[TV catch up]

12 hours ago, Dave T said:

In short, at the moment you can't. It's a terrible system at the moment, however there was mention that 7 day playback should be available by the end of July. Whether that will be available on Virgin, not sure.

Just seems odd, surely it's easy to keep it there for a week or so? Surely help with viewing figures also???

[TV catch up]

Probably been asked before but I cannot see the answer currently so apologies for any duplication.

If a game has been on the sky sports plus red button, through Virgin, how can I watch it back ?

I'm sure I read that sky agreed to keep it on catch up for longer but when I go on the red button I only see upcoming games?

[Toulouse Olympique(a)]

We've been great but I really wanted us to take the two points on offer 

[Toulouse Olympique(a)]

5 hours ago, PECETTO said:

Live on via occitanie 

I guess this is only available on the phone?

If on YouTube it's better as I can get it on TV

 

Thanks for sharing though, I may go if I can sort travel but there's limited and expensive options.

Don't know the team yet either 

[Toulouse Olympique(a)]

48 minutes ago, 2Cents said:

'The games will not be available for those people that live outside of France' - Total Rugby League.

Raiders have managed to over-ride that, but only at CP?

Oh no, I'd assumed it would be available for anyone anywhere if on YouTube 

[Penalties Received]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

Wigan not receiving a single 6 again against Saints or Leigh and only 1 in the last 2 games just seems weird when they have the attacking threats they do and are often playing on the front foot.

Good team who win the ruck often. Defenders don't always have a good tackle to be able to hold down. Just a thought 

[London Broncos(H)]

4 hours ago, raiders_1875 said:

the only issue I had was the amount of lying on the Broncos were doing throughout the game, and the only team to give a penalty away for it was us!

Talking generally the lying on can appear worse on occasions.

If a player is held up for a few seconds before being taken to ground, the ref won't allow a few seconds on the floor.

If it's a strong tackle and taken down quickly, visually a better tackle, they get a few seconds on the ground.

Whilst the two appear inconsistent, the time between contact and play the ball is often very similar. It's actually good reffing but difficult to spot.

That may or may not have been the case in this match

 

[When is a missed tackle not a missed tackle?]

9 hours ago, OldRedEyes said:

Yeah I agree. 

A lot of missed tackles prevent line breaks and are actually good defence. 

Same as tackle busts and line breaks for the attacking team.

A player could run laterally and make no yards, simultaneously making a few defenders miss, resulting in a number of tackle bust statistics. The statistics in that alone would suggest an attacking win, when in reality it’s a defensive win  

 

In these cases the stats are misleading 

[When is a missed tackle not a missed tackle?]

I believe I'd you tackle a player, others join and you slip off it's classed as a missed tackle even if you go back in and complete.

 

Seems a little unfair to me if true 

[2025 Transfer Tracker]

1 hour ago, up the robins said:

Hi having looked into it a bit more the reserve league is a 12 round format involving all super league teams except for Catalans and includes the Bradford bulls.

If you have a big squad and are trying to keep players happy they need to be playing more than once every 2 to 3 weeks.

We have players like danny Richardson,Doro,Kershaw amongst many other twiddling there thumbs getting one or two weeks out on loan here or there waiting for injuries to occur so they can get a game.

I can't find the article but rovers at the beginning of the season said they will have to let players go out on loan as we had no reserve fixtures coming up.

I think it's rare for SL 1st teamers to play reserves.

As posted above I believe SL clubs like the every other week approach as it helps with staffing as they can (although this was due to change) use academy players as academy also played every other week.

[2025 Transfer Tracker]

1 hour ago, up the robins said:

The reserves league at the moment is not mandatory and teams go weeks without any games, hence the reason why player's are loaned out instead.

A reserves league where all super league clubs where forced to enter would provide a much better platform for youngsters to get first team recognition, training with the first team and developed with the game structure the parent club want. 

Being loaned out can be quite disruptive and players may be coached different to what the parent club wish.

Yes I'm not against a better more established reserve league but there are multiple barriers.

With 1st teams now being fully pro, they train in the day. The old A team league everyone trained together two nights a week and selection often being done on the Thursday night training to which team you were in.

Now the gap is much wider and reserves can only train evenings so little opportunity to mix.

Do talented players go championship or reserve? This will also be a consideration, no easy answers to all this but I get the feeling reserves is fledging and may be lost altogether eventually. The current set up is working to an extent but not the same as the old A teams and I doubt it ever will be.

[2025 Transfer Tracker]

10 hours ago, up the robins said:

What's needed more than anything for the development of new talent is a mandatory 2nd team competition so that youngsters and fringe player's are getting meaningful game time.

We have the reserves league but it seems to have evolved into a hybrid of academy and young prospects.

Therefore many SL teams will loan/duel reg their more advanced players to championship and L1 teams instead.

I have often wanted RL to consider and combined 3rd tier/reserves league. Obviously would need some figuring out but years ago the 'A team' league had teams such as Hemel Hempstead in them.

[2025 Transfer Tracker]

6 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

That's all very true, though I would add, and I don't think this is made anywhere near enough of as a selling point, at Clubs like Wakey and Cas the chances of actually seeing the first team can be much higher than at Leeds, Wigan etc.

Those big clubs will use 40 players to produce 1 first teamer. Likewise for a decade at least at Leeds if you were a half back or stand off, your path to the first team was essentially blocked. At Wakey and Cas perhaps the route isn't so likely to be rigid. 

That's true, but difficult for a 13/14 year old to see that.

It's also a little bit like Oxford and Cambridge, having a top team on your CV for your development years carries some credibility later on as you've come through a highly regarded system.

[London Broncos(H)]

14 minutes ago, the man said:

We are just finding our feet with the streaming and we have had some technical problems, sometimes not having commentary for example. You may have noticed sponsors before the game and during half time and these are paid sponsors bringing in a few thousand pounds in total, we are also now in a position to receive income from Youtube. Incidentally we have also monetised Facebook and have started to receive a monthly cheque for our content from them.

We could choose to use a streaming platform and charge a fee but our current preference is to make the games available for free so that we try to build an audience. Being able to still watch your team when you are unable to attend keeps the fans engaged and more likely to turn up in person at the next game. If fans go a few weeks without seeing the team it is so easy to lose the habit of watching.

If we chose a streaming platform then we are probably only attracting the hard core fans who would pay a fee and we want to get as many people interested as possible.

When football started showing live games in abundance when Sky TV came along there were many saying that attendances would suffer when in reality the crowds grew massively. Would a sport like darts be as popular and fill venues without being on TV? We believe that exposing the new and existing fans to the product can create the sporting addiction we are after.

Of course we might be wrong and we may review what we are doing and move to a paid subscription at a later date, we aren't that pig-headed that we won't be open to changing our mind.

I spoke to the York chairman, who also stream for free, and they have done both (subscription and free with advertisers) and they received more income from putting it out for free. If more clubs went for the free option it would also give us a chance to stream the game to the marquee/big screen, like we did against Bradford, and that gives another income generation opportunity from the away games. 

 

 

 

A very sound planned way forward.

Sensible and hopefully successful

[London Broncos(H)]

I believe the streaming will be to increase clicks and watch hours.

If everyone who went returned and put the YouTube game on repeat in the background it would make a huge difference. 

YouTube counts clicks and hours but watch time and comments are more important than views.

So you can repay the club by telling everyone you know to watch on repeat or 'loop' as it's called 

I small donation would help the club but they may consider that once they have the watch hours they need

[2025 Transfer Tracker]

On 16/04/2025 at 12:45, Worzel said:

I think you're taking the wrong lesson from Hull KR: We have hugely increased investment in the youth system in the last 4 years, and built far better ties with local community pathways, even to the extent of building them the only 3G pitch in East Hull right next to our stadium. But it takes a long time to come to fruition, so we're buying players in the meantime. I don't think there's anything wrong with that if you can afford it.

I think the lesson from the long-term high performing clubs, which I'd describe as Wigan, St Helens and Leeds, is that investment in youth is absolutely the best strategy. It gives you a huge salary cap advantage. That's why Rovers are spending so much time and effort on it, because it's the only way to be a Top Four club on a sustainable basis. You might get a few good seasons with expensive, experienced players. Being able to do that on a long-term basis is impossible, because the salary cap precludes it. 

I think all clubs realise the advantages of bringing their own youth through but there's a major challenge that's rarely overcome 

At 13/14 years old the clubs offer a scholarship place to the youth (I realise you and others probably know this) If a player has 5 club offers they get to chose. The best youth players are well known to all clubs so scouting in such a small pool is relatively easy.

As such, the best youth players get multiple offers and 99% of the time select the top 3 or 4 clubs, Wigan, Saints, Leeds....

It essentially gives the best clubs first draft each year.

This gives those teams the best chance of converting youth into SL players.

So whilst it's easy to say clubs should invest on youth, the lower clubs who get the 7th/8th draft won't be working with the best talent. All the coaching and money won't change that fact and means they struggle to convert into SL players and often buy X Saints, Wigan , Leeds youth that they simply cannot find space for in their own squads. 

So there's a huge advantage as those that come through are not fully put onto the cap leaving more money for recruits and imports.

Whilst the reduced cap makes perfect sense on the surface I'm not sure it's actually serving it's purpose, it's a double advantage 

[What a result]

I was at the game.

Very impressed with the attitude of the players. They ran straight and hard, continually asking the Widnes pack to dig deep, that continual pressure gave Raiders the possession and territorial advantage which led to points.

The pressure also forced Vikings into errors and poor decisions.

Credit to the players, playing for their coach, all effort and tenacity. Great game and well worth the fee.

[York at Home after a good win for them. How do we think we will go?]

I'll be going the game but a few friends cannot make the long trip.

Does anyone know if the game will be live streamed like other home games have been?

[New disciplinary system (Merged Threads)]

I have proposed this system a couple of times.

Albeit I also suggested a couple more changes.

1. if a player is in the bin and the opposing team score the player can return before their 10 minutes is up

2. Minor and major red, a minor red means a sub/interchange player can replace the sent off player. Taking them down to 3 on the bench.

Both with the aim or supporting refs in dealing with key decisions. It aims to punish the player but less so the team

[Latest Podcast - SRD special 👍]

Latest video Pod - this week we discuss the latest news at Salford Red Devils with our friends at the longest running RL Pod Devil In The Detail SRD 

Thanks for the chat, we had a ball, a rugby ball

We discuss the stadium, players and most of all the positive community impact from th community club

Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1361836814234490/?ref=share

Video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salford Red Devils Video Podcast 😃👍]

Latest video Pod - this week we discuss the latest news at Salford Red Devils with our friends at the longest running RL Pod Devil In The Detail SRD 

Thanks for the chat, we had a ball, a rugby ball

We discuss the stadium, players and most of all the positive community impact from th community club

Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1361836814234490/?ref=share

Video

 

 

 

[v Widnes (H)]

21 hours ago, Ulverstonian said:

Annddd relax... very exciting season done. Wrong end of table in the end but hey made for fantastic finish. Today's game was a fitting end and Widnes just edged it really. 

Roll on next season and high blood pressure again. 

Very happy tonight

The point against Bradford proved to be key

[Cumbrian RL Podcast]

15 hours ago, JordanW said:

Hey Raiders Fans 

Myself, Dan Payne and Andy Thompson have launched the Odd Shaped Balls podcast - the only podcast dedicated wholly to Cumbrian Rugby League. 
 

Episode 1: The Big Derby was released earlier this week talking about The Raiders derby victory over Whitehaven as well as Raiders ladies finishing 5th in their debut Super League season as well as Workington Town’s season ending defeat. 
 

Check us out - https://osbpod.podbean.com

Great work

[Haven (H)]

14 hours ago, Raider91 said:

Was all about the result today nothing else. Well done to the lads, you'd like to think that guarantees us at least 3rd from bottom. The game changed when Walker and Pye came on, gave us punch through the middle and sured us up in defence. Both half backs were able to play off the platform they laid.

Up the raiders.

Likely be third from bottom unless we beat Widnes, that will be another big game and depends what they are fighting for in their last game of the season 

[Haven (H)]

Great attendance and atmosphere 

Haven were very good in the first 20 minutes, good kicking game which pegged Raiders back but eventually Raiders wore Haven down. Subs refreshed the Raiders team and they were on top as half time came just edging it.

Second half was similar, but Raiders showed they were the better team as the game developed and they used the wind well with the second half kicking game.

Haven brought lots of effort but weren't quite good enough on the day to beat a dedicated and drilled Raiders team.