Wakefield Ram

Andy Williams....keeping with the singer theme

The criteria doesn't require it to be working according to that list.

Might be wrong about your reason for the sin bin. Yes, it wasn't really any sort of trip, but daft thing to do.

Reading Kevin Nicholas's comments, these were directed at the departing directors, not at the role of NEDs.

Having worked for a number of very large organizations, I'd say this is spot on. He made the point that these highly-paid directors couldn't be bothered to attend Test Matches, Championship GFs let alone SL games. There's a director merry-go-round where the main objective is to earn as much as they can , back scratch and embellish their CVs and then leave after 2-3 years. So whether RL prospers is irrelevant. And the five figure cheques relate to their monthly pay.

Well with Nigel Wood back, he'll no doubt be able to negotiate a vastly improved TV deal regardless of Sky's finances.......

The bigger picture affects the clubs though. If RL wants to grow, it needs to break out of being an M62 league. It's short-term thinking which limits long-term growth.

The ref certainly has no problem with communication Two stupid attempted trips from Delaney. He could easily have been binned again after 2nd Swinton try. But great to see Ferguson playing up the middle wreaking havoc.

Keighley made a big 2nd half comeback and only just lost, so maybe not get too carried away....

And with 5 first choice players missing

And no Brierley, Garside or Caelum Jordan to go with Day and Briggs missing. And presumably Sykes left out.

This will be a big test. Shame that Sam Day and Jack Briggs are missing but hopefully Garside is back. Could go either way, think it will be close.

Given central funding allocation is determined by IMG grading, then it's no surprise that social media output has increased for example. The only issue with this is that this comparative approach gives more money to the ones with the highest grading to further improve their gradings. It could be an absolute i.e. all clubs that achieve 15pts get the same money.

Last 7 years of each so 14. All Saints and Wigan except Catalans once.

The cost of travelling and time of 200-300 miles every other week might be a deterrent for an amateur club.

13 out of 14 League Leaders and GF winners over last 7 years have been Wigan and Saints. But CC has been quite different. Given the huge discrepancy in playing budgets, it's likely that there's only 3-4 clubs with any prospect of being League Leaders/GF winners before a ball is kicked. But in a one-off cup competition there's more chance of an upset.

Hopefully will have Jack Briggs back and Matt Garside must be near fitness now?

I think it's the right decision, just making an observation

The question is would adding SL into the deal increase the value by enough to compensate for sharing the money with SL clubs? They might argue that SL is a lower overall standard, played in smaller grounds with smaller crowds etc...

I'm not criticising Huddersfield but overall it's sad that for a team in our sports top league that the answer is moving to a smaller stadium.

Only if you are of a certain age

In order to field a competitive team most SL clubs rely on wealthy backer(s) to plug the gap. Salford don't have one. If they had a Ken Davy they'd be fine.

London is a football city but Harlequins average attendance is 6,700.

RU play a Xmas match at Twickenham that attracts 70-80,000 for a club match. Fulham attracted crowds of 10,000 when they started back in 1980s. What London needs is a proper thought through strategy and for the rest of the SL clubs to want a successful club in London. Rather than thinking of the extra cost for the coach trip and fewer away supporters at one home game. How about playing the World Club Challenge in London? The NFL take over Oxford Street when they come to London. We play one of the biggest club games in the world in a town outside Manchester as far as most of the media are concerned. This is where I hoped IMG would really add to the game.

Even if there is a bigger TV deal, why would 12 SL clubs vote to allow an extra club in? They would just take the extra money. Let's face it, these clubs won't pay for one trip to France a year. Watched an interview with the NFL boss talking about taking games overseas. They took a game to Brazil to generate new fans and increase number of TV viewers and the value of their TV deal. And did this alongside promoting flag football - their equivalent of Tag Rugby. No talk of setting up a franchise in Brazil, it's boosting TV viewership. Football has been doing this for years in Asia with ore-season tours.