Dave T

I'd agree with this. I don't understand the lack of transparency. Rimmer appears to me to be the worst we have ever had. He says very little and seems to enjoy giving politician answers and teasers.

What on earth does that have to do with it? It's a travel subsidy, it doesn't matter whether it is for a bus, plane or trike.

This is the kind of thing that RL fans love trashing the sport of RL for.

Call it something else if you are against travel subsidies, but central funding has been massively cut and a new cost has been added in. I don't know what your last line is saying.

Absolutely. But it doesn't stop them being a new club. They just have the Golden Ticket. Or maybe more of a Brown/Biege Ticket.

It isn't a relocation. Its a new club that has a piece of paper that allows them the governance here. Just like Ottawa would have been a new club. This isn't Hemel. They bought Hemel's place in the pyramid.

It's not a journey I've ever done, but I find Google maps reliable (certainly compared to my satnav!!!)

Just going off Google maps mate which suggests 2hrs 35 in live traffic now.

If it's not a new club, could you point me in the direction of Cornwall RLFC's results?

I agree with this. My concern around this is that it is another example of something being done poorly, rushed and under-funded. These are things that catch us out time and time again, and they are the reason we have failure after failure. A lot of people applauding this are the ones who are often most critical of RFL incompetence, but seem happy to ignore it in instances like this. On the positive, I am intrigued to see what Perez can do in a different scenario. He talks a good game and did a lot of good things with Toronto, so I'm fascinated to see how he does here. To give him credit, he isn't taking the easy option, so good luck to him and Cornwall RLFC.

Yes, fair shout, I didn't see that at the same time. There are calls that the clubs haven't been consulted, which is out of kilter with previous initiatives, but that is a lot of hearsay from journos.

Again, these are known costs (or risks to your cost line). A new random club announcing that they are joining the league without a peep from the RFL hardly suggests this is well planned and thought out.

Agreed on the last line, we are where we are and we'll have to see how it plays out. To pick up on the one point in bold - we know they haven't, as Perez himself aid he has been working on this for the last 4 or 5 months. And to clarify my point - when I say bad planning, I don't just mean by Perez - I mainly mean by the RFL (the 'game') - the lack of funding - so your point in that paragraph is exactly the one I am making. Cornwall should succeed or fail based on themselves, that is within their control - if Perez can get a club set up in a few short months, good on him - it is absolutely the RFL who haven't set this up for success.

Soundbites don't pay bills Phil. Somebody has to pay for this. That is what this is about. It won't be you or me who funds it, it'll be the owners of the other clubs. Probably out of their own pocket.

Well no, because you get 3 games for those costs. There is also the fact that these are known costs. They are part of the structure. This is a new decision that adds substantial costs at a time that funding has been decimated. It's a double whammy from the RFL.

Those distances are not comparable in the slightest. Keighley seems to be the marker people are using, its 2.5hrs to the furthest Cumbrian team versus 7hrs for Penryn. And again, the clubs have shown they will travel to play, having done it to Canada - where the RFL sorted travel funding.

Yeah I think so. It feels like a competition announcement rather than an individual club. Something feels slightly off with it all tbh, feels like there are politics at play.

The lack of travel funding is part of the bad planning. Distance means cost - it is the same point. Clubs showed with Toronto they were prepared to travel from a time point of view. These are not different points. And you appear to agree about the bad planning with your points about the time lines. This is the point. Had the RFL announced this for 2023 and given £5k travel subsidy per club it'd be hard to argue there is an issue.

They are real RL clubs, working in their communities, playing games, doing good stuff. The disdain shown towards RL clubs from within is disgusting. Who needs enemies?

2. Perez has admitted that he has been working on this for '4 or 5 months'. That hardly suggests extensive groundwork has been done. They have no team (or anything really) with 4m to go. There appears to be no funding plan in place from the RFL who have removed travel funding. As per my previous post, if this was announced for 2023 and that travel costs were covered, it would be difficult to grumble.

Clubs will travel. We have actual evidence that proves that (Canada). Clubs are rightly pushing back on funding expansion. It is being left to them to fund it. Of course the long list can be I terpreted in various ways, and I don't have an issue with failures really, but it isn't inspiring.

Thanks for clarifying - and yes, I think you should use the quote function to make it clear what you refer to

Why do you think Cornwall have higher ambitions? Because Perez said he wants to walk out at Old Trafford? This project has no foundations of note, or anything else really. This is a perfect example of a club absolutely having to prove itself at the bottom of the pyramid, and they are lucky to be admitted there. I 100% agree about strategy and planning, but you are the one championing what is a badly planned initiative here. You say the previous failures do no harm, but they absolutely do. The long list of failures versus the few moderate successes hardly inspire confidence and attract others to join.

There are two main concerns here I can see. 1. Lack of planning - admit them for 2023 2. Lack of funding - it can only go ahead with a £50k travel subsidy provided by the RFL. It's up to them how they get that. In reality, that would leave clubs without a leg to stand on to resist it. What we have seen is a huge funding cut and an accelerated thumbs up to a logo.

How so? The ones championing this aren't the ones putting their hands in the pockets for vanity projects. Typing some stuff on the Internet to slate Oldham and the likes is no effort at all really.