Blind side johnny

Head Coach Paul March has announced his squad for Saturday’s Betfred Championship clash against Toulouse Olympique. The squad in full is as follows: 1 – Owen Restall 2 – Perry Whiteley 4 – Bailey O’Connor 5 – Lewis Carr 7 – Calum Turner 8 – Jimmy Beckett 9 – Jacob Hookem 10 – Ronan Dixon 11 – Brad Graham 13 – Louis Collinson 15 – Joe Summers 17 – Jackson Walker 20 – Curtis Davies 22 – Marcus Walker 23 – Bailey Dawson 26 – Jamie Field 30 – Dale Ferguson 33 – Reiss Butterworth Jack Briggs

All clubs in Championship and C1 are losing money. I can see a decrease in the total number being much more likely than an increase.

IMG's key objective is to make RL more commercially attractive to sponsors and broadcasters. If they succeed then, maybe, SL can expand. Some more crumbs might also fall from the top table, but that is not a part of their remit, I believe.

Good post. Just one point - IMG were brought in by the RFL to do a specified job (I don't know the specification) but are conveniently acting as lightning rods for the shortcomings of the game's leadership. All of these problems were there before IMG - they haven't caused them.

Yes, a good initiative and I hope that it succeeds, but wouldn't be comforting if something came from within the club?

That is my point - very few seem to be interested even in free tickets. My criticism isn't of individual clubs but of the sport in general. Nothing has been done in a long time to raise the profile of RL and make it something that the uninitiated might want to see in the flesh. It is all well and good talking about how folk were first taken along by grandads etc but life is very different nowadays - the sport, the spectacle and attending it has to be made desirable. Otherwise our continual decline towards standing around in small groups in crumbling stadiums will continue.

Good point. This link, however tenuous, has been lost by many clubs and not replaced. A regular mechanism needs to be found that avoids a constant stream of criticism from anonymous naysayers.

Being above Batley in the third division without gaining promotion wasn't all that inspiring to be honest. I certainly got little pleasure from it.

Have you been to the ground recently GOR? Have you seen the scale and type of development to which I referred?

Till 2028?

Bookmark this for one month's time.

I think that was the 3rd season GOR - the previous two were much less good.

Paul March made a very good point in his interview. After a long run of defeats the team have simply forgotten how to win matches, giving up good positions with poor decisions and game management. We have not had a team leader to provide this skill for many years now. Before anyone jumps in, this doesn't simply come with age or longevity but a mindset honed by certain players over the years. Batley do have one or two such players, which has made all the difference for them in numerous matches over the last few seasons.

Fixed your typo Harry.

Will you stop with your facts? It is spoiling a perfectly normal RL thread.