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It seems to be getting a bit fraught on here lately, lots of unnecessary snark going on and virtual gnashing of teeth at each other. Lighten up a bit please, it's only a forum. It's meant to be fun. You know, like when teams bash each other to bits on the field but then shake hands at the end, you can have a good old fashioned debate on here, but there's no need for any of it to get nasty or personal. Neither myself nor ckn are fond of waving red cards about, but a few folk are testing our patience at the moment. Please take five minutes to re-read the T&Cs (via link below) and make sure your posts stay within the spirit of these easy to follow rules of polite engagement. http://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php?/guidelines/ If you see anyone posting stuff you think is in breach of these T&Cs, just report the post and let us deal with it, don't engage with it in any way. And now, a musical interlude...

I don't know whether it's just me, but a lot of recent topics see to have provoked very polarised standpoints,, with very little tolerance of opposing views displayed. And when the views expressed represent opinion only in many cases, the threads don't seem to go anywhere, And I've not even emphasised the duplication... Others may not of course agree, but I'm finding that I'm becoming loathe to participate in many threads. Put me out of my misery; is it just me or there others sharing a similar view?

There certainly would in the pubs I go to, but face to face these things can be done with a little more humour and grace. There is also the fact that some people will simply have no respect for some people here - whereas in the pub you have probably had a bit of relationship building outside of out and out disagreement! It will always be a bit more heated on here imho. I do try and keep the pub thing in my head though - if I wouldnt say it to their face there then i wont write it.

Just throwing this in here as it is relevant for India (plus all other teams taking part in the ENWC) All teams entering the ENWC must conform with the following rules: - Squads must have a minimum of 8 local players. - Match Day teams have a point cap of 100 points. Professional players are worth 25 points, Domestic players are worth -5. With scaling in between. - Squads will be limited to either 20 or 22 players. Whilst not perfect at least every team will have a third to 40% domestic players in their squad. Some nations like Hungary are targeting 10 domestic players.

We hurt the ones we love the most.

You time is not yet up. A man aged 65 can now expect to live a further 18.5 years https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2014to2016 In our IAM group we've just had an 84 year old pass his Advanced Motorcyclist test and hes now bought CBR 500

And it feels like as RL fans we love to jump to conclusions based upon a couple of articles and quotes from people who actually don't have power to influence these things. Firstly, it's not the NRL who is against the Denver Test, it is handful of NRL club CEOs who provide the same answer for any representative game involving their players. The sad reality is the most likely reason the Denver match won't go ahead is because of the NZRL review post World Cup, but hey that story isn't as interesting. The reality of it is the NRL clubs can't stop the match and the NRL only could if they raised a motion at an RLIF annual, general or extraordinary meeting and got a majority of Test nations to agree with them. As for the Tonga v Australia Test, firstly it is just one of Mal's ideas. No one from the NRL has come out in support. It's not much different than his other idea for 2018 of having Australia A tour the Pacific. He is trying to generate work for himself as he gets won bonuses on top of his annual salary. Just whilst we also dealing with facts, Moore has said nothing about the Hawaii match. It was John Paul Basile who did. Now his views possibly reflect Moore's, but that is also possibly because the most likely scenario if the Hawaii match goes ahead is it will be rival promoter, Grand Prix Events, who have run the Ohana Cup, who would be involved, versus Moore Sport.

I've noticed a lot of people banging their heads against a wall trying to change people opinions writing paragraph after paragraph. Let it go dudes. State your bit for sure but it isn't that important if some guy you don't know thinks something different to what you think. In the end usually the result is the same outcome and no one thinks any different to what they started with after hours of effort writing books worth of posts. A lot of people have last word syndrome. I've been guilty of it as well. Its good to have passion about what your topic is, but sometimes you just got to let it end and accept people have a different opinion.

Hope you are not basing your season on loan players from Cas, there again it will be an advantage to other championship clubs if you do.

We often went to away matches without knowing where the ground was (pre internet!) and would look for floodlights or follow another car with fans in if we spotted them. I remember following one car with a driver in a red and white shirt for 15 mins before we realised it wasn't an Oldham shirt...

Bit hard for the Championship clubs to sell the TV rights, when the RFL already sold them to Sky? And the Championship's modest central funding comes from that? And pretty hard for them to gain TV exposure for their sponsors, when Sky won't show any games? The only way, as far as I can see, any championship club (excluding any yo-yo clubs like Leigh and HKR) has any real chance of "increasing their funds" is by a wealthy owner pumping money in. As well as enhancing the club directly, such funding facilitates the employment of all the key people you need to actually develop the club - off and on the field. Forget relying on building crowds to do it. Bob8 has answered that few posts above. But, we then come to the Catch-22. Why would any wealthy guy, in his right mind, pour a load of money into a club (and be unlikely to ever see it again) unless it was an investment to get the club into SL? Would anyone on here do that, if they were wealthy enough to be able to? So, as far as I can see the only clubs that are likely to see the sort of investment needed to make the Championship a potent and long-term viable competition in its own right, are those clubs whose owners are prepared to spend in the hope of getting out of the Championship as soon as ever possible? Anyone any answers to the Catch-22?

Forever ago I turned up for a midweek game at Bramley only to find there were houses where the ground used to be. I sat in my car staring in disbelief for a while until some bloke told me to get over to Headingley.

The RLonRY Twitter account says this is in addition to the RLonRY show. Says it’s back next Monday.

Recommend it. Great read and the author seemed to really enjoy his access behind the scenes. Greater respect of kear after the read and lots of insight into the playing squad.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/doncaster-rise-challenge/ Doncaster have sold more than three times as many season tickets for the 2018 season as they did last year. The League 1 club launched the ‘Challenge 1000’ campaign in the off-season, with it coming to an end on Christmas Day. In total, the Dons have sold 607 season tickets for the 2018 campaign, 366 of those being adult and 241 being under the age of 16. As part of the ‘Challenge 1000’ campaign, they capped season tickets at just £60 for adults, with kids going free at the Keepmoat Stadium in 2018. Head of group marketing & communications at Club Doncaster, Shaun Lockwood, said: “We’ve had a great response to the Challenge 1000 campaign, adult season tickets have increased by 99% compared to 2017 and child season ticket number have increased by over 200 year-on-year. “These numbers provide us with a great platform to start growing the Dons fan-base from, our hard work now starts as we look to improve the matchday experience at the club and keep the younger generation of supporters we’ve found with the Challenge 1000 campaign.” Doncaster CEO, Carl Hall, said: “Last season, the Dons sold less than 200 season tickets in total, this year we now have over 600. “It is a great achievement, especially considering the disappointing season we had in 2017. “Even with the reduced prices, our season ticket sales revenue has increased, with the additional funds going straight towards the first team to ensure Richard (Horne) can make us competitive on the pitch.”

We are going to have a 30 foot moose behind the posts at the owl lane end I do hope it's strawberry because chocolate gets a bit sickly after a bucket full

But apparently need the RLIF to provide funds to make it happen!?

Sorry to be churlish but how many of us who are employed will be able to listen to much, if any, of this (except Dave T and Scubby who can do whatever they want to at “work”)?

Eventually you will get sick of saying the same thing over and over and just stop. Then you focus on the threads that you find interesting and ignore the rest. I've been on Brit RL forums for about 8 years and I could go to a new one tomorrow and predict what 90% of the threads will be about. Go to the Any Other Business section and start a thread about something you like - duck breeding, fishing, travel, playing the piano, great sewerage plants of the Western Hemisphere or whatever.

When people believe their club is severely threatened, all reason goes out the window. Then people will argue the most stupid things. We have seen it with different clubs in the past, it tends to rotate. You might be thinking of me as one extremist, yet I was arguing a traditionalist line with Scotchy, but I am not going to pretend that reality does not exist. I can see that for anyone to gain, there will often be an associated loss. Much comes to what you value more. If you believe Super League is to give as many British clubs full time rugby league as possible, then one approach (large Super League with P&R, no foreign clubs unless they clearly contribute directly) is reasonable. If you see Super League as its own entity that it to produce money for rugby league generally and act as a flagship regardless of nation, then the approach will be the opposite. There are not many people who can see both viewpoints though, or admit that there is another valid viewpoint. If that means that people will not admit their own viewpoint, I do not see them as honest. If they are not honest, it is not worthy of respect. Equally, insisting a view point is true only because a poster says so is arrogant and should be ridiculed.

Lots going on -

I normally act as a bit of a ref and middle man when the lefties are overwhelming or unfair, but you seem like an idiot.

Sorry but a lot of people are coming across as thin-skinned. You ignore 95% of the video and pick up on one phrase you don't like. The reality is that you can market on lots of different levels. Imagine a Welsh rugby union video about ex coal miners playing in the valleys. Fine. Nothing to stop you also marketing the game internationally as well. I am sick of being afraid of admitting that the game IS played overwhelmingly in the north of this country and we have a strong heritage to be proud of. Where we look weak is when we try and portray ourselves as international and get told we're Micky Mouse, all the teams are made up of Aussies, only 3 teams can win a World Cup, you can't even get 16 teams for proper pools - all the usual criticism. We get picked apart for pretending to be bigger than we are. We need to stop worrying about the "inconsistency" in the JJB comments. We're northern and parochial. We've also got some great international teams and some really exciting new developments with the US/Canada interest. We should be shouting about both. A lot needs sorting and the RFL aren't great but so much energy is wasted on this debate about our true identity, it drives me mad. I'd say it's 70% on this and 30% on the game itself, which can't be right.