burningmuscles

Well, it seems to me from a casual observance of this forum, and other places - that tinkering with formats, fixtures, structures, and dates occupy thoughts more than raising the number of quality teams. As if any of these changes would magically revive the sport. As the saying goes, the two best times to plant a tree - the first is forty years ago, the second is now. There are no other solutions. I'm just sick of the sport - in general - rearranging deckchairs.

How about raise the standard of playing within every club bar the top six or eight clubs? It's ridiculous how fans just accept that 80% of all RL teams that exist will be permanently ######. Rugby League is a pretty unforgiving sport, and it only really excels when you have elite or comparable clubs going toe-to-toe. It's not as in Football (soccer), where you can employ negative or defensive strategies. But at the same time - the cures for the Challenge Cup are for the wrong disease. It's the sport itself that's broken, and lack of competitiveness within the entire structure. You might as well implement a handicapping system, where if Hunslet played Wigan - you'd give Hunslet an automatic 52pt start. Much easier than actually attempting to raise the quality of Hunslet, and other teams in League 1/Championship.

I don't even know how much the average Super League player earns. A relative pittance probably. It's a damn shame. Wages in soccer have gone absolutely parabolic lately, and it seems RL is languishing to the point that I don't know how those involved make it worth their while.

Well, I rarely watch RL anymore either on TV or in person. So, kinda.

I wonder why Football in the UK doesn't need such "razzmatazz" to get children involved. The FA doesn't even encourage teams to adopt carton animal nicknames.

Touche. But an angle to explore on during the initial years of the 22 game Super League was how much the World Club Challenge tournament was meant to play an integral part of the season. As it also seemed quite mad that many clubs could been "okay" with such a limited amount of league games. If so, it was a speculative bet to deconstruct the entire landscape of the season on.

Its mental to think 1993/94, we had a league of 16 teams. 30 fixtures, alongside 5 potential CC games, 5 potential Regal Trophy games, 3 potential Premiership games (and the season before that had the Lancashire/Yorkshire Cup, albeit with a league of 14 teams/26 fixtures). Using the first example, at least, that's max 43 games. Then we decided there were too many games and teams to sustain "decent" quality RL. And now, having culled the amount of teams, and trophies, we need play loop fixtures to maintain financial solvency. The sport is the very definition of borderline personality disorder.

Yes, the whole rebrand is very tacky, and lame in all respects to sporting dignity. But you can't really say having a cartoon rhino on a badge with steam coming out of its nose is a million miles away.

I think it is a bit rich to take the mick about Leigh's rebrand when the majority of Super League teams have daft non-native animal nicknames. Fans of only St Helens, Hull KR, Hull FC* and Wakefield Trinity* are allowed to mock. Wolves, Giants, Warriors, and other "cartoon mascot" teams - should be laughing at their own cultural vandalism of their own histories. * Sharks & Wildcats RIP.

Genuinely didn't know. Thanks people! It's amazing how many things are counter intuitive.

I genuinely have no idea why there isn't a mandatory enforcement of players wearing skullcaps. I wouldn't play a game without one, and that was 25 years ago.

They should be denied promotion based on their badge/crest alone. Shocking.

Indeed. And this was the day, that I completely lost faith in the RFL's ability to run a professional sport. The only game of RL that I think taking hallucinogenic mushrooms would have helped with.

The Magic Weekend kit phenomena is truly baffling. It's short-termism. Why would you want to establish your brand in the sporting consciousness when you can flog a few shirts to your already existing fan base? I know some are for charity purposes. But even Liverpool FC have a 'charity sponsor' every season replaced on the existing design of their kit. Football is truly the master of minimalist, simple designs based on preserving continuity. Though I can't think of many other team sports where every team would decide to abandon their colours on the big stage.