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To be fair, it's distinctly possible that the RFL investigation into this did actually start in 2012.

And people don't want the NRL getting involved in Super League.

The NRL needs to be very careful about splitting up rights and the cost to fans. It's certainly not been good for Football fans in the UK and has been pretty disastrous for things like the Champions League. There are similar examples in RU. The NRL should be able to get an extremely good, increased deal as is without selling itself completely and alienating the next generation of fans.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2025/03/19/build-off-what-nrl-has-done-vegas-venture-inspires-us-tour-to-nz/

Agreed. What's always worth remembering about the NFL deals is that the vast majority of the games are still on free-to-air networks - the market is so rich and the audiences are so big that it still generates billions without cutting out fans. In fact they're in a virtuous circle now with the NFL being the only sport being able to deliver old-style size TV audiences, so advertisers are willing to pay an even bigger premium for it. What's interesting about that NRL article is how many times Vlandys boasts that they're the number 1 watched sport in Australia. That's key to his whole pitch. That will only apply if they keep most games free to air for years to come, rather than jumping to maximise pay TV revenues in the short term. They've done brilliantly, but need to keep playing the long game.

Why would you want anyone not within 5 miles of an M62 junction to be involved with SL?

It’s a strange experience… over the few decades I’ve been on here I’ve grown as a human being, my family has grown, some of my friends have died or gotten seriously ill, others have flourished, my physical neighbourhood has changed and grown, I’ve travelled a lot, worked heaps etc ….. and this forum has remained a constant all through those decades. Like all good things it may well come to an end one day and that day will be an interesting day for me indeed.

During the 2010s, we had 6 different league leaders in 6 years (would have been 7 had Hull not lost on the last day!). Up until last year, there had been 7 different Cup winners in a row and 11 teams contesting the final out of a possible 14 finalists. The only thing that's been predictable is the SL GF winners coming from one of three teams (previously one of four), but we're getting a bigger range of finalists now. So not as predictable as you're making out overall.

So do you have inside knowledge confirming that he has in fact been banned for posts made from 12-13 years ago, rather than for a series of posts that date back as far as then, but may have included more recent ones? (I don't know the answer to the above by the way, which is why I said my earlier post was a guess.)

Have you read the thread?

I think it's entirely sensible that a club like Huddersfield are looking to move away from a 25k stadium. That's well over double the SL average and Huddersfield aren't even close to that average. It has always been too big and that's never going to change.

Lobbygobbler was the one who'd find central London pubs that would show a Friday night SL match and post the information here, so a bunch of us would meet up for that regularly.

Quite often with himself under a different name, as it turned out more than once.

Apologies for the diversion, but did anyone else mis-read this as "a bit of a boogie" and immediately think of Henderson Gill?

Back in the UK as the NRL continues Melbourne Storm v Penrith Panthers Curiously, I would have been more confident of a Melbourne Storm win had Penrkith smashed the Roosters. Now having leaked 38 points to a depleted Roosters outfit and endured the mproved side from last year and Matty Johns show focusing on a Panthers fan shaking his head at mention of the result, I expect the Panthers to show their calws here. That said Melbourne are and Dyklan edwards is out so its the Storm but not by much... New Zealand Warriors v Sydney Roosters Warriors unchanged from the Manly win. Roosters bring back Lindsay Collins, Specer Leniu and Victory Radley. Always difficult to get a result across the ditch if the Wahs are playing half decent and I do not expect lightning to strike twice so a Wahs win but not as much as I would have thought a fortnight ago. Brisbane Broncos v North Queensland Cowboys The old Bronx made a return in the Capital and will be in receipt of a "Bronx cheer" indeed if they lose to the Cows in the Queensland Derby. Broncos have the possible return of Kotoni Staggs while Todd Payten, under fire has recalled Jeremaih Nanai and Jasin Taumololo. Backing the Broncos in this one. Cronulla Sharks v South Sydney Sharks excel at keeping a COVID outbreak quiet then travelling to far North Queensland to get a result. Sharkies unchanged. Souths bring back Jack Wighton from suspension. Souffs have ben resilent in going 2-0 to start the season but I do not see a third win at Shark Park. The Dolphins v West Tigers The Fins need as win and playing at Kayo Stadim in Redcliff would be the place to start with Jake Bostock returning. Wests romped home in the last 55 minutes against a poor Paramatta side after a turgid opeing 25 minutes. Doubts about Jahreme Bula possibly replaced by Heath Mason who did not do too badly at Campbelltown. The Dolphins need a win badly and I think this is the game they will put "the Hammer" down. Gold Coast v Newcastle Knights Khan-Pereira out for Gold Coast but Leo Thompson and the impressive Kai Pearce-Paul out for the Knights. This should not prevent the Novocastrians coming away with the win. Paramatta Eels v Canterbury Bulldogs. For the second week running Comms Bank will be colonised by the away fans with the Doggies barkingbfrom the sidelines. The $ 13 million dollar man Dylan Brown has not enhanced his value pver the ;past few Paramatta thrashings and for some reason it is felt unilely that the Foxx will be facing his old club. For sure the Doggies will be without Matt Burton and Villami Kikau but Toby Sexton and Steven Crichton should be able to steer them round the park. Three heavy defeats on the bounce would increase unreast amongs the Eels faithful ands thats what may happen here. Manly Sea Eagles v Canberra Raiders The big question here is is Tommy Turbo and DCE though named in the side actually going to play and wil they last the game. They would be influential in what could be a high scoring shootout between the Silvertails and Ricky's Red Hot Raiders who have Xaviier Savage and Morgan Smithies back. Backing the upset here with the Raiders.

"...to produce a transparent strategic business plan that will make the sport an investable, sustainable and economically viable sporting competition by conducting a wide-ranging fully encompassing indepth whole of game strategic review.’ .. Quick question. Which "transparent strategic business plan that will make the sport an investable, sustainable and economically viable sporting competition" are we talking about? The next one? This one? The previous one? The one before that? The one before the one before the one before the one before......? Still, it IS promised to be transparent, so we'll be able to see the review plan, schedule, meeting attendances, meeting agenda and minutes,...

If he wasn't signed up as a player back in 2012 (and I don't know whether or not he was) he shouldn't be bound by RFL rules for those posts.

Nigel will have it sorted on day one. As did Trump.

Let’s hope they get the right Adamson…

Just wanted to say I had a brief but interesting conversation with the Chair of the Anglian Vipers (who invited me to say G'day to him when they play their first match of the season on the 3rd May) and it seems despite being a young club their future has potential. Can't say much obviously but it was mentioned that the club has some good things coming along, with some discussions taking place re: ownership. Already having two mens sides, I was also told that they're hoping to get a women's side which I think would be great for RL in East Anglia as I can get to Windham easier than the North! Going to try to keep abreast of their socials and hope to catch news if anything comes to fruition.

Surely this is why the NRL would want Super League - to have more TV rights to sell worldwide.

I've mentioned the new take by the NFL, pivoting from NFL Europe and talking about a franchise in London, on a few threads. I also think its interesting that the language in the IMG documents about London is that it is "strategically important" rather than "needing a team" which I think is probably fair.

Hunslet objected to Bramley temporarily playing at Morley on no other basis than this.

Surprised we have got to page three without mention of two competitive seafood based products. Oh and BD92.

Nick Gregson has been banned for 8 games (5 suspended) for historic posts dated back to 2012! I know nothing of the posts and their content so I’m not commenting on them. However, Gregson is 29 now and the posts were in 2012 when he was just 16 years old and not even a Professional Player. As I said I don’t know the content of the posts but on the face of it this seems like a big over reach by the RFL disciplinary https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/articles/c98425j22g7o

Just checked, and I first posted on rec.sport.rugby in 1991. Yikes. Lots of posts by vbfg, vibrating bum faced goat, who I imagine some on here will remember. On the subject of Union trolls, Dutoni was a personal favourite of mine. (I think one of his other aliases, Georit, has already been mentioned).

There's the home advantage issue, but also the issue of p*ssing off the season ticket holders who sit there all the time and want to buy a ticket in that area. I would have personally given you the West upper with an increased amount of stewards and done the drink decanting thing. Also could have sought solidarity with Hull KR by requesting that anyone identified throwing things be banned from Craven Park too. I'm pretty sure they would have agreed with that, no club wants idiots like that involved.

There is an article in MEN from 2014 that says the one electronic board was worth £5M over a 10 year period. That was 10 years ago.

I think this is the rather major problem we have here. We've tried: 1. Standard P&R (1 up and down, 2 up and down, even up to 4 up and down IIRC) 2. P&R with minimum standards - by this I mean meaningful standards, that actually stopped clubs moving up, not just lowering standards every time as we did with the likes of London. 3. Super 8's. A mish-mash of a system which overlapped divisions. Scrapped pretty quickly. 4. Licensing. Off field primarily selected the teams. We foolishly (imo) tried to retain some form of P&R, I assume to get it voted through and guaranteed a team would be promoted - which basically gets rid of standards. Scrapped as it was too hard. 5. Grading. A flavour of the above, focusing mainly on commercial activity - the element of P&R is worse than with licensing (IMO) in that it actually creates the worst level of uncertainty of any system - something that apparently is a key driver of moving away from traditional P&R. And now people are suggesting new systems that we should try - whether that is 2x10's, promotion but no relegation, whatever. My conclusion on the above is that none of them are silver bullets, and none of them are horrendous. They all have decent elements, they all have things to grumble about. Clubs have gone into financial difficulty during all of them, others have thrived - and that (imo again) is because the system isn't critical. There is no silver bullet - we need to stop looking for one. Land somewhere and stick with it and crack on with the really important things.

Yes - that's my point. If he wasn't under any obligation to adhere to RFL rules, they shouldn't have been taken into account at all. We've all been young and daft. To some degree.....

https://www.hullfc.com/blog/2025/03/19/17000-tickets-sold-for-good-friday-hull-derby/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJH0P9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTQynn8AAQFS_blIIy_OQl2dl0gWM3h-uB0Ioqj1YqoOa0oyYrPrHSNgVA_aem_0IvXYgjk4F9asOSvgqtJag

Who cares if it was updated for premier League standards, the premier League is a different sport with different regulations and requirements.

I may have missed something or just plain stupid (either is possible) but isn't this review what IMG have been employed to do?

https://archive.md/aEU3y#selection-1075.0-1099.128

Hopefully it's a really successful evening and they make aload of money and alot of new fans. If Oldham RLFC is going to be successful if going to need both

It was updated to Premier League standard. If that's not good enough for IMG it probably needs looking at.

You forgot Bradford's "successful" move to Dewsbury while that kiwi owner we had for a bit explored ways of building a boutique stadium away from Odsal.

I wish them every success as we need as many clubs as possible outside this mythical place called the Rugby League heartlands

I think like the Vegas betting talk the whole worldwide TV rights value is a misnomer. The headline figure is driven by what the game is worth in Australia and NZ, not some huge demand for rights worldwide. Even in the UK the NRL TV rights are worth very little. The NRL currently gets $2 billion anyway, with what was seen as a poor Covid TV deal, and since then the AFL has signed a bumper deal that naturally increases the value of NRL rights with the obvious correlation between the two. So if we are saying $3 billion ballpark then $2.9 million of that maybe driven by the Australian and NZ market and what it gets anyway through Australia and NZ. That's a piece of the cake that someone like Netflix will be paying money for. I'm not convinced lumping in SL rights with a couple of NRL games is making the NRL more money than Watch NRL or making SL rights hugely valuable.

Joking apart... she is a decent referee! Also as many on here have written before wanting ex players to become referees... she is an ex player having played for Saint and England at hooker.

Impressive.

I just think as some people get older the past (and their youth) often just looks better and everything else is not as good anymore. Likewise tastes and preferences change.

Been around pre 2004. I used to enjoy Middleton Bulls posts in cross code. Dare I mention Parksider? He could start an argument in an empty vault.

The other club was probably a championship club. I suspect most players have an SL clause in their contract. If we want to attract good players who are looking to improve we can't been seen to blocking players going to SL as players won't want to come.

The Ken Davy comments I see on this forum usually comment about what a great man (borderline philanthropist) he is. I don't see anyone claiming he is a genius of a sports administrator. I know nothing about him, but after a quick wikipedia search, I see that he is 84 years old, so I give him credit for his dedication and commitment to the cause! He clearly has the money, and is passionate about RL. What he needs to go with that is a team of 'experts' who know how to run a sporting organisation. The older he gets, the more critical it becomes that he leaves the club in capable hands.

Personally I would like both Town and Fax to do well although I am finding the bleating of about 5 of their fans rather satisfying.