Hull Kingston Bronco

Yes that’s true, I agree, and what was Hull FCs alternative hypothesis? That being said, I still think it’s reasonable to question 1) his decision-making in taking it on in the first place, and 2) the tactical sense of vocally talking down the club’s position and the sport’s forward potential if his objective is to persuade someone to take it off his hands? But I’ll readily admit as a Rovers fan I enjoy pulling their tails on the subject

After Derek's announcement at the weekend maybe Pearson could move Hull FC over to Mr Beaumont's new Ultimate-Sooper-Dooper League competition in South Africa? Might give the 'big club' a decent chance of their first league title in 40 years

We're not talking about the result of a knock-out match. It's about 4th place in a league of 27 rounds. If you get to go back 20 minutes before the end of match 27 and say "the world would have been different from here if something else had happened", then it's equally valid to go back to any other moment in the prior months. There were 20 mins to go, who knows what might have happened? Just like if something had happened differently in a game 2 weeks earlier, who knows what would have happened in the (longer) time left in the season after that point. It's like that Sliding Doors movie eh, the future is uncertain after a fork in the road. It's just as likely Wigan would have still won. In fact, going on form, it is still much more likely Wigan would have won than Leigh. None of which matters. Refs calls are part of the game. I've no issue with fans losing their marbles, we all do. My original point was I wouldn't want to support a club where the owner implies he's going to walk away and leave it in the lurch, just because something went the wrong way for him. He's disrespecting you too mate.

We don't know anything of the sort. There were 20 minutes to go, who knows what would have happened if that Leigh try would have counted. The only thing we do know if is that the remaining time wouldn't have played out in the same way, as the dynamic would clearly have been different. Regardless though, the whole idea that Leigh finished 5th because of one refereeing decision, right or wrong, is just ridiculous. What about the other 26 rounds. To finish 4th all Leigh needed to do is win one more game, or even just score two more tries even winning the same number of games. You can control or influence those things, Derek and Lam should focus on that instead. Refs calls land where they land, people make mistakes and some rule interpretations are sometimes too firm. But that's true for all teams, and during 27 rounds Leigh will have been the beneficiaries as often as experiencing the downside.

One other thought on Beaumont's childish diatribe: Did he think that the referee ridiculously awarding the Hardaker try in the Challenge Cup Semi Final was similarly damaging to the game's investment attractiveness, and if so will he be voluntarily handing back the Challenge Cup Trophy this week? I'm all for a Hull KR versus St Helens rerunning of the final. Let's make the arrangements. I mean, for Derek it's all about maintaining the integrity of the competitions right? It's not just him having a strop when Leigh lose or anything infantile like that.

I understand his frustration, I wouldn't want to spend £1m a year on a rugby club either. But then I didn't do something daft like buy one. Hull FC have more opportunity to be successful than most clubs given the size of their supporter base and talent catchment area, but even with that platform it's going to cost what it costs. Pearson has always struck me as a bloke with buyer's remorse. I think to be prepared to sink that much money in over the long-term you have to 1) be able to financially live with it and not expect it to change much, and 2) have an emotional connection to the club and the community it sprang from. I'm not confident Peason has either of those, let alone both.

Yes although to be fair Australia compensates for that for playing at a higher level of intensity week-in, week-out. Not only State of Origin which is basically international level, but in the club comp where the gap between top and bottom is much tighter than it is here. Guess those sort of things are more in our control, in terms of how we improve our own domestic comp? Have to say though that this season in Super League has probably been the best yet for that, certainly across the top 9 clubs. I know at Hull KR we have beaten all the clubs above us for example, not a match-up you could give me where I'd say "no, we can't win here" and I think there's plenty more teams who could say similar things. Not sure that's been as true in previous years, so does feel like progress.

“If I can get the club through the next six months, we will have a very bright future.” Oh dear. "If" never sounds great in that sentence eh. https://www.totalrl.com/hull-fc-owner-adam-pearson-paints-bleak-picture-of-super-league-clubs-finances-with-significant-government-loan-to-be-repaid/

Brilliant, what a great journalism benchmark. "Somebody said something in a public forum, so I no longer have a role in holding them accountable, and will make a few excuses for them instead". This is a story Martin, a story!

"...will appear to some people to be excessive"...? He's a grown, professional man with a successful business and responsibilities, and accountable for his words. He's implying the sport is corrupt, not just incompetent. Stop making excuses for him and start doing your job as a journalist and try holding him to account.

Yes that wouldn't surprise me, it's a good point. I've been vocal on here about how I like what Beaumont and Leigh have done this season, so my view is balanced. But he's accountable for his words and that speech he made was contemptible for a man in his position, so it's right we call him out on it. He needs to grow up. It's also disrespectful to the Leigh fans to rub their noses in the fact that the club is his plaything, and he could take his ball home when he wants. That might well be true, but saying things like that in an open fans forum disrespects them as much as it does the sport.

They've cancelled more than one series with pretty weak reasons, so there's only so much we can do. Reality is though in the last decade we've been in a position to win every match. Even before then, we were competitive. I remember attending all 3 Ashes Tests in 2003, the series goes down as a whitewash and yet in every match we only lost by one score and the game was in the balance with 20 seconds on the clock. Let's face it, Australia could put up 3 different sides which would probably beat England. Their strength in depth is beyond compare. But you're only allowed 13 players on the pitch at once and our best 13 have demonstrated over a long period of time that they can go toe-to-toe with them. That's not the same as winning, but it's certainly competitive.

To be fair England have been pretty competitive against Australia for a long time now. Australia have always won, but almost every single game has been a tight contest.

Aye, agreed. When all Australia ever had as international football was playing England and New Zealand, and winning, the attraction of that wears off. If Australia are in a comp with teams other than England, and the games are competitive, it means that when England matches finally do come around then people will be more interested in them. It's a virtuous circle I reckon. The Aussies know the commercial value of their country playing the old dart, that's not rocket science eh, but if it's all the international game is then it's less valuable.

The ARLC is the NRL, it doesn't exist without it, it would never do anything the NRL disagreed with. It was merely a construct to get the NRL away from News Limited. But that's done now, so to all intents and purposes they're synonymous. "He who pays the piper..." and all that.

Beaumont's toddler outbursts are regular as clockwork, you can mark the end of the season by them. We're used to him doing things like putting the club he loves so much into administration and reneging on player payments because he's angry they got relegated, or didn't get promoted, or whatever, but now even in a season where they've won the Challenge Cup and made the play-offs he's still threatening to leave his club in the lurch. What a bloke... thank God I'm not a Leigh fan relying on him. https://www.patreon.com/posts/89905663?pr=true&fbclid=IwAR2Ifa_WYvBhqLb7JhgdQLzATBUHGTc2omQqiPYixt6RMZ5SziKCbkaxjhE He's apparently also going to set up a league in competition with Super League, with some mysterious South African investors

Phil Gould is a blow-hard at times, anything that works was his idea, anything that fails was down to someone else or "events", but he's right on that point: Only the NRL has the resources to develop the international game, and if they choose to do that with their resources (rather than just focus it on their own club sides' short-term interest) then the international game would have a far better chance of growing. That's also in the NRLs own long-term self-interest to, as international game offers growth potential and is their key USP versus their local competition (the AFL) for TV rights money. But the short-term question will always be, "do we spend $30m/year investing in non-Australian nations, or do we give each club (and their players) and extra £2m per season?". That isn't always an argument that head office can easily win in a debate with the clubs.

FWIW I too hope Wire beat Saints, as I’d rather not play Wigan in their current form (especially with them remembering the Challenge Cup semi), and also fancy a few days in the South of France ahead of our victory against Catalans so I can eke out what remains of the weather!

Self-deprecating humour from a lifetime of well-earned hard skin rather than hubris, believe me. If you can't be irreverent when you've had a good season, when can you be?

Nah I don’t want to smash Wigan without French anyway, it won’t be as satisfying

Yes it was in the first part of the 2nd half I think, didn't know which Rovers player it was but saw the Wakey players make the claim to the ref

I'm not saying the RFL leadership are competent, outside of the Oxley and Lewis eras they've been anything but, however we need to be honest about the challenge being different: It's a lot easier for V'Landy's to take an already-dominant sport and start to attract its proper value (having been undersold for years) than it is to take a challenger sport in a country with established market-leading competitors and grow it from that low base.

I'm surprised to see 5 players from Leigh in there. This isn't the "done better than expected" team, it's supposed to be the 'dream team'. Leigh have had a great team by their own benchmark, but Wigan, Catalans and Saints have been demonstrably better so you'd expect a bigger bias towards them outside the odd exception. Shows you how much sentiment and the prevailing narrative influences things, not that this is anything new I guess.

In the NRL the top, "franchise" coaches get paid as much as the highest-paid players. Bennett was allegedly hired on $1.4m at Dolphins, Trent Robinson's supposedly on $1m at the Roosters. But up-and-coming coaches are more like $400k, so less than half what the top player at the particular club would earn. I'd imagine it's probably about the same sort of ratio to player wage here, obviously at a lower level.

If a player holding the ball, falling forwards towards the try line, isn’t “in the act of scoring” then I don’t know what is. The fact the high shot took place before his body crossed the line is irrelevant. Anyway, it’s done now. I wish you all well and hope Wakefield take the opportunity next season presents to do whatever they need to do to get ship shape for a more sustainable future. With hindsight it was a helpful wake-up call for Rovers, in many ways a critical moment for us. Your new stand looks great, and under new ownership hopefully this will also become a turning point for you as well. There’s little joy in regularly finishing mid-table, or avoiding relegation, some forward momentum albeit starting in the lower league sounds like more fun to me.