Where do we think the RFL should plant their next tree.
Now that it seems the Crusaders are to continue in SL, perhaps they should drop a stadium in Edinburgh ?

Italy, simply because it makes no sense whatsoever. Not a Rugby League Nation, no Rugby League Tradition and has a National side made up of players who can point to it on a map.

Oh, hang on that last part already applies to every international team except Australia, England and New Zealand.

If my Italian suggested venture fails then I would suggest the non-playing RL nation closest to where the dart thrown at the world map lands.

Italy was a RL nation. In 1959 there was a small number of clubs including Treviso, that started to develop Rugby League. The venture wan't supported very well and they eventually switched to playing rugby Union and their country are now represented in the 6 nations!!
An opportunity missed at a time when an expansion programme was a real possibility but the vision wasn't!!

Widnes clearly!

Israel right on the on the border , they could use that infamous park n ride & pot luck scheme they have in place

The thing I despair at is why the RFL seem so insistent on expanding the game outside of England at all. When Nigel Wood was interviewed last week he even spoke of Estonia for goodness sake!! PNG, Samoa and the like are all rugby league playing nations, with a rugby league history to boot. I don't see the NRL pushing to include teams from any of those nations in their competition. Why? Because they like to nurture the competition they have, not create a world of blind panic and hysteria.

The English national team is light years behind Australia and New Zealand and the gulf in class is growing year on year. Why do the RFL not recognise this and move to bring their own house in order before expanding the game into other territories. If as is reported, their purpose for pushing the game into Wales relates to SKY and their need to shift satellite dishes, how can this apply to Catalans, when they don't even have SKY? Who is forcing them down this path? Sadly I fear it is solely down to the likes of Lewis and Wood and their own misguided vision for the game. Their focus seems blinkered by the likes of teams such as Crusaders. When will they understand that the rugby league strong holds in England are the future, English grass roots are the future, not the outer back of beyond?

The game shouldn't discard the M62 heartland, it should respect it and what it brings to the game.

Either get rid of current RFL board or ask several clubs to move away from RFL if you ask me.

too late they have already started, Cas next, then Bradford, Hull KR and a Lancashire team in that order to go bit by bit over the next few years, Newcastle, a Scottish team, Toulouse and they haven't given up hope in south Wales yet to come into SL in their places

Problem is that Sky and the RFL think this is progress but if this were to happen people will stop watching this sport.

why do we get the feeling we need to expand the game, i just dont get it, the game was fine as it was for my mine before franchising came along, we did beat the aussies back then now and again, dont think we will ever beat them again the way we are running RL over here at the moment

We should have ensured that Sheffield became the dominant partner in the Hudd-Sheff merger (or preferably not have the merger at all) and spread the game naturally and not keep trying to lay plants in the desert.

Expansion has always been on the RL agenda. Always. Look at some of the names of clubs across England (and Wales) that have played rugby league in the past. Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale, to name two of the half dozen Welsh clubs that used to be members of the Northern Union.
The difference between then and now is that the RFL actually have a few bob in their pockets thanks to TV money and sponsorship to be able to pursue this with more vigour.

Ditch the RFL and evryone outside SL go it alone.

I've nothing against expansion. Its the way it isbeing done coupled with the franchise system, which is neither fair or equal.
The RFL had said that the strongest 14 applicants would be successful in the next round of franchises, subject to the NL clubs winning either the NR cup or Grand Final.
This is not going to be what happens, because the Crusaders will not be one of the 14 strongest franchises.

If we did that it would also mean ditching the Hetheringtons



I am starting to see some benefits in your idea.

In some respects, something as radical as this could be the correct answer for the powers that be to actually stand up and listen. However I feel they wont be the slightest bit bothered about the rest anyway and the likelihood been the RFL will probably turn around and say

Unfortunately, as a club, we voted this system in and granted, there wasnt really any choice but, in the long term the franchise system will disappoint more people than it pleases.

Those idiots at red hall are killing the game its been done before and it can be done again, a breakaway game it will happen before long they will have upset the majority of the super league clubs we now have a break away will ensue that will be three game we will have out of one all generated by greed.

Rugby league was generated by inequality, not by greed. A breakaway league would also be generated by inequality, but would never survive. IMO.

I am not going to be very popular with my next comment I'm afraid , but you have to realise that Wakey wouldn't even be in the race for a franchise if it wasn't for the Crusaders outfit . You may ask why I say this , in fact I'm sure you will , but look at it this way - Had Crusaders not gone into admin this season , then the RFL would NOT have revoked the admin rule when your boys followed suit . Wakey would have been exempt from applying for a licence and the RFL would have had their ideal solution , Widnes in , Wakey out , so although I do fully agree with you that Wakey AND Cas should both be given a franchise ahead of Crusaders and Quins , you do have quite a lot to thank Crusaders for in a strange kind of way

Fair point, even though it'll buy us nothing.

Dump the normal super league system and go for the American Football style mini league system where 4 or 5 clubs are in the same league, but play other teams from other mini leagues. The mini league winners go into the play-offs at the end of the year.

You could have a lot more teams playing for the same end trophy. Can't see superleague clubs wanting to do anything like that though.

It doesn't matter. The NFL is still a franchise system. What you're suggesting sounds little different to the Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues that used to be in place, except that other clubs would still be excluded from that. And where would they go? The fact of the matter is that not all RL clubs can compete against each other in a way that American football franchises can. There's no draft system to even out playing inequalities, for a start. We have an historically different situation. We should accept that, and try to improve it within the confines that supporters accept and understand. IMO.

One of the consequences of the RFLs current policy won't be seen for ten or fifteen years and even then most of those who are still following the sport won't connect the two.

Without a Wakefield Trinity and the stars it creates to follow many, of the young kids will never take Rugby League to their hearts. A drastic reduction of adult supporters means an equal or higher reduction in junior supporters and therefore the loss of potential future fans and players.

Without a Neil Fox there might not have been a David Topliss, without a Derek Turner there might not have been a Trevor Skerrett, without a Keith Holiday there might not have been a Nigel Bell, without an Alan McCurrie there might not have been a Billy Conway, without a Graham Idle there might not have been a Gareth Ellis or a Ben Westwood and so on and so on.

Wakefield is one of the most fertile breeding grounds of quality Rugby League players in the world, up there with Wigan, but if you stop sowing the seeds then a few years down the line there's nothing to harvest. Worse than that, something else grows in it's place and when football finally wins the day in Wakefield there will be no way back for Rugby League. You don't begin strengthening a structure by knocking out one of the supporting pillars which hold the whole thing up!

The decisions of Lewis, Wood & Rimmer have a far greater reach than the next three years, their impact will last decades and may even inflict irreparable damage to the game. The direction in which these three are leading the game alongside the near amputation of Cumbria, the artificial loss of a strong Wakefield club and who knows who's next it is bordering on a level of incompetence that is almost criminal.

I'm not against expansion but you cannot artificially create a Rugby League culture where none existed and expect success. Expansion has to begin at the very foot of the game with constant, persistent and quality exposure to the sport within primary schools, kids summer coaching camps and secondary schools. You have to be realistic in your goals and understand that the outcome might not be hundreds of players, it might only be the the creation of a generation of young parents who have an affinity to the game. Those parents are like the early settlers of the wild west, it will take three generations of constant support to eventually create a culture.

You must do all this, you must be 100% committed to supporting this with every resource at your disposal and you must be willing to accept that it might or more likely will fail.

The provision of amateur facilities and the creation of local amateur clubs is the next step forward, then and only then do you begin to see a community of Rugby League followers who might one day form or support the formation of a semi-professional club playing in the lowest division of the RFLs league structure.

That league structure must be established, rigid and have integrity, it must be consistent in it's rules or else it becomes open to the corrupting influences of ambitious individuals who seek to circumvent it at the expense of those who compete within it.

IMO that is the only way to expand the game but it's a slow methodical process that would not deliver immediate results. Unfortunately we are governed by men who lack the vision to adopt such a system, they are men who desire the kudos of basking in the glory of their paper thin achievements.
I have no doubt that they understand their folly but such is their desire to make an instant mark that they will always be susceptible to a man with money promising the world on a stick.

Wake up fellas!
Nothing worth having ever came easy!

Fantastic post