side which is probably paying less than Rochdale or Oldham pay their players. Neath are supposed to be part of the Ospreys but are going bust, Swansea the other main feeder to them were relegated so the talent pool outside maybe 50 or 60 Welsh qualified players at the region's and maybe another 20 playing in England or France just is not there or at least would not be evident to RL clubs unless they watched a lot of dire matches at places which in a lot of cases are at old grounds falling to bits with a crowd under 3 figures in attendance.

The national team will always make millions and in the main will compete but below that the system is rotten and far worse than 30 or 40 years when an open cheque book took players north.

We won 4 drew 1 out of the 7 equivalent games this season.
We have failed to beat any of the top 3.

That would be enough to see us keep 4th.
Need a strong start against Wigan

spot on jools,
the good thing is that it's in our hands now as to whether we make the semi finals

if we turn up and do the business we are 80 minutes away from a grand final

I would think all you have said will be pretty accurate, I don't keep up with Union much anymore, but still no players are coming to our code, From that you have to guess that they are being kept happy money wise. I take your point about the talent pool down there, Halfbacks for eg don't materialise out of nowhere like they used to, but even the ones that do , show no tendency to come up here.

It's been an odd season so far. I've rarely seen so much pessimism and criticism surrounding a team that 90% of us agreed would have a good season if we reached the Super 8's (done) and a very good season if we reached the play offs, which we are in prime position to do so.

I must admit I looked at our results to date and thought our barrier to the play offs will be our struggles against the top 3. However, look at how close those results were and since when do the best teams care about results earlier in the season? We've, according to many, been rubbish and still look where we are. The play offs are there for us to be part of and surprise everyone - even us!

out of 24 games so far, only the hull and leeds cup game have been batterings in reality.

almost every game we've had has been competitive and most of our losses were down to individual errors rather than poor team performances, and yet the criticism has been unreal at times.

Or look at it the other way we don't win close games (we are getting slightly better as now we sometimes draw them) but Catalans away apart we struggle to get over the line when the chips are down.

Then again no better time to start than now and if we are more focused than the opposition in the next few weeks close games on paper might be anything but as in most of the tight games we start badly but Catalans (MW) apart we don't tend to blow decent leads that often which is a big plus.

True espanyol, but like I said a lot of those are down to individual errors , basic errors that have cost us.
But you're right we have lost a lot of close games mainly due to poor game management errors and possibly the opposition being smarter than us?

Wonder if those who wanted Baloo sacking think a replacement would have still got us to 4th in the league and holding a semi-final place ??

Obviously we won't know as they probably won't wanna admit they were wrong !!

The good thing about these play-offs is we're in control now, we know who we're playing, where and when so can prepare properly and i guess we have the luxury of knowing that if we keep winning those below us can't catch us !!

Basic errors and poor game management kill us constantly

We lose close games because we blow so many scoring chances - if we make a break chances are we lose possetion - the Likes of Leeds or Saints chances are score (hell even Rovers or Catalans are more likely to score than us from a break)

they will be back if we fail to make the semi final...

that has to be our minimum aim now with it being in our own hands

I think the best thing about these playoffs is it suits our mindset- not knock out rugby for 7 more games! The monkey isn't on our backs until the semi finals!

I agree, we currently hold one of the semi-final places, to lose that now would be a sin, We've enough experience now to realise that you can get away with playing average for 20-odd weeks but when the games matter you have to step up, hopefully our average performances so far are a sign we are saving our best efforts, we've failed to do that in the last few years so surely now we aren't going to play as bad as we have done in the previous 'games that matter'.

Anything less than 4th and i will be hugely disappointed now !!

Well who are these posters who wanted Baloo sacking ? I have been as critical of PA as anyone I would think, And I still think we could do better, But that's my opinion. Nowhere have I called for him to be sacked and to be honest I can't remember reading a post from anyone who has said he should be sacked, Maybe I'm missing something.

There were plenty, not just on here but on the facebook pages, even after the 1st 3 games they were howling for him to go !!!! in fact only a few weeks ago there was another one.

Fair enough mate , I don't go on facebook so I wouldn't see those,

The baloo out brigade were pretty vociferous after 3 games and there were plenty of threads on here.. We've lost 2 of 13 games.. One by 1 point away at the champions.. Although to be fair we should have won it.
As for doing better? I think we have exceeded most peoples expectations for this season, apart from being top of the league by a streak I'm not sure how he could have done better?

Think the fans need to be more positive, very downbeat on here when we are such a good position, get behind the team!

yes we have been let down many times in the past but right now we should be talking upbeat as everything is still to play for

You talk about basic errors costing us .

Who makes basic errors. who regularly maks basic errors. if they keep doing it then it needs to be trained out of them then they need to be shipped out. If players are not good enough they go.

Who trains, them, who picks them, who recriuts them.


Who gives players new contracts, who recruits players that wont make basic errors.



Do Leeds lose games regularly with basic errors Do Wigan.

If we lose our next seven games by one point in each game with one player making a basic error would that be enough for you.

If we lost Brough our attack pretty much would die as would the results and the season.

I am still not entirely convinced by Anderson.

I still keep my options open.

Let's see what happens for the rest of the season. This is the bit that now counts

More importantly lets see what we do next season

Our biggest error maker by a few is brough, closely followed by Ellis, Jerry, Wardle and taai- let's write to the club and demand they are let go....