RayCee
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Posts posted by RayCee
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A mixed bag.
SL getting all matches covered by media is a positive.
Attendance at matches is excellent.
12 sides in SL playing a long season with loop fixtures is repetitive.
Lack of funding below SL and uncertainty over League 1 is poverty level stuff.
Competitive NH international RL has reached an all time low.
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On 14/10/2023 at 03:49, unapologetic pedant said:
I hadn't heard about a regional set-up. Do you have any details on its structure?
I've updated the article with a summary of the women's regional league setup at the end of the article.
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17 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:
Minor terminological quibble - You say in relation to the Group 2 play-off, "The winner would go to League 1 and the other sides would drop into a regional set-up".
I hadn't heard about a regional set-up. Do you have any details on its structure? How will it affect Leigh, Salford, Bradford, Castleford?
I'm in bed about to put the light out and read your comment. So I'll revisit what I wrote in the morning. The term League 1 was I'm sure meant to read Group 1 so I've corrected that.
As for the structural change, I read somewhere that Group 1 will continue with two extra teams but Group 2 is to be dissolved and the lower sides will go into a regional setup. I don’t know more than that, hence I didn’t say anymore than that. If I can find out more, I'll let you know but all I can do is scan the 'net for more detail. I think it’s mentioned in the Wiki article about the women's 2023 season.
Off for some shut eye.
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6 minutes ago, Eddie said:
I gather RL in Australia used to be like that (looked down on as a working class sport) but they’ve smashed their way out of it. Blaming our woes on that is lame imho, as they’ve shown what can be done.
Comparing the UK game with that in Australia is unbelievable on so many levels.
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On 06/10/2023 at 15:11, Pulga said:
I think "working class" in Australia and the North of England are two very different things.
Spot on.
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On 05/10/2023 at 21:03, Eddie said:
The working class argument is a bit dated I think, the NRL have shown what you can do with a working class sport and while easier said than done, that should be the aspiration.
RL is so big in NSW and Queensland that it cannot be ignored. Comparing it with UK RL is pointless.
RU in the UK attracts much wealthier sponsors that RL does so tell me again about the working class angle in the UK being dated?
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32 minutes ago, Havenwarrior said:
Have both clubs ticked the boxes to be play in SL? Is there still a criteria to pass?
HW
I would think Toulouse ticks more boxes but surely whoever wins the final goes up.
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6 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:
With Wakefield going down and no Yorkshire club going up, two Yorkshire clubs promoted to the Championship replacing Keighley going down - I make that 9 Yorkshire clubs out of 14 in the championship next year.
At least it will save on travel for the Yorkshire based clubs. Hopefully, better away support too.
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I covered the women's season here.
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The idea of amalgamation isn’t likely. More French clubs joining the game in the UK sounds better.
Except the game is based in the north of England and SE France, maximising distance. In addition they are both played in less financially prosperous areas of their respective countries. Finally RL is working class so doesn’t attract very wealthy investors. Otherwise it has potential.
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1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
VAR was a farce for that ‘offside’ goal in todays Spurs-Liverpool game.
The PGMOL have released a statement admitting they got it wrong.
There seems to have been a few serious ones like this under Howard Webb’s watch across other games involving different clubs.
Should he take accountability for a failing body and resign?
As a fan of the sport I do feel like issuing statements and banishing mignons for applying a strategy of ‘quicker’ decisions is not enough now.
I accept a level of bias in this view.
Refs are an easy target but I do believe the standard of officiating in RL is high despite the inevitable occasional mistake.
What seems to have happened in this game Football game is o another level. Is it bias or incompetence? Social media is hot with even many non-Liverpool fans aghast at what is going on with refs & VAR. Admitting wrong on a given mistake is one thing but the system repeatedly failing is quite another. Apologies become tiresome when nothing is done about the problem. I personally have lost all faith in the EPL and for now at least feel no desire to follow it.
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Why do all these wealthy types from around the world spend up large on Football clubs when they could have just as much fun with a RL club at a bargain basement price? Perhaps it's time RL stopped hiding its light under a bushel.
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I'd like to see teams like Toulouse and Carcassonne twin with NRL clubs to get access to young players on the up and an old head or two for experience. The player pool isn't that healthy in the NH and they need to be successful pretty quickly as lingering in lower divisions is expensive for clubs not earning much.
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I haven't read every comment on this but I can't see how teams struggling to win in League 1 are going to fare against Championship quality sides.
I think the three division system allows clubs to play others that are more at their level. I would have thought a 12 team Championship and 11 team League 1 would be a better bet. The problem with that is teams have just played a season either succeeded in gaining promotion or avoiding relegation only to have the rug pulled from under their feet and this is problematic. This sort of thing needs longer term planning (I know, it's RL we're talking about here) but it would be the best option IMHO, whether next season or one beyond.
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On 27/09/2023 at 01:18, Josef K said:
A mate at work who loves numbers & stats has worked out the average club attendance this season after the 13 home games. He worked out the attendances that have been printed in the press including the 14,000 at Saints on Friday. Leeds are the best supported club once again. But ten club have seen a rise in attendances
1. Leeds 13,804 + 8642. Wigan 13,497 +1,219
3. Saints 12.782 + 931
4. Hull 12,345 + 1,582
5. Wire 10,889 + 2,170
6. Catalans 9,062 + 994
7. HKR 8,710 + 922
8. Leigh 7,253 -
9. Cas 7,170 - 372
10. Salford 5,293 + 764
11. Huddersfield 5,257 + 113
12 Wakefield 4,299 - 314.
If these are correct (they may not be!!!!) it’s good to see attendances improving. It would be great if the clubs could build on them for 2024. If Fev come up would they average more than Trin, i haven’t a clue ?.Interesting stats. I put together a list that is close to those figures.
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The importance of being important:
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I feel for Wakey fans. It's tough going down but it has been coming for a while now. A shame it came with an upgraded stadium.
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52 minutes ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:
Rovers have now sold out their second allocation of tickets for Wakefield a week on Friday. I've no idea why we didn't just get all the tickets we could in the first place, after the amount we took to Huddersfield (and what a noise..!) I really wouldn't be surprised if there's more Rovers fans at Wakey next week than home fans.
It's our 2nd closest away game (still over an hour...), so expect a big following. What's Trinity's best attendance of the season so far?
What's Hull KR's best attendance so far?
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While RL fans debate the number of teams at a WC based on avoiding one sided games and player eligibility, I assume the main, if not the only reason for reducing the number was for something else altogether. That would be money. Six fewer men's teams alone would be a huge cost saving and I again assume the media deals will be much the same even with fewer matches.
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1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:
I'm more optimistic about getting new fans in.....I know plenty if people down here who are converts as adults
Of course some can and I'm sure Huddersfield have had some success in that area. However, there is a somewhat successful Football club there which makes it that much harder.
Also it’s one thing to know some people and quite another to have enough converts to have them coming to a stadium regularly in large numbers. It’s not helped by having a stadium larger than current requirements.
The fans they do have are enthusiastic at least.
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Talking of Huddersfield's attendance, after a good post-war period up until 1961-62 season, on field success fell away dramatically. For some years after that, they were rarely even in the top flight of RL and eventually for many years on the trot not at all. In 1998, they started making a comeback but a whole generation of RL fans would have been lost by then. For a lower profile code like RL, it will eventually fall below the radar unless a team can regain success reasonably quickly. Existing fans will in due course become Football supporters and a new generation of potential fans won't even consider following RL. They are then all but impossible to win back once that happens.
As a comparative example, Leeds also has a Football club to compete with but post-war they have always been reasonably successful without any prolonged downturn. That has given RL fans there a successful club to support and keep on doing so. I'm not saying that's the whole story but I do believe that to avoid being overrun by the juggernaut that is Football, a club cannot afford a prolonged period of obscurity from top flight RL and then expect the fans to come flocking back when, after some decades, they emerge from hibernation.
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14 minutes ago, sam4731 said:
Any attendance figures yet?
Leigh will release them soon enough.
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On 09/08/2023 at 20:05, The Hallucinating Goose said:
This is quite long but please stick with it, it means a lot to me.
Yesterday I decided to go for a 15 or so mile walk to a village near me because my 5x great grandfather is buried at the village church and I had never visited before. From a neighbouring village approximately a mile away there is a 3 hourly bus service which could take me back to almost the start of my walk so I didn't have to walk back. I planned my walk to perfection, knowing how fast I walk and how long I would spend in the churchyard, so I could return to this village and catch the bus to ensure I didn't have to walk 15 miles back as well.
The first thing to go wrong was that the path between the two villages had been completely flooded and there was no way through. I had got to within half a mile of my destination but had to retrace my steps and take a much longer and more hazardous route down a B-Road which added a couple of miles onto the walk and thus meant I could only spend a couple of minutes in the churchyard instead of the half hour or so I planned.
I left the churchyard at pace, knowing I would probably miss my bus due to how long it had taken me to walk to alternate route so I decided to do something I've never done in my life. I decided to hitchhike. I stuck out my thumb and the first car to see me stopped. The lovely woman took me to the village with the bus without hesitation. I had thus arrived at the village half an hour early.
The second thing to go wrong; when I walked to the bus stop I was greeted with a notice pinned up saying that all buses had been cancelled for 3 months due to some road works further through the village. A shuttle bus had been provided as an alternative. So I waited for the shuttle but it did not arrive, even after waiting for 20 minutes after the supposed time it was scheduled for. I asked locals about it and they said it wasn't running either. At this point I was thinking I had 15 miles to walk...
I decided to walk to a different destination than my original one because this alternative place was about 10 miles away and offered a choice of buses and trains. I set off walking, demoralised, dehydrated, sunburnt and quickly running out of water in my bag.
I walked about 2 miles and came across a bench in the middle of nowhere. I sat down with relief and began to go over the next 8 miles in my head in horror at the thought of having to walk it. Suddenly an elderly lady came around the corner. She was very friendly and told me she had never ever seen anyone sat on the bench before despite walking past it every single day on her daily exercise routine.
This is the greatest thing someone has ever done for me. Her name was Linda and after I explained my situation she immediately rang her husband, Stuart, and told him and with that he jumped in his car and drove to the bench. He brought me a new bottle of water and offered to drive me to the town I was dreading walking to!
These people are saints and I had never known anyone do anything so helpful and caring for a complete stranger. My faith in humanity was restored yesterday.
Nice.
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As long as her realises he may have to come out of retirement to boost the forward pack.
Sun 22 Oct: International: England v Tonga (at Totally Wicked Stadium, St Helens) KO 2.30pm
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
He was just crying wolf.