David Shepherd
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Posts posted by David Shepherd
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1 hour ago, Dave T said:
Even with the criteria they had, it could work, and criteria can always be developed over time. The real challenge was the way they hamstrung themselves with a commitment that they would definitely promote a club - that completely undermined the process - how can you make that commitment if nobody meets the standards?
For me, that was the single decision on licensing that undermined the whole thing.
Not applying the criteria to incumbents was what really undermined it, that and the fact that most of the games shown on TV were pretty pointless.
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2 hours ago, whatmichaelsays said:
In fairness, that's true. The old licencing system measured the wrong things and encouraged the wrong behaviours (eg, mass discounting of tickets to hit an "average attendance" KPI).
People argue "we tried licencing and it didn't work", ignoring that just because the one version of licencing we had didn't work, it doesn't mean that any version of licencing can't work.
If you can guarantee the criteria would be transparent and applied equally to incumbents and candidates, how will you address the final 1/3 of the season being a procession of dead rubbers for the majority of clubs?
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As someone else has said. Academies should be taken off the clubs and be centrally run on a regional basis by the RFL.
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46 minutes ago, Big Picture said:
How do you know that? Has someone slipped you information about what size audience Comcast's accountants have told them Sky needs in order to generate the y million £ needed to make Comcast's investment in Sky profitable enough to justify that level of investment, or what demographic that required audience needs to be in order to generate that level of return?
If you don't have that information, you don't know how much value the game is for Sky. The fact that they gave the game two years to prove its value and at less money shows that they didn't think they were getting good value before.
Cricket, soccer and RU are hardly their only other options, Comcast-owned NBC has TV rights for plenty of North American sports which they could put on instead and those would cost them nothing considering that NBC already has those rights.
NBC might have those rights, but that doesn't mean they can screen them in The UK.
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7 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
You are just being diplomatic, havn't you been saying in the last few weeks how well Fev are going, you won't lose this game. I expect to see you at the LSV on the 2nd Oct,
I'd have been more confident if it was 'fax. Batley are past masters at ruining our party.
We're definitely better than the team that ran out at the bash, but I'll not be confident until/unless we're 2 scores clear with 30 seconds left on the clock. I'm still scarred by the 2013 semi at POR.
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6 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
Not being one for tempting fate David and you know how pessimistic I have been, my coin has flipped over and I am extremely confident of a victory on Sunday, I watched the game on Sunday- which was wonderful entertainment - but I did not see anything that has caused me any concern, even with them having a spy in the camp in Ata Hingano giving all our secrets away.
*Bookmarked for potential Mickey taking on Sunday night
You're right to be confident of course, 999 times out of 1000 I'd put my mortgage on Leigh to win. It's as close to a forgone conclusion as it's possible to get.
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8 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
That won't make any difference to the outcome David.
Don't be doing an Oxy Harry. We don't want to be sending the samaritans out to check on you come Sunday night.
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52 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
I see Mr Beaumont is already inviting people as his guest on social media to attend the final at the LSV, make of that what you will!
That's York's team talk sorted then
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Sounds like a belter. Wish I hadn’t been forced out for beers by an older boy.
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Watched on C4. I don’t mind Sky, but do find C4’s presentation far superior.
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34 minutes ago, Dave T said:
I hate it when people call for shorter seasons. There aren't too many fans of sports who ask for less of their sport.
We have 30 rounds of SL, and an additional 4 Challenge Cup rounds. 34 weeks (if we scrapped double weekends) and if we had maybe another 4 or 5 for internationals, then we have coverage for around 38 weeks of the year. Not being a thing for 14 weeks is quite a long time, and we need to be careful that we don't become invisible - our coverage isn't exactly great as it is.
That said, I have some sympathy with some of Jughead's point about clubs throwing games - the LLS battle ended up a bit of a farce tbh and it's times like that when you realise that as a game we often get what we deserve in terms of partners and broadcast deals when clubs treat the comp with contempt.
I don't think the solution is cutting the season, but I'm not sure just carrying on as we are is the answer either.
Make the league leaders champions, have meaningful prize money for the champions.
then have a separate top 4 premiership competition (sound familiar?) but make it all about the players - £1m to share among the 17 winning players.
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3 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:
Dont think they knew the French gov would mandate vaccines costing them their two key players on the eve of the season and continuing restrictions would make their first home game (arguably crucial for bringing new fans in) a damp squib.
Must have been massively disruptive on the eve of the season to lose half their spine like that. They never stood a chance really.
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11 minutes ago, Dave T said:
Who isn't trying in SL?
And whilst the easy answer here is Wire, I don't think that's strictly right
Well it means that Powell can carry on destroying your club without worrying about relegation. It also allows the unflushable turds at Wakey yet another reprieve. Cas could well be bottom feeders too, although I see that as a positive
That said, a 14 team league will be far better for neutrals like me. There's only so many times you can enthused about watching Leeds v Wigan or Hull v Hull FC etc.
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2 hours ago, Eddie said:
Ok Ralph.
I’m gonna go with everyone’s favourite forum poster, Sir Kevin Sinfield.
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16 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:
Morgan Smithies?
An even bigger sh1thouse than either of the "rectum of Wigan" brothers.
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5 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:
You can have him back............please.
I think he's a fabulous addition to the Leigh backline. You should employ his former coach too.
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6 minutes ago, Eddie said:
The inaction, the game has gone backwards under his watch. Nothing against the bloke, I just don’t think he’s up to a job like this one. He rarely answers a direct question either, which I find frustrating to listen to.
Doesn't come across as CEO material. Middle manager at (very) best. As you say, the game has gone backward under his "leadership".
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45 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
So are you saying that by putting the cue on the rack Fev dropped their intensity?
Well 80% in favour of a Fev victory, that's pretty confident then.
That was my impression. Other viewpoints are also available.
I wasn't that confident until Sunday.
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1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:
This is where we have the advantage over each other, we both saw last weeks encounters that the other didn't, Batley for all the effort they put in were well and truly mullered at the LSV, but as I said after the game last week, Leigh have not been tested for a while now so they keep up to their own level of intensity, they are still running and hitting as hard at the end as they are doing at the beginning of the game, they just don't turn off when the game is won this is why I say the Batley lads in my opinion will not be relishing a trip back just 2 weeks after the last encounter.
Funnily enough in last weeks report's of your game, the Fax fans were saying the exact same about Fev as you are accusing them of, that the longer the game went on the Fev player's especially the 'more expierenced' forwards were noticeably tiring.
On a scale of 1 to 10 how confident are you when meeting Fax next week? - sorry to any York fans reading this but I can't see you beating Fax on Sunday.
Fax are a decent team, but there was only one set of players sat exhausted on the pitch after the game. I never got the sense that we were. I actually thought we'd foolishly put the cue on the rack a bit in the 2nd half.
That said, 'fax are always up for it at POR, but our own midden I'd be 8/10 confident of victory. But they've got to get past York yet, I known they're a bit hit and miss this season but on paper, they look a pretty similar side in terms of quality.
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30 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
Sheffield will have to much for Dewsbury.
Barrow and Fax through to the semi's, Batley player's will not want to return next week to the LSV after last week, And as a Leigh fan I would prefer Barrow they may offer a harder game.
Fax comfortably, could they even rest a couple or 3 in preperation for next weeks visit to POR?
I think you write Batley off at your peril Harry. Of all the teams I could pick to cause an upset, they'd be top of the list. Having seen 'fax last week, I'm not convinced they'll walk away with it either, their players were absolutely out of it after the game.
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18 hours ago, binosh said:
Just watched the highlights of Fax V Fev and the tries looked OK to me, only dubious one was Leilua which would probably be ruled out for obstruction by Hardcastle if it was a televised game.
Equally, you could argue that one of the dummy runners in the build up to 'fax's first try takes JSL out.
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31 minutes ago, Davo5 said:
Coming from Leigh you’ll have more experience of convictions.
I haven’t said Fev will upset Leigh,I stated I found it puzzling that the Fev fans seem to have given up all hope in a one off sporting event with a coach who has pulled off similar results in the past.
We all said we'd definitely lose the '83 cup final
IMG President Podcast
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Worcester on the brink too.