The Hallucinating Goose

So the first game on Channel 5 is Al Ahly v Inter Miami. Could there be a more sickening game of football in the world? At least it's at 1am on Sunday so I probably won't watch it. 5pm on Sunday we have a slightly more enjoyable game when Bayern Munich take on Auckland City.

Train station is gonna be busy, glad I aren't working tomorrow night and having to commute home.

The fact that Jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite not having brains gives a lot of hope to a lot of people.

Exactly, that rabid drunkard is not gonna be a Lana Del Rey fan is he?

I've just seen an England fan in the stands at the England U-21 game wearing a Lana Del Rey t-shirt.

https://www.redmolotov.com/wallace-and-gromit-football-shirt?search=Wallace and Gromit This is the next new shirt I'm gonna get!

Try thinking about your neighbours before you expand your house, Eddie. 7 metres is bloody ridiculous, probably about as wide as my nest's whole floor plan!

Right, that's transport sorted, hotel booked and tickets bought! See you all down at Wembley! No excuses, let's all get down there! Lets not go on about attendances and then not attend ourselves. Even if you die, I want your spirit there cos if we need help with the attendance, I'm quite happy for the RFL to count metaphorical people!

I've just finished watching the film Blinded by the Light about a Pakistani boy growing up in 80s racist and prejudice Luton, who wants to be a writer and finds inspiration in the music of Bruce Springsteen. Brilliant. It's on iplayer and I can't recommend it enough.

https://fanbanter.co.uk/top-200-average-attendances-in-non-league-for-the-2024-25-season/?fbclid=IwY2xjawK2g0ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETBXMk5MVFBVTGNIQzVFY2VzAR4IuL8IHGU4Pfe0EBpbcmv_lus8pe2kGonwn6IOY6OAM68B0xZeM-1MsB6oZA_aem_BJ4q1UVAKkXLrOD_7_a_eQ This is a good article. The top 200 average attendances of non-league clubs across the country.

This is something that pees me off as well when it comes to sports shirts. Oh, so you're a teenager living on a random estate in a faceless British town and because you've bought a New York Yankees jersey in Sportsdirect that means you support them and know all the ins and outs of American Football! Or are you just wearing it because you've been brainwashed by the false representation of American culture in film and tv, and social media?? Definitely the second option!

Certainly the two brands are completely interchangeable in my mind and I don't really see a problem with it. If anything, it's a little quirk of our sport's history that outsiders looking into rugby league would probably find very interesting. It just gives our international game a bit more character.

I thought I'd just look up the stats to compare us to union. Between 1904 - 2024, England/GB RL have played 584 times against 18 different opponents, at an average of 4.8 games a year. Between 1871 - 2025 (so far), England RU have played 772 games against 22 different opponents, at an average of 5 games a year. Not that different really.

I'd be quite happy with England just playing 5 games a year. I think a consistent number of games is more important than a large number. Having that consistency, having those games locked in means fans have something to look forward to and talk up well in advance, and if it is certain there is a game coming up then it won't necessarily need to be marketed and advertised as much, fans will just know there is a game coming up in a few months and go buy tickets for it. Like I say, even just 5 games a year; the mid-season test needs to come back and we could play that against Wales so there isn't much travel needed for players in the middle of the season. Give it a name so it has at least some meaning to it, the 'Saint David's Shield' or something like that. Then the remaining 4 games can just be a warm up game against France for a series, and then a 3 game series against either Aus or NZ. Play the warm up game in France and then alternate years between tours here and down under.

Well that was f###ing dreadful. Again.

What an absolute joke that decision is. That was never a handball and it's a sodding friendly, why are you ruling that out?

Another very uninspiring England performance.

I agree, and they don't have to be big games in big grounds with big crowds, England just need to play more games. It would be easy to have some games with Wales and France every year and just play them at a rugby league specific ground so we don't have problems with scheduling, like I say, doesn't have to be a massive crowd, just 10,000 or so at Warrington or KR or somewhere like that would be fine.

I've fallen down the rabbit hole that is match stats now! England and/or Great Britain have played a total of 584 games between 1904 and 2024. So an average of 4.8 games a year. The first game was actually an England game. On 5th April 1904, England played Other Nationalities at Central Park in front of an estimated 6,000 fans. England lost 3-9. Our first game against Australia was on 12th December 1908, when Great Britain faced Australia at Park Royal Ground, London in front of 2,000 fans. The game ended in a 22-22 draw. England played Australasia on 18th October 1911 at Craven Cottage in front of 6,000 fans. England lost 6-11. England first played Australia themselves on 31st December 1933 at Stade Pershing, Paris in front of 8,000 fans. England lost 13-63. England first played Australia at home a couple of weeks after that game on 13th January 1934 at Redheugh Park, Gateshead in front of 15,576 fans. England won 19-14. --------- So in conclusion, we played in London quite a bit then as well, we get pretty small attendances for internationals then as well and we had trouble beating Australia then as well. Not a lot changes does it!

And in that same period, we have played 79 times, and 18 different opponents.

Ah, I understand. I was going back to the beginning of the 90s because that is where Dave started his list. Since 2006, we've only played Australia 6 times in this country.

Well we've played against them quite a bit more as GB since the beginning of the 90s cos GB carried on playing in the tri-nations and tours when Australia came over here. As England though, we've only played them over here 9 times in 30 years.

And we don't play Australia outside of London very much at all: 2013 - Millennium Stadium - 45k 2011 - Elland Road - 34k 2009 - Elland Road - 31k 2009 - JJB Stadium - 23k We've only played Australia 4 times outside of London since England became the main national team.

You genuinely think we will sell out Wembley? You do know that the record attendance for a rugby league international in history is 74,468, the 2013 World Cup final. I think we can get into the high 60s, get close to 70k, but we aren't gonna beat the record attendance by 15k. I'm being realistic rather than positive now.

I've found someone that is driving down to Wembley and will take me! Looks like I am going to Wembley!!