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I am more than a little biased on this subject, but why exactly would it be "mildly embarrassing on and off the pitch"? If Batley completed the impossible and earned the right to promotion... again! Are the Premiership embarrassed by the likes of Huddersfield Town, Bournemouth and Wigan's of the game getting in to the top division? Were they faced with the same small minded parochial thinking by football fans when they earned the right to get to the top. Most people in the country love an underdog story. Although our bubble is likely to burst, possibly as early as Saturday, our club is probably better run than most in SL, we have better facilities and a better ground than a lot of them too. The big question is, why as a sport, do so many people think the likes of Bradford, York or Newcastle should be welcomed in to SL unequivocally, when one has been mismanaged by several owners to biblical proportions, one's best achievement is a single 3rd placed finish, and the other was not even good enough to gain promotion from the bottom tier, despite spending several times what all of their competitors had? Yet a well run club, with no history of financial issues, like Batley, that has won the NR Cup, been to a Grand Final, and finished in the top 3 on two occasions in very recent history is an embarrassment to the game and top flight? Could it be, this type of thinking is what is truly holding the game back from becoming the national sport it should be? A sport where success is not dependent on what happens on the pitch, but rather on the say so of a group of self interested, small time business men, looking to ensure they remain unchallenged at the top of the game. How attractive is that to potential sponsors? A sport decided by a committee. The same people that think Batley are an embarrassment, are the people that wonder why the game can only get sponsorship in the form of a free pizza, and a few pictures on the back of a couple of wagons and wonder why the game is a laughing stock. How many fans were up in arms over the recent Super League proposal in football, yet, could not see the irony that the self same thing happened in RL all those years ago, and still think it was good for the game?

He should have followed the lead of his fellow Liam, Farrell, who graciously accepted his zero game suspension after being found guilty of a head shot.

I will be running a private taxi service (negotiable) from either of the Atherton train stations - 3.5 miles - to the LSV for all those who's only mode of transport is the train. Just joking, but thought I would get it in first.

Best comments for some time this 100 percent right. People don't think their negativity affects things. Narrow minded attitudes has held the sport back amongst other things for years.

It's not galling at all,i don't feel like we are the poor relations. Weve got the best ground out of the three and if in SL we could easily match Wakefields crowds.While those two are still announcing (new grounds ) and wanting bail outs for them certain Fev supporters got off their butt's and did a great job renovating the ground. OK they ARE in SL but wouldn't be if the RL had carried out their own rules about ground criteria. Wakefield may one day get relegated but i can't see Castleford doing so again. They are a well run club with excellent crowds for most games. Anyway we shall have to see what this season brings and if some fans don't want relegation ( usually those already there ) and promotion well we may as well pack in because whats the point of it all if not ?

The Knights have brought Mikey Lewis in on loan with a 2 week recall, Mike can play halfback or fullback, welcome to the Knights Mikey, O'Hagen and Brinin are a week away from training.

1400 this saturday , promises to be a corker , have shelled out £ 4/95 to watch. Will make a change not shouting at the screen for our games.

Could be George, but could also be too young if paired together? Anyway, an impressive lad when I've seen him. When l saw the new signing blurb l was hoping for a 6 feet 12 inches 20 stone ' animal ' to help our beleaguered forwards. Guess we cant afford Warea Hargreaves.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/omari-caro-rekindles-childhood-dreams-24088800

First year at Uni me and a mate decided to apply for the Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest jobs (him being a forest fan and me being an Owl) as both jobs were free.. we basically wanted the letter head.. all good fun.. but we then started a competition for who could get the most and then who could get the strangest (I got rejected by Everton in quite a stern way as they had a manager at the time... Samoa take note).. My mate was quite a good footballer so had a better CV than me and ended up actually getting an interview from a club in Malta's 3rd division.. Over a beer we even planned on him getting the job, me being his assistant and us getting a free 4 week holiday in the summer before getting sacked for having no clue what we were doing! He had an interview over the phone in the halls of residence and ended up not getting the job (funnily enough!). That felt like a fun situation that started to get a little out of control... this has a similar feeling to it!

Too embarrassed to have bottom dwellers, but too embarrassed to see the state of some of the super league clubs. RL fans want to make their mind up what they want and then stop moaning. In the unlikely event that Batley are eligible for promotion, they should be promoted, irrespective of at whose expense that would be.

In a couple of weeks Manchester United will play Villarreal in the Europa League cup final , the second highest European club football competition The population of Villarreal is 50,000 , similar in size to Leigh , and not dissimilar to Batley

Maybe a substantial minority of fans and even possibly several administrators of the game seem to be more concerned with Batley (insert any other club) as a name and as a settlement size than what Batley can do on the pitch, that's not sport is it? It's more geography or demographics than sport........its a mentality people need to snap out of. Hoffenheim what an absolute humiliation for the Bundesliga. Could go on and on.........La Liga ...... yep, how embarrassing to have clubs from 'Batley' sized towns...... What can promoting Batley bring to SL ....hmmmm let me think, erm crucially, integrity to the sport would be a biggy.........just for starters.

Sorry, it wasn't meant as a pop at Trinity. I'm sure with £2M a season from central funding, Batley could field an U19s academy.

Why do you think they exist? I'll answer for you! To compete at the highest level they can. If they were promoted they would be fulfilling the dream of the club, and their supporters. Regardless of what happened after that, it would be a cause for celebration. Fortunately, our game's structures allow for them to be promoted if they can achieve it rather than those on here who would rather it was otherwise. If the game decreed no p/r then so be it, but I think the game would be poorer for it! (and what would replace the thrilling excitement of threads like this?)

As in SL, St Helens lead the current Shortest Distance To F***ing Travel to Leigh Sports Village League table : 1. St Helens 11 miles 2. Warrington Wolves 14 miles 3. Castleford Tigers 60 miles 4. Hull FC 107 miles

No disrespect intended, but Salford RLFC had a perfectly serviceable ground situated between Kennedy rd, and Weaste Lane, they sold it and built an inaccessible pile of ###### in the middle of nowhere, shared with a Union club, sold the naming rights to a solicitor who supports Union, and now they expect the local council to pull them out of the mire, while Swinton are not getting planning permission for a stadium in the M27 postcode that they deserve. The Willows could have been redeveloped. The North Stand was one of the best places to watch Rugby League from, although it was a long way from the nearest bar, and burger stall, the "Main Stand" could quite easy have been demolished and redeveloped within planning permission to accommodate decent sized changing rooms fit for the 21st century (Did anyone on here change in there? The rooms were appalling.), rebuild the Weaste Road stand, rebuild Kennedy Rd to a three tier full length stand, keep the social club, but revamp it, the church and school opposite had been demolished, so car parking was not a problem, reopen the burger/bars under the North Stand, and you had a place that Brian Snape suggested could hold Internationals.

You can say that again.

Anyone else think we not only played, but also looked the part on Sunday. We looked like a traditional Town team in tha hooped socks, white shorts and the white with blue band shirt. It took me back to watching my boyhood heroes in the same Kit. Memories of Edgar, Archer, Banks, Pattinson and the rest came flooding back. It was great to see.

FCL president quoted in the local paper yesterday that the much anticipated Lezignan- St Esteve game weekend after next could well see supporters and sponsors present.

Me too , rated this player since we saw him play for Newcastle against us , marsh hopefully returning to fullback and as you say dean and lewis could be amazing

Have seen this kid play , should be a good pairing with Riley.

Personally feel that there is more need for the Australian's to play an ashes series in this country then ever before if we are going to prioritise the growth of the international game. A place in the international calendar every 4 years is reasonable alongside the World Cup and the 4 Nations competition alternating between northern and southern hemispheres. I wouldn't underestimate what England V Australia means to the rugby league supporters in both hemispheres either. Granted it is the over 40s with the happier memories but just as the All Blacks in Union and Brazil in soccer, they are a drawcard who will attract the crowds over here. Which Aussie player wants to be associated with the first test team to lose a series to us in over 40 years? They will take it seriously. Again, purely a personal experience, the last NZ tour game in Hull two of my circle of rugby friends made an appearance at the KCOM for the test match whereas we had twenty lined up for a trip London last November for the game against Australia at Spurs ground. Ages ranged from early 20s to mid 50s. Youngsters love the NRL and we all want to watch the green and gold in the flesh - maybe we are unique!

Problem with expecting Catalans/Toulouse to produce all the French players is that they're only 2 clubs vs 10+ full time clubs in England. Forcing a quota ignores the huge structural difference in English RL vs French RL. If you're saying that Catalans can only use French players/must use a minimum number of French players, then the English clubs should only be able to use players that were developed by that club (the "home grown" rule essentially). If you allow e.g. Saints to pick up players from all of the other Super League academies because those players are English, but don't allow Catalans to pick up those same players, that's a structural disadvantage for the French clubs. You can't say "oh but the English teams can't just pick up the French players either" because there's such a disparity in number of players being produced. You're essentially saying, in a professional league, that certain clubs have a much smaller player pool than others, but are still expected to remain competitive on-field. Now, would I like to see some sort of salary cap dispensation for home grown players (i.e. who came through that club's academy)? Absolutely, I think it could be a great way to encourage clubs to develop their own players. But what you're suggesting would put the French clubs at a significant disadvantage in terms of playing performance and would therefore eventually lead to their relegation, which would set the development of French RL back even further.

Whatever we think of Matt Parrish it's hard to think anything other than these three - who have zero coaching credibility - as being seriously dickish in trying to publicly get him sacked so they can apply their doubtful talents to the matter.

The Chasing Kangaroos podcasts are very good, I like their positive can-do attitude about RL.

I signed it. Not having them Union ba****ds getting one over our League brother...

Batley by 12

Sounds like it’s an insurance issue, pandemic related, rather than being a bad idea per se. They had 260 people lined up for the try outs this weekend, gutted for them.

Maybe he shouldn’t have challenged the grading https://www.rugby-league.com/article/58064/disciplinary-update

Always looked to be a bad idea to have all these new Western Division teams all being created out of nothing and based in the same place for a number of reasons.

Has he inherited lockers 'previous good record' with the disciplinary?

How is your trip to Israel going Bleep?

I got very good at getting out of PE, normally when we were playing football for a whole half term. I even bandaged up my hand one day before school and stuck a fake splint to one of my fingers to make it look like I'd broken it, unfortunately what I hadn't taken into account is I had to do that every day for two weeks to make the lie more believable. Luckily it was just after a school holiday so I could pretend I'd broken it right at the start of the holiday and it was already on its way to recovering otherwise I would have had to have kept it up for a lot longer of course!

Batley Vs London the game of the weekend if you have chance to watch it I’d buy the game if I was you... it could be a classic

And yet Bradford, York and Newcastle would be welcomed in? How many of the U19's at Salford, Wakefield, Catalans made it into the first team as regular starters over the last 5 years? As for being soundly beaten in most games, is that not true about most of the current incumbents and the teams likely to be promoted?

The Raiders are up for it.

Well said sir! But if Sykes and Finn will be there for 'a long time' does this mean they'll be playing I to their fifties? seriously though I agree with everything you say. My club Batley have started the season in tremendous style,but you just watch the critics line up when/if we lose to London on Saturday. it will be ridiculous,the expectations some people will have.

I managed to bunk off PE for a whole half term. The sport I missed was basketball. My end of term report gave me a B and said I'd learnt new skills. Which was sort of true.

Which means you missed a lot of terrific RL. Maybe your base of knowledge precludes a full enjoyment of the game. You can only get caught up in the superficially exciting aspects of tight finishes. If so, your proposed digital tryst with The Rocket could be reciprocally didactic. - You strengthen his chances of a master`s degree in Papuan Aussie Rules; he deepens and widens your RL acumen. I believe in tolerance. Your sins are venial. A mind scrambled by the pandemonium of AFL will naturally struggle to appreciate the higher sophistication of Rugby League Football.

And also the culture in RL to mix with the opposition fans at these pubs , where we all slag Wigan ( occasionally Leeds ) off

Well after winning 4 out of 4 it can't be a bad thing still debating what our best 17 is and who we have to leave out which is where we started the season before certain off field matters took the gloss off things....

The irony that Sheffield refused to move the fixture so we could have a crowd is not lost on me. I do however wish the players a speedy recovery.

We could offer to vaccinate all the players based in Australia or New Zealand - I'd schedule it for the morning they played England and give them the one that's most likely to knock them off colour

No, no and no again Meast, there are quite a number of people on these pages who firmly believe that should not even be a consideration, albeit for what it's worth I totally agree with you.

I don’t get all this about what they would bring to super league lark. If they’re good enough and want to go up then so be it

I’ve signed the petition even though my team is Workington and this doesn’t affect me. I signed because you couldn’t trust Sale Sharks around the corner, they are a typical rugger outfit ( remember Solomona’s “retirement”?) and are the #### of the sporting world. Best of luck to the Red Devil’s.