It's a difficult one this and whilst I see the point that he's making, the sport needs to build a better future and the same teams popping up and down between the two leagues isn't going to do that and neither is teams playing "top flight sport" in stadiums that are frankly worse than some non-league football grounds.

Stadiums need to improve, academies need to be improved and the whole infrastructure of clubs needs to improve.

The current mindset of throw a load of money at over the hill foreign imports to stay/go up but forget about your ground and your academy and your marketing etc etc needs to change. It's no surprise that usually the most successful teams in sport have an academy behind them.

Promotion is still possible as it was the last time around, you just need to fix some things up off the field as well as on it. If you finish 2nd/3rd/4th but at the same time you've improved your academy and your facilities and your crowds then you'll probably get promoted ahead of the team that wins the league.

it probably needs a bit of thinking too. i was chatting to a friend on Friday night who is into his Ozzie rugby and also watches a lot of NFL. The NFL whole game experience is out of this world, and when they come over here to play games they bring that with them, so perhaps something clubs need to look at. I personally am happy to rock up 5-10 mins before kick off, take my seat, watch the game and then home, but i've been at work since 7, and literally chucked tea down to go and watch a game. However, there are probably lots of others who want pre / ht and post match entertainment

The Ozzies were bold and forced mergers to get a team representing an area where there were too many and name changes have been designed to remove the association to a town (although not all)

if we were to have a Cumbria team in SL, i think that would be fantastic as the area produces many rugby league players who are spread across the leagues. Still have Workington, Barrow etc, but they play in the lower leagues and the clubs are in effect feeder clubs for the Cumbria team. I know there will be arguements about this, but its to give an example of thinking slightly differently where the current team retain identify, but equally giving the Cumbrian players a better chance of playing top level

I would go as far as acadamies (min of 16, 18, and then poss 20s) and reserve team is mandatory. The 20s could be merged with reserve to give the lads opportunity of playing v toughened pros, so bit of compromise in terms of teams

I thought that IMG were getting paid to do the thinking lol. Academy and junior teams are vital to the game, without them we will just be watching Aussie has beens.

they are



however, it needs all parties to look at things differently instead of just protecting their own club / self interests if we are going to have a viable game in the future

TV revenues have fallen over recent years (SKY), so they arent seeing the same value in the game that they used to do, even though viewing figures still stack up well.

we cant say that everythign is rosy in the RL garden and just carry on as we are. There isnt a lot wrong with the game as a product and i am sure most fans find it far more interesting to watch than most other sports. However, that fan base is not massive and it doesnt get anywhere near the media exposure in any format, that football, RU, cricket etc etc get. We are at best an after thought somewhere 6 pages into a newspaper, in a small column

it will need some bold decisions from IMG and the clubs to really look to move the game forward. IMO the only way we will get real recognition nationally is if we extend beyond the M62 coridoor. I know people will argue that we have tried it before, but you cant just drop a club into town X, and hope it survives. There needs to be a long term growth strategy in place to allow clubs to develop. Catalans were probably a bit of an exception as they were sort of dropped in, but equally they were given 3 years exemption from relegation, and the rest they say is history. In terms of IMG criteria, they have a massive catchment area in the Catalan region, and if they can somehow tap into that, they could quite easily be attracting 20k+ crowds each home game, but need to be tasked to do that

With my example of Cumbria, you could apply that in other areas too, i.e. South Yorkshire, where we have a presence in Doncaster / Sheffield (poss others i've missed), but quite a big catchment area with other Cities in close proximity

With regards to the acadamies / junior levels within the current clubs, i would also be looking at the proximity and relationships with clubs within the catchment area and beyond, so with Wigan, we have St Pats, St Judes, Orrell St james, Rosebridge, Hindley etc etc, and we also have ties with clubs beyond the traditional Wigan borough. All of this should be taken into account when progressing the game as without the local amateur clubs, the game certainly wont grow if the next generations arent being produced at that level

I think it’s clear IMG haven’t got that remit to try and force fundamental change through,more of the same dressed up in fancy marketing speak and they’ll swallow it but we will see