iffleyox

I hesitated before posting this, but I'll start by saying I mean this as no slur on Rob Burrow in the slightest. I think in general (and before everyone pulls out the what abouts I don't agree with those either*) things named after people are best named after those people a good few years after they've died. Those blue plaques on houses can only go up 20 years after death, or past the named person's hundredth birthday for a variety of what seem to me to be good reasons. Otherwise you end up shamefacedly pulling statues down (Jimmy Saville comes to mind) or having to rename things again. Again, that is absolutely not casting aspersions in the direction of the subject of this thread, I just think it should be a blanket practice. *the worst, usually in football, are those who pay for a stadium and name it after themselves. 50 years ago they'd have at least had the class to name it after their mum or dad or something.

see profile picture

yes, essentially the first question in branding is 'does it work in/as a circle?' these days not a fan, but you only have to see the amount of use in thumbnails all over the internet to see why it's important to fit in with what's become the default standard.

I agree it's a big issue. On the other hand, nothing is more defensive and 'we'll hold what we've got and that'll do' than moving days so no one's forced to choose. Unfortunately the pro game, in setting itself up to stay afloat, also makes it as difficult as possible for anyone not from the heartlands who discovers it to watch it live. So the circle goes round again, and every year more of the existing fans peel off to do something else or die.

I did say I can think of the reasons why not to do it! On the other hand, what if the already struggling professional game dies off because it isn't played in the peak times when people can watch it? I would actually be really interested to see the venn diagrams of the average fan watching pro rugby league and either watching or playing amateur (now, not they played in the past). Not because I'm trying to prove a point, but because I'd genuinely like to know what the reality is.

I would have a read if I were you. Argentina was (though both sides have an interest in playing it down) well within the British sphere of influence - Britain built all the railways, controlled most of the large companies, set up the sports clubs. There's a man down my street who was of the last generation of British children to grow up (in the 40s and 50s) in what was a large financial/agricultural/technical British expat community there. It's the reason they've got a Hurlingham Club, and play polo and football. Similar in Brazil (to a lesser extent) but absolutely Argentina. Histories of the British Empire usually have a chapter on 'Britain's empire in South America' Argentina, and you could probably start a massive fight by saying this but it's true, was about one down from being a British Protectorate. It only didn't need to be a Protectorate because it had it's own functioning government and it suited everybody to keep it informal.

Totally get that - maybe they could swap and the amateurs play Sunday for the locals and the pros play Saturday so more people from around the country can go and watch? I can see all sorts of reasons why that won't work (or would be resisted) obviously, but if you were trying to have a joined up sport you wouldn't start from amateurs in the prime slot and pros playing on the margins....

Oh well in which case Super League fans won’t mind if their teams are replaced with big city franchises - Wigan, Saints etc will still exist, they will just operate in a different structure…

As I suggested, Thursday nights are a function of the Sky money. I would however suggest that more coffers would be swelled if more matches were played on more Saturdays. Not all of them.

Ah - fair enough, no signatures on phones!

Was actually replying to Bearman but you got in ahead of me - anyway the advice stands, hopefully you won’t need it but some club somewhere will make you welcome if you do. It helped that the first few matches we /I wore Oxford polo shirts etc because it’s a good ice breaker when people know you’re not from round there and ask you what on Earth you’re doing in a backstreet Wakefield pub* *although that might just have been Wakefield…

seriously, if you can bear it (no pun intended) just pick another team. It sounds mental, and I had no intention of doing it. I told the story a long time ago on here somewhere but my first Super League match was just as Oxford were folding and me and some friends stuck a pin in a map and went to Wakefield v Wigan. The welcome we got in the pubs around the ground, and on the terraces, was so good that even as my club collapsed and the taste in my mouth grew bitterer, I knew where I was going when the dust settled. Which is how a southern public schoolboy with no connections that I know of to Yorkshire ended up as a Wakefield Trinity fan. I chose Trin, in the same way I chose rugby league. I certainly wasn't born to either of them.

Having been there and got that t-shirt (see profile picture) I was initially totally hacked off with the sport, but also scratched the itch by going to occasional SL matches every season. This takes planning, because every match is an overnight stay and the reluctance to play on Saturday afternoons can make it a mission for non heartlands fans to actually get there (especially on trains).* anyway, I'm still hacked off at the sport, don't have sky, and haven't been to a live match since 2018 (got married in 2019, and obviously last/this year have not been normal) but have settled into being mostly a Trin fan, and otherwise a sort of itinerant neutral around the grounds. *as an aside, the Sky money has kept the game alive, but Thursdays and Sundays along the M62 are no way to do outreach to the non-locals. I know Sunday has got historic reasons for a lot of clubs, but you can't tell me the same about Thursday nights...

Fallon Sherrock has cut through to people who've never even watched darts - don't underestimate the power of 'woman in a man's world' angled news coverage.

not really (without going cross code), it's been silly for over a decade now probably. Plenty of grants if you're at level 9 for clubhouses, etc, pretty good at level 2 until this season, everyone in between can shift for themselves. I wouldn't suggest anyone look at the RFU pyramid for lessons of what can be done to be honest - - level 3 on no central funding to speak of covers Plymouth up to Darlington for 16 clubs - as I said, RFU level 3 funding is a 'travel contribution' which AIUI doesn't come close to what has been proposed RFL L1's funding is cut *to*. Level 4 is split north south, which sounds better, until I had a quick look at the table just now and realised that while N2 South doesn't go north of Leicester, it's also true to say it doesn't go east of Canterbury, West of Redruth, or south of Guernsey... I think there's just more money, or at least more idiots prepared to spend their money, on a hell of a lot of travelling at low levels of the pyramid on that side of the fence.