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Bradman Better

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Everything posted by Bradman Better

  1. So you want to watch Championship games without commentary? Maybe just have someone play the piano like in the days of silent films?
  2. Within a year Catalans will expand home ground capacity from 11,000 to 14,000. They have only been playing in Super League for 18 years. All seats will have great views. Cronulla have been in the top level professional level (NSWRL and NRL) for 57 years. They have only 12,000 capacity and not all have great views. Cronulla are behind the times.
  3. No away teams will have their fans flying to the war zone of Port Moresby with at least two nights accommodation necessary. North Sydney Oval is a cricket ground, and totally unsuitable for watching rugby league. I went there decades ago when the North Sydney Bears were in the NSW Rugby League competition. There is little elevated viewing. With the development of modern state of the art rugby league stadiums like the one at Parramatta and the rebuilt Allianz Stadium at Moore Park, or even Brisbane's Suncorp, Cbus on the Gold Coast, and the new Stadium in Townsville, no Australian will put up with the hardship of trying to watch a game at North Sydney Oval.
  4. Those air ticket prices are from the UK or Europe. Air travel from Australia and New Zealand will be even more expensive. Probably double. With those exorbitant process, only well to do NRL fans who follow the Sydney Roosters (Eastern Suburbs) and Manly (northern suburbs) will want to come back. Certainly most fans of Penrith, Canterbury, Wests Tigers, North Queensland, Newcastle and the Dolphins will not be able to afford it.
  5. No. New Zealand's population is 5 million. France's population is more than 60 million. No French television network will pay the French Federation for the right to cover a sport which does not reach a significant percentage of the French population.
  6. I would invest in London because it is underfunded and its presence in Super League is vital for the growth of the game. Richard Lewis understood that. No other RFL or Super League administrator since Richard Lewis left the RFL has grasped that obvious fact. After London I would invest in Toulouse because France needs a second team, with the funds to recruit top players from the NRL and French rugby union .... and a third team, and a fourth team in Super League. One of those latter must be Paris. The interesting question is whether after Paris it would be better to develop a club in Avignon (which wants one) or in Lyon which would have a huge potential local player and spectator pool to fish in. London and France are they keys to the game's national and international expansion. After they are developed we can think about other English clubs like Bradford, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Bristol.
  7. I would prefer Moree to Taree ... by a country mile.
  8. The recruitment problem will be solved if the NRL puts money into grass roots in the South Island, especially school teams, but also weekend amateur teams. It will be tough to find enough quality locals at first. But after 5 years the problem will be solved.
  9. Warrington are going to pay heavily for the rest of the season for signing Dufty -- more and more as the season goes on because all the other club coaches will eventually realise that he is a turnstile in defence. Had Dufty not been such a speedy and evasive attacker -- and he really is first rate as an attacking full back -- he would never ever have gotten a look from the NRL clubs recruitment scouts. But only after he was signed did the NRL clubs realise what a defective product they had bought. Talk to St George Illawarra fans. Most of them were glad to see the back of him.
  10. Christchurch and Perth are absolute necessities for the expansion of rugby league. They are markets that are crying out for rugby league. Christchurch will massively grow the game in New Zealand. The New Zealand derby with the Auckland Warriors will be massive. But also it will create pathways for young New Zealand youth living on the South Island, thereby increasing the New Zealand and NRL player pool. Perth is a city of over 2 million. It has local rugby league competitions. There are many migrants from the UK and South Africa living there. Perth desperately needs an NRL rugby league team to be able to recruit the existing local youth and senior players into a professional rugby league club. Those two cities must be NRL franchises numbers 18 and 19. I know that PNG wants a team as well. And the Australian Federal government wants a team there to be used as a source of Australian influence in the nation and as a counter to the dangers of active Chinese intrusion into the country. The question is whether a PNG team based in Port Moresby would be a practical possibility for fans given the precarious crime situation in the city. Fans of visiting Australian teams would not want to fly up there and stay for two nights in such a crime ridden environment. Adelaide is also an option for the 20th team. The NRL has been taking club games and Origin games to Adelaide for years, so there has to be some fan base for the game there. An NRL team in Adelaide would complete the national expansion for the NRL around Australia. After that there could be further expansion to 22 clubs with PNG and Fiji becoming the next additions in 2032. But a way for solving the security problem in Port Moresby must be addressed first.
  11. The Catalan coach Steve McNamara has bought well in the off season. He has purchased good backs and bolstered a huge powerful forward pack. The departure of Sam Tomkins, Tyrone May and Mitchell Pearce have been big losses in key positions I am assuming that Hull KR made a big offer to May that Catalans could not match. The exciting evasive and speedy Arthur Mourgue gets his chance to be permanent full back. Theo Fages is an outstanding defender, a very good field kicker. and is a good organiser of the attack. Jordan Abdull is also a good player though not a match winner which May can be. But Jayden Nikorima has surprised me with his speed off the mark, and he could become the permanent no. 14 at the expense of poor old hooker substitute Alrix DaCosta. In the forwards Chris Satae has been a wonderful buy. Once the other players get used to him he can bee a huge attacking force up the middle. When you look at Chris Satae, Mike McMeeken, Julien Bousquet, Jordan Dezaria and Romain Navarette as the Catalans premier props then they must have the biggest and probably the best prop rotation combination in Super League. In the second row you have Tariq Sims, Paul Seguier, Manu Ma'u, and Bailey Sironen. At lock you have Benjamin Garcia. This suggests that Catalans will be in the top 4 again in 2024.
  12. There are not enough cameras being used at the Catalans vs Warrington game. No cameras behind the posts for the goal kicks or general play. That is not good enough. Is there a camera shortage at Sky? Or is it a camera man/woman shortage?
  13. The try scored by Catalans should demonstrate to everyone who may not have figured it out last year, that there are good reasons why Matt Dufty is no longer playing in the NRL. The other dimension of his play which should be noted as relevant is Dufty's lack of appetite for tackling.
  14. There are not enough cameras being used at this game. No cameras behind the posts for the goal kicks or general play. That is not good enough.
  15. Holding this match in a stadium that seats less than 40,000 is a disgraceful decision.
  16. This is the greatest thing to happen to rugby league in the UK for the past 129 years. The quality of the video production, especially the camera work and the multiple angles, and the video resolution (on my computer it looks like it could be 4k transmission) makes it a perfect watching experience. I hope that this can increase the game's fan base, and also make more money for the RFL.
  17. Please do it for at least the first year, because by so doing you will be helping the growth of rugby league in the northern hemisphere.
  18. As it has been explained, people living outside the UK and Ireland can subscribe to Super League + and watch every game live. Only people living inside the UK and Ireland are unable to watch the Sky games live on Super League +, though even those subscribers to Super League + will have access to them 48 hours after the end of each of the games.
  19. If they could rely on Brian the Irish winger, Jon Wells the English winger, and Sam Tomkins the English full back, then Sky will be cruising smoothly. Bill Arthur does a good job. Then all Sky would need would be replacements for Barrie and Terry. James Graham would be a great hire, but he is enjoying himself too much in Australia, especially now that Fox League has decided to hire him back as commentator. Tony Rea would be excellent, but I suspect that he has returned to Australia.
  20. I am sure that this Las Vegas adventure will do nothing for the growth of rugby league in the USA. The only way that it could help is if the gambling project could raise enough money to be invested into the development of the game in schools in north America There is only one model for such growth, and that was the Toronto Wolfpack just before Covid killed it. A billionaire Australian investor and recreation of the Wolfpack professional club in Canada, along with another club in a major Canadian city -- either Montreal (the best choice) or Ottawa -- would be great. That would need to be followed by the creation of a professional clubs in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. Those clubs in turn would form the north American conference of Super League. There is just one huge stumbling block; where can you find the players to fill these teams with professional players of Super League standard? Toronto managed to find enough players for one team. But six teams? Impossible at this time, especially given the plans of the NRL to expand its own competition with up to three new teams in the coming years. So I would say try to start up two teams in north America -- Toronto and New York -- participating in the European Super League competition. You will need two Australian billionaires to do that. Lachlan Murdoch could be one of them. Then use these starting teams as magnets for current rugby union and NFL rejects to join, and with the help of a few senior Australians, Kiwis, and English players, teach them how to play rugby league. Then NRL money could be used to promote development in the schools. If that limited experiment is successful, then you could add Chicago Montreal, Boston and Philadelphia over time, to make up the north American conference of Super League. But of course television coverage would have to be part of the project, otherwise there will be no corporate sponsors. Personally I would think that development of the game in France would be much easier, with Australian billionaire owners and NRL money starting up professional teams in Paris and Lyon (where there have been rugby league teams in the past) to join Catalans and Toulouse in Super League. Once you have four professional French teams in Super League you will start to really grow the game in France, strengthen the French national team considerably, and create a serious international competition and World Cup. Having France as well as England competitive will also make the game of rugby league more interesting for north American youth to want to play.
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