foozler
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Posts posted by foozler
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Apologies if this has already been dealt with previously, but I do have a life!
What is going to happen with regards to competition sponsorship once we get to the 3*8 part of the season. I presume Top 8 will be FU Playoff Series, and bottom 8 will be Kingstone Press Playoff Series, but what about the middle tier?
Don't suppose for a minute it will be the FUKingstonePressSuperleagueChampionshipRelegation/PromotionPlayoffSeries so any ideas anyone?
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Plans to relegate two teams from Super League this season are "rubbish", says Bradford Bulls coach Francis Cummins http://bbc.in/1ehiYZE
I think he's saying it is rubbish because because they haven't got the cash to splash on decent players and there is a pretty good chance that Bradford could be one of the teams to go down?
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RFL PRESS RELEASE
Super League to feature 12 teams from 2015
Super League will become a 12-team competition from 2015 after the 14 member clubs today backed plans to introduce an innovative new league structure.
From next year, Rugby League’s elite competition will feature 12 clubs alongside a 12-team Championship that splits into three groups of eight.
At a meeting in St Helens, the clubs voted unanimously to return promotion and relegation and pledged their support to the proposed structure which is a central tenet of the RFL’s Policy Review.
Super League (Europe) Chairman Brian Barwick said: “I would like to thank the clubs for their contribution to what was a very fruitful and positive meeting.
“The clubs were unanimous in their view that Super League should become a 12-team competition from 2015 and that there should be meaningful movement between Super League and the Championships.
“There was a full and frank debate about the competition structures and a commitment to support the proposed format.
“The Super League clubs’ decision will now go before the RFL’s independent Board of Directors for ratification next week.”
Full details of the new structures will be announced later this month.
Love the comments beneath the page on the Superleague website - it's an utter shambles I tell you!!
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They were unanimous on the reduction to 12.
There seems to be a lot of politicking going on here.
I'd be willing to bet the RFL have handed over a lot of commercial power to the now-fixed Big 8 clubs in return for getting their little structural plaything.
Which might turn out to be the best thing in the medium term.
The RFL look to the wider interest of the sport, but let the commercially successful people running the top clubs get on with getting more money into the sport. I know it might be fantasy thinking, but if those people (Lenegan/ Koucash etc) can shake up the top of the ladder and get more people putting money into RL, whether through bums on seats or sponsors in the lounge, then hopefully the wider sport can benefit. All we need now are some good sponsoship announcements.
And let the rugby commence.
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I hear 4 clubs have walked out of todays meeting with the RFL - trying to find out details of who the clubs are and why
Bit of mind reading going on there!
Am guessing Leeds won't be one of the four?
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Anyone walked out of the meeting yet?
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32 tries in 127 union appearances.
Seems light but that might not be bad in union, I dunno.
That's not such a bad haul to be fair.
I think it was last season (12/13) that the top AP try scorer had 11 tries to his name!
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Must be doing a good job at raising awareness for ticket sales as the eticketing site has been giving me a runtime error since mid morning so can't get in to buy more tickets!
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I am managing a £13m marketing budget this year. This budget is not attributed to specific activity. There is always £1-200k available for initiatives minimum. We are not talking about £10-15m per year sponsorship deals.
As we are based in Edinburgh and RL has zero presence here, it would be nigh on impossible for me to get something like this signed off even if I wanted to fund RLWC sponsorship.
I can well understand the difficulties of persuading senior management to sponsor a sport which has zero profile in your country.
But surely there has to be some lateral thinking here. For example, Yorkshire Bank is ultimately owned by National Australia Bank Group (so financial services organisations in two parts of the world where RL matters). Now I don't know whether the latter has any involvement with RL in Australia but has someone at the RFL asked a colleague at the ARL whether it is worth contacting NABG?
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Well living in Norwich I would
Actually there are quite a few casual rugby league fans in Norwich and East Anglia, aparently a team in Kings Lynn started up not long ago made up soley from armchair league fans ( none had any previous playing experience). I even saw a bloke in Lidl wearing a Hull Fc shirt at the weekend!Given that we have wheelchair RL, could it be that this armchair RL variant is the answer to the sports participation numbers issue?
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RESEARCH carried out by media and marketing consultancy Repucom has suggested that Rugby League can generate a larger share of the wider sponsorship market by drawing attention to the profile of its followers.
And, with 76 of the world’s top 100 brands currently investing in sports sponsorship, the payoff for the game could be significant, particularly in a World Cup year.
So far the RFL has been unable to attract any major sponsors for the tournament, largely because of a delay in confirming overseas broadcasting rights.
Can I ask why it is the RFL's responsibility to secure tournament sponsorship? Should this not be a collective effort between the RFL, ARL and RLIF?
After all, it is the World Cup, could we not have a headline sponsor from the southern hemisphere? Be great value for them when the Aussies hold the cup aloft on a wet Old Trafford night in November?
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We have employed all sorts of people from outside of the game yet our fortunes don't change massively.
People can talk all they want about customer profiles etc. but there is more to sport sponsorship than this. Prestige is a hard to measure thing.
Our Commercial Manager previously worked with Man City IIRC and was involved in major deals with the likes of Etihad - why isn't he just finding it easy to go out and get sponsors in?
IMG are selling the rights to the WC - again, whay aren't the broadcasters flocking to them?
People need to understand that Rugby League officials are often fighting an uphill battle. Journo's, fans and club officials don't help in the slightest.
I have commented on this issue before.
As Canetman rightly says, you have to work with the financial framework that large corporations decide their principal marketing spend well ahead of when it actually comes into effect. Which means forward planning say 2 years ahead of when the deal needs to take effect and I am not convinced the RFL have worked to that kind of schedule in the past. I do have some sympathy for the commercial manager, his contacts from Man City would probably not bring in much since RL is a very different beast to soccer, and I would expect trying to get competition sponsorship is more difficult than getting sponsorship for a club.
Furthermore, when the RFU employee in charge of sponsorship says it is a tough market, and that for an organisation with the clout of the RFU, then you know things are tough.
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I understand there might have been an issue with his off field activities, well his barber shop and his big use of Twitter, which maybe didn't sit well with the Saints heirarchy.
However Saints were frankly stupid to let him go. Foster on the wing and Meli at centre was a pretty good left edge combination for Saints in 2011, and I'll never forget the ball round the back try Foster scored that year at Leeds.
Foster may not be the biggest/ fastest winger in the sport, but he can score tries and kicks goals with his eyes shut. Got to be a big bonus for a team when you know 8 times out of 10 that 4 points will become 6.
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They were also the original colours of Widnes rugby.
Saints should go for all-white next year. Will go well with their new nickname, 'The Jimmys.'
Given that we're at Widnes in 2011, maybe we should just have the heritage shirt as our home shirt then?
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Just wondering if that very smart effort of choclolate brown and sky blue horizontal striped shirt, that a few fans were wearing, is a new kit or just a leisure shirt?
If not can we have it as an away kit next year please Mr Hood?
It's the heritage shirt, done for the last year of matches at Knowsley Road - choc brown and sky blue were the original colours of St Helens rugby.
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It's a key point that if you want to attract the best RU talent you have to compete with clubs operating to a cap over twice the size of that in RL, augmented by a bigger slice of SKY money and backed by more money men than RL have.
It's a non-starter to scrap the cap to get at established RU talent who may flop badly in RL - clearly.
So I have to applaud your clever line about getting the same talent at junior (youth) level.
Now that really IS investing in players, and long may the franchises, licences and the cap help things go that way big time.
As I have said many of the kids new at secondary school here walked out on the "rugby" session at school when they found out it was union. Those who stayed did not understand the rules and the regimented way in which everything had to be done.
They thought they'd be chucking the ball about, charging at each other and jumping on each other!!
The strength of RL is the game itself and chasing players to double their wages for nothing is crazy.
Exposing kids to our great game, especially those in non traditional areas is the key to the long term health of the sport. Hopefully the Sport England money will go a long way towards this with development officers getting the sport up and running in schools. I don't actually see too many "top" RU players that could make the switch anyway.
I think one of the biggest challenges we face is actually selling the north of England itself. It is highly unlikely that top level pro RL will ever have an even geographic spread in England and will remain a predominantly Northern sport, just as pro RU is predominantly a Southern sport (and becoming even more so). Get people to understand that actually up North is a great place to live and that you can have a quality lifestyle for significantly less than elsewhere and it becomes easier. People overlook the fact that top RU stars can earn
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It's a key point that if you want to attract the best RU talent you have to compete with clubs operating to a cap over twice the size of that in RL, augmented by a bigger slice of SKY money and backed by more money men than RL have.
It's a non-starter to scrap the cap to get at established RU talent who may flop badly in RL - clearly.
So I have to applaud your clever line about getting the same talent at junior (youth) level.
Now that really IS investing in players, and long may the franchises, licences and the cap help things go that way big time.
As I have said many of the kids new at secondary school here walked out on the "rugby" session at school when they found out it was union. Those who stayed did not understand the rules and the regimented way in which everything had to be done.
They thought they'd be chucking the ball about, charging at each other and jumping on each other!!
The strength of RL is the game itself and chasing players to double their wages for nothing is crazy.
Exposing kids to our great game, especially those in non traditional areas is the key to the long term health of the sport. Hopefully the Sport England money will go a long way towards this with development officers getting the sport up and running in schools. I don't actually see too many "top" RU players that could make the switch anyway.
I think one of the biggest challenges we face is actually selling the north of England itself. It is highly unlikely that top level pro RL will ever have an even geographic spread in England and will remain a predominantly Northern sport, just as pro RU is predominantly a Southern sport (and becoming even more so). Get people to understand that actually up North is a great place to live and that you can have a quality lifestyle for significantly less than elsewhere and it becomes easier. People overlook the fact that top RU stars can earn
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We always catch a bus from Portland Street or Piccadilly to Old Trafford.There are three or more services go past Old Trafford.It's incredible how empty the buses are.
After the match we always walk to the Crescent and New Oxford pubs in Salford.
Both ways it is better than being crushed on the tram.
Thanks for that, I had been looking at the bus as an alternative, am more likely to take it now.
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The last three years there has been the train from Piccadilly station direct to the ground (station at the back of the South Stand). Times should appear some time this week. Its a much better option than cramming onto the tram.
Any idea what service there is from the Man United train station into Manchester after the game? The tram was a proper squeeze afterwards last year, not particularly comfortable and not something I think I want to subject my 70 yr old man too. Well for sure he wouldn't thank me.
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GDMM, The NRL is restricted by its own salary cap. If we did not have a cap and they did then we could sign players that we would not normally sign. Union 'has a cap' (To be honest I am not sure if it a genuine cap and just a token gesture) BUT the KEY is we could raise our own salaries which makes us more competitive in the labour market. At the present time young RL players are walking away. If we had no cap then they and some Union players would be willing to move to SL / British RL.
No cap also open the door to genuine investors from the U.K or Overseas to invest their money in the game. At the present time no incredibly rich person will invest in a sport that prevent you using that wealth.
These are short term solutions BTW
The real solution would have been to address the player supply issue. You should never cap salaries in anything when demand for Labour far outstrips supply. Addressing the supply issue should have been the RFL first priority before introducing a cap. Personally I would abolish the cap but have a home grown player requirement.
My understanding is the English RU premiership does have a cap, the current figure is
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Couldn't believe it, just watching the replay of the Saints v Wire game ( 37 mins) and the scousers are singing the Rugby Union anthem Swing low, sweet chariots!!
Can anyone explain why the Saints 'fans' would sing this Union tune?
Not the first time the "pop" side has sung this; it's a little bit of irony when Saints kick for goal at a penalty. First time I heard it was the 08 playoff semi when Saints beat Leeds and Longy kept kicking for goal whenever there was a penalty. Althought the loudest cheer that night came from the pop side when Leeds, who had been pretty hopeless, eventually managed to score a try; a very funny moment although of course the Rhinos had the last laugh.
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I thought Jonathan Davies's comment about Ryan Bailey during the Cup Final was brilliant; he effectively said what a waste of space Bailey is.
If I was a Leeds fan I think I'd sooner have Bailey's old man in the pack.
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In the USA their must be many 1000s of atheletes who miss out on the NFL who could play RL.
RU has been trying to tap into these college footballers for years and having spent a lot of money on it, it doesn't really work as the skills sets for rugby of either code are very different to American Footballers.
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Their version of the Wigan Walk, the Leeds Leg-it.
Also called the Rhinos' Run-off.
I've also witnessed the Bradford ######-off, and (many) years ago the Saints Stroll.
It's a mile off topic, but I felt for the Leeds players, going to salute their fans at the end, to find they were already on the M1....
Or the Rhinos Retreat?
Pacifique XIII - A huge boost for French RL?
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
In that case there will be some cracking tunes on the stereo in the changing room.