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They don't think that, nobody from Newcastle Thunder (or London Broncos before them) has ever complained about their situation.

As a neutral last night, what a great derby game, it had everything to make it a nailbiter right up to the end. Could have gone either way. The difference - J Doran one minute a hero for that ludicrous offload for the J Carter try. The next a villain for attempting the chip over, only to be intercepted by R Johnson, to then get the winning DG. Perhaps a draw should have been the right result but you takes your chances when you get them, and Barrow had more chances at DGs. Both sets of lads gave it everything and nothing was left out there, so credit to all of them.

He doesn't say that at all does he? He just seems to be asking for opinions as to why they were struggling.

I’ve heard the RFL are looking to really up their game on events and after realising double and triple headers maybe are not the future they will instead move to Quadruple Header fixtures in an effort to engage a new audience.

£100 per month? Are you guys MPs with an expense account?

A game a week on C4 along with a highlights show would be very positive.

The devil will be in the detail. We were lied to about what the last deal included, let's see if there is more to this one this time. If we have additional coverage and ability to sell secondary rights etc then there may be some positives to this. If its two games on Sky, plus full broadcast coverage of other games and VR's as it was meant to be last time, plus games on C4, then it could be decent. The real changes to the game, rebrand, grading etc. start soon, this three year deal covers some of that period.

I don't think they've ever been a targeted city in the proper sense - that's not the growth model RFL/SL has ever taken anywhere in a serious long term and sustained way. They have had good amateur growth, but that seems to have been mostly locally driven.

Not really. EFL is getting less per game, and cricket renewed through to 2028 for the same amount, so less after inflation. Also lots of worries in union that the next club deal will be lower than the last one, even if internationals are still rising. Our deal broadly fits into that range, and I'm not sure we could expect much else as we haven't moved the dial on engagement or perception of rugby league since the last one. If there's more broadcast quality coverage of the other games for streaming, C4 or even just a quality YouTube channel, then for me that makes up for the slight cash drop. My biggest disappointment will be if we haven't managed to get the grand final onto terrestrial. That would give the non-sky coverage a narrative to push throughout the year. In the end, it looks like we've staved off calamity again for another three years, and the optimistic scenario is that IMG now have three years to use this content in their branding and marketing channels to increase engagement, which pays off in the next deal. They'll need to do this if they want to get paid. The pessimistic scenario is that it doesn't work, and we finally run out of road.

Kissing the badge is a strange one. In my opinion if a player like Shane Toal or Luke Cresswell, local lads who have played all their pro careers at Barrow, do it I feel it is totally fine and shows how much playing for their local team means to them. When a player who has only been with his club a few months, is not a local and does it against the team he used to play for, I think that is not acceptable and is more likely to be seen as a provocative gesture to his former club and supporters. Maybe that was the point, only Jake himself knows, but in my opinion and given the circumstances it really didnt look very classy.

I'd throw the cheque book over to get Tom Wilkinson's signature. He's been astute in all of his performances this year. A real workmanship in attack and defence.

As opposed to the bright lights & big city of Whitehaven. Obviously a mini Monaco up there.

Just shy of 1,400 at Rochdale Hornets v Oldham yesterday. Shows the potential - and the importance of local derbies that mean something. It was a great contest that ebbed and flowed and was won with the last pass of the game. Top stuff all round. Big raps to Rochdale Hornets community team, who had a four-team under 9's round robin competition before the game and at half time - and a nice celebration of the 10th anniversary of Hornets wining their first Trophy in 91 years. All-up, an excellent advert for League 1 Rugby.

Saints vs Catalans GF 2021 Attendance: 45,177 Can we all stop trying to move our major final venues. We'd be 5 years down the line, needing to use Headingly because we've not planned far enough in advance, desperate to get OT back and it'd probably be too late.

SL would be a WAY more exciting, vibrant, economically promising comp with 14 or 16 teams.

We need visibility. All games being broadcast has to be a positive.

Why do these big city's think they have the right to be in the top leauge sport is about results on the pitch and as it stands Newcastle arn't good enough to be in the championship nevermind SL

I hope people aren't trying to draw a correlation between a poor season for most SL sides east of the Pennines and the decline community game. That's a completely different conversation, so far removed from SL, that it really can't be linked - at all.

Been watching York for 69 years, gave up believing the rumours 50 odd years ago, I just get to the games now when my health let's me so I'll miss all the games this season, 2 months ago when the results were not going our way, I said stand by the chairman and coach and things will be right, some on here were moaning all the time about Hendo and Clint, can't wait for next season to see the new squad turn out for the Knights and I don't think we will have half the players that are rumoured to be signing, just hope my health improves enough for me to be there, enjoy the ride while you can.

You just know that's what some of those club owners are plotting!

One idea if that is the case is to just take the 1m from the promoted Championship team.

HavenWarrior are you okay? I think you must have had a bad trip, magic mushrooms and special brew dont mix.

Politician?

I can't see many paying £100 a month for just RL. I pay less than £70 a month for Sky for all the channels and 2 boxes. That's loads of NRL and 2-3 SL games a week. £100 seems extraordinary bad value in comparison

I miss ShropshireBull telling us how Newcastle should be in SL with York. Not a clue what's happened to him.

If we get more games on FTA and ability to have a sort of PPV for non-televised game streams (with coverage funded by Sky including commentators, video refs etc) it might not be so bad actually. I'd certainly pay for a " season ticket" to watch non-televised games live if they were decent production values.

They don’t think that.

I heard magic weekend will become magic day. All fixtures will be played on one day. This will save on costs but also create an extravaganza of rugby where they have a Sextuple Header.

There is a correlation but it’s the other way around The decline in the community game of]verb20 years or so has inevitably lead to a decline in the professional game. If you reduce the number of people taking up the game then you narrow the base of the talent pyramid which eventually leads to a reduction of quality at the very top. We’re now seeing that reduction in quality play out across the Superleague where there are many players who just aren’t good enough and wouldn’t have been top players 15 years ago

I think the lack of discussion is because it's not surprising at all that they're bottom in the Championship. They had less money to spend this year, went part-time, lost a large chunk of their better players and their recruitment was low-key. It's hard to see how they will reverse this trend to be honest given the purse strings have clearly been tightened significantly.

The current owners have financially kept the club alive after the cut in central funding from ~£70,000 2 years ago to ~ £15,000 for the last 2 years. Without the current owners the club would not have existed the last 2 years. In January at the pre season friendly prospective new owners publicly announced they were going to buy the club & make it the #1 London team - they then delayed at every stage of due diligence process & repeatedly made excuses for not making any payments to Skolars, finally last week saying they were not going to purchase the club. The current owners I am sure would more than welcome new owners/parties to move the club forward - the reality is for over 10 years Skolars have tried to secure additional expertise & investment only to be burnt by Argyle & then ARC.

The L.N.E.R. stadium will be among 8 English stadiums to be used for the women's rugby union World Cup in 2025.

Yes, Brett gave everything he had, but Cresta singled him out by name in his TV interview for being "too emotional" and he said he told him that at the half. He blamed Brett for the penalty that led to the Whitehaven try just before half-time. But he is a good Club-man and has sat patiently all season awaiting the call to play. Unlike his namesake who threw his rattle out of his pram mid-season and sulked off. Jake got very excited, too early, in holding-up his new club badge, when the game was only half over. He who laughs last, laughs longer. I noticed him and Stack got into a heated battle towards the end - no love lost there.

If a chair is speaking to him, more fool them. And more fool whoever decides on the Tweet of the Week in League Express this week for giving him the publicity.

I don't think the recent coaching changes especially jeopardise their chance. They are not "easily" the best, having lost a couple of league games and been made to struggle on some other occasions, but they certainly have been the most consistent team in the division by a long way. However, promotion is decided not by who finishes top of the league but by play-offs, so it will come down to winning both a semi final and a final in October, and anything can happen in a knockout format.

Sorry, we've had annual inflation running at close to 10% in the period since the last deal. A cash cut since the past deal means some serious damage to club and player incomes; there is no positive here whatsoever.

The UK sports streaming market is not (yet?) one where significant numbers of people will pay significant amounts. That is the worry. How many people are crying out for more than two to three games a week when they also have dozens of soccer and other sports alternatives already paid for?

I thought our defence was brilliant on the whole last night. Well channelled aggression, grit and determination. A special mention I think to Brett Carter. Never ever let's us down. A great club man for us. Great win that I personally never really expected. Was proper edge of the seat stuff.

Whilst there may be some people who will portray this as a disaster - a disaster would have been Sky walking away from the sport after 28 years, which was set to happen if you believed some. Or that they would offer peanuts. IN reality, as a starter for 10, it looks like we have just signed a new deal worth £70m.

They don't. TV money is a modest % of Sl club income.

Are you sure you want this? ok then... "Featherstone, runaway division leaders all year and currently 8 points clear at the top of the table and with a huge points difference compared to their nearest rivals, need only to beat Keighley on Sunday to ensure promotion to Super League". Well, we all know that's what the Championship version SHOULD say, but of course instead it will come down to a couple of random play-off games to satisfy the massive (check notes) ViaPlay TV audience...

Yes, the Challenge Cup is another avenue for growth. I'd be happy to buy a 'Super League Digital Season Ticket' for £100 or so although I would prefer it if it's available as an app on streaming devices (Apple TV etc) like Watch NRL. As they are paying for the enhanced filming production (or so we are told), maybe Sky will offer this in partnership with Super League/RFL?

What is embarrassing is a crowd of 1200 for a crucial Cumbria derby.

Geoff Robinson showing what would happen....

There is no way to put a positive spin on the fact that our lead broadcaster is now putting even less.money in to the sport than it was before. The majority (if not all) of other sports tv deals are going through the roof while ours is going through the floor.

So not the doomsday scenario some on here, who are supposedly in the know, led us to believe. Not great but not a disaster. Its pretty hard to see much real improvement without an injection of more money though. More of the same.

As a neutral i think you are mistaken.

That was France. If a Frenchman was soaking wet and he told me it was raining I’d still go and check for myself.

Hi everyone. Game week so rather than initiating a new thread I thought it would be appropriate to resurrect my original one. Hope you guys don’t mind. I know some of you have recently been caught up in guesstimating what may occur at the club. I have been looking in in with great interest. A quick thought from me. Dewsbury Rams were good for Liam and Liam was good for Dewsbury Rams! ANYWAY - moooooooving on. To Doncaster. Our lads have worked bloody hard this season and win lose or draw they and all the staff deserve their day in the South Yorkshire sun and we then get back to the club to celebrate. Bank holiday next day so let’s enjoy and go for it. Live for the moment and we will deal with all the rest thereafter.

How does moving the venue make it easier for Catalans - assuming they get there - to get their 15,000 fans over? At least now they know it'll always be Manchester they need to get to. Not sure Dublin this year, Edinburgh next makes in simpler.