Martyn Sadler

In this week's episode of the League Express Podcast, Jake Kearnan and I discuss St Helens signing Kyle Feldt, Leeds extending Brad Arthur for another season and we discuss the frontrunner for the coach of the year award. We also discuss Roger Tuivasa Sheck pledging his allegiance to Samoa, Jayden Nikorima's form with Salford, Cai Taylor-Wray's impressive game for Warrington, the selection of Ron Coote as the newest member of the Immortals, why the season needs to be shorter and the problems of Whitehaven.

In this week's episode of the League Express Podcast, Jake Kearnan and I discuss whether Magic Weekend at Elland Road was a success, if Hull KR are the best team in Super League and where Leigh rank on form. We also discuss Oldham's promotion to the Championship, Sam Burgess being inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame and whether Castleford's new partnership with the Manly Sea Eagles is a good idea. We discuss St Helens and Leeds Rhinos reporting heavy financial losses for 2023, Sam Burgess's induction this week into the ARL Hall of Fame, who will be the next immortal and which venue our readers would like to see host next year's Magic Weekend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nEJFxbFV3U

The rise of Hull KR has been the best story in Rugby League for a long time and I'm sure that Paul Lakin and his colleagues have done a great job off the field while they have also appointed the right people to fill football roles. I genuinely hope that they can get to the Grand Final this year. In terms of commercial income, they haven't yet submitted their 2023 accounts, but because they don't yet have the requisite turnover they don't file full accounts, so it's difficult to gather reliable information about revenues. But I would be surprised if you weren't right about significant growth. I also find it very interesting that they are taking a pre-season game to Amsterdam next year.

So you're implying that I may be wrong to cite Warrington's social media activity as ahead of the game. You could be right. I always admire what Leeds are doing off the field. But interestingly enough, Leeds have recently announced an operating loss of more than £2.3 million for the 2023 financial year. So I hope you're right about being able to commercialise those assets it's creating.

I can see your point but it would be surprising indeed if any club's ambition wasn't to drive ticket sales and to use all the tools at its disposal to do so. And we can't escape the fact that Warrington's attendances this season have been disappointing in comparison to recent seasons. I don't profess to understand why. But I do think their digital activity is one of the most prolific in Super League. Given your experience, maybe you can confirm or contradict that view. I'm hoping to persuade a leading figure from the club to join us on our Podcast in the near future for a discussion about this and other issues.

I'm not sure what you mean. Can you clarify?

I would very much like to do that. We'll see whether it's possible to get hold of Dominic Baloup.

I've issued an invitation today. We'll see whether they would like to take it up.

Thanks for pointing that out. I've changed it and the link should now work.

It was selective because I was specifically asking the question why a club with such a strong digital profile was suffering a crowd decline when you would expect the reverse of that. Warrington's crowds have fallen this season, so I'm not sure what element of the conclusion is false. The logical question might be to ask whether some digital marketing is so clever that it actually doesn't hit the psyche of its target audience. I share that view entirely. When Richard Lewis became the CEO in 2002 I urged him to scrap promotion and relegation because it was doing more harm than good for clubs' finances. He rejected that advice, saying that P & R are the foundation of successful professional sport in this country. But he eventually changed his mind and created the licensing system, which had some deep flaws which, to be fair, IMG later identified, which were basically that places were offered on the basis of promises that weren't kept rather than the facts as they were. Once you move away from promotion and relegation being based on anything other than performances on the field, you have to go to great lengths to carry your audience with you. That hasn't happened, unfortunately, despite IMG having now been in place for 27 months.

John Burke suffered a life-changing injury in the 1970s playing for Workington. It's good to see him in such good spirits today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdOc-2Kn1s4&t=19s

Yes, you're right to point that out. It is ambiguous. To be clearer, it could have said it would be counter-intuitive to ask the question. Only a fool would suggest that a strong digital profile is worthless. But it's always difficult to put a monetary value on it. It is certainly arguable that points should be awarded for a club's digital profile in the gradings system, if we're going to have one. But should it be three times as important as a strong balance sheet?

You have a remarkable capacity to read an article, misunderstand it and then comment on it on the basis of what the article doesn't say while making insulting comments about the writer, who in this case is me, and silly comments about my "agenda". I'll ignore your stupid ageist comment later in the thread, but in no way do I suggest that "digital engagement is worthless". Quite the reverse! As I write in the article: "So is the cost of having a strong digital profile really worth the money? "It would be counter-intuitive to make that claim. "But it does cause me to wonder whether 1.5 points should be awarded for it in the IMG gradings system, particularly when those points could have such an important bearing on the future of all the clubs in the competition." If we are going to have a grading system, there are many ways the 20 points could have been allocated. The problem is that IMG are not prepared to be questioned about what they are doing in Rugby League. I don't know how many times the RFL have requested IMG to have a meeting with me and other journalists to discuss issues associated with their role or to put forward someone for us to interview on our Podcast. But to no avail. Meanwhile the RFL is making some good people redundant shortly in order to be able to carry on paying its annual consultancy fee to IMG. On the other hand, if you or anyone else on this forum would like to write an article defending IMG from its critics, I would be glad to publish it.

In this week's episode of the League Express Podcast, Martyn Sadler and Jake Kearnan discuss the weekend's matches in Super League and NRL, the news stories, the players, the controversies and the Magic Weekend. We discuss some thrilling and some controversial tries, and we give some advice to the game's governing bodies on how to deal with controversial photographs of leading players. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-cDJvR8GIk

Sorry I didn't see this message earlier. I have just checked it out and it seems fine with this week's issue. Have you tried it again?