paulwalker71

The guy is in his 40th year. You have to wonder whether somebody should be suggesting retirement for the sake of his long-term health?

I'd like to see some numbers on this point. I'm not sure it's true. I think there are plenty who don't want to have or cannot afford an expensive Sky package but might want to stream specific games. They need to get cute with this - with a mix of a season pass, "Any 6 games|", Weekend Pass and One-off games. These days you have to give people lots of flexibility.

I think, with the possible exception of Liam Tindall, what we were sent from Leeds last season was more trouble than it was worth. Our best temporary player last season, by far, was Fenton Rogers, on loan from Huddersfield. There might well be loan players at the Bulls, but I see no need for DR when we have our own Academy.

I wondered how long it would be before the Bulls were mentioned Kudos for letting it drag onto page three

This is why these threads keep getting locked.

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It's all water under the bridge now, but I never bought the narrative that the Bulls wouldn't exist without the RFL buying the Odsal lease. Yes, the club were in financial difficulties. So are lots of clubs at various times. We should have made the necessary changes and adapted accordingly - remember, the crowds at the time were routinely 12-13K. We might have had to cut costs or sell players. That's part of the ups and downs in sport. We were told that "predators were circling" around Odsal. Well, if they were, they've had plenty of opportunities to show their hand since, but nobody has. They could even step forward now and buy the lease - but I doubt they will. It might sound conspiratorial, but I've always believed there is more at play with the RFL inserting their grubby fingers into the Bulls. Remember that the guy who now owns our club - and rarely says a word in public - was the RFL chief at the time of the lease issue. Will it all now play out? Who knows... And so what if someone would have bought Odsal for some other purpose? It happens all the time in sports. People find other ways to share grounds with football or RU or find a way to build something new, even if much more modest. Anything better than the slow, lingering, inexorable decline over the past 10 years that has sucked the life out the club.

This. What people like dboy - and I'm not singling him out, because I've heard it numerous times in the past decade -- is that every true Bulls fan rues the day that the RFL stuck their beak into the club. It was categorically the WORST thing that ever happened to the Bulls. Everything that happened since - disastrous owners being forced on the club, allowing Odsal to rot, points deduction forcing the club into League 1 etc etc - stems from that decision. And I don't know one Bulls fan who thinks we "deserve" to be in the Super League (well, perhaps Mick Gledhill, but we'll ignore him)

Pffft! When the original lease story broke in 2013, I started a thread on RL Fans that ran for well over 200 pages! And it was still basically ignorant speculation, for the most part.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that premise. Still, the question NOW is whether the Bulls supporters - who were completely unaware of what went on back in 2013 - should be punished forevermore because of the sins of those who owned the club back THEN. I realise there are plenty on this forum who would enjoy seeing the Bulls wallow in misery from now to the end of time.

Not only that, but it should have been "you're"

I don't know if you have info or are just guessing, but I **hope** (with zero confidence) that the RFL will get ahead of this and have urgent talks with all the clubs to ascertain viability. We're going to get nowhere just sitting back and waiting for more clubs to hit the buffers...

I don't disagree something needs doing, but then most Bulls fans have been saying that for as long as I can recall - and I'm 64 years old! That said, it's a bit rich having a Wakefield fan call out substandard grounds. Granted, there's some work going on at the moment - about 20 years later than promised, but the rest of the ground is definitely not worthy of a top-level professional sport.

I don't know about agoraphobia, but I think Mick Gledhill mentioned the pitch was 12 metres wider than Odsal and is in fact, the largest pitch in the Championship. That has to be a factor and something that needs addressing if the Bulls are ever going to be serious about moving forward.

22-8 to Toulouse at half time

Hmmmm….

That's an astonishing result! Looks like it could be 2018 all over again...

I didn't watch the game due to a prior commitment. But I did just want to say that Leigh has, without a shadow of a doubt, been the Team of the Year. They've played entertaining rugby whenever I've seen them on Sky, with some genius marketing from Derek Beaumont (who I have changed my opinion about) and there's still the opportunity for them to go on a run to the GF I'm rooting for the Leopards in the Play offs. Also delighted for the likes of Harry and the other Leigh people on here who have taken some stick over the past few years from other forum posters.

Halifax need to focus on making the Top Six first As for the game, we'll either battle to a heroic win or put on our usual TV performance as lose by about 30

They’re a bunch of clowns. I looked on the WRU website (yeah… I know) The Norwegian RU team are currently ranked at 102, just below the world powerhouse nations of Eswatini and Burundi. it hardly seems like an organisation that needs to be picking fights…

I'll throw this in... Any connection between this news and the availability of Darryl Powell?

Delighted for the Leigh contingent on here Fully deserved and great to have a different name in the Final. Hopefully, HKR will make it a final of underdogs, which will be refreshing after the usual Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Wire for the past few years.

This looks like great news for Oldham. I'm old enough to remember when Oldham was a real hotbed for RL and had a team to be reckoned with as well. Hopefully, they can get promoted this year, move (back) to their new stadium and make a real push from 2024 onwards.

It comes down to the money, doesn’t it? There is no historical or demographic reason why Leigh should be able to support a SL team whilst Oldham languish in League 1 The only real difference is that Leigh do have someone who (in the words of a prior poster) “has more money than sense”

Flanangan Jr is a risk for Huddersfield. He made his debut against London and scored a try, but he had a mare against Barrow the following week and was promptly dropped. He played once more before the end of the season - and that's the sum total of his Championship experience. I'm not saying he won't develop into a world beater - but it's a gamble on someone who did quite well in our Academy. We'll know better if he plays more games for us this season, which he won't unless Jack Walker gets injured (which, to be fair, isn't exactly unlikely)