Jamie_

Oldham Athletic Fans Forum tonight – a question was asked about the ORLFC lease: (PN – Peter Norbury, a director)

Posters saying the move to BP would never happen, just for it to happen. Now, not even a day ago casting doubt about Rothwell purchasing the ground, just for it to get announced the next day Does anyone else want to jinx something into existence?

Rugby Union being the de facto image that pops into the heads of everyone when they hear "Rugby" except 200,000 people from the North of England is more of a problem when you are tying to sell something called "Rugby" that is entirely different.

The only time Latics have had a plastic pitch was pre-1991 way before the Yeds moved in, and though the council shafted the club with Watersheddings, it has only ever been OAFC's decision to boot ORLFC from BP. I would imagine part of the agreement between OAFC and the OMB for funding for the new hybrid pitch was on account of a fairly lengthy lease with ORLFC. Rothwell is a good local man keen on having the Yeds there and director Darren Royle (the unit on the right of the picture) has experience with ground sharing as CEO of Wigan Warriors.

Great stuff for the Roughyeds, hopefully get crowds on the right side of 1k with a bit of promotion, buzz, and management. No guarantees of anything however when you look at Doncaster and Rochdale. I personally hope Mr Rothwell is tempted to buy the club in the future, I think the multi-sports club model is the future in this country.

Great stuff for the Roughyeds, hopefully get crowds on the right side of 1k with a bit of promotion, buzz, and management. Their nomadic era has really held them back but I hope this can now be the turning point for them. No guarantees of anything however when you look at Doncaster and Rochdale. I personally hope Mr Rothwell is tempted to buy the club in the future, I think the multi-sports club model is the future in this country.

If getting new fans to watch our game is the aim, it would be incredibly stupid to market ourselves with a name that produces an image in most people's heads of a completely different sport. We threw away our claim to the word "Rugby" when lawyers approached us 30 years ago with a case against World Rugby naming their comp the "Rugby World Cup" and we decided we couldn't be bothered fighting it. No point doing so now.

2? I'd rather they just cram everyone into the one stand opposite the camera.

Keighley owners said you needed a PhD to understand it but I don't know what is so confusing about it? Like what is it that people don't understand about it exactly? This is just the simplified presentation... god help Keighley when they send them the data requirements document

No. Only Tigers, Sharks and the St. George half of the Dragons to the second grade. The rest relocate. Sea Eagles to CC full time which they've got one foot in the door in already and the Dogs to NZ2, leaving their suburbs which they haven't already been playing in for years anyway. This would allow the NSW Cup to become a comp like the Q Cup with standalone teams. If we want the sport to grow whilst keeping it within 18–20 teams, Sydney has to be reduced. Crowds and TV viewership only went up in the immediate years after the Bears' relegation. It will be painful to usurp these clubs, just as it was when Brisbane clubs were superseded for the Broncos, but that has only strengthened QLD in the long run. You'll probably lose a minority forever who will feel bitter etc. but the sport will grow. Old fans will die, and their kids will grow up and take a liking to sport independent of their parents. I didn't start watching the sport until I was in my 20s. Great. 8 million concentrated on 4 powerhouse clubs. Endeavor Park to SFS is 40 mins. Campbelltown to WSS is 40 mins. Have two teams play out in the city, playing out of SFS every week the same way we are now doing in Lang Park, and then have two teams play out in Greater Western. Tokyo is a city of 14 million and in their biggest spectator sport – Baseball – the city has only 5 clubs. New York has two NFL clubs for 9 million people. Mumbai has 1 IPL team for 18 million people. Greater Sydney has 9 for 4 million. Whilst it's a trip for the big modern commercial stadiums, back home everyone will still have their second grade clubs producing pathways and competing in the lower grades. Promote the second grade more as a trip back to the past of standalone suburban clubs playing in cute boutique stadiums. If it's solely about fans wanting to watch their club, they still can. A rival sport like the AFL isn't going to come in and target a suburb without a first-grade NRL club and erode the grip that Rugby League has on the area as a whole (which is nevertheless still a single connected and related urban centre) unless they manage to pull off getting a megadome built in the area and subsequently build up a foundation of pathways that out does us.

No, this western corridor malarkey seems like over-the-top AFL-scare stuff imo. We don't need to saturate the Brisbane suburbs like Sydney. A second team filling Lang Park on alternate weeks was a great commercial move but I don't see the benefit for any more teams in South Queensland in a modern-day world when people are more able to take a trip into town or watch on TV, or go watch their local lower-grade club if they are so Rugby League mad that two BNE teams ain't enough. The only additional QLD club should be the Falcons in a redeveloped Sunshine Coast Stadium which has been mooted in a potential bid. It's the next biggest QLD urban centre without a current first-grade team, but it isn't the priority. The next team has to be Perth. And then after that it's a step by step basis to see how it goes in the long term. Personally, my dream league of what I would work towards purely out in my own deep dark desires is 1 team in every 300k+ urban centre in Oceania (plus Townsville and minus Honolulu), and multiple teams in the biggest 3 of them to equal: 1 PNG, 2 NZ, 5 QLD (2 BNE), 7 NSW (2 SYD, 2 GWS), 1 ACT, 2 VIC, 1 SA, 1 WA: 1. Papua New Guinea Hunters (PNG Football Stadium, Port Moresby, PNG) 2. Auckland Aotearoa Warriors (Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, NZ) 3. Christchurch Canterbury Bulldogs (Rugby League Park, Christchurch, NZ) 4. North Queensland Cowboys (North Queensland Stadium, Townsville, QLD) 5. Sunshine Coast Falcons (Sunshine Coast Stadium [redeveloped], Kawana Waters, QLD) 6. Brisbane Broncos (Lang Park, Brisbane, QLD) 7. BNE Dolphins (Lang Park, Brisbane, QLD) 8. Gold Coast Titans (Robina Stadium, Gold Coast, QLD) 9. Newcastle Knights (Newcastle International Sports Centre, Newcastle, NSW) 10. Central Coast Sea Eagles (Central Coast Stadium, Gosford, NSW) 11. Sydney Roosters (Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, NSW) 12. South Sydney Rabbitohs (Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, NSW) 13. Parramatta Eels (Western Sydney Stadium, Greater Western Sydney, NSW) 14. Penrith Panthers (New Penrith Stadium, Greater Western Sydney, NSW) 15. Illawarra Steelers (Wollongong Showground, Wollongong, NSW) 16. Canberra Raiders (Canberra Stadium, Bruce, ACT) 17. Melbourne Storm (Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Melbourne, VIC) 18. Melbourne Thunder (Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Melbourne, VIC) 19. Adelaide Rams (Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide, SA) 20. Perth Pirates (Perth Oval, Perth, WA)

NRL.com comparing their stats with R1 of last year. I would say it has backed up the eye test on what was some high-quality footy. Slightly more ball-in-play but crucially combined with closer, competitive contests. https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/03/06/the-statistics-that-mattered-round-1/

Great upset. Great game. Big hits, hard tackling, and forcing the error won them that game. Wayne Bennett masterclass.

A weekend that ends on a Friday with no Saturday or Sunday games. Great RL though. The three NRL games so far have all been crackers too. Good to see strong defensive displays again – my favourite type of matches that seem to have finally rebounded from the shock therapy that was the six-again!

So in an attempt to merge the West and East divisions into one, they've ended up with just the entire West Division plus the All Golds, with the rest dropping back down into Tier 5. Not an amazing result.