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nadera78

Coach
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Posts posted by nadera78

  1. 3 hours ago, langpark said:

    From scratch?  Is there a chance you are confusing Wales with Ireland/Scotland?

    Yeah, Wales are in a decent(ish) position. They've got a good schools, Unis and clubs scene, a handful of lads have moved to SL academies, and have a fair scattering of players around the leagues. There is an issue that the generation of players who came into the game via the Crusaders have now almost all retired, but that happens. The national team needs some re-generation - and hopefully a new coach with fresh ideas - but they'll be assisted in that process by Scotland etc finally being dealt with by the IRL and consequently not coming up against teams exclusively consisting of ex-pats.

    They could really do with some financial assistance, but then the said could be said of everyone else.

    • Like 2
  2. 3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

    I could read this one - not blocked by a paywall this time. This is interesting:

    "US bookmakers such as Fanduel do not currently pay product fees to US sports including the NFL and NBA."

    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-s-las-vegas-matches-struggle-to-win-over-american-viewers-20240306-p5fa8g.html

    (To note: I disagree with its assessment of the TV figures, I think they're pretty good for a niche sport at an odd time. Not enough to generate millions in revenue but enough to be worthy of a regular spot in the schedule)

    Bookies paying for content is quite rare. In the UK they pay a set fee for horse and greyhound racing, but that is only so that the events actually take place because, frankly, who goes to watch horse racing on a Tuesday afternoon? Bookies do not pay for the rights to offer bets on any other sport.

    I know this is not the case in Australia, where bookies do pay for content, but getting any money out of the US is going to be very difficult. In fact, I think the British bookmakers have entered the US market pretty hard since the laws were liberalised and them not have a history of paying fees will make it harder still for the NRL.

    • Like 1
  3. I think the 2021 PNG season was still disrupted by covid, so that might explain why 2022's figures show such a huge leap.

    The wider issue in PNG, or one of them anyway, has always been that leagues had to pay an affiliation fee to the PNGRFL in order to join. However, in a country where 80% of the population are subsistence farmers, the vast majority of players don't have that sort of money to spend. So, there have always been lots of leagues all over the country which are not affiliated to the PNGRFL, which means participation numbers are very misleading.

    That said, the new development systems coming online should see a big uptick in official schoolboys competitions, which will see another big rise in official playing numbers.

    • Like 3
  4. 14 hours ago, roughyed8 said:

    Was that the story of the famous 0-0 draw with Fitton Hill ARLFC A team played in monsoon conditions at Droylsden?. It made the daily mirror as an example of true amateur rugby players.

    It might have been, it's near enough30 years ago now(!). In my head, that chapter was entitled something along the lines of "The Season of the Win" and included the description "a losing team, not a team of losers" but I may be confusing them with another chapter.

  5. 42 minutes ago, Rowan said:

    Between 1982 and 1997 Tameside Borough were members of the Pennine League which in those days consisted of six-to-eight divisions of nearly 100 teams. Tameside, who played at Medlock Centre in Droylsden had several successful seasons including four promotions and a Riley Cup win. One player  but in 1997 the club withdrew from the Pennine League and on the advice of Lionel Hurst became Manchester Knights and joined the new summer conference, playing first at Audenshaw, then at Oldham RU, then Dukinfield RU then Ashton on Mersey RU Five nomadic seasons) before falling into oblivion. As Superb Chops mentioned we started with a 96-0 win over Wolverhampton Wizards - a match that featured on Sky's good old Boots N All programme - and like the recent Manchester Rangers had ambitions of bigger things but sadly could not    attract the sort of support or sponsorship needed. 

    It was great while it lasted and thanks for remembering me SC , surname's Wilson and I still do a bit covering Barrow Raiders (my home town) for League Express.

    I was going to mention Tameside Borough because they were featured in Dave Hadfield's XIII Winters book, which I read many times over when it came out. Being a Londoner, and new to the game, it served as my introduction to some of the teams, towns, players and fans of the game and forged a little connection to them for a youngster in a RL outpost.

    • Like 1
  6. On 12/11/2023 at 10:50, ATLANTISMAN said:

    Did a site visit on Friday and was very impressed with the facilities.

    Lots of positives happening have posted a video on my you tube channel.

    Paul

     

     

     

    On 12/11/2023 at 19:25, nadera78 said:

    No offence, but every couple of years you post something on here about having seen a new set of plans, how exciting it all is, there's going to be this that and the other...and the club just continues to deteriorate in every conceivable way.

    Just going to leave this here...

     

  7. 9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

    I'm just not sure it's realistic to expect the RFL to grow the game in Greece. 

    I don't expect the RFL to grow the game anywhere, I've been watching RL long enough to have given up on that. But perhaps they could try to be less of an impediment? Greece are unlikely to be allowed to take part in the RLWC qualifiers, while Scotland will be involved despite not meeting any of the criteria. I'd say the RFL has a pretty big role in that, given they are the main driving force behind the IRL (until the NRL recently took control, I guess). Whether the RFL is directly responsible or only tangentially, I think it's pretty obvious we're about to miss the boat on Greece just like we did the other places I mentioned.

    • Like 5
  8. The introduction of SL gave us an opportunity to really develop France and Wales (London too). We didn't take it. The early 00s gave us an opportunity to really develop Lebanon and Serbia. We didn't take it. We currently have an opportunity to develop Greece. I think we all know what's going to happen there.

    We're paying the price for never really taking the bull by the horns and doing what was necessary to develop the sport outside of the M62 corridor and now suddenly everyone's panicking. If this doesn't make a few people sit up and re-assess where we are as a sport then nothing will.

    • Like 4
  9. 8 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

    Did a site visit on Friday and was very impressed with the facilities.

    Lots of positives happening have posted a video on my you tube channel.

    Paul

     

     

    No offence, but every couple of years you post something on here about having seen a new set of plans, how exciting it all is, there's going to be this that and the other...and the club just continues to deteriorate in every conceivable way.

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1
    • Confused 1
  10. 12 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

    Sorry - didn't realise that was the rule!

    The gist of the thread was about what to do with the other home nations' international teams. You seemed happy to decry Scotland's efforts whilst using the example of the Netherlands as what they should aspire to. I was just pointing out that in reality, there's very little between the domestic scenes in both countries. Despite what another poster has accused me of, I am fully supportive of all efforts to develop the sport, and think the fact that so many countries are playing the game is fantastic. However, the reality is that many of these setups are run by dedicated and passionate volunteers with extremely limited resources, and these teams will ultimately struggle to compete against nations that are drawing their players from fully pro competitions. 

    There's a huge difference between 5 teams playing one another home and away, and 3 teams playing odd fixtures when they can find enough players.

    • Like 1
  11. 1 hour ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

    There's nothing wrong with that at all - the work that's going on in all of these countries is great. But I'm not sure that they're doing much in terms of development that Ireland and Scotland aren't.

    Well, they clearly are because Scotland doesn't have a domestic competition - 3 scratch teams playing each other when they can find enough players to make a side does not count.

    • Like 3
  12. Gareth Kear, Wales RL's former CEO and father of Elliot, was recently very critical of the current Wales staff for not organising any fixtures for the men's team this year, and he's 100% correct. If they think they can go 2 years without playing any games and still have any realistic chance of winning the qualifiers then they're being very silly. And it's a shame, because the only realistic options for developing local rivals for England are Wales and France and one of them is taking themselves out of the running.

    Ireland, I don't know too much about their domestic situation but a few years back they wanted to adjust their selection policy only for the English players and staff to throw a strop and the RLI backtracked. 

    Scotland is a ridiculous situation tbh. I don't think they've met the Full Members criteria for about 10 years now and everyone just ignores it and allows them to play in competitions ahead of countries that do meet the criteria. We should forget them, in terms of big events, until the SRL can show they've turned things around.

    • Like 4
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