JohnM
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Posts posted by JohnM
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There is one place, one place only, for this and that is the Etihad campus.
People have heard of it
It's easy to reach by car and by public transport.
Even 0.1% of local footfall would make it a major sucess taking our story to more people than ever.
OK, so the campus is new, modern, forward looking, popular and crowded, so I can imagine the opposition.
And of course, the RFL itself is already there.
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On now, live. From Halliwell Jones. Rachel Burden long interview with injured young dcrum half.
Part of an event BBC are hosting there to talk to youngsters about phone and social media.
Wonder why they chose that location - if it was Warrington Wolves selling the location to the BBC, well done.
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You'll have many more moments in the sun, have no fear. And we'll have many more moments of fun, have no fear.
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Beaumont out-Beaumonted. He's lost his crown. Expect a response.
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Just now, JonNgog said:
It’s called a maximum ticket allocation. The ground is virtually sold out and the remaining tickets are in the home section. What exactly is the story here?
The story is that once again, the whole world is against Leigh.
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7 minutes ago, sheddingswasus said:
Because it is the most negative statement from anyone involved in the game I think I have ever heard!
Don't agree. Just helping a few more fans unused to train travel.
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Over on the RLW topic on how to fill Wembley, I've just posted this.
Anyway, here's a completely wild idea designed to inject jeopardy and competitivity . The SL clubs are privileged by coming into the draw only in the later stages. To remove that privilege and to create giant-killing opportunities, create a points handicap system . So for example, Wigan were to be drawn against York, then York would have a 20 , 30, 40 point start depending on league position and current performance.
Well, I did say it was a wild idea.
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There's related discussion going on over in the topic about the match itself so maybe combine them in some way into one topic.
Anyway, here's a completely wild idea designed to inject jeopardy and competitivity . The SL clubs are privileged by coming into the draw only in the later stages. To remove that privilege and to create giant-killing opportunities, create a points handicap system . So for example, Wigan were to be drawn against York, then York would have a 20 , 30, 40 point start depending on league position and current performance.
Well, I did say it was a wild idea.
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Certainly, there has to be a recurring and common issue if the RFL has been saddled with such alleged incompetents over the last 30 years or more and it may well be money. However, in my view, the conditioned reflex of blaming the RFL , as seems to be the case with a good few active posters, does no one any favours. Now they have IMG to blame, too.
In my view, it's undeniable that the world has changed and I feel strongly that we have to change with it.
Playing devil's advocate for a moment: however you re-assemble a pile of dinosaur bones, you still end up with a dinosaur.
Disclosure: I still believe the comp can be reinvigorated by design, just not by looking backwards
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This "incompetence" theme is being over-done. Unless people are suggesting that day after day, year after year, decade after decade, the game is being run by incompetent people. I don't see any geniuses on here stepping up to the plate and taking over, driving the sport to untold levels of popularity
Whist heritage is important, it should not drag us back, either. Our game has to stand on what it is today and what it can be in future, not what it was in the past. That's a foreign country. When you have kids who think of Churchill merely as an insurance company, 1895 is lost in the passage of time. It was Clare Balding who rrearked that too many in rugby league carried chips on their shoulders. She wasn't wrong
The impact of social changes of the last 30 or so go right across the game and there are now many activities competing for our time and money. The diaspora of fans because of housing, education, employment and travel infrastructure has had a marked effect.
I went to all of Wigan's victories in the 1980/1990s great atmosphere queueing for tickets at Central Park, and in the inevitable jams on the M1. Crowds blocking the pavements outside the street corner pubs, meeting old mates at the Harrow Tavern...only for it to have been replaced by flats when we went to the Wigan Vs Sheffield game but that was then, and this is now.
It might be great for the players to get to Wembley but it's not the same Wembley and it's no longer the end-of- season celebration it once was.
I think that is reflected in what might seem to be a half- hearted approach. For the fans if not the clubs and players, it's not the big draw it used to be.
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9 minutes ago, soulboy said:
Tell that to all the players that walked out at Wembley on Saturday ( and that includes the school game )
Moving it up north is a backwards step . If it does happen , they can shove the sport up its **** .
I'm not advocating moving it up north. I'm saying "perhaps", looking for cogent, informed and reasoned discussion.
The CCF used to be the final game of the season, the sports equivalent of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage.
Then came the switch to summer rugby and the advent of the Grand Final as the final game of the season, the culmination of a season-long hard slog.
Inevitability the GF has eclipsed the CCF I don't think you can easily have the season's high point in the middle of the season.
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On 06/06/2024 at 13:44, Click said:
Yea, why bother, eh?
He didn't say, "Why bother?"
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14 hours ago, northamptoncougar said:
I genuinely cannot get my head around the fact that the final isn’t sold out every year.
It should be sold as an event, times are hard for some but plenty go watch the other code / boxing / football/ darts etc, if it’s worth going to people will come.
Isn’t this something we’re paying IMG for, they’re in year 2 now and the CC final selling out should be a given.
It should be sold out? Genuine question: Why,?
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It seems this topic has broadened from being about the Cup Final to bring anboutgthe wider issues around it.
I note that MLB Europe held it's two game London Series this weekend at the London Stadium . From the brief look at the BBC live feed, the ground looked full. Ticket prices started at £33 for kids, £54 for adults, it seems. I think, too, the games were shown on a big screen in Trafalgar Square.
Perhaps now is the time to move our final north after all. It's gone from an end of season celebration of our sport, to a mid-season special. Just not the same general excitement.
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Rather than drinking their beer, I was speculating on what their sponsorship was bringing apart from money. Same thoughts regarding other sponsors. At least with the ill-fated Eddie Stobart affair, our game fell off the back of a lorry nationwide.
(It appears that Stobart is now named and owned by Culina who are in turn owned by Muller, the Bavarian dairy product and yoghurt manufacturer)
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1 hour ago, The Masked Poster said:
Yeah, let's pretend that filling (or almost filling) the stadium is of no importance. I'm sure you would enjoy the game if it were played on a park in Oldham but unfortunately the wider public aren't buying into it.
I AM basing it on facts - it was a pretty rubbish game and looked half empty. It could ride out the fact that game was poor but the combination of a poor crowd as well makes it silly to just pretend all is well.No one is pretending "all is well", not least when we have once-a-year fans to joyfully proclaim how bad things are.
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4 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:
This was the first game I've watched since last years GF and to be blunt, it was pretty dire. But that's ok, they happen- most major football finals are pretty boring.
But the crowd looked pretty bad, and the whole thing just felt like a non event. RL just can't afford to ride out things where both the crowd and game are poor.Sorry but RL really is in trouble. And that gives me absolutely no pleasure to say - but only a handful of Kool Aid drinkers on here could argue otherwise.
Sad.
Bad? They looked good to me. No one wearing ankle tags or cuffs as far as I could tell.
Why this insane competition to rubbish the occasion, location, crowd, quality of play etc. ?
Sure, be free to be critical but try to base the criticism on fact.
Here's an idea: buy looser underpants and experience the feeling of freedom. ,
ENJOY YOURSELVES....ITS LATER THSTN YOU THINK.
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4 hours ago, gittinsfan said:
Does anyone agree with me that RL Challenge cup games were far more entertaing before Super League.
Some of the games in the 60s, 70s and 80s were far more thrilling than what we see now.
I will wait patiently to be shot down in flames.
No need to wait.
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I echo very much of what OO has just posted. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, naturally. I'll replay for ever the image of Farrell galloping through to score.
Warrington too impetuous, pushing too many passes too much...just didn't build the pressure and wanted to score every time the try-line came into view.
Second half, we let Warrington off the hook by kicking to Thewlis too many times on the last...he's as safe as houses and, I think, underrated.
Apart from the two inexplicable and wholly wrong sinbins ( I felt he had help from the VR), I thought that the ref had a decent game, communicated well with the players.
Why oh why oh why oh why this insistence on disputing the attendance figures? In 2024, the systems are in place to provide accurate numbers of spectators. After all that's gone on in the past with disasters at sporting events, organisers would be in very VERY serious trouble if there was a need to evacuate the stadium and they didn't know how many people were inside the stadium.
Long term future of the comp? Put much more thought, effort and planning into the final, focussing on the festival of rugby aspect, a sort of reborn Magic event for the whole sport.
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3 minutes ago, gingerjon said:
So a 10% rise in the crowd? Doesn’t sound like a reason to moan.
You're new on here, aren't you?
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3 hours ago, Dave T said:
Not 100%. Had he slid, the try would have been fine. Once your ball carrying arm hits the ground though, you can't then make a 2nd movement with it. Although they have muddied that in recent years by allowing it if momentum takes you over the line.
That's the sliding tackle law, I think. Didn't apply in this case and I'm not disputing the decision.
Sliding tackle 5. If a tackled player, because of their momentum slides along the ground, the tackle is deemed to have been effected where the slide ends. (See Section 6, 3(c).)
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I counted the seats earlier. There were 90,000.
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That last pass sums up Warrington's day.
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Good try. Sadly, it's not over yet.
Radio Five and Warrington Wolves
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
That's as maybe but she did the whole thing justice.