overtheborder

I have to admit I thought similar after watching a recent game (can't remember which one), although what was telling to me was the way a couple of ex-players (Tomkins and can't remember the other) seemed certain he was the right person for the job, and basically said he was the kind of person Hull needed, he just wasn't getting wins. Interesting to hear a perspective coming from players who will no doubt have had contact with him at some point in their careers and will know players who have played/are currently playing under him - I'm not so sure now on him having had his time.

I think this is possibly my favourite suggested iteration of this grading system - I do think it'd be strange though if a newcomer to the sport looked at the SL table at the end of the season and noticed the 9th placed B grade club had been relegated instead of the three A grade clubs below them. I'm admittedly being pedantic, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility. I suppose the only other glaring issue here too is there's an assumption there'll be at least one B grade team in SL at any point. If the grading system drives standards as intended, there could be 12 A grade clubs in SL by the end of a season (unless there's a set number of A grades available, in which case we're essentially back to the points system for who gets an A grade!).

I'll just state at first that I'm a big fan of P and R, and that would be my preferred option, but completely get the point about the funding disparities between divisions. I'm not sure how you solve that barring voting to make funding more evenly spread across divisions (although even then there'll no doubt be disparity between leagues due to bigger crowds in SL, more merchandise sales etc for the most part). I'm not big on franchising as for me you turn the possibility of an "unfashionable" club getting promotion off the back of a great season into that club needing to invest in infrastructure that it just can't afford at that time (of course you could then argue the club might not be able to afford an SL quality playing squad and shouldn't be in SL anyway but that's a different matter). I suppose the game is separated as it currently is - between the pro/semi-pro leagues and the amateur game. The problem is it seems there's a secondary separation between SL and Champ/L1, rather than the top 3 divisions being treated as a whole product. I'm not sure what the answer is to that, but I'd imagine if the viewpoint was changed, that might do something about the disparity at least. For what it's worth I'm not a fan of the spreadsheet model - fair play to IMG/the RFL for wanting to drive standards, but when we're in a scenario where it's basically pointless for London to invest and bust a gut to finish above bottom of the table as they'd be going down anyway, it doesn't feel like that's the way to do it to me.

Didn't attend the international games for various reasons against Tonga but as a spectacle I enjoyed them on TV. I've been to England games (and World Cup generally) in the past and I'd be inclined to agree if we're talking about internationals in the sense of playing friendlies against teams we're expecting to put 50+ points on. The old GB games and more recently England ones though were real contests and were well-attended in my experience when we played the likes of Australia/NZ. I get the impression people will turn out for internationals if they're competitive, but the organisation of the "right" games and competitions is crucial IMO. I agree about keeping the CC down south, for me it has to be Wembley - keep the one opportunity we have for fans to have a Wembley day out and I think that to an extent sells itself. I'd happily do away with magic and focus more on internationals etc. - if you really want to expand then I like the idea of "on the road" games personally.

To be fair I hadn't realised until I saw this but yep it's on the Sportsman. Also surprised Batley vs Cas isn't floating around on some iPlayer stream or something as another poster mentioned earlier in the thread.

For SL Grand Final this article gìves rough figures: https://www.patreon.com/posts/super-league-91232063?l=it For the NRL, the following articles might help: https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/afl-grand-final-collingwood-nrl-penrith-seven-nine-tv-ratings-viewership-audiences/#:~:text=The NRL grand final on,was at 605%2C000 on 9Now https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/nrl-grand-final-2022-tv-ratings-audience-nine/ One thing it did make me think was that you might want to take into account the impact of COVID restrictions in different countries when making comparisons for 2020 and 2021. As to broadcasting rights, I've absolutely no idea sorry!

Thought it might get ugly after the first three tries but Huddersfield looked like a decent side apart from that - if they get it together they could be a real problem for a lot of teams in the league I reckon, they don't look particularly easy to play against. Good win for Wigan especially as others have said after last week.

To be fair there was always going to be leniency when it came to disciplinary issues clashing with the WCC on both sides. On the plus side, it shows both SL and NRL's recognition of the importance of this game, which is a real positive for the match going forward too.

It'd have to be two I'm afraid, got a mate planning to watch the game too (plan is to watch on TV currently but hoping to snag a couple of last minute tickets). Appreciate the reply all the same though genuinely.

Appreciate this might be a long shot, but does anyone know of any resale/spare tickets going for this one? Needing two - only decided at the last minute so I'm a bit late to the party I appreciate!

I mostly agree with this although would have two slots around the community game rather than a 2.45pm slot - say 12.30pm and 5pm, get people in the bar before and after. I think that'd really be a boost for community clubs, particularly if the early game was consistently on terrestrial TV (not sure what percentage of amateur clubs have Sky). For me the point made about showing all games at different times makes complete sense - you might even get more neutrals attending games then too, and as someone said earlier RL fans generally seem to be fans of the sport rather than just their team, so you'd think TV viewing figures would get a boost.

Haven't read through the entire theead, but I think it's one of those where you're just not going to please everyone, bar doing score updates during a break in play and saying "look away now". Assuming the live score updates continue, I would be interested in Sky showing a pop up screen of the tries scored in other games though as they're happening - I don't think it'd be the first time they'd have done it if my memory's right but they don't do it consistently.

I'd imagine Cumbria in general is affected by not having a top tier RL team, and maybe places like Bradford, Halifax etc. too that are traditional heartlands but don't have an SL team. To be fair it doesn't seem to be a problem in Wigan, St Helens etc. - kids will follow the top teams generally, so I think the biggest thing that could change that is a successful Cumbrian team IMO.

Doesn't seem too drastic on the whole, seems to be like the kind of branding that seems to appeal on social media these days (reminds me of the Hundred branding in a small way). I'm not mad keen on it personally but I'm sure there'll be experts who will tell you it appeals more to a lot of people so happy to be proved wrong!

I did wonder what happened to that real ale - sure Latics had their own at one point too.

I have to say as much as some of the bigger football grounds/clubs get knocked for various aspects, it's something that's done pretty well in my experience. The likes of Bolton/Blackburn/Old Trafford which have hosted clubs who were established Premier League clubs seem to have got their ducks in a row in this sense, no doubt out of necessity. I think some of our grounds could learn a lot from that. What I would say though is there's no doubt a cost element to implementing more slick matchday catering experiences, and maybe clubs feel like they're just about keeping people happy enough, and for the odd big game like this it isn't worth investing in when for most games your attendance would be about half of it. My experience at Wigan is maybe similar to a lot of people's in SL - pretty quick to get a drink/food at a regular game if you're at the kiosks anything other than at half time, but during a big game I lean towards not bothering due to sheer size of the queue. The queue suggests they've got enough paying customers not to worry about the likes of me though, who it wouldn't necessarily put off longer term for the sake of the odd game.

I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying there, and bringing out 3+ kits per year is a definite money-spinner, there's no two ways about it. Still, people seem to keep buying them so you can't blame the clubs for bringing them out. For what it's worth I don't buy every kit anyway each year, or even one - especially since Wigan changed their badge I've got a retro one and that's it. I can see also why Saints fans will feel like theirs is the same every year as you say - after all a red V is basically the same thing however you design it!

To be fair I think it's just reported more, similarly with football. Not that I'm downplaying any individual's heart issues, it can't be easy being diagnosed with that sort of issue.

I thought about his analytics business when I saw this thread - I'd imagine he's had a role in a lot of positive sports developments that people don't know about. Hope he enjoys the next chapter of life whatever he's doing.

As much as RL is a summer sport, for me it's the big autumn games that really stick out in my mind - the play-offs, the Tri Nations, all of that stuff - big crowds, tight games and a lot of excitement.

Great post, which I think not only relates to the new rule changes but actually touches on the culture of youth sport as a whole, and pretty much sums up why it can be beneficial to focus on learning outcomes as opposed to simply winning (not that there isn't a place for that approach from a learning perspective either at times). Genuine question though - do you think the new changes will stop smaller players getting "steamrollered"? The way I see it, the tackle changes will mean players either get dominated just with a different technique, but also none of this would affect the instances where defenders simply get run over by a bigger player who's carrying the ball. I don't coach RL so just genuinely interested in what you think on that. That said, I would say I am in support of the changes overall, in principle at least.

To be fair football have jumped on the whole "retro" thing the past couple of seasons, I quite like the retro stuff (especially as a Wigan fan who doesn't like the "new" badge!).

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I think ultimately if we want to clean up the PTB that's a sensible place to start - it must be difficult to pretend to make an effort to do something (in theory even going through the motions of playing the ball without the foot touching is acceptable). I think the key to this related rule change is in the part about the ball carrier having the responsibility to put the ball on the ground, which might go a long way to making the PTB cleaner in and of itself.

I like this idea to be honest - I'd also maybe go one further and say that nations need to be competing in these mid-season games in order to be eligible for the World Cup (not sure if it sounds draconian but as a standard World Cup participating teams should be playing at least semi-regularly, if nothing else to build the profile of the sport in their country). No idea what the equivalent looks like for the southern hemisphere long-term but for the time being I'd say the competition they've recently announced serves a similar purpose pretty much, so I'd be less worried about that.

Not sure the Etihad's that good a night out to be fair...