eal

The NRL is not stupid enough to actively cull a team, it drives people away from the game. If however one falls over on its own they may be hesitant to step in and save it. Manly are the most financially vulnerable but RL can't afford to not have a team between the harbour bridge and Newcastle. St. George have essentially lost their local support as almost everyone in the area is Asian, but they have the Illawarra region to themselves. Roosters have a smaller support base but are very wealthy and an historic club. There is no obvious choice for a culling.

I don't actually think the PSG experiment was doomed to failure. Would probably have more chance of succeeding today if the football club's Qatari owners happened to be interested in having a team in a trans-Atlantic rugby competition.

20/20, took me a couple of minutes to remember alternate names.

What will grow the game long term with fans and future players is having a competition with high quality players and high standards in addition to grass-roots efforts. Reducing an entire league into mediocrity for the sake of a national team which plays three games per year is pointless. The young local talent will flow through the game regardless of the number of Australian stars in SL so we may as well have something decent to watch.

Is the role of Super League to develop English talent? Seeing a bunch of reserve-graders running around the pitch in the name of player development does nothing to sell the sport. The international calibre players will always rise to the top regardless of how many overseas guys are playing. There simply aren't enough professional RL players in the world to completely flood SL and block English talent. The French Elite One is almost entirely French players and that has done nothing to improve their national team, they are just playing in mediocre isolation.

Ryan Hall is well past his prime. He looks like a journeyman winger. If he was a goalkicker perhaps he would find regular work as a reliable first-teamer.

Crowds are low because the team doesn't have many fans.

White people have to apologize forever it seems. Even though every culture has practiced slavery, war, and fought over land.

Which of course highlights the stupidity of this all. An all-white Australian team is somehow considered bizarre yet a team featuring players with tenuous heritage from various Indigenous tribes that didn't even consider themselves one people is viewed as a good thing. I guess it gives these guys a chance to moan about the anthem and go walkabout in the bush for a few weeks in the pre season.

If the game decides that more talent needs to be developed in South Yorkshire then so be it. It is hard for any team from outside the heartlands to build for the future with relegation hanging over their heads. Personally I would rather develop more talent in France than Sheffield but maybe that is just me?

It is harder for Catalans and Toulouse to have a long term plan for developing French talent with the threat of relegation hanging over their heads. A five-ten year plan with fewer foreign players could come to fruition but it would likely mean some last placed finishes for awhile.

The apartheid All Stars is a terrible concept. As there is no white team I am left with nobody to support.

This is all making the game look very bad. Blacklisting people due to religious beliefs is ludicrous. Folau is not inciting violence against anyone. Those who feel Folau's beliefs are wrong have nothing to fear from his comments because they aren't going to become true.

Israel Folau has not encouraged violence against homosexuals. He has said he believes they are condemned in the afterlife. If you disagree with his theology you will think that isn't going to happen so no big deal. It would be different if he was calling for the public execution of homosexuals.

Fox Soccer Plus or Fox Soccer Match Pass as it is now known is currently showing no evidence of broadcasting SL.