The fans have been asking for change at the top and this seems to be the start.

In even more exciting news, Ken also announced the club are to build their own stadium in the future.

This is excellent news for us and hopefully will see us leave that god awful soulless blue and white dump forever.

Discuss the game here.

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Breaking on Sky sports news. 

I know that we can't go back to the league leaders being champions but that's only because we don't play for anything else like in football.

The play off format seems to work in America because they have a gameday experience based attitude towards sport which doesn't translate over here.

P.S. This is definitely partly sour grapes because we got knocked out if the cup by Wigan last week but my point still stands.

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/why-rugby-league-can-bring-peace-to-the-pacific-20230426-p5d3ht

China's expansive Belt & Road initiative, buying influence and barely-hidden military reach through civilian infrastructure projects, needs to be countered by Australia if it is to have confidence in its sea route security. The soft power of an NRL team would be a very cheap way of countering this in PNGs case.  

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.

FRIDAY 15th MAY
Betfred Championship
Halifax Panthers v Sheffield Eagles KO 19:30

FRIDAY 15th MAY
1895 Cup
Oldham v Midlands Hurricanes KO 19:45

SUNDAY 17th MAY
1895 Cup
London Broncos v Doncaster KO 15:00 (at Richmond Athletic Ground)
Rochdale Hornets v Goole Vikings KO 15:00
Widnes Vikings v Newcastle Thunder KO 15:00 (at Robin Park Arena, Wigan)

So this week's question is, what do you think is the most unique quirk of RL?

(And the first person to say Odsal gets honked at..! 

Woops... )

If this was applied to SL I'm thinking there would be no air time left for the entire Sky Sports schedule.

Apologies if this has been done to death before now.

Not wanting to cause trouble but I think this would be a useful thing in RL considering the sometimes interesting decisions in many games.

Usefull Feedback for the game as a whole?

However, how should play restart if it is deemed that the ball carrier deliberately ensures they end up in touch after hearing the call of held? Would the penalty go the other way?

Forth Valley Vikings based in Tillicoultry 

Will join Edinburgh Eagles, Strathmore Silverbacks, Glasgow, Fife Lions.

Small but positive steps

Surprised this hasn’t grabbed attention on here yet. What do we think? 

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The NRLW will be the world premium contact sports league next season, if it isn't already, and will increasingly be the go to destination for not just 'rugby' athletes but athletes from all sports:

Anyway @paul hicks, picking up your post:

26 minutes ago, paul hicks said:

29 minutes ago, M j M said:

36 minutes ago, paul hicks said:

the parent company caddick plc does not own leeds rhinos it jointly owned by paul caddick who has 76% of shares and gary hethington who owns the remaining 24% .

all because a rich man takes a controlling interest in a club does not mean his company owns it. for instance, does AGE PARTNERSHIP now fully own HULL F.C or does Andrew Thirkill just part own them.

what Caddick did when he jointly bought the club was to guarantee the clubs overdraft through one of his companies, he did not pump millions into the club on a capital basis.

indeed, when the cricket ground was sold to Yorkshire cricket for i think £15 million that paid off the club's debts and also provided a dividend for the shareholders . the club has given out several dividends to the shareholders over the years (both of them) and has traded profitably most years.  the two years mentioned are those that were ruined by covid and given the clubs reliance on off field activities with its 365 days a year use of the ground thats no great surprise

i think if you look at losses against asset values you will see there is no problem in the long term.

Why are you just making stuff up?

such as

There's hardly a fact in your entire post.

• the parent company caddick plc does not own leeds rhinos it jointly owned by paul caddick who has 76% of shares and gary hethington who owns the remaining 24%

Incorrect. Leeds are owned by a dormant holding company, Leeds Rugby Ltd. Leeds Rugby Ltd is owned by Caddick Group plc (76%), Hetherington (19%) and Rob Oates (5%).

•  all because a rich man takes a controlling interest in a club does not mean his company owns it.

I think it would be a brave move to state, despite the minority shareholders, that Caddick Group plc doesn't own Leeds Rhinos. As a starting point, the Rugby League team's financial results are consolidated into the Caddick Group plc figures.

•  what Caddick did when he jointly bought the club was to guarantee the clubs overdraft through one of his companies, he did not pump millions into the club on a capital basis.

Incorrect, Caddick Group advanced Leeds £828k just after the takeover in 1996, a further £692k in 1997, £381k in 1998, £592k in 1999 and £173k in 2000, £517k in 2001 etc etc. These borrowings didn't just cover trading losses but were also used to redevelop the cricket ground - and were paid down when that was sold to Yorkshire.

The existing bank loan and overdraft was secured over the stadium, it didn't need additional guarantees from Caddick.

• indeed, when the cricket ground was sold to Yorkshire cricket for i think £15 million that paid off the club's debts and also provided a dividend for the shareholders .

It paid off the bank loans and the amounts owed to Caddick. But most of all it was used to pay for the building of the Carnegie (East) Stand on the RL side.

• the club has given out several dividends to the shareholders over the years (both of them)

Not really true. The only dividends paid or being paid are about £5k a year in preference dividends. No discretionary dividends have been paid, although there have been alternative ways of getting some money to Hetherington and Oates.

•  the two years mentioned are those that were ruined by covid

The two most recent years were 2022 and 2023. Covid was having a negligible impact by the end of that period.

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SATURDAY 9th MAY
Rochdale Hornets v Newcastle Thunder KO 13:00
Goole Vikings v North Wales Crusaders KO 15:00

SUNDAY 10th MAY
Halifax Panthers v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00
Keighley Cougars v Batley Bulldogs KO 15:00
Oldham v Doncaster KO 15:00 (at Sedgley Park, Whitefield)
Salford v Widnes Vikings KO 15:00
Swinton Lions v Whitehaven KO 15:00
Workington Town v Sheffield Eagles KO 15:00
London Broncos v Midlands Hurricanes KO 15:30

I've been researching the PLL, basically a new Lacrosse competition founded by a former pro player and his brother that went into competition with his former League (MLL). They ended up merging a few years later. 

They've got different ways of doing things. For example it's a tour format. So no home games, they tour around the country. They do this to cover as many markets as possible.

They operate a full-time studio that produces player-centred content and let their players have "open source" with their highlight clips etc so they can post them on their own social media.

They say that 56% of their fans are under 18 and half of their fans care more about specific players than the teams they play on.

It's some interesting stuff. And this is just one modern league.

cooper Bai has signed a top30 roster contract with the Gold Coast titans.

philip Coates and Jared Horne both have development contracts with the Brisbane broncos.

Jabiri Mack has signed a development contract with the cronulla sharks.

christopher petrus plays for parramatta eels SG ball(u19) side.

Zac Kumbamong has signed a development contract with the Gold Coast titans.

Ellyjah birve plays for the Penrith panthers SG ball(u19) side.

Geordan Amaiu plays for the Canberra raiders SG ball(u19) side.

Taufa Taulani plays for dolphins Mal meninga(u19) cup side.

Jacob Taulani plays for Newcastle knights jersey flegg(u21) and NSW cup sides.

braydan Wong plays for Gold Coast titans mal meninga(u19) cup side.

Logan Bai plays for dolphins Cyril Connell(u17) cup side.

darius brive plays for dolphins Cyril Connell(u17) cup side.

malaki Martin plays for south Sydney rabbitohs Harold matts(u16) cup side.

These things can be quite impressionistic. Obviously some clubs seem to suffer more than others.

I've attached a graphic made for PL football of players injured and matches lost in a season. Does such a thing exist for NRL and/or SL?

I know the nrl.com site has this https://www.nrl.com/news/2026/01/01/nrl-casualty-ward-how-your-club-is-shaping-heading-into-2026/

which is useful but it involves clicking on each club individually to find their current injury status.

The idea of this thread is for people to be able to post anything interesting that they come across from the history of the game and somewhere that people can ask questions and hopefully get answers about anyone or anything to do with the sports past. 

Also a place to debate the development of the game from an historic perspective.

I'll set the ball rolling with a Mitchell and Kenyon Clip.

This is quite rare as it shows Manningham playing Dewsbury in 1901 at Dewsbury. Enjoy.

https://www.cityam.com/rugby-league-woes-as-oldham-rlfc-faces-winding-up-by-hmrc/