Whippet13

Roby or Bateman for me. The selection was taken away from the journalists because they made a farce if It, now the players have done the same. The only sensible solution I can see for 2019 is to folllow the great RL tradition of changing everything. I say put a "RL great" (aka Gary Schofield) selected shortlist on the OURLEAGUE app and let the proletariat have their say, what could possibly go wrong....

Agreed, we should.

It is a glaring omission, RL has a long and proud history of black players. We have been literally decades ahead of certain other UK sport. On the other hand it's a slavery museum, would this be better highlighted in a black culture or history museum? Slavery has been around for thousands of years and yes we have a very dark history in the trade but we were also at the forefront of suppressing it, often by force. A quick look at Google tells me there are today around 30 million people in "modern slavery" so it's not a problem that's gone away.

Capacity is always reduced for the big screen and the band, so it's around 73k or 74k. The crowd will be about average. The last two finals between these teams got 66k in 2013 and 70k in 2016 so a projection of 68k is bang on the average.

70k is about average for the GF. Wigan have sold out and asked for an additional allocation of tickets. Ground capacity is around 74k.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/06/toronto-wolfpack-rugby-league-europe-cities-million-pound-game A little more information on Arglye's plans, the player development idea seems to be that there is already a "rugby" structure so they will use that to identify potential League players. I understand he has taken a share in Skolars so perhaps the plan is to place them there whilst they develop. I can see the offer of living in London and geting paid to play rugby for a couple of years with the prospect of a long term career appealing to young Canadian RU players.

Despite getting himself a dumb ban which might have ended up costing the club heavily, he has probably saved Salford this year so he should already be a mini-legend. It's a short career that could be ended at any time by an injury and I'm not aware of any saleable skills or abilities outside of rugby so my advice would be to go wherever the money is.

Why is it going down by £17000? Is it because there are 14 teams in the Championship next year? If so, the money is simply being shared by more teams and the Championship clubs voted for that, nothing to do with Super League. Would think the visits of Widnes (replacing London or Toronto), York and (most probably) Bradford will generate over £17000 in additional revenue from away fans alone so that's the money just via another route. Or is there another reason for the cut?

Brilliant news, will definitely be going to this one. Given the political situation the local authorities will want this to be a success for PR reasons and hopefully that means they will push it locally. Wouldn't surprise me if they have underwritten it financially to get Catalans there. The Wembley win must surely have been a factor in generating this event.

Looks like Wrexham FC do not play that weekend so the stadium is free on the Saturday. Shame, as it's the one game I could have realistically got to but can't now as I will be at Elland Road. It's either bad planning or there is a genuine reason it has to be Sunday. If its the latter reason, then it's pizz poor a statement has not been issued saying why. Either way, its shoddy work.

My understanding is that Wigan permanently own the old Championship/Division 1 trophy as they won the league in 1995, immediately before the switch to Super League. Same applies with the Lancashire Cup as well, also an impressive trophy. Not sure who holds the Yorkshire Cup.

I was sat immediately next to the Catalan section, they sang both the Catalan and French anthems during the game.

redjonn, that's a glass half empty statement. Half of that stand was almost full of Saints supporters whilst the other half was for Leeds fans. This was the least occupied area in the ground, and why the Leeds fans who attended should all be expected to turn up en masse 2.5 hours before their game started is beyond me, that's always the case with events like this in any sport. I attended as a neutral and would say well over 80% of the seats in that stand were occupied at some point. There were no large sections of completely unoccupied seats in the stadium, which there wouldn't be with 26000 attending against a 28000 capacity. It was an entertaining day with a very good atmosphere throughout and the crowd was fine considering only 3 teams were represented in significant supporter numbers and the recent semi crowd history. The RFL have potentially got something right here and hopefully will stick to it. Bolton is a decent ground, but I'd like to see it moved to the Eithad next year to enable more growth.

I was quite shocked by the £2 million RFL loss though and Woods getting a pay off before walking into a cushy job that's just as well paid, that was very bad. They have been 2 lows for me this year, along with the NRL Denver test sabotage attempts.

What Elstone says and does with SL are 2 different things, we dont know what is going on behind the scenes, I am happy to give him a chance. Having said that, I've followed and supported the game at all levels constantly for 35 years and invested many thousands of pounds in it. If Toronto qualify for SL and my club (Wigan) oppose their inclusion then I will have to look very seriously about my future commitment to them. This is RL though, I've seen it all before and am sure it'll all turn out ok in the end.