Marty Funkhouser

Replace the words "New York" or "The Franchise" (????!!!!) with the words "Ricky Wilby and his mate" (for that is the sum total of "New York RL") in the article and the "journalism" contained within becomes quickly apparent. Even a none journalist, as witnessed on forums such as this, would pose such as "You have no money, players, coaches, administrators or a ground, in fact you are a non-existent entity, but are saying you plan to enter the most famous Professional Rugby League cup competition in less than 10 months". Not even a quote...I wonder why?

His "professional development" did not have anything to do with Wigan at all. Signing scholarship forms with a club (any club) at 13 years of age has nothing to do with his "professional" development. The lad is from Halifax, he didn't pursue it further at Wigan, went to Huddersfield at academy age, didn't make it there so ended up in Salford's academy from where he became a first team SL player. Salford developed him from not been able to get a place in Huddersfield's academy team into the player he is today. As Wigan have now had to import a full back to replace a full back they signed from a drugs ban, whom they now see as a centre , I would suggest Wigan need to have a close look as to why Evalds could make it in Salford's academy system but not theirs. Huddersfield might also like to ponder about what they might be able to learn from Salford. The point still stands, Salford academy has developed some very decent SL players. Why people have this irresistible urge to kick Salford, as well as, and amongst others, I really have no idea.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/40407096 At Salford since he was 15 according to BBC but you are both wrong. From the man himself...https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/niall-evalds-chris-kendall-is-the-reason-im-at-salford-23143/ Nothing to do with Wigan at all.

Your ignorance shines through. There are getting on for 60 current professional players (or four full teams of pro players) that have come out of either the Hull, Hull KR or the short lived joint academy. "Next to no-one" for Hull KR actually equals nearly 30 current professional players at various clubs from themselves to Hull FC to Toronto to Newcastle to York to Coventry. So a large contribution to the professional game. Salford's former academy produced many current professional players including the excellent Evalds, Hankinson, Bibby (both Wigan first teamers), Johnson , Lannon amongst many others. Without all the clubs you constantly denigrate and advocate for the demise of , there would not be much of a game left for anyone to play no matter how bright the lights or big the city.

Would you like to name the SL clubs that do not run academies? And follow that up with a list of current professional players produced by the 90% of UK SL clubs that do (also include the 1 that formerly did if you like). Then take away that number of players from the total professional pool. Even do it club by club through the entire game. You will of course very quickly realise that without the contribution of these clubs there would in fact be no professional Rugby League game to speak of. There would certainly be no Toronto or Catalan in SL. Where on earth do you think professional RL players come from?

When does the £100 million a season start to roll in...??? We won't need TV surely... Scotchy...the ultimate delusional of a delusional little bubble called Total RL.. One of the main points of contact for the game on the WWW is an absolute embarrassment.

Think it was 8600 and change.

Apart from getting a very, very, very average team to Wembley do you mean?

Reality is in very short supply around these parts, both on this thread and the forum in general.

No problem, "the level" is home and away each week starting February...and a salary cap that applies to each member club...amongst many other things.

That is because one of the teams , from an entirely different continent, applied to join a sporting competition several time zones away. Only on the Total Insane RL forum could anyone think that is surprising.

Not at all, no fan of the salary cap whatsoever. What the non-realists do not get however is that the players already do very well out of what the game has got to give. They get the main and very large chunk of the pie. The UK game is not overflowing with cash and is totally reliant on the SKY money for its full time status. Full time professional squads of 25-30 players are not the default setting for UK RL, the last 20 odd years are the exception to the rule. It is not forced to last, indeed it could be argued that SKY/TV rights have already peaked and there will never be another deal like the ones of the last three decades. There may be some adapting to do. The runaway wage inflation Toronto are looking to (have) cause (d) is unsustainable in UK Rugby League.

The NRL minimum wage is £60000 per top thirty squad member this year. If the SL had to do this it would result in fewer top line players here. If players 20-30 are costing nearly a third of the cap then there is not a great deal to share amongst the other 20. No marquees anymore. The NRL is a rich sport, comparisons are not equal. Players in the UK however get a much larger slice of the games actual income than in Australia. Salary cap takes up the whole of the SKY deal money.

Sceptical rather than cynical on TW as a whole club entity . A cynic with regards New York most definitely. Hopeful for Newcastle (imagine £20 million poured in there). Whilst this forum has mainly become a realm of fantasy with little relevance to the nitty-gritty of RL, it can be a little disheartening that many (not all) "progressives" are actually advocating for the games self inflicted suicide without realising it and enthusiastically denigrate over a hundred years of the sport and many of its member clubs.

If Toronto were really thinking about the "long term" or "future years" they would have planned very, very differently and much more thoroughly. It is down to their own failure to adequately plan and anticipate that this situation has arisen. The dash to SL is all that has mattered. There is no longevity in the TW club as it stands. If i were a complete cynic I would suggest that TW will be milked until the last drop and then go the way of PSG, Celtic et al or else have to adapt to the existence of a Sheffield, Bradford, London or Widnes. The people involved now will not be involved then that is for certain.