JohnM

Despite all the urine extraction, I trust it will all work out for the best. If he brings the new f - I -l money in, all to the good, too.

Exactly. I'm not sure every poster gets that.

In my view and experience, this is how it works, simplified and serialised, or rather, circularised. Identify the successful sustainable clubs. Identify the factors that determine this success and build a model for all clubs to adopt. Incentivise clubs to adopt best practice. Success on the field depends on a number of things, including but not limited to: 1. The quality of the individual players. 2. The quality of the team. 3. The quality of the coach, the coaching, the training. 4 Quality in this context is skill, ability, attitude, personality, fitness, stamina. 5. The ability to attract such players and coaches depends on the money available as well as the quality of club leadership.. The attractiveness of the club to players, coaches depends on the money available to pay them and to provide attractive facilities, too. 6. The money available depends on owners and directors input, sponsorship, central funding, income from fans. 7. Money from fans depends on a range of factors ranging from quality of stadium and facilities, media activities, RFL/SL activities directly and indirectly through social media. It also depends on the penetration rate into the local population. 8. Money from fans also depends on success on the field. And so the perpetual motion machine is operating. So all that is happening is that the model is being brought into play and clubs are being incentivised to adopt the model of the successful clubs.

Moving, for a moment, from the specific to the general, here is a refresher of the Reimagining Rugby League presentation . https://www.rugby-league.com/article/60992/reimagining-rugby-league-–-img-presents-recommendations

The multiple-choice question remains unanswered. Q: Do you want the Reimagining project to succeed? 1.Yes? 2. No?

From Collins English Dictionary: "If you say 'He who pays the piper' or 'He who pays the piper calls the tune', you mean that the person who provides the money for something decides what will be done, or has a right to decide what will be done"

JonM not JohnM, though those who know me would agree on my appearance.

Yes. I've explained how and why in previous posts. Q. Do you want the Reimagining project to work or to fail?

So he didn't bankrupt the club and he didn't have to sell those very same players to stave off bankruptcy. Instead , he laid the foundations of the club as it is today?

...and look what happened to baseball. We don't want any of that there here. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/rankings/

Headline news: Joey Many dons the cloak of invisibility.

In the mid-1980s, Tour du Mont Blanc with three mates. It's a circular walk around Mont Blanc taking in a number of passes, the most spectacular of which, The Fenetre d' Arpette, is worth the trek alone. We did it in two chunks , staying in mountain refuges mainly. Great nights in hostels with other walkers from all over the world. The cable car ride back from Courmayeur to Chamonix at the end of the first half was unbelievable. Brilliant! https://www.autourdumontblanc.com/en/

Ask or read Tony Collins, who I believe is now emeritus professor of history at De Montfort University.

Because it can't support three.

... But.....but....graveyard johnny would prefer Laughton's golden touch .

Cottect. That is why professionaly-run successful clubs employ proper cleaners. That is why professionaly - run successful clubs don't have player-coaches, and that is why clubs have directors of rugby so that owners etc who invest don't also need to have rugby-brains. Incidentally, what was the ultimate result at Widnes of Laughton's chequebook coaching?

Aye, it's all nonsense. I remember 't days when teams had a player/ coach and 't captain cleaned out 't mens bogs cos there weren't any wimmins bogs.

Was that when he was at Widnes? I guess that policy had nothing to do with making Widnes the club it is today.

He's clearly been brought in to use his sunny disposition and humourous personality to boost the morale of the players.

Couldn't agree more and would add that It's one thing being a critic of the Reimagining project. It's another thing entirely wanting and hoping for failure.

That's what happens when a team is under pressure from a highly motivated and eager opposition. Pressure forces mistakes. Mistakes engender anxiety, anxiety engenders mistakes. Add to that excellent refereeing and you have a losing combination for Saints.

Saints were not below par, in my view. It's just that teams are learning how to handle Welsby, Roby, Hurrell etc. Couple that with Wire protecting George Williams to give him the space and time to deliver his best performance for ages. Couple that with their "go forward" and positional vision, they could have beaten anyone.

Somehow, though, I've managed to support and follow the game in varying degrees and intensity when I lived in Swinton, Manchester, Atherton, Hampshire, Switzerland, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Surrey, France and Lincolnshire. Expansion had been just as successful as keeping the game alive in the frozen north, though. Whatever happened to Huyton, Trafford, Liverpool, Belle Vue, Nottingham.....and although they are still going, look at the great names of the past: Bradford, Halifax, Widnes, and clinging on are Wakefield, Castleford, Salford. We don't even know if Leigh are going to be sustainable in the long term. Perhaps it's not geography, perhaps it's northern folk who don't want the game at all or folk who want to keep the game small and local for fear of losing control, like an episode of "The League of Gentlemen". An exaggeration and a simplification, maybe, and not intending to demean and minimise the efforts, donations, loans, investment etc. that fans and directors and owners put in, but really, it's a more complex issue than merely saying it's a northern game for northern folk. It's 2024 not 1895. The world and is people are entirely different now, compared with them. Hence IMG. They live in the here and now.

I have no problem with that, as long as they pay us royalties.