OMEGA

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52168692 SKY Will Claw Back £762 Million from The Premier League in respect of unplayed and therefore unbroadcast Matches. What, if anything, does that signify for sports like Rugby League, Rugby Union etc?

Jonathan Davis turned out alright

For Owen Farrell See Mark Sneed !! He’d be an average League player now, maybe at 15 he would have had more League potential but his instincts are all wrong now for League. Hes a world class Union player and should remain there!

Neil Puckering

Steve Dennison

John Feeley at the Bulls? Had amazing pace, footwork and good skills with the ball

Watching Adam Bolton interviewing Matt Hancock at the opening of London’s Nightingale Hospital. In the background there have been dozens of so called dignitaries and journalists, intelligent people, all walking around in close groups!

Paddy Kahn

I wasn’t saying they were the ONLY vulnerable teams but they are the MOST vulnerable. Employees are being ‘furloughed’ some are being ‘laid off’ making them eligible for 80% of their salary. This alleviates the the overheads As does the reduction in rent of a stadium, training facilities, education centres etc because they’re not using them. Do you honestly think Leeds are more vulnerable than Wakefield, or that Simon Moran who’s reportedly worth around £300Million will let Warrington go bust? Ken Davy £260Million, Ian Lenighan £120Million etc.. By comparison Mike Carter is worth around £2.5Million and (IMO) is only still there trying to get his initial £260k+ investment back out at some stage. He’s not able or willing to put money in to save the club and is on record saying if Trinity got relegated he’d walk away. My Hope is that everyone makes it through but some SL clubs are MORE vulnerable than others and I dread to think how the Championship and Championship One clubs are coping.

With regard to player transfers, I’m comparing a clubs need for cash with that of a potential insolvency event. A good example of this is Wakefield Trinity who sold a number of players to reduce outgoings and generate a pot of cash. I recognise that it’s a bit different in that no club has an income but those with very wealthy owners could well agree to a transfer because under normal circumstances they wouldn’t stand a chance of recruiting the player in question. Tom Johnstone at Wakefield is a good example, a number of clubs have offered large amounts of money for him but he’s not for sale, however Mike Carter has a record of selling to pay the bills so it’s possible he’d sell Johnstone under these circumstances. I understand that there’s a salary cap but I don’t think the RFL will prevent such a sale if it meant the selling club would go to the wall without the money raised. Clubs like Warrington, Huddersfield, Leeds, Wigan etc with owners who have a personal wealth in the hundreds of Millions may well view it as getting their yearly transfer/recruitment done. The money could be payable immediately while the player remains with his current club until the beginning of the next season. Its just a thought on how some more vulnerable clubs could survive. Lets not rule out sales to Rugby Union Clubs either, they wouldn’t be averse to signing a couple of high profile League players even as a good news story.

From what I know of clubs owners, financial strength etc I believe the clubs most at risk are Salford: Owned by a fans consortium and running on a very small budget, no big money backers unless Marwan takes pity on them and helps them out. Wakefield: No wealth in the boardroom & even less willingness to invest personal money into the club. They may well have low outgoings but I doubt they can sustain a lengthy lockdown. The one saviour might be a sale of players like Tom Johnstone, David Fifita to a bigger club (Leeds). Hull KR: Like Wakefield they have little money in the Boardroom, Hudgells business has taken a bit of a mauling over recent years. Not much in the way of player assets to cash in on. Castleford: Unless the Fulton Family want to loan the club more money they too could quickly find themselves on the brink. They do have a couple of players they could sell in Truman, McShane maybe McMeekin. I think these are the most vulnerable clubs in the Superleague.

How can we ask 34 players to go out on a field and spend 80 minutes undertaking close bodily contact & collisions with each other. Collisions where snot, saliva and blood get shared 40/50/60 times, just so we can watch a game of Rugby? Who’s going to sign off on that, Rimmer, Hetherington? I don’t think so!

Back in 1935 Australia probably needed new clubs to form the basis of what we now have. We’re not in 1935 anymore and there is no need to throw a fledgling club and players to the wolves. Their development is better served by coming through a structured pyramid system, learning lessons on and off the field as they go. Who would have blamed W Wales if their players and owners had said sod this and walked away. That would have been sad and wholly avoidable.

My point is that at the time of these beatings, the clubs on the receiving end might have been better served in a less elite level league. Who knows maybe their development would have been helped by being more competitive at a lower level. Im not suggesting for a second that these clubs should not have the backing of the governing body just better judgement in terms of which competition they play in.

If SKY reach a perilous state themselves then they’re going to go and every sport will suffer the same.