The Daddy_merged

If they're smart they'll hire Brian Noble, yes he does play one up football but he'll get results and make them extremely difficult to play against at this level. 

Bombshell, but can't say I'm disappointed. Now can we please bring in an authority figure no more nice guys we need a coach who's gonna scare the sh*t out of the players and get some performances.

Referee bottled it

Dave Woods and Brian Noble are a great combo, they would be my two to replace Eddie and Stevo.

It seems to be getting worse, yes the ref decisions are important but at the beginning of Super League it was always about the players, the skill they had, the excitement of the game etc. 

 

I'm finding that that fans and SKY especially are placing a disturbing emphasis on every single referee decision, querying every call made whether it's right or wrong, call forward passes that never happened. 

CAN WE JUST ENJOY THE GAME?

 

This is a worrying trend, I'm not enjoying the Sky broadcasts this season, I want to watch a sport not Stuart Cummings giving us his opinions on refereeing calls. Add to the fact that all the games on TV this year have been dull. 

 

Time to get a grip!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/31357409

 

Makes the Super League deal look like a very small drop in the ocean. Quite surprised that SL which has the audience share it does can only command the fee it does in comparison to Soccer. 

OK in theory hypothetically say this actually occurred and a French TV network mad it didn't get the French union top 14 rights and could see rugby league was the better TV product worth investing in, The network wanted a comp which included a side in Paris (maybe Paris St Germain was keen to be involved again?).Both the network, French Federation & sponsors wanted 8 sides in competition were prepared to fully fund a Paris side including a development officer or 2 and academy side (similar to how the Melbourne storm are centrally funded by NRL) in an 8 team fully professional Elite One.

So in this hypothetical scenario a TV contract is secured for the French Elite One and a grant given to all 8 sides to cover there salary cap say 2.5 million euro making cap roughly equal to current super league cap, plus paris side recieved extra to fund development and promotion of the sport in Paris. Catalan dragons were convinced to join the new league... heres were reality kicks in. What cities, big towns or regional selection have a strong enough rugby league culture to potentially create such a league?

Huge potential in France, it would have to be the following 8 teams. I would also for the future look at a strategy incorporating the Northern French teams.

Catalan Dragons
Toulouse Olympique
Aude Cathars
Avignon Bisons
Aquitaine Leopards
Albi/Tarn
Lyon-Villebaune- Rhone XIII
Paris

Can we put all Sam Burgess union related topics into the cross code forum. Sick of seeing these topics. He's a union player now. End of. 

Good to see the club finally looking into the mirror, coming up with good initiatives and building links with the southern amateur game and local businesses.....long overdue. 

 

http://www.londonbro...-club-launches/

 

 

Let's not forget Aquitaine and Lot-et-Garonne with a population of 300,000 in this area alone and Agen stadium just down the road. They may not be doing too well lately but they also applied for SL and I think there's potential there too if they can get the right people behind them.
The RFL have really made a mistake in going for this new format when the potential for a European/ Anglo French comp is the way forward.

Good move, now we just need to get Salford to change to Manchester.

Aude Cathars confirm Super League ambitions.

http://www.sportchoc...folle-espérance

The annoying thing is that we're starting to do things off the pitch which should've been done years ago and only now that we've been relegated.

http://www.londonbro...-business-club/

Read in this weeks League Express that Gateshead Thunder will be playing t Kingston Park next season, has this been officially confirmed?

Both clubs playing in the Elite competition have ambitions of playing in SL somewhere down the track and have professionalised their set ups as a result.

They're by far the best two teams in the Elite have really raised the standard of the French comp with their the introduction of their training methods and tactical play. The coaches of the teams Sylvain Houles and Laurent Garnier have great futures in the game and I wouldn't be surprised to see either of them coaching at SL level in the future.

They served up a cracker today with Carcassone coming away winners in a tight game up until the death 26-22.
The Elite needs more games and teams like this with professional management. 2-3 more clubs with ambition like these could be a pre cursor to a pro comp. I believe Avignon are now reviewing their systems, let's hope it proves to be fruitful.