Tommygilf

The context of that was as convenient as possible for Salford though...

I'd award the county cup for Yorkshire and Lancashire to the clubs that finish highest in the regular season from those areas.

Like I said in my later post mate, red rose good? White rose bad? If any part of the above rings true then that is the basis of it. Its weak yes, and I don't think its good enough to justify it. However that is it.

At Leigh and Toronto he did relatively well in the championship with relatively big budgets. His win rate at both was way over 75%. I'm not expecting that in Super League of course, but he can clearly put together a squad.

Hull live reporting a 6 figure p.a. contract and loads of cap space spend being offered to Rowley. For an RL coach I think it would be very hard to turn those sums down.

Do you like red rose or white rose? That is literally it

Well exactly. People do understand Lancashire, mainly through the cricket. Indeed Lancashire have even found themselves playing in Yorkshire (Sedburgh) as well as their usual outground in Merseyside (Southport). As I said earlier if there were strong independent Yorkshire and Lancashire RL organisations this would have more of a chance of success. There isn't that though

I totally agree, that 5 coaches in 4 years is it now stat must put people off though.

Saints if they are being cheap*, Bolton or even larger if they were being ambitious, probably Wigan as somewhere down the middle. *forgot the LSV... I doubt Warrington, Widnes or Salford would be considered.

I agree, Leeds could be an option in the next few weeks potentially, and I think he'd take that over Hull for a myriad of reasons. Its a spectre hanging over this move. Hull are still a relatively attractive project though, and how much further can he take Salford?

I totally agree regarding the recruitment strategy. It seems all over the place and the on field performances match that with no really recognisable style of play either. Power and authority at the club over these matters seems to be almost deliberately diffused and confused even. I worry about the "young player" strategy too. We have had I think just one or two consistently top level young player come through in a decade that has lasted - Handley and Oledski. Newman keeps either threatening to leave or showing his body is too frail, Gannon sadly is looking increasingly like another Stevie Ward with concussions, Holroyd is another who is injured more often than not, any other clubs making big plays for Cam Smith either? It seems every year we are talking about another "young crop" but they are either being relied on too much too soon (see Gannon and Simpson getting injured) or actually aren't that good at all (see every year for the past decade). I appreciate not everyone is going to make it, but I've been hearing the same things like "ooh this kid is good" for years as we are now about say Riley Lumb. I think seeing is believing frankly. Is there a problem with Leeds' coaching and recruitment in the academy and youth levels too? I think there has been a massive issue in progression to the first team, a legacy of having a pretty consistent team for a decade or so.

If we had strong Lancashire Rugby League and Yorkshire RL organisations, with pathways - and other regions with similar etc, it could work. Right now it would just be the RFL splitting itself and they already organise the existing events poorly.

I made the point in direct reference to Salford. And likewise, there's the entire rest of the criteria to safeguard against that. Wakefield balanced the books for a decade under Carter, their crowds were often poor, their finances minimal, their stadium falling to pieces - those things also would have been taken into account and hurt them.

All clubs in Super League have played either 7 or 8 league games now (plus cup) which is roughly a quarter of the season. How would you rate each team's start? A* to F?

I think you're more aligned with the OP than you think?

That's a pretty poor response mate. People are allowed to point out problems without having to necessarily fix them themselves.

For Salford it was a case of "to hell with the game, lets make sure the club doesn't go bust". I think they would do that under any system at any point in history.

Well I'm sure you won't be going on about minimum standards nonsense again!

Its an interesting point you make, certainly about Leeds beating another side to a player. However I would add this doesn't appear to match a lack of spending. Leeds in the recent spending budget estimates by Sky are up there with the biggest spenders. I think the main reason we don't spend as much as say Wigan is because we don't have as many of the likes of Kallum Watkins or ironically Ryan Hall (there are plenty others) to offset as home grown against the cap. Leeds have signed players for good money. Croft and Ackers most notably for this year, but Bentley etc before that. What I worry is a consistent trend amongst Leeds' recruitment strategy is that players either leave when they are good (Leeming was in the dream team for example in 2021 and gone 18 months later, or Matt Parcell going to Hull KR) or stay when they aren't because their face fits. Alongside this is a trend that has seen loads of players come to Leeds and get worse - Croft and Ackers have hardly been fantastic so far, the latter following a trend back to Tom Briscoe and Brett Ferres of England internationals signing for Leeds and seeming to go backwards. Is there a culture problem? I could write a much longer list looking at the issues in the "rugby department" at Leeds over the past decade or so, particularly squad management. I wonder whether Leeds have a reputation amongst players and agents too that isn't forthcoming to those on the outside.

I would hope so for the club! He certainly has the 2026 role confirmed by the sounds of it.

I think I remember I think DaveT surmising it well at the time that for a club like Salford, without a major investor to kick them onto the next level or another major off field change, they'll struggle to get lots more points in most areas. The financial areas you cite are a lot of them balancing the books rather than generating profit as I understand it - they were due to go bust at one point. The fandom score again is an example of where they are maxxed out.

I have, but that is the past. I can't believe that is your position now! Welcome to the IMG lover group mate!

I note in Cricket, which the BBC and sky cover a lot, they seem to provide broadcasters with ready made articles from their own reporting service. Do we do this? If nothing else it could free up the few remaining RL journos to focus on non-match report type content.

But surely the backroom position at Leeds is, primarily, to his benefit? Its not like he's a super coach/administrator and holds all the cards, he said himself that he is making the decision because of family reasons with life after rugby. If it was football and he didn't count towards the cap I could understand it more.

Archie merely commented on minimum standards and the levels of them in IMG grading. I didn't gather from any of your previous posts that such trivial matters compared to on the pitch performance to you? Seems an odd about-turn!