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The thing which drives me nuts is that no outsider, looking at our sport, would identify Catalans as the problem. You might point at Huddersfield, as having risible crowds for decades and not winning a title or challenge cup for 60 years. You might point at Salford, as also having risible crowds, not winning a challenge cup or title for 50 years, AND being a financial basket case. You might point to Wakefield, or Castleford as clubs who bounce in and out of financial chaos, never do anything but make up the numbers without competing, and have historically delivered below-average crowds in antiquated stadiums. But no. Instead, all those clubs, less successful on the field than Catalans, less financially successful than Catalans, and with less support than Catalans, are the ones voting to get rid of Catalans! I mean, ffs. They're seriously planning to go to TV companies and say "Hey, we kicked out the only club which isn't a depressed ex-industrial M62 exit. You know, the one which has reached two grand finals and won the challenge cup in the last 10 years. The one regularly competing with the best in a packed stadium at the top of the league. But we have replaced them with another LESS SUCCESSFUL team in a WORSE stadium a few miles from a bunch of other LESS SUCCESSFUL teams in WORSE stadiums. They'll get lower crowds too. Now, how about a bigger TV deal?" It's insane. If they do this, it's insane. The sport has lost its marbles.

By playing for Dewsbury v Rochdale yesterday, Paul Sykes became the first player to play 27 seasons of professional rugby league. Over 500 appearances and 2700 points. Still playing age 43..

Hi everyone I hv to start this topic off, I hv heard from one of the yeds that our chairman has telephoned the poor gentleman that went on the pitch, he asked how he was and has given them pie and peas tickets and seats as he doesn’t want them to feel they can’t come back and knows he is a life long supporter and wants him looking after wow, can you believe how our great club has changed and how lucky we are with the great people involved, it’s easy to talk but these guys just amaze me.i just want to say what a genuine guy our chairman really is, and does care about the fans.

I'm not remotely interested in answering a question you've had answered multiple times on multiple threads before. I am, however, very interested in poking anyone who thinks these canny owners, those smart businessmen who we must admire because they have money, have any credibility left following their desire to be perceived as people who vote for things without reading the details, only to then follow that up with a strategic review into governance that then stumbles because they didn't read the bit about governance that Sport England insist upon. Frankly, it's magnificent.

Beaumont really does believe that Leigh are the best supported club in the world because their home attendance is X% of the population of Leigh. It's an attitude that believes individual clubs cannot draw from outside the narrow selection of streets around their ground, and the sport as a whole can't expand because Royston Vasey. The whole ethos that says there are heartlands and they count for more than non heartlands, whatever, needs to die. I come back to: why did the Editor of League Express say clubs must come together to save Salford but never suggested the same for West Wales, Skolars or Cornwall?

If this rabble replace Catalans with Bradford then I’m done, certainly until the NRL ride to the rescue. We’d no longer be a serious sport. There are some disgusting, small-minded, parochial, Little Englander, UKIP-lite people in our game and they’ve been given too much influence for far too long. Time for Wigan, Warrington, Hull KR and Hull FC to call the idiots’ bluff. Leeds and St Helens would soon work out which side their bread was buttered. The rest will be sorted out as evolution sorts everything else out. We should not let that tool Beaumont drag the entire sport down, smashed against the rocks of his own ego, enabled by the short-sighted support of small, lower-league clubs. Time to cut them loose if they can’t play nice.

The Vipers Ladies kick off their season with a home friendly against the RAF tomorrow evening. Training numbers have been great so far and it will be their first run out since an away win against Hull KR’s second team back in August. The men’s season starts on Saturday with a home cup tie against Bedford Tigers, there should be a good crowd at Wymomdham and as always the bar will be open and all are welcome.

Great news

Whether NRL Europe happens or not is anyone's guess, one thing I do know is that if it does happen the chances of Leigh being in it aren't high. But as always I think the NRL can accommodate a solution to this. It would require some out of the box thinking and actions from Mr Beaumont and the Leigh club. The sport needs a Manchester club and I'm sure that the NRL will want one at some stage. Leigh although away from the city of Manchester are still within Greater Manchester so I think with Derek's resources and a rebrand this could work. Thoughts? Troll Levels: Medium

just bought 42 tickets for Wembley. take a load of city types used to twickenham. will be cool

In a season where we've broken the weekly records, had some brilliant crowds, seen a great event in Vegas, heading for a great Magic Weekend, sold out Two Ashes Tests in record time and enjoyed some great Rugby - it is bizarre that the only media we are getting is about people telling us that the game in the UK is horrendous.

As someone who supported a club that had to cut its cloth to carry on existing I cant understand that attitude either, it stinks to high heaven of a misplaced sense of superiority.

That would be a pretty sad reflection on Salford's fanbase, and something I find quite hard to believe. The people who stepped up and restarted other RL clubs aren't amazingly rich - a retired primary school headteacher at Widnes for example, or the group of volunteers who took on Newcastle Thunder. The chairman who navigated Whitehaven out of trouble at the end of last season was a BNFL engineer. Salford will only disappear as a club if all of its supporters are too apathetic and defeatist to do anything about it.

I assume you mean the way the Rhinos looked after him when he got concussions while representing the club? It isn't like he got into a car accident outside of work. To think a young player moving on means they have no loyalty is a crazy opinion to have IMO.

Was Wetherspoons open early today, or something?

And so they should! Perhaps we should stop trying to make our equivalents of Billericay and Guiseley try to compete with the likes of Leeds, Wigan or Hull? It's absolutely fine to be a meat pie raffle and floodlight campaign level RL club. Its simultaneously absolutely ridiculous that any club at that level of operations should have any serious level of influence over the whole sport including the proper professional tier.

Is that a post for each final.

And yet some still believe that they add nothing to the game and are just a drain on resources.

Perez did the right thing. Anybody with money who wants to invest in sport simply should avoid any non-heartlands RL. You'll always be a guest and your acceptance will be rescinded at an unspecified future point regardless.

Issues with RL and 'Super Greed' so instead follow Football. Yes that makes sense.

4887 at Halifax. 2156 at Workington

I guess you'd agree the lack of loyalty the breakaway clubs showed the RFU in 1895 was very bad too. Players leave clubs and always have done. It's very sad that a future superstar like Gannon is leaving Leeds and Super League. But trying to shoehorn that into your usual Decline of Society stuff is boring.

Okay let’s have a look the pen count cos u got literally everything from the ref id even say town cos his underpants from all the ball u had you literally done nothing and won by 2 points oh ya broke Jordan jaw first tackle also but wasn’t a high tackle you got away with murder I’m embarrassed by what I saw and if you think you got a fair game give your head a wobble

The lack of away fans Australia bring is a disgrace and I’d argue they shouldn’t even be in the Ashes. Better to replace them with Batley who would at least bring a good following to Everton.

Meanwhile, today in South West London nearly 100 youngsters from south of the river began their Origin pathway journey for this year. Coaches Dan Robert’s, Karl Matthews and Mark Roughsedge put the lads through their paces, assisted by Broncos first teamers Stock Hellec Adebiyi and Player Welfare Manager Marty Hyde. Really good session especially for my lads as this was their first experience outside of our own school. One monster hit in defense and then fabulous evasion skills, pace and footwork led to a try assist for one of them playing a year above his age group. Get the politics sorted and let the South get on with it!

That we are arguing over paying a GLOBAL EXPERT in sport because it means a club can't sign another player from the Queensland Cup says a lot.

Which is something that Catalans has done, even under the current quota. They currently have 16 French players listed in their squad of 27, and the number of French players in SL has grown significantly since their introduction. The issue I have is that this achievement is too often framed against the context of the performances of the French national team - which is a ridiculous and impossible yardstick. The Catalans are no more responsible for the performances of the French national team than Castleford are responsible for the fact we don't haven't had a world-class halfback that can beat Australia. Again, if we want to go looking for areas where the Catalans have been underperforming, the development of French talent isn't a particularly good place to start.

Saints used to be a progressive, ambitious club. That has changed, and not just in poor recruitment and retention policies. I’ve read from multiple sources that Saints have joined the ranks of the also-rans who want Catalans kicked out so they can sell a hundred extra pies once a year to another M62 team. There’s too much smoke not to have a fire. If this is indeed the case, I am deeply ashamed of the club I’ve supported for 40 years. Ashamed and disgusted.

20226 at MKM today, very good

I'm not sure what benefit there is to gloating that you always said it would fail. They were paid central funding for the years they participated, which helped them with a fraction of their costs. Spending that money there was as valid as anywhere else. You aren't getting much above coach fees for your central funding. As long as people want to give these kind of ventures a go we should support them. It's always gonna be a huge challenge based on lack of funding to support, but we should always have open arms. We shouldn't be afraid of failing. If you're not failing, you aren't trying enough.

I've held my tongue for a while on this forum. It's been uneasy watching on for a long while, pretty much since Truro FC came on the scene. It was clear as day that all focus and attention went in one direction as that was the shiny new club with a shiny new stadium the Council and Truro FC were paying for. Cornwall at Penryn had no assets, a weakened ability to drive its income, given the individuals and the contacts that come with it went to Truro FC. The dwindling attendances with the lack of any real (marketing) resource or way of driving a crowd with a shoestring team. The investment team cherry picked critical elements of Cornwall RLFC and then moved them to Truro FC as part of the acquisition and sale. On one hand entrepreneurial. On the other, chopped the knees off Cornwall RLFC which at the time was making good progress in the commercial world. There were a number of key failings. One of the biggest being the lack of any community or game being developed alongside the club. The club was paper-thin in terms of its depth in the community and as soon as Perez moved focus onto something else, the gaping chasm opened up with no resilience The Council were desperate for Truro FC to "come home" to the city and as such, an opportunity arose. At one stage I was optimistic that Cornwall RLFC could ground share and be a dual enterprise. It would've put the RU Pirates well and truly on the back foot down here. All of that was cast aside for what ever reason the investment team had. For everyone who is casting the "it would never work" notion. I categorically rebuff those statements. It could have worked. Cornwall started with a good solid foundation, with energy, an off the field team doing some good things, and with a decent following. They could've made the club more sustainable for the long-run with investment into the community game/building a broader base. But equally, when you switch focus to Truro FC, sell the business and keep hold of your sales staff, contacts and a limited corporate order book for sport sponsorship in the Duchy. The buyer of the RL club is always on a hiding to nothing. In my opinion that is the biggest issue that killed Cornwall.

Anyone coming over and being horrified by the lack of coverage is simply showing their own ignorance. It's not new news that RL in England is a minor sport in comparison to RL in Oz. Things are not the same in every country - if people don't understand that, well, it sort of says a lot about them really.

Because it is a rugby league forum, not a politics forum, and this is a thread about a rugby league club, not about Joe Biden, Donald Trump or any of the other completely irrelevant political posturing that has been posted over the past few pages and which has now (mostly) been deleted. That's a policy that TRL has had for years, and why we have a politics sub-forum, so people who are interested in such arguments can have them, and those who aren't don't have to have them shoved in their faces every time they log on here to read about or discuss rugby league. That's not censorship. Now, if anyone here is still remotely interested in carrying this thread back to its original subject, crack on. If not, I'll lock it and put it out of its misery.

386 at Bedford vs Eastern Rhinos today and they were charging £7 admission. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1235462935254548&set=a.743738261093687 I wonder if they can maintain this all season, because apparently they are trying to get the League One spot that Cornwall vacated.

Agreed, on behalf of all salford fans can I apologies for this Oxford/Russ/Jim guy. He posts on our board as well and basically just kills any debate with mindless rubbish and lots of it. Please ignore and move on with your lives

I believe Jorden Burns has a serious facial injury . Nobody likes to see this happen to any player . He is a fantastic player and Whitehaven will surely miss him . So I hope he has a speedy recovery . So all the best Jorden .

If anyone wishes for a Rugby fix on Sunday the Huddersfield Giants supporters association are running an excellent value matchday deal. For £20 they are offering a match ticket in the Kilner Bank stand, a burger and fries and a pint in the FanZone pre match. To put this into context match tickets alone are £23 if bought in advance or £26 on the day, this deal offers a saving of around £20 per person. The HGSA are all volunteers who are putting their heart and soul into trying to improve the gameday experience at the John Smiths Stadium, so if anyone was planning on attending as a neutral or Catalans supporter please consider giving these guys a helping hand and using this offer. More details here : https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1241125491276974&set=gm.2107286019744905&idorvanity=2100771720396335&__cft__[0]=AZURoS0ri6p92V3y67mbu3WryUg7FYTdFjNTU3QrPwugnjrYR5-elDcUHh08k1ypAwk6ieYzWIdY9f1AVB-r3MYQKhssqAchvIMDUShWOuuDeP5uOKcgkkO8C5D9lB-gkP9YGzhjmbz0lfddRxm8nIw5M89Hc7yvhkkzOS0tzkaL1Q&__tn__=EH-R

Good Friday Wigan v Saints sold out:

Coventry was not lost they chose to expand into a wider catchment area. Alan Robinsons vision was to embrace the whole of the Midlands. It was clear that after 15 years of trying to drum up an audience to make a go of it. He created the brand that attracted significant investment which was sorely needed. Mike Lomas saw the opportunity and bought into the idea. Mike's business acumen has given RL a boost. We all know that what is badly needed by any club trying to make is it's way as a pro club is A, Money B, the vision to understand that Rome was not built in a day. Mike has transformed the team from also rans into a side that is giving the status quo a run for it's money. First he brought in a fantastic coach in Mark Dunning. Mark has transformed the coaching and playing staff. Now Mike has brought Eorl Crabtree as Chief Exec. That is in itself a masterstroke. The status Eorl is held in is clear whenever we go to an away game. He knows the game inside and out. Obviously, Eorl will have a massive task in taking the club forward off the field. Just talk to him and Mike and its clear they know full well what needs to be done and what's more they know how to do it. As I mentioned earlier Rome wasn't built in a day. It will take hard work, commitment and time. Midlands Hurricanes unlike the other teams mentioned in this thread have the people that have the commitment necessary to see it through. So Coventry haven't gone, they have grown and it's all down to ALL the people mentioned above.

Some people need to get a grip, have a reality check, put things in perspective.........3 years ago we were nearly bottom of League 1 above West Wales and Cornwall at one point, effectively the lowest placed traditional team! Also playing in a tiny ground with poor facilities, no disrespect to Avro which is perfectly adequate for amateur football. A bit like Keighley now! 3 years on and we're playing in a great stadium with super facilities and are competing at the top end of the Championship. One swallow (defeat) doesn't make a summer. There will be lots of ups and downs this season so expect more defeats to come but get behind the club and the players and give 100% backing every game. Sing even when we are losing, be resilient and think of the bigger picture .......we are going places. Enjoy the journey, the lows make the highs even more bitter sweet.

Bit sad that a young English player out of form is being criticised to the point of directed to play rugby union. Rugby league fans are their worst.

Hi lads n lasses. Apologies im a bit of a novice when it comes to RL , ive only just starting watching the super league on sky and found myself loving it. Wish I got into it earlier in life but living in the north east there isn’t much talk of the sport at all , it’s football and that’s it. I’ve just bought all 3 ashes test tickets and a magic weekend ticket in a few weeks and can’t wait for it. What’s your thoughts on the magic weekend ? Is this good for the game ? Is it a weekend that all fans look forward to ? I feel the ashes series is a big deal and very pleased I managed to get tickets. I get the general feel that everyone is buzzing for it? In general how do you feel the game in England is going ?

It impacts other clubs, doesn't it? Perfectly reasonable for other clubs' fans to be concerned and interested. Just as it was perfectly reasonable for people to point out that the way the club went about selling 'shares' to fans back in 2023 didn't look like it was complying with the law. Salford borrowing money from payday loans companies to pay players wages last year directly affects other clubs who might have signed those players if they hadn't been outbid. Salford failing to complete the season due to bankruptcy affects other clubs, who potentially lose tv money due to the contract not being fulfilled, lose sponsorship and ticket revenue due to an unfulfilled fixture and so on. Toulouse fans are directly impacted because they missed out on a SL place. All clubs are potentially affected by Salford not paying their taxes, because HMRC will take a harder line in future.

The Rhinos looked after him with his concussion issues because that is what they should be doing as an employer. Any concussions or any injuries happened whilst he was their employee. They have duty to support him.

4 more tickets just bought - I’ve been waiting 20 years to scream blue murder at these dirty arrogant convicts, I hope it’s as hostile and parochial as possible

If I had a penny for everytime I've heard that

I think we need a bit of perspective here. Imagine if a month ago we said: Wembley will sell 15,000 tickets in 10 days of priority sales, before tickets go on general sale and with more than 6 months before the match. That is still positive, it's just that it's been dwarfed by the success of the Everton and Headingley matches.

“And after we raised an extra £250 over a plate of chips, we voted to boot a multi-million turnover operation from our competition, because they don’t add enough to it”.

An estimated 5000 at the French Cup Final today. Looks like the Albi fans, once again were out in force.