I completely agree. It’s a badly broken system, in a number of ways. I just don’t think it’s something for IMG to fix. And the RL community loves it despite its flaws.

Derek's outburst is purely down to him genuinly worrying about being relegated himself in my opinion.
Based on the provisional gradings posted previously Leigh are in 12th and face a real threat of being relegated. I don't think they will, as they will gain a few points based on league position, but I haven't seen much of what they're doing off-field to help boost their points. It may be a lot, it may be close to nothing, I have no idea. Wakey's grading will likely improve now their new stand is open and with the signings they've made must be confident they will secure a SL place, so I wouldn't be suprised to see them stay above Leigh.
I've seen Cas have done a few easy wins with things such as seating and a big screen. Combined with new investment will probably be a boost to their financial grading. Wakefield also seem to be improving
Derek probably wants London to finish 11th because they're down anyway, then trying to (ridiculously) guilt Hull into taking voluntary relegation after finishing bottom (which is laughable he even made that suggestion) so that it leaves 2 spaces in SL and gives Leigh a better chance of staying there.

I went through a period of liking Beaumont last year, he really grew on me, now he's going back to his attention seeking rants I'm starting to look forward to the prospect of Leigh back in the championship.

Anyway, look forward to Cokey ripping my post apart.

https://x.com/TheGameCaller/status/1805 ... gt0Dw&s=19 Hope this isn't true, but, if it's linked with the stories last week about some clubs wanting to kick Catalan out of SL, it shows the small mindedness of many club owners. We can't chop and change yet again, need to give the IMG structure time to bed in. Without IMG, would every game have been on TV? would Cas have actually made improvements to their ground? Would we have had time to do a proper rebuild? Or would we just be having a mad panic signing whichever journeyman Aussie we could? In my opinion, the game can't grow much more in northern in England, we need to stick with IMG and let them grow the game and generate new commercial opportunities. Clubs were struggling pre IMG, hence why they were brought in, what do these chairmen think will happen if we scrap IMGs plans? Catalan get kicked out, Bradford or Widnes get promoted and bring a few hundred more away fans to game than Catalan do and that'll solve the club's financial problems? No, if we get rid of IMG, the game will become more insular and continue to fade into insignificance

https://x.com/TheGameCaller/status/1805 ... gt0Dw&s=19 Hope this isn't true, but, if it's linked with the stories last week about some clubs wanting to kick Catalan out of SL, it shows the small mindedness of many club owners. We can't chop and change yet again, need to give the IMG structure time to bed in. Without IMG, would every game have been on TV? would Cas have actually made improvements to their ground? Would we have had time to do a proper rebuild? Or would we just be having a mad panic signing whichever journeyman Aussie we could? In my opinion, the game can't grow much more in northern in England, we need to stick with IMG and let them grow the game and generate new commercial opportunities. Clubs were struggling pre IMG, hence why they were brought in, what do these chairmen think will happen if we scrap IMGs plans? Catalan get kicked out, Bradford or Widnes get promoted and bring a few hundred more away fans to game than Catalan do and that'll solve the club's financial problems? No, if we get rid of IMG, the game will become more insular and continue to fade into insignificance

we don't know what's going on behind the scenes so hard to comment but losing the french would be a big mistake for me. Some of these clubs obviously rely on away support. I wonder what they would do with the numbers that travel over to both Hull clubs

Absolute joke if true .

It's not sustainable just to rely on away support, the number of fans travelling away seems to have decreased a lot in recent years, FC don't take as many away fans as they did in the late 2000s/2010s. Clubs should focus on selling our their home ends before relying on away fans buying a few pies and beers.

I don't buy the argument that fans aren't going to Magic weekend/the cc final because they go to Catalan either. Many people combine their annual holiday with a trip to catalan, I won't be spending a week in Huddersfield to combine it with a Hull away fixture, and the reason I'm not going to magic this year is because it's in a ground with nothing to do around it, no magic about it. If it was in Cardiff, Edinburgh or somewhere like Dublin I'd go, but Leeds has no appeal for me, it's a tired ground with no leg room and nothing around it...me going to Catalan in February had no sway in my decision not to attend. Toulouse are the only championship team to have a TV deal, and there is also a TV deal in France to show Catalans games, kick them out and both those deals are gone I'd imagine

elland road is a dump and the surrounding area has nothing. No idea why anyone thought it would be popular with fans

It’s more than likely because the RFL got a cheap deal to hold it there, if the RFL had any thought or idea what the fans want they wouldn’t have held it at Elland Rd. Problem is the RFL have no idea whatsoever and partly why the game is in the state it’s in.

It’s the only sport that seems to consistently shoot itself in the foot with poor and ill conceived ideas etc.

Because it's managed by amateurs and people protecting their own interests

Agreed I think the rfl probably got it on the cheap and thought they could make a quick buck as they think that if it's slap bang in the middle of the m62 more fans will come, when I think it'll likely be the opposite, to me it just seems like another bog standard away game rather than a special event that magic should be. The purpose of magic originally was to promote super League in potential new markets like Cardiff, Edinburgh and Newcastle, it worked at the Etihad too, Anfield was an awful venue for it, very similar to Elland road in that it's away from the city centre, the area around it is a dump and there's no leg room in the seats.

Either magic weekend is kept and held in new venues away from the heartlands to spread the game or it's scrapped if it's just going to be held at elland road, as currently it's just another loop fixture

I went to the World Cup semi at Elland Road a couple years back and swore id never go back again, absolute dive is being polite.

If this is true, then what a joke. Ok there wasn't a lot of love for IMG's grading etc however it was decided that, it was the way to go. So to change theor minds again is one of the many reasons RL looks amateurish and not something not to invest in.
We have chosen the grading, it won't make everyone happy, but nothing will.
No point in having plan if you don't follow through with it.

On the subject of Magic weekend, if you aren't going to take it to places that aren't massive on rugby, try and expand the game, then knock it on the head.

I'd go with 14 teams (IF they are 14 that can hit the criteria) get rid of loop games and magic weekends.

Uncle Tony was right about one thing, surely teams should get points for bringing through home grown players, that should be the aim of every club.

It should be 14 teams play each other twice plus Magic and get rid of the loop fixtures. We've played Warrington three times already but haven't played Salford or Wigan yet. I'd also introduce the Yorkshire and Lancashire cup as pre season trophies, 16 in each up to the clubs how serious they take it but majority of the time we play Yorkshire clubs in pre season anyways.

Scheduling is something they need to look at, we also played Leeds twice in a row at home. Know it's hard to get it completely even with stadiums having pitch work derby games needing to be at Easter etc but surely having teams play each other once each 'half' of a season isn't that hard.

Also on the broadcasting lowlights include the BBC showing a semi against the Premier League final day (even 2 hours earlier kickoff would have helped there) this weekend they've out put an England game on against the Euros and that's probably a factor in not getting it on TV (Friday night is a night off for the Euros) Hard to avoid every event I know but the game needs to get sharper at it

A celebration of 90 years of RL in France and it plays second fiddle to a championship game .

The Thursday before the Euros began there was no sport on TV, a super League game then would have drawn in the viewers, instead they scheduled 3 at once on the Friday, clashing with the opening game of the euros. Definitely need to be smarter with the scheduling and stagger kick off times more.

Is anyone familiar at all with rugby league seriously expecting the empty blazers at RFL HQ (or the self-interested blowhards of SL for that matter) to apply common sense after all these decades?

The game has been in its death throes for a long time now, and all they ever do is rearrange the Titanic's deck chairs one more time: IMG is merely the latest manifestation.