iffleyox

And Camborne.

Tbh, as a former supporter of one such club, it never felt like we were part of a 'family'* - except maybe in the sense of an episode of a soap where a son no one knew anything about turns up on the doorstep and inconveniences everyone. As an aside, even with all the speculation about the Challenge Cup, for now this thread strikes me as pretty poor taste. Imagine being a nascent Cornwall supporter and reading what's effectively a sweepstake on how long the club's got. *having said that, the 20 or so away fans we used to get at matches were always supportive, although the supporter of a nameless club who held court in the pub over the road from the ground, in our first season, about what an awful journey he'd had down on the M6 and why it was a joke that 'these f-ing new teams exist, and they are teams, they're not clubs, they've got no history'.... well let's just say I've got his rant still in my head over a decade on.

See my edit - I was clearly subconsciously trying to keep the thread on-topic and think ing of Wests Tigers…. Bizarre

Hartlepools Utd until 1968 - literally a union of the (multiple) Hartlepools... The West Hartlepool RFC of today are a continuation (at about level 7, of the old level 1 side, which was itself a phoenix from the original West becoming Hartlepools Utd in 1908...* *a friend of my dad's was a big West fan, so I have watched them in the late 80s. At this point I will open my weak lemon drink, to quote Fist of Fun...

Great find - and relieved to see from a quick scan of the 56 mentions of Hartlepool that it doesn't disagree with what I wrote!

Bolton Wanderers were founder members of the football league, FA cup finalists in 1894, and consistently a top club in the 1890s and 1900s. Bolton was lost to association football very early on, and such middle classes as there were wanted to play RU. The mass audience had voted with its feet. Basically, you needed a really specific set of circumstances to form an RL side, because the default was either to be playing RU, or not to be playing rugby in the first place a town with maybe more than one RU club, but someone was paying players to put them on the rugby/sporting map (it was always as much about the committees as the players however much the injustice of the refusal to pay broken time has become a resounding 'thing' since 1895) local rivalries with teams who were also changing over to league a critical mass of players who were prepared to leave the RFU You really needed any two of those three, and ideally all three, otherwise it was easier to stay with the RFU.

It’s not that’s there’s ‘nothing to learn’ - it’s more that from sporting to retail the Australian landscape doesn’t quite translate easily and the corporate road has high profile examples of Australian firms thinking they know it all and trying to flatpack what works in Australia into other countries. it would require humility on the part of the NRL to come with ‘this is what we bring, what are we (NRL) going to have to do differently? And are we, NRL, prepared to look like idiots/big fish in small ponds who are now out of our depth if we get it wrong?’

As Bunnings discovered when they bought Homebase for AUS$1bn and then had to sell it for a pound.

Agree with this, although as said Hartlepool’s probably the exception here that proves the rule. It just held out against the NE football culture for a couple of decades longer.

I think Hartlepool probably didn’t need to - they had their own fierce knit RU rivalry between West Hartlepool and Hartlepool Rovers - the gates/‘programme sales’ of which arguably held back Hartlepools Utd from election to the football league until the 1920s (ish?). In sporting terms Hartlepool looked a lot more like Gloucester, an RU dominant town. Some may recall West Hartlepool being the North East’s leading RU side in the 1980s, but Rovers were historically the dominant force in the Durham area, providing at least one RFU president and being the ground that the All Blacks became the NZ nickname at. Essentially Hartlepool had a combination of being very establishment, fierce local rivalries, and probably just far enough away from what’s now the M62 to mean they would really have to have wanted to break away to do so. Worth noting that most of the other sporadic breakaways outside the heartlands were because of local circumstance - eg Coventry had a massive falling out with the RFU over illegal payments and set up an NU side but really it withered because it was such an outpost that there was no surrounding RL ecosystem to sustain it. Ditto Plymouth.

Myles Lawford announced by Trin (to the surprise of few on here)

Absolutely bizarre intervention that was - I come on on the train, walk from the station, go to a pub or two… there have been many problems with Trin’s ground but not being central (ish) for the city was never one of them

Agree, I’m certainly not advocating Greece! But for the Gulf States England v Lebanon struggles to clear any of the ‘what’s in it for the host’ hurdles unless someone’s going to pay through the nose… IMO anyway

Also, Lebanon is at best geopolitically complicated - genuine question I’ve got is how much other countries round that way even see Lebanon as a country that they want to help out. England probably wouldn’t be going to Beirut, I could potentially see it being held in Greece I suppose.

I’m sure there is - various countries are all-in on hosting massive sporting and corporate jamborees for the prestige, regional one-upmanship and reputational er, polishing… With the best will in the world wanting to host the RL World Cup and wanting to host a couple of random England - Lebanon ‘tests’ aren’t quite apples and apples…

Tbh I can just about buy the line that it's a back-up in case too many people are locked down in contracts to other clubs at this point to be sure of giving the squad the depth they would like. Especially given the timing of the takeover - there's at least another plausible argument contingent on that that the first real squad of the new regime would be the 2025 one, as 2024 is clearly going to be a lash-up, not entirely assembled with a free hand. I wouldn't do it, but there is logical sense in how it has ben explained IMO.* *again, I wouldn't do it

Post of the week certainly, of the month maybe, of the year potentially. There's so much wrong with this game it's almost beyond analysis (or satire) but the RFL have definitely got their hearts in the right place. Brains and wallets not so much, but definitely their hearts. I'm not about to bash the NRL too much either, but their problem is they've got enough cash to not really need to worry about doing anything they don't want to do, and right until the Pacific series this year, that has usually meant them cutting across the strategy (such as it is) of everyone else. Even the successful tournament this year is basically on their terms and for their purposes.

You and me both

I do know what you mean, but I'd argue you can't just write off areas. Maybe a great crowd of people coming from immediately around the ground is a big ask but at the same time - and Leicestershire have done some great work here with cricket (and yes I know cricket isn't rugby league) - I don't think any club can ignore its own doorstep. Welcome everybody, and if people aren't coming, find out why - and what, if anything, is a barrier. I'm a southern public schoolboy with an Oxford degree - there are people who think I shouldn't be anywhere near RL (to be fair on both sides of the code 'fence'), I'm passionate that any postcode in England might have RL fans in it, they just don't know it yet... I chose RL, I wasn't remotely born to it.

Grade A next year is certainly a big statement of intent

If this is more than talk then things are really looking up for Trin. What RL in England really needs is about 10 more of him if he does what he says, but very good news for Wakefield.

Interesting to see how seriously Wakey are taking this - they're referring to IMG grading all over the place in their (increasingly large volume of) press releases and social media updates. This morning's was talking about their plans for the two redeveloped stands next season, but also mentioned getting on with the planning for the West Stand. I know new owners like to make lots of promises, and Wakey (and the rest of the sport with reference to Trin) have heard it all before, but the new regime really is hitting the ground running.

Agree, and I know that but bluntly how many of the Brentford fans or management care about England RL, and the former are still celebrating 'no rugby'? As I said, obviously now my head has decided it is unlikely it will inevitably happen, but of all the open doors the RFL could push at, it just seems like at the moment Brentford would be the one with a security chain on. Milton Keynes, on the other hand... 30500, quicker to get to from central London than Brentford by rail....

Obviously Brentford will, now I've said that, be announced as a venue for next year...