JM2010

Would you pick Knowles over Radley?

I quite like that although I'm not sure if I'd leave Newman out (if fit)

I mean starting 13

Wane obviously has a team to pick but I think there's two positions which are the most difficult as it's a straight shootout between 2 players who are extremely difficult to leave out. Welsby or Tomkins? Radley or Knowles? All 4 are international class players

Could Knowles play 2nd row with Radley at 13?

I'd pick Welsby at FB and Watkins in 2nd row on current form. Not sure about 7 though

I'm going to guess Hull

We should be complaining. There's a home WC being played soon and now several international warm up games with more probably still be announced. Also, the warm games are easily accessible for a lot of us and might give some of us the opportunity to watch one of the nations we weren't going to watch live during the WC.

Think it would work. Plenty of beaches around the country would make good venues. Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Lincolnshire, Wales, Brighton, Bournemouth Devon, Cornwall, Weston Super Mare. The more opportunities for people to play and associate with RL the better

Just average crowds for individual clubs and SL average. Including loop fixtures

Does anyone have the average crowds so far this season and how do they compare to previous seasons?

I think I'd rather have Burgess on the wing instead of Marshall. He seems to be having a good season

That's good to hear. How active are the Skolars in the community? Do they get into schools etc? Would like to see Skolars and Broncos working together to help develop RL in London. Would also like SL and the RFL use some money specifically for development but I don't think clubs would allow any TV money to be diverted from them for this kind of thing

I've actually thought the same thing. There should be a joined up approach from all the clubs and the RFL to expand the community game. Firstly, each club should target their own catchment area and support junior clubs and help set up new ones. Areas on the boundaries such as Liverpool, Cheshire, Manchester, Lancashire, South Yorkshire should also be targeted with clubs working together to help develop the junior game in these areas. Outside of that places such as Newcastle, West Midlands, London and Wales could be targeted using the pro clubs in these areas supported by the RFL and SL clubs. Wishful thinking from me unfortunately

I completely agree. St Helens could push into Liverpool, Salford into Manchester, the West Yorkshire clubs could push into South Yorkshire. I'd love to see that approach to development. Warrington are already in the system though and do have a fair few clubs in their catchment area. Any new clubs, whether they be Edinburgh or somewhere else just increase the amount of clubs competing for the same players

I used Calderdale and Kirklees as we're talking about a big city in Edinburgh. I was trying to make a point that the heartlands clubs are surrounded by juniors which gives them a big advantage over expansion clubs and probably means they don't have as much work to do to attract kids to the sport. I'd love to see places like Edinburgh, Bristol, Nottingham etc in the league structure but without creating new player markets they'll just have to rely on the same players that all the heartland clubs use which just spreads the talent thinner. If they don't sign heartlands players then they just get hammered every week like WWR

For the record I'd like to see a lot of people take up this investment opportunity but I'd hope it would be spent on infrastructure and development rather than paying wages to bring players up from the North of England

I disagree. Warrington, Wigan, St Helens, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Hull, Bradford, Oldham would all have 10 or close to 10 junior clubs. Plus, the advantage the clubs outside of SL in the heartlands have is that they're surrounded by clubs either in their boundaries or in adjoining towns and cities to get players from. Unfortunately Edinburgh and the whole Scottish league doesn't seem to have many juniors at all

Then what is the benefit of them becoming a professional club? At least if they remain amateur they focus on developing Scottish players and the community. As soon as the enter League 1 they would have to replace all their Scottish players with ex pat northerners if they want to be competitive with any money being spent in wages

I agree but how many other than Newcastle are actually doing anything other than paying for players from the heartlands to play for them without adding any community clubs to their area? If it's not done right then all that happens is Scottish RL lose a community club in Edinburgh and all their money gets spent on players from northern England

Would like to see an Edinburgh team in the pro system. There needs to be at least 10 junior clubs in and around the Edinburgh area before that happens though otherwise they've got no foundations underneath

I think the NRL are missing a trick by not adding another NZ team. I think another NRL club on the North Island would go a long way to helping RL bypass RU as the dominant code.

Well if there's no chance of any of that happening then what's the point in adding any pro clubs from outside the heartlands to the structure?

I think all clubs outside SL that have a city or region to themselves should run an academy backed up with development in the community. So Midlands, WWR, Cornwall, Skolars/ Broncos, Sheffield/ Doncaster, Newcastle, Crusaders, Bradford and York. All of the others should at least have a tier 3 academy and a pathway to the 1st team.

Is there a domestic competition lined up for this season? Would be good if they could build a strong domestic game to compliment the many heritage players in Oz