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It was loaned out to another forum for the season.

Another schism isn't going to happen. No appetite for it, and more importantly no money for it. We need to focus on improving off field as well as on field. If you think about it we're in a much better position than most, outside SL, at the moment. We have a massive historic community set up ready to tap into. Something a lot of others won't have for years. We've got a stadium, BP. We've got Melrose playing fields from where we can launch the ladies, the reserves, "colts", as well as a training ground. We have 200'000 population who need to know that 1895 is more than when the latics were born. But also ,and more importantly, when Oldham was the centre of the northern rugby football union/Rugby League. Let's get to a catB and compete with likes of Feathersone and Halifax. #thetownthatmaderugbyleague

Leigh switched over from up front season tickets to a monthly membership this year and it was probably the best decision the club made through the whole rebrand. It's funny because when you actually work out what you'd be paying the cheapest adult level of membership at Leigh is essentially £300 for a season ticket which is the highest it's ever been by some margin, but there was nothing but praise from the fan base and the club is at record levels of season ticket/membership. Previously there would always be comments about the affordability of season tickets that were priced in the £200-£250 range but when you see it as £25 a month it suddenly looks quite enticing.

So, where do you draw the line between good natured banter, essential and understandable fan rivalry and wishing fellow fans and clubs nothing but harm? It seems to me some fans would only be happy if RL was left with their own and 6-7 others so there'd be someone to play! Except it's already been invented, it's called Subbuteo! so has this "wishing nothing but harm" It's called social media.

Croft deal has break clauses at the end of every season which is is well documented. It is also well documented that once the sale of the stadium goes through and Salford council are sole owners the club will generate much more income from matchdays providing a larger income stream. This share option is not a new thing and has been doing the rounds for a number of years, the MD of the club is not a mega rich businessman he is just a fan who is having a go! Wanting the community and fans to all buy into the same journey. hopefully this is the start of a long and sustained future for the club which will allow us to grow.

That may well be the case but it is so indicative of how we approach the international game. Other sports release their players for international games played on the same day as their clubs/counties and the NRL coaches push their players for State of Origin selection even if it means losing them for the round. But our clubs don't want to release players for internationals despite no club games (and yes, the NRL is no better when it comes to internationals). And even if this isn't true, the problem is we would all know it is the kind of thing that is true and we wouldn't be surprised. Until the whole game at every level puts internationals first we will get what we deserve. But I am not holding my breath.

Plenty youth there, which is very good as England need to rebuild. Think Currie is the oldest at 28 so they will all be WC2025 prospects. Plenty negativity around Saturday from some people but I'll be there and am looking forward to it.

Quick glance, it looks to be full of Wigan, Wire and Hull KR players. I won't claim to have been watching too many of these on an individual basis, but we always ask for players to be picked on form, so this seems about right to me.

Agree. The apathy from those choosing not to play in the game feeds down to the fans who then become reluctant to hand over their hard earned for something they see as substandard.

I hadn't seen this before, but if someone's going to unexpectedly sing a tribute to you at the end of a long day, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Smokey Robinson are a decent trio.

With Foundation of Hearts we have 8000 members paying a minimum of £10 per month and usually raise just under £150k per month. It should be noted that the shares are owned by FoH not individuals and its 1 member per vote regardless of whether you pay £10 per month or £1000 per month. The club still has a separate board of directors of which FoH has 2 members and the club mantra is "fan owned not fan run".

I see you're still counting Hollie Dodd as one of ours (Yes, in my mind I do too!)

Hating Yorkshire and wanting them to lose is something I can fully get behind.

I'll be there too. Never seen a woman's international before so that'll be something different. Always good at the Halliwell Jones, probably a bit biased being a wolves season ticket holder.

Hey ho the auld RL family Oxford. The People' Club. Full or partial citizen ownership is significantly more democratically and morally better. It turns a mere sporting club into a community asset. Added to the facilities becoming wholly council owned, SRD can truly claim to be RL's People's Club. There is a spectrum of what people ownership can develop into. Everything from 50+1 German model to membership run FC United or Wimbledon. Then there is John Lewis', Nationwide, the Co-Op and Arla. Each have well publicised strengths and weaknesses. At this time, this proposal seems correct for Solly. Bereft of a "sugar daddy" recruiting the fans makes economic sense. It additionally throws a light of the Sport's owners finances, the fiscal doping, the levels of debt masquerading as "loans" and the "curious" sources of the monies. Join the evolution now. You know it's right. https://salfordreddevils.net/owntheclub/

7 Valkyrie players in the 19 England squad for the weekend, well done girls.

Yeah thats how I see it, no way are those volunteers expected to wade in and start dragging coked up morons out.

There is a difference between wishing Salford harm and discussing whether they are in danger and the extent, and i can only see the latter on here.

I agree on you on some part but England and France needs to come together and agree to play there best teams every time. Who does the game more harm? Top players pulling out and not taking it seriously or both full strength teams and England winning by 70pts? More fans would turn up to watch 2 full strength sides over a team of nobodies. England needs competition in the northern hemisphere. Some of the blame has to be on players to actually take it seriously and say no to the clubs. Nrl used to do this to the island team and now they have no say on it anymore because the players have told them to go shove it. RL needs a strong England and France teams

You are most certainly correct, nearly all the best Rugby League player's (not all) from the European continent are natives from the old Lancashire and Yorkshire counties, it is a no brainer that if we want the best competitive representative games these fixtures should be reinstated.

Playing one game in Warrington isn't going to entice casual fans.

Mmmm, so why hand out an 8 year deal to your star player?

Interesting move for Salford going fully down the fan ownership route, which I'm assuming means the touted takeover by Gerrard is off the cards now. I am curious to see how this works, I'm assuming the share purchases are one off payments which does seem like this is more of a short term fix, however I know this has been successful at some lower league football clubs so maybe there is something I'm missing. One concerning detail i saw picked up on loverugbyleague was Paul Kings article here in the tribune about the share issues, with the below quote taken from it(link for full context). https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/04/saving-salford-red-devils/ But despite all of these successes, the club still has no money. In recent years, we have lurched from cash-flow crisis to cash-flow crisis, planning from one payday to the next, even at times unsure of our continued tenure at our present home, the AJ Bell Stadium. As I write this article, my house is sunk as security on a loan that is keeping the club afloat. The truth is, behind the scenes, a team of fans and staff alike have been holding the club together, keeping things above water at inordinate personal cost—and the truth is we’ve nearly run out of road. It doesn't paint a very good picture and this/the council loan seem to be really at odds with the long term deals being signed by the higher profile players at the club.

I saw an interview with Lois where she said Georgia’s new club said she couldn’t play for Leeds but could play for England.

Because Rugby League fans on social media will be extremely eager to tell you.

Yes he did, not bad for a player not playing

The announcement will please the demographic who hearken back to a fondly misremembered past. Those that are still alive, that is. It's Truss v Sunak all over again, only this time in the North! The next generation of potential fans, especially the ones West of the Pennines, will be somewhat bemused to find out they're from "Lanc-ish-shire". And all of us will be underwhelmed with the actual event, once the club chairmen almost inevitably pull rank regarding player availability.

£500 it was iirc. The fact they are saying this is for day to day running costs not some major infrastructure is worrying.

NRL Round 8 Tipping Competition Results Summary

his version of "marys boy child" is a thing of true wonder

A vote at the FoH AGM, election of office bearers, directors etc... Any decision on ownership, selling shares, selling ground etc... requires a 95% super-majority.

As LeytherRob said there's only the limit (5, inc maximum 4 DR) on how many you can have in the 21-man squad. I think Bradford now have 5 loan players on their book - Fenton Rogers, Jake Bibby, Jason Qareqare, Rob Butler and Connor Wynne. That said I think a couple of those are eligible to head back to their parent clubs now after being at Bradford for 2 weeks. Even the loanees there will have to look over their shoulder, not sure how they plan to continue to fit in the Leeds DR contingent when they are available but Bradford have already dispensed with George Roby who was meant to be on season-long loan with them and has ended up with Swinton again. Looked like he wasn't going to get a look-in once they switched Lilley to 9 and I guess Roby's disciplinary record wasn't helping. It's all perfectly within the rules of course as Blues Ox says and every other Championship club has used DR/short-term loans at some stage, but Bradford have made such a big thing about their supposed change of culture and also their academy this year that I'm not surprised that some of their fans seem a bit restless about it.

There was nothing in it, and we all know Newman is made out of blancmange.

Good luck to Salford Im buying a share. I want a strong Salford, and a stronger rugby league. Fan model good step - especially coupled with council buying the stadium. I liked the comments about Leigh - all clubs need to do more…

Injured. Was on Leeds Live last week, but can't navigate their website to find the link!

Totally agree, it may be within the rules but surely it is against the spirit of the game? It makes a mockery of the whole process, but then again it is Rugby League we are talking about!

Totally agree. Capital is usually raised to fund investment, not to pay running costs.

This is my only issue with it - it surely needs to be a recurring/subscription model or else they will need to do the same again very soon.

That is the moot point in bold, and when we talk about the 'Full England Team" which is inclusive of our lads plying their trade in Aus we ain't going to get it in the Northern Hemisphere, each and every year we should arrange and go on tour to visit our southern cousins having a running schedule in place so we know what we are always doing 5 years hence, but hopefully any of the teams down under can interupt that schedule with tours here.

Foundation of Hearts – New Website Heart of Midlothian the biggest fan owned club in the UK... £15m raised so far!!!!

I've been doing a bit more digging on this through the community share document they've put together and it looks like unless the initial £250k target is reached by 5th June any investments will be returned. The first £250k is also set to go on wages for playing staff/commercial staff.

Just another example of mismanagement at Broncos. They moved to a new ground, went part time and didn't invest in the squad. And now they will wonder why people aren't turning out to watch a team that just isn't competitive. If they'd properly invested in the squad and got to Superleague again then Wimbledon would have made sense but they've just thrown a load of money down the pan on expensive facilities that just aren't suitable for them.

Tyler Dupree to Hull FC. That’s one way to end the career trajectory he was on.

Unless they refuse to move and the club defaults on their contracts, and then they move for free. It's a risky game to play. Fan ownership is definitely an option for sports clubs, but in Salford's case I can't quite see how it brings the club to sustainability. It will bring in a one-off cash infusion that will keep the bills paid for another couple of years, but unless that period also sees a substantial increase in matchday revenues it won't fix the fundamental problems. It feels like both the council and the directors are saying they're no longer willing to subsidize the club indefinitely, so now it's over to the fans to make it work. Indeed, the if club did eventually get relegated, perhaps being fan owned at that point would mean a less drastic decline than seen at other clubs.

Because the club knows its deep in the doggy doo and their only option to bring in large cash amounts when the cash completely runs out is to sell off star players, hence why they've tied down several of them to long term deals. The likes of Croft, Dupree & Ackers will all be able to get decent transfer fees to keep the club afloat at least for another year.

sounds like my mates ex-wife

The model does seem to work at a couple of other places, AFC Wimbledon being the most obvious example. I'd imagine it would limit things a bit, but at least they're trying something to try and a) make the club sustainable b) make sure it is rooted in the community and the community feels it belongs to them. I'd rather that than some ego maniac 'buisness man' who could pull the plug any minute, sell your ground to property developers, load your club with unsustainable debt, use it to launder money, or the 101 other similar things that have happened to football and rugby league clubs in the past. Good luck to them, I hope it works.

GB/England have literally been involved in every single four nations/tri nations so evidence suggests that your above statement is incorrect. To say they can’t ‘front up’ or compete’ is laughable!

Me and my son are going to the Halliwell Jones at the weekend. If the french do field a weakened team for this week's game due to the french clubs being tarts,I'll have to think twice about international rugby league. It's pathetic, they're all professional outfits so should be able to deal with situations like this. The point is that folk spend their hard earned money and don't get what's been promised. I am potentially very disappointed.