Harry Stottle

And thoroughly deserved criticism.

Only the beeb could be bothered with televising the last tour, there coverage of the Challenge cup especially the early round red button broadcasts are very good, and I think the commentary yeams are much better Sky, than do you want to give those up.

Not so much a question other than a statement, I hope that I speak for all the Leigh fans in giving you a big warm welcome to our club, I have long been a fan of your undoubted skills and cannot wait to see you performing in the Cherry 'n White.

Does this improove Leigh's odds/chances of promotion? https://leighrl.co.uk/wp/blog/2019/12/05/leigh-centurions-seal-signing-of-jarrod-sammut/

I usually find those who comment most about attendances don't actually go to live games, I hear it in the pub from people who don't attend make comment about bad crowds, just wondering if you fall into that category. You can either answer the question or keep your own council, no badge of honour just a curiosity on my part.

Agree with that Tommy, but it still does not make a visit to Huddesfield any better.

No disrespect Meast but Huddersfield is the most dreary ground to visit, nothing wrong with the stadium it is great, it is the atmosphere inside the ground or the complete lack of it would be a better description for Giants games, I have attended test matches there and the place transforms completely.

How many games do you attend Scubby?

Thanks for the reply Click, Yes I do labour over the same points and ask the same questions, but there are never any positive answers, I am not faulting any team in that they have no academy but some concerted effort with even commencing on a grass roots policy would help, people do use the example of Melbourne quite often but never broach on the fact that it is a mere 400 miles from Canberra were the District Regional Rugby League comp has been in existance since 1910 and if so wished within Driving distance it happens to be only 120miles further than London to Newcastle and most probably shorter in driving time - given comparative road conditions -. Your last sentance, please define 'expansion' is it 1. Getting a new audience viewing the game, or 2. Increase the number of participants taking part in the sport? So in terms of what I believe to be your take on expansion (I have taken the liberty of answering for you) in that it is a way to eventually increase the player pool, how can it be done, what mechanics will be set in place to acheive the goal, and most importantly how long will it take considering we are at a crisis point right now with the game requiring action required immediately to reverse the downhill trend. As for the second part of your last paragraph, I will go half way with you, clubs do care when youngster's get to a certain age to be adopted under their system, but not enough I believe is done from them and more importantly the RFL below Academy age level, we have been on the downward slope ever since the RFL took the jurisdiction of the running of the amateur game from BARLA. I don't raise this stuff to be argumentative or troll as I have been accused of, I am genuinely worried that Rugby League (UK) is not very well at the moment and requires corrective action to reverse it, I am yet to be convinced that the North American experiment is the treatment required.

I am not talking Newcastle Mr Geek, I am directing it to those overseas hopefuls of joining our league, I would love them to be in a position to substantiate their position in terms of a staged development plan, I would love them to offer a constructive proposal, propsition, intension and objective in taking the sport forward but all we have had is the theory there are 1000's of ready made athlete's who are a perfect fit for RL, after the many auditions that took place in North America please point one out to me who the coaches thought they had something to work on! I have a fear of the impact it is going to have on our sport if this "expansion" project is carried on, I have asked the question many times on these pages how are these teams going to be populated and not once has any other answer other than there are a lot of player's in Australia to choose from. Well yes there must be HKR are prooving that in their recruitment policy but what is that doing for our game here? Go through our clubs and look at the teams and the reliance on overseas player's, is it any wonder our National team is so ###### and we don't stop there in the recruitment in that Great Britain also have had 3 Average Aussies performing, and I got first hand evidence from the stands not just from the TV producers perpective of showing the close up's of ball in hand and effective tackles, anyone with any knowledge of RL who can see and deduce what is going on without having Jon Wells explain it to them sitting there watching it unfold will realise just how bad we were. Sorry I have gone of on a tangent somewhat but I feel it is all interconnected, in that we don't produce enough player's, one of our top club's is just reliant on average Aussie's, our playing pool is so shallow, new clubs in territories that can only ever take out of the pool and not give back, and our National team with so few quality player's to choose from is evidence enough that we are at a crisis stage with the game in this country, it needs a good dose of attention and people in charge with the abillity and acumen to take the game forward not just the pocket liners who head our sport at the moment.

Simplistic? The simple fact is we in the UK are not producing player's in enough numbers to populate our teams without the reliance on surplus NRL, City and Country League, Kiwi and P.Islanders personnel. Would HKR have the need to invest in 'average' Aussies to lead the team if we could produce our own, in fact the Hull and District League was one of the best breeding grounds of RL talent in the country, how strong is it today? The evidence is at HKR! Please tell me what is difficult to understand if we have say another 3 teams in the British game who would be totally reliant on others to produce their playing rosters, that it would dilute an already undersubscibed ledger of player's we have for our teams here, and if at the expense of admitting these teams it impacts on the demise of clubs and in turn the area's that DO produce player's. Your thoughts please RLG.

What it means RLG, is that if new clubs are allowed into our competition that has no way of adding to the player pool it will be a further drain on the player resources we have, obviously there will be Antipodeans joining these clubs but the majority will be British lads, tge playing roster at Toronto for example. We employ 90 plus antipodeans to substansiate our lack of player development as it stands, the more new clubs who can't produce will mean a larger demand for what we have not got, the standard of the game will fall alarmingly from an already substandard position. Scubby, if you read this youe emoji laugh will come back to haunt you in years to come.

C'mon Dav you ought to know my respect for the Amateur game, you have read enough of my comments, most of my existance is having a relationship with the amatuer game in a whole range of various functions. I wrote it for a reaction, and pleasantly surprising those who have commented have 'stood up' for the amatuers, now all we need is a about 20,000 more to join us, to get along next season to support their local team, also if they can help out and assist in whatever capacity do so, but just attending is just fine, get the kids involved, and watch our game blossom.

Funnily enough the 5 identifiable quality players you mention are all surplus to requirement NRL players, being those not good enough or those past their sell by date for that comp. This is not a slur on HKR but I think it sums up where as a sport in the UK we are going, I think on the back of the performance in the recent test series it just puts into perspective just how low our game is becoming that one of our top 12 clubs has to take on this recruitment policy, we just cannot produce enough home grown quality players of our own, our resources are so small in player development that a club of HKR's stature struggles to entice High Profile British player's, and there are those who think it a good policy to dilute the player resources even further by adopting clubs in areas that will never add to the player pool. Anyway good luck with next season Away Day's.

No it really wouldn't, there are now more Pro/Semi Pro clubs than there has ever been, it used to be that a couple of Amatuer teams were invited to make the numbers up and everyone was thrown into the hat together, hence an amateur team could have been drawn against a top pro team full of internationals, the long list of amateur clubs now invited is only there to allow SL teams to enter at a late stage - some later than others, bottom 9th 10th and 11th from the previous season plus the promoted club one round earlier than the top 8 finishing clubs. The likelihood is that the finalists will be from the top 8 SL teams who enter the comp at it's 6th round stage meaning they only have to win 3 games to reach Wembley, it is no wonder the comp is losing its appeal. How about, we now have 36 pro/semi pro clubs, if the bottom 8 C1 clubs from the previous season played in a preliminary round then the 4 victors could join the remaining 28 clubs making 32 in total, they could then all be thrown into the hat and we could have a proper draw, no seeding, everyone in, that would be interesting, 5 rounds to reach Wembley.