The Masked Poster

I didn’t know either….but for gods sake, don’t google it!

How can you realistically say that until you have seen what affect it has on the game? Maybe you will really love it, maybe you won’t. But at this stage, nobody knows what the effect on the game as a spectacle will be. Agreeing with the proposal is one thing, the reality might be quite different.

Maybe you are onto something there? Let's see what develops.

Well, we do agree that there are wider issues at play that will/are affecting the popularity of the game. But I still don't think you can brush this aside as old people yearning for yesterday. If the game changes too much, it will definitely not be the same game. Which is kind of obvious but it is sort of like, If in 10 years time, soccer had outlawed any physical contact whatsoever....it would definitely be a different game than today. Whether it remained popular (which it probably would) is a different argument.

Well, precisely. Given enough alterations, the game most definitely could change and become unrecognisable from what people knew as RL, even 10 years ago. Changing the game to minimise injuries is laudable and in theory a good thing. Except that if the result is a game where players aren't sure if what they are doing will result in a penalty or sending off, this will impact spectators enjoyment. The end result could be the same, a poorer game (in every sense of the word) Who knows, maybe the days of rough contact sports like Rugby are actually numbered anyway? I had thought by now that people might be tiring of the money fest that is the Premier League but if anything, it seems to be ramping it up and getting even bigger.

For one thing, what do you mean "a statistical zero"? Is that a different sort of zero to the regular one? And for another, given that these changes have not impacted the game at a higher level yet, how on earth can you confidently suggest that nobody will be turned off by them? Because you have thousands of posts on here? That counts for nothing out in the real world.

I think some people are just accusing others of overreacting or tantrums for the sake of it. Firstly we all want players to be protected and not suffer unnecessary injury or pain, that’s a given. But in a game like RL, injuries and so forth are inevitable, that’s just how it is. Yeah, you can change rules etc, as they have done over the years but there does come a time when the game will have changed so much it’s hardly recognisable. Whether these rules will be that point is yet to be seen but it might be. As for stopping watching the game, very few people have a strop and quit watching there and then. What happens, as with me, is that over time you gradually lose interest and watching a game on Friday night is no longer a “must do” thing but a “maybe” thing and eventually a “not bothered” thing. So if the new laws do change the nature of the game that much that there’s more whistling than RU, the vast majority of people won’t be on here declaring it, they’ll just be walking away. Not in some form of protest, just in a “it’s not for me anymore, shrugging shoulders” way.

A ray of hope…

But I aren't talking about the RFL. How difficult would it be for Salford to put out a short notice on SM or whatever along the lines of "Mr Gerrard is no longer in a position to invest in the club" or "The deadline for the stadium agreement has passed and we are unable to confirm if we will still be there next year" However trite, it would be being proactive and not just (as Harry pointed out) acting like an Ostrich and hoping it will go away. We don't need the finer details, just a bit of something.

It’s December 3rd today and this means the 1st December has passed. So I’m not sure why it’s sinister to ask “just what exactly is going on?”. As to your point, a statement would satisfy pretty much everybody, so I don’t know what you are driving at there. And if they don’t want to clarify, then speculation will continue. Not because people hate Salford but because they don’t understand why this is a never ending situation that seems to lurch from one crisis to the next.

Was that a pun or a verdict?

Absolutely agree with you. Whether Sinfield would accept such an award is purely up to him. But to suggest that it would be implicated in any form of corruption or anything sinister, based purely on that posters political persuasion is in tin foil hat territory. We might as well suggest that the 85 year old lollipop lady doesn’t accept her OBE for services to the community. Sometimes people really do spend too much time on the internet by themselves.

Cracking tune, absolutely brilliant and hard to not get a bit maudlin over that. I’ve spent more than one night, listening to this, musing over things while staring into a glass of whiskey. Superb.

Without giving too much information that you don’t want to….can you give a brief illustration of something that has given you anxiety? Is it stopping you from doing things? Is it just natural anxiety? (which don’t forget can be a good thing) Can you not face going to work? The shop? How troubling is it?

The answer is no, it doesn’t really……well, it sort of does. Like a bereavement that hits hard, you sort of just get used to it and whilst you’ll still fret, you learn to live with it. Trust me, your children will always be “your children” however old they get or have kids of their own, or live far away etc etc. Someone has already pointed out that you instinctively worry more about daughters than sons (from a safety pov). I know I certainly worried more about my daughter when she moved out than my eldest lad but the reality is that he was much more likely to be attacked or killed than her. That sounds a bit depressing but don’t take it that way, most things are imaginary rather than what will actually happen. And despite being genuinely pleased for them moving onwards and upwards and turning out to be fairly reasonable adults, I cried like a big baby for days after they left. (All 3 gone now) Rather than worry about coping with her personal development in a few years, just focus on enjoying the time now because honestly, one day you will be scratching your head wondering where the last 18/20 years went. Honestly, you will. ATB