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"Five reasons why the RL media is dead"

I don't feel like it all can be put down at my doorstep, cut me some slack.

Let’s be straight here, Cas have traded for years on the often described ‘amazing atmosphere at Wheldon Road’ and the fact that just across the Common Belle Vue was much worse than their ground. It’s allowed them to slip through almost unnoticed while the stadium increasingly deteriorated around them. The redevelopment of Trinity’s stadium and the introduction of IMGs grading have stripped away the protections while their fall down the league table has also removed another justification for remaining in SL. Im not ignoring their plight in terms of securing new stadium funding, they’re suffering just the same way that Wakefield did with poor timing, a crashed economy, changed shopping habits and dodgy developers. They have however sat on their hands a little safe in the knowledge that they were competing for play offs and cup comps so we’re safe in SL while knowing if a team was for the chop due to poor facilities, Trinity would fall before them. Not the case now so they’re panicking and doing botch jobs

Correct but that was never the time or the place for one. That should have gone 60 metres downfield

Why can't we get consistency from refs? Ball clearly punched out on st's line..lost ball Same on our line...stolen! Even some of the pens/six agains i just can't see what we did wrong in the tackle. It's so frustrating.

I think it's a much bigger question than that to be honest - I think serious questions need to be asked/answered about what we want the international game to look like in the northern hemisphere, what is realistic/feasible, and what steps do we need to take to get to that point. And by 'we' I mean the decision makers in this part of the world. As it stands, the state of the international game is a complete and utter disgrace IMO - by and large just a complete afterthought with no long-term strategy whatsoever.

So, what's the viewing choice tonight. I like watching a game unfold over 80 minutes and don't enjoy jumping between channels so I will pick one and stick. I am thinking Leeds Giants will be the best game of the 3.

Kavan Rothwell misses out after picking up a knock which is being assessed - Raiders website.

Dickey Betts, guitarist with The Allman Brothers, aged 80

"Try not to gasp when you read number 4"

I return to the idea of a regional comp: Cumbria, South Wales, Occitanie, London/SE, Yorkshire, Lancashire Top players get games against each other; comp has a cosmopolitan feel rather than a Northern one, with 3 countries involved.

I haven’t read through all the comments of this thread yet, but these back to back posts from page one tends to be the recurring themes for promoters and detractors. I place myself in the promoters basket. As a youngster, SOO was very important to me. I am far less invested in SOO than I once was. I even have some less than favourable feelings around the series due to selection criteria. Nevertheless, I still watch the SOO every year for the spectacle and high quality fixture that it is, rather than having any highs or lows based on the performance of NSW. Another point detractors always bring up is that the WOTR wasn’t successful before. Neither were all rockets to the moon and neither were NSW v Qld fixtures. Origin was a concept devised (copied) in the early eighties to change the annual state v state fixture and it worked. I don’t see a better opportunity to give a wider number of elite English players a quality high stakes annual representative fixture/s than WOTR. To me, it’s not a case of can it work, it’s more a case of making it work. I think that starts with how @Bedfordshire Bronco put it, fish where the fishes are. To me, that means making the WOTR series an unmissable fixture for any RL enthusiast.

With people starting to discuss mid season internationals I thought I'd reopen this wound. Surely with the ever dwindling enthusiasm for internationals in the NH, it's now worth a roll of the dice on this county game. No reliance on any other federations, the ability to market and sell tickets prior to the start of the season and a genuinely competitive fixture all put this hypothetical fixture above what we're getting this year. There's no getting around it, England are streets ahead of any other NH team. Let Wales play France annually to further the development of both of those sides. Yes I know there may be a certain amount of fan apathy especially from the Lancashire side but could fan apathy get any worse than it is? Let the abuse commence..

I think previous topics have touched on this issue so apologies if we are covering old ground. Over the last 12 months I've pretty much stopped following most RL news outlets and journalists. I still think there are some good ones out there like John Davidson and the Forty20 crew. Nearly everyone is following clicks now and copy and pasting others. Lately I've seen loads of articles written by AI (just been blocked by 'inclusive' Keighley Cougars for pointing out their articles are written by AI). As good journalists retire or pass away they are replaced by click bait merchants. I'm a bit disillusioned with this aspect of our sport. I understand this isnt just a RL issue but does anyone else feel this way? Is it really that bad? How do you get credible RL news?

As you say, mate, men against boys. Some of those kids looked as it they were giving three or four stone away against their opposite number but they stuck at it. Been a long time since I've seen so much talent coming through but we desperately need some quality and experience in the side to stop them being over exposed.

Good coaching?

Newman went off with a back injury presumably because Marsters ran over and through him all match

Attempts at short drop outs when you’re not losing with time running out should be reviewed by the MRP!

Commendable effort by probably the youngest Hull side I've ever seen and who have spent almost the entire first half defending. Logan Moy outstanding.

It will, its a great concept. Can't wait to see it.

So that terrace will have a view of the pitch? If so, that's going to be an awesome development!

Smith won’t get the sack if we lose tonight. As an aside and I don’t know wether it is me or it has actually changed but theres a lot of RL fans spouting bile about their own teams and constantly calling for sackings. St Helens fans were at it this week, some of the stuff posted on Social Media is absolutely toxic. Personally I enjoy going to the rugby, you’ll win some you’ll lose some, that’s sport but some seem to ho to games baying for blood wether it be coaches or players. rant over. as for tonight depends which side for hudds and Leeds turn up as we’ve both been inconsistent

He's injured.

That’s the one I’ll be watching

A further problem is that by organising it we're not learning any of the lessons from the World Cup, the mid season internationals or the Tonga series. Yorkshire and Lancashire are already saturated for top class rugby league. A further game there is selling to the same people who already get to pick and choose from the best rugby league in the country. And it's been shown that there really aren't massive numbers wanting to come out for extra games. And a Roses match, by definition, only really has meaning if played in Yorkshire or Lancashire so you have to overcome something that we really should have learned to avoid having to overcome.

With Myler the Messiah at the helm the World is our oyster. Be afraid Saints' fans, be very afraid... Having said that, an adaptation of this scoreboard may be useful tonight :

Aeroplanes.

Richard's point about Saints' backline improving is valid, and I really don't see them being much behind York and Leeds (and capable of turning them over). I just think that Leeds (with heft added to their pack in Shona Hoyle and Grace Field) and York, with their well coached knack of squeezing the life out of opponents, have the ability to deprive them of the field position to make it count.

100% one of barras best players. U dont see the work he does. I wud give forber more minites then wood too as he gives us so much more going forward,,,,

Just seen the headlines and there was a clip of the Cornwall game. This is on the 6.30 national ITV new tonight

If you live in the south, and weren't born to RL, Forty20 is an absolute lifeline every month. Great magazine.

“ @OriginalMrC breaks silence on RL media”

For those wanting to find out, here is a link to the current Podcast.

I've read this month's Forty20 magazine. Some of it is very good, some of it is middling. Definitely not dead.

Had a tough paper round that fella

I don't think it's all bad, I think love rugby league has made a resurgence of late with Aaron Bower and John Davidson providing articles and I think that despite the bad presentation full of adds, the reach group stuff led by Matt Shaw does put out plenty good stuff. The copy and pasting is mainly done by total RL and the SARL crew these days, although I have noticed an uptick in have a go journalist's just throwing out AI guff, one guy in particular I seem to see everywhere these days passing off AI generated images as his own.

away in a corner with a spare £10 in my pocket

Archer is back training and looking very sharp apparently, where he fits in I don't know! But as long as long as sammut doesn't go fullback

With some tweaking, I think this is the only way rep fixtures could ever work. But you'd need to reduce the number of club fixtures, spend money on the structure and development, and do more than just hold a half-baked game in Warrington and hope RL's usual fans turn up...

It was indeed. And, as you say, we ot publicity for the right reasons. Good times for the club

Exactly…..they would be delighted with West Riding v East Riding, winners to play North Riding. It could be sponsored by Harry Ramsdens.

Presume it was about the ref. However the publicity generated for the club has been immense

I agree. So, PNG in Port Moresby, Fiji in Perth? Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne for the ashes tests? Personally I would also play a home game against France before touring, similar to what the RU Lions now do. I think it's a great way of publicising the forthcoming tour.

The Roses is dead. Leave it to rot. It would add to making the game look even more parochial. Im a Warrington lad exiled in Leeds - theres zero desire from me to cheer for Lancashire (I was born in Warrington, Cheshire) and zero to adopt Yorkshire because I now live here. Get a home nations mid season up and running. Start from the bottom and build up (should have done this years ago) Use heritage players initially and RFL have a strategy to grow participation and league structures in the home nations.

I'd like to see a schedule with these games in advance of the Ashes. In terms of who, I think the key point is to make the fixtures as commercially viable as possible. I'm not a fan of made up teams being pulled together so ideally teams with some meaning, we do have a few international teams there so ideally the odd Test match in advance would be good. In terms of losing warm up games, it's not a big issue imo. In 1988 we lost 3 games in Oz and in 1992 we lost against Parramatta. Interesting to note that we started both of those tours in PNG, so maybe that is an option, it feels like PNG have earned a game, particularly after beating GB last time they played.

Wouldnt a warm up game provide the opportunity of getting ready for the test series as opposed to going straight into tests without the team having played together?

What about the way CH treated Limehurst Lions?. He wanted them to pay rent to use Whitebank when he had no right to do so. He had no intention of getting involved with the Community at all, only concerned about how much money he could get. Thankfully, Hollinwood Cricket Club came to the Lions rescue and they have gone from strength to strength since they moved there.

Oldhamer can I just put you straight ch sold the players after bill quinn was forced to resign as ch had personally cheated him out of monies,I’m told there was money available until the end of the season but ch sold the players and received cash from barrow, also all you mention that the club did was when BQ was there,if you have any doubts about my information then ask BQ, I understand he let ch pay him only for shares over several years so the club was not affected, for me the past should stay where it is, thank god BQ has come back to show his worth to the supporters as that’s who always mattered to him.

how ch must have suffered all those 26 years waiting for someone to come and save the club all those people pretending they wanted to help then letting him down. must have been soul destroying just look. how frail he had gone. anyway he must be happy that this great burden as now been lifted of his shoulders. good riddance ch.