JonM

(Just speculating) - perhaps some ability to upsell live tv to betting website operators. Presumably people like to watch the things they're betting on. There is definitely a market for sports data rights for gambling - low tens of millions of dollars per year for the Premier League, so probably not a huge amount for the NRL.

With the short, narrow pitch, we should send Bradford Bulls The video of the pitch being rolled into place is seriously impressive.

I've never known Widnes not to have an attendance figure available, it is generally announced at the match. We've only had one competitive home game so far this season, in the Challenge Cup against Doncaster, and a crowd figure was published for that. Batley had figures for every game last season on their website.

Yes, I posted it on the attendance thread earlier in the week. I think a lot of it is that some people on here place more importance on it than maybe the clubs do, or at least the people doing media/ comms for the clubs. Taking Swinton as an example, they always give a figure when the website gets updated, but that might not be until Tuesday/Wednesday. Other clubs often give the figure on social media but not in their match report. Batley are one of the clubs called out above, but considering their website hasn't been updated in several weeks, it's probably more that no-one has time to do things like this than any attempt to hide the figure. AFAICT, it's only Hull KR who are deliberately not publishing a figure.

And crucially, the combine is starting now and is filling the NFL related tv channels this weekend. It's a good way to highlight that NRL players are strong, fast, agile etc. I suspect that NRL players are more likely to run 40 yards than most NFL players are...

724 was the figure given.

I *think* it's originally because there were several different scouting organisations with their own trials in different parts of the country, and they were combined to form one week-long event in Indianapolis. And the Indianapolis Colts themselves think it's not a good predictor of player performance and don't take part...

746 Swinton/ Oldham

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/27/nrl-las-vegas-season-launch-2024-allegiant-stadium Guardian piece about history of attempts to promote RL in the US.

724 for Halifax/ Hammersmith 1477 for Keighley/ Fev Some clubs (Swinton for example) give figures when they update their website later in the week.

Not sure if we have had these already Salford Cas 4770 Huddersfield Saints 6812

Been hearing that the Hammersmith Hills Hoists players, officials and fans were delighted with their big day out and the hospitality and way they were looked after by Halifax.

Even the top academy teams typically only have at most a handful of players per year go on into the professional game. Quite a few of their recent academy players seem to be playing university RL now.

Featherstone R vs Wakefield should be a good one.

Got a source for that? I thought there was a snobby perception that Sky Sports was "council estate TV"?

That section up Swaledale to/ from Keld is one of the best bits in terms of scenery I reckon. Around here has been a complete quagmire, although it's dried out a lot in the last week or so, but the pennine way route has had quite a lot of flags put down on the boggiest bits and is fairly runnable even in the worst of weather.

Mitch Souter looked pretty handy - haven't seen him play before.

This has been a massive improvement on previous weeks - we've not looked anywhere near this standard in the last few matches.

I'd rather have 2 league points for the relegation battle, tbh, but this has been a very good second half so far.

More skulduggery from Flanagan to win a penalty on Widnes first tackle.

Nasty piece of work, Flanagan.

Any idea why Lloyd Roby got 10 minutes - assume he said something?

How is your training going? I ran along the Pennine Way from Hardraw to Thwaite and back this morning - absolutely stunning in the sunshine. Just a touch of snow at the top of Great Shunner Fell.

Bradford dominating territory & possession, but not offering much in terms of creativity to make an actual break. Widnes defending very well near the line, but a bit lucky to get some points on rare forays into the other half. Our defence of the high ball on the last tackle looks pretty sketchy - not sure that standing back and simply allowing Bradford to regather is the best tactic.

Nice words from Ivan Cleary.