Exiled Wiganer

That was comfortable enough. I think the serious injury after the Leigh crusher tackle took the edge off the rest of our performance. Astonishingly the perpetrator continued to stand over Zak for minutes as he was being put on a stretcher. Was he waiting for another go? All thoughts are with Eckersley. A talented young man finding his way.

Leigh have a very strong squad - pretty much their strongest by the looks of it. With us missing Havard and Miski, they have more of their 1-13 than we do. I expect us to be 100% focussed after they nilled us last time out. It will be very difficult indeed, but with home advantage and a high level of motivation we can prevail.

Exactly right. And the clubs/RFL had the unique opportunity to make sure they weren’t in SL this year. It beggars belief that they actually looked into SRD’s financial standing and awarded them a licence, when nothing has fundamentally changed - no major sponsor has defaulted and they didn’t have a deep pocketed benefactor able to meet their liabilities. And awarded them a licence (applying the rules at the time, potentially), and have not seemingly changed the rules to stop it happeneing again. We could have stopped this from ever happening. It’s a tragedy.

To paraphrase Ray French, Vaughan is a mobile tank!

Get in Wire!

Time is indeed meaningless once you leave old Blighty behind.

Narnia is a realm not a city.

Plus, we all know how that story was always going to end.

There was a good article on the BBC website about this. Jepson was talking a good game. Great to see one of the clubs who have year in and year contributed so much to the top tier getting a new lease of life. We couldn’t touch them when I first started watching the game, and they have always had their own classy style, built on some of the best junior production lines in the world.

I think having it in Newcastle every year is a brilliant idea. It feels like an event, and is building into a tradition. Plus, the game has amateur and junior roots alongside the Thunder which deserve continued support from the game. Sure, there are other places which might make sense, if we had to move, but I see no compelling push factors.

I would ditch the captain’s challenge, as we don’t have the skilled people and the technology to carry out checks on anything quickly enough, and it’s dire having 60 minute halves. I thought it was a cracking, though flawed, game. Wire stepped up. For some reason our timing was really off - I thought French was very ordinary indeed in that respect. To get 4 from 4 in this block of fixtures: Saints, both Hulls away and Wire on neutral territory is a fantastic achievement. I think the name of the game for us is to be in the top 2 at the end of the year. That is a massive advantage. That looks achievable, especially if Leigh/HKR get to Wembley.

The sport would be insane to lock in a deal before hearing what the NRL are offering, if anything. If, as rumoured, they are interested in major investment with a few tweaks to the structure then a comparison between the respective TV deals available would be a key factor.

Thanks a million for your work. This is of course only a snapshot, and includes what are likely to be the 3 biggest home crowds of the year, and the loaded Good Friday fixture list. Which is good PR, but may give a misleading impression as to where we might end up. We shall see!

Thanks for the link to Rhodri’s comments. Over 30k this far out is superb.

I think the average drops about 1k if you lose the frankly ridiculous Vegas figure they have included for Wigan. So, still good. However, it deserves a much deeper dive. For instance, how skewed is it by FC having had 2 home derbies, and, as you say, to what extent is the increase simply a result of Trinity for London?

Apologies if this has been done to death elsewhere, but, having read the Warrington Guardian injury summary it includes players out with a fractured eye socket, a broken jaw and a failed HIA. All incurred in matches against Saints. Is it me or is that ridiculous? I assume some bans have been served as a result?

You mentioned IMG in response to a post which didn’t mention them. On this thread. I referred to advisers, as I had been told that IMG had nothing to do with the financial criteria. I then broadened the debate, in response to your impassioned defence of IMG. Go back and read your own words. As for your quote, that is exactly what they should have said. And that is exactly what they should be saying now. If I was being paid to increase TV income, then I would consider that to be front and centre to my brief. They may indeed have done that and said that. I hope they have. You have reached the point where you leap to IMG’s defence when they weren’t even being mentioned. And I am a massive fan of the overall idea and direction of travel, which I assume means we are on the same page.

And yet, if you take the “what happens to Salford is nothing to do with IMG” to your extreme, they have seemingly no interest in making Super League marketable. I do accept that if they have so limited the scope of their work that counting Facebook posts matters, and Salford’s implosion doesn’t then kudos to them for that. But for those of us hoping that this time we can do the hard work as a game to realise our infinite potential then that is shock horror hold the front page.

Oh, so it’s not a “nothing to do with us, how very dare you”, it’s a sanity check? Mmm.

My oh my that is some defence. You have not persuaded me, but clearly you feel very strongly about it. As it happens in the post that you initially responded to I didn’t mention IMG, though I am happy to discuss that at any time, as I am a staunch supporter of theirs, and believe that the overall direction of travel is not only a good thing but the ONLY way in which the game has to go. If the RFL ditches them then they are insane. To pick up the narrow point at issue here, I have spent my entire working life over 3 decades either giving or fielding or interpreting advice. I would be prepared to wager massive sums that the clubs didn’t realise how Salford would pan out before giving them a licence, and that to be here again next year would be a dereliction of duty by their advisers. Those advisers may be the RFL/accountants, and not IMG at all, which is why I referred to them as advisers in my comment you responded to. I would have thought that we are on the same page that if we end up here again next year then this assessment system has failed.

Have you seen the actual advice? Were you at the meetings? Did you see the minutes? Did they make this decision fully appraised of the risks? If you honestly think that an adviser is doing their job well in these circumstances, then there is nothing down for you. I do have some sympathy with the proposition that IMG may not have been the people carrying out the financial review. IMG’s job is to make the game more marketable. The inevitable consequence of this process was that this year would be over shadowed by these entirely predictable financial woes, and is a catastrophic look. In contrast the clubs organised Vegas and are steering the Ashes ticket sales, so we have had some good news and the RFL is getting some income. Now, there may have been some backward looking errors on both sides, but the context in which I am making this particular point is the suggestion that we could be here again next year because “computer says…”. However many times you defend the people who prepared the reports on SRD, you will always be wrong.

When did Sydney last get a 67k crowd for an international?

Indeed, It isn’t at all a speculative proposition. There is a track record of huge interest. The key questions are whether we will raise awareness generally and then push it as a must see. Everything I have seen and heard thus far suggests we will succeed on both of those fronts.

We got over 67k in 2013 and weren’t playing the Aussies. That’s by far the most relevant comparison. I have been to pretty much all the internationals down here in the last 35 years and I see no reason at all why we can’t smash the 2013 figure, given the quality of Moran’s team. Pretty much all of the relatively poorly attended ones had subterranean marketing. This one is clearly being done by professionals. I would be astonished if it comes in less than 60k. 70k would be par and a new record for any Ashes series anywhere would be a very good result. There is a market and there is a team which knows how to reach it. All will be well.

I remember attending one.