robinson2

Although dead against the new system (though not a league of 12), I would hope that rugby league fans on the mainland do not use it as a stick to beat the sport with and a ready-made excuse to boycott games. I would love a team in Belfast and/or the money to go to live games. We miss that culture here and neither union nor ice hockey grab my interest. Vive le treize!

Given how much is made of the importance of the salary cap in rugby league, it seems strange to me that we'll have a competition where half of the teams are on one salary cap and half are on a much lower cap unless there's some mid-season transfer window where the top four from the Championship are allowed to bolster their squads. The best restructuring we could do would be to get John Quayle in charge. There is a man who knows what he's doing. Not a hope in hell of it happening of course with his history.

Football is often cited as an example of promotion and relegation. Notwithstanding the considerable structural differences in the two sports, is there currently provision in rugby league for teams, who are relegated, to receive parachute payments as a way of cushioning the fall?

We can't say it wasn't coming but putting my own views to one side, I hope the announcement is accompanied by transparency and detailed rationale from the RFL and the clubs in the days to come.

As far as I can see, Brian Barwick is not there to run the game nor to restructure the competition. He is there as a well-known administrator with a foot in the door at the big TV networks etc and to get the game noticed where it would otherwise be ignored. I'm not saying that this Rome should be built in a day but do we know what, if any, progress he has made on that score?

I think it was established four teams were broadly in favour of it with Huddersfield evidently the keenest proponent. What I'd like to know is when this was first put forward in relation to the other ideas, why X clubs agreed with it, why the others were against, whether those who were against it were never going to agree to it no matter how much their arms were twisted and at what point was it decided not to pursue it further. Surely a job for a good investigative journalist à la Caroline Wilson in AFL. If this info is already in the public domain, I apologise in advance for my ignorance!

I think what the above posts show is that those who have the power to decide the restructuring have been far too quick to dismiss Ken Davy's proposal out of hand.

As far as I can see, we're going round in circles here trying to make the existing pot of money stretch as far as possible. Without growing that pot of money, notions of 20 full time sides are fanciful.

If we're to believe those in the know, Toulouse were sold a place in the top tier without any mention of widespread restucturing.

Terry O'Connor spoke very well on licensing and I found myself nodding in agreement with a lot of what he had to say. Good to see the show mixing it up by not having Stevo on every week.

Whatever your views on licensing, if it has been abandoned in part because the clubs had absolutely no confidence in the ability of the RFL to run it (and perhaps the RFL also felt they were incapable of administering the system as it should have been so to cover their own incompetence were pushing the 3x8 system) then that's a damning indictment on how the sport is run. Most people on the board would agree that the administration of the game in general is not befitting of the on-field product. Whatever the number of teams or the structure or the salary cap, rugby league must avoid the Olly Croft syndrome of putting narrow self-interest and the amateur/semi-pro game before professional sport, which can grow the game as a whole.

And the change from one divisions to two also needs to be seen in the context of the other changes made at the time such as central contracts and an acknowledgement that the England cricket team's interests must override the 18 first class counties. English cricket wanted to improve the standard of first class cricket at the top end of the County Championship in order to get closer to Australia's six Sheffield Shield teams. South Africa also revamped their domestic structure not too long ago to introduce FRANCHISES (as opposed to licenses) and it has contributed to their improvement as a side in my view.

When the NSWRL expanded into Canberra, they ensured that the Raiders would have a winning team. The presence of Mal Meninga helped of course. Newtown just had to go. Admittedly, they were found to be in breach of the salary cap but as far as I'm aware, it didn't lead to them being stripped of their dual Premierships. Maybe someone else can shed light on it but the basic point still stands. England is not Australia but as a fan from outside the heartlands with no self-interest in whatever structure is adopted, I always thought it was wise to follow best practice. On a final point, surely someone goes to watch rugby league because they're a fan of a) their chosen club and the sport in general - surely (finances permitting) it shouldn't be support so fickle as to depend on an opinion formed on the structure of the competition? Easy for me to say but I wish we had professional sport (Ulster rugby aside) where I lived!

Honestly if you think you have it bad on the mainland, come here and you'll soon stop moaning Secondly, I get the impression that none of our leaders are that interested in sport unlike their equivalents Down Under though I'm sure those posters on here who live / have lived in Australia or New Zealand could give us some insight. There is an all-parliamentary committee on rugby league and if my memory serves me right, they were rather focal on the subject of shamateurism in the 90s.

Have you thought about doing a couple of book signings/evenings tied in with a big game i.e. Challenge Cup final / Grand Final / World Cup? This kind of thing works well for Joe Saward (F1) and Guillem Balague (Spanish football). Edit: I see it's temporarily sold out on Amazon - a good sign!