dufftown1

That poor he was appointed by Penrith and won Premiership, the South and did the same, then the NRL, then souths again, then wests. Now advising 4 clubs apparently If only he had the track record of success of Nigel Wood

I agree with this. As I have said I don't particularly agree with a lot of what he says. My point isnt that people should accept his proposal. But he isnt an idiot and shouldnt be dismissed as one even when you dont agree

Yes, you have. He has been calling for change for years. I dont agree with a lot of his ideas, I do think he was bang on the money 5 years ago whe he said the biggest problem here is self interest and poor governance. The last 3 years have proved him right.

You have, quite literally, just expressed the sentiment i was talking about and proved my point incredibly succinctly

An Robert Elston, Sally Bolton, Nigel Wood and the other examples given? Richardson has had success in RL. More than you or I have. More than someone like Ralph Rimmer has. Nigel Wood did next to nothing at Bradford, damn near killed halifax, was run out of the RFL and SL, kicked out of the IRL with absolutely no love lost. If we are dismissing people who haven't been successful in european RL as idiots...

Except, if you had read the reasoning, many people have failed in european RL, they have also been successful elsewhere. Like Richardson. You can, if you wish, believe that everyone who fails here is an idiot. But you would then have to ask why we have given an uninterrupted stream of morons important positions in our game.

Ive no particulat wish to defend Richardson, but he has been appointed as one of our nominated sin eaters. Richardson represents change and advocates for it. Theres a large constituency here who don't want significant change,Therefore he becomes an idiot, an incompetent boob. If he says x you should do the opposite. By virtue of him saying it, its wrong. I dont particularly agree with him on most things, but there are many ways to skin a cat. Our problem is that we spend all our energy debating internally what a cat is based on how it meets a huge number of different interests.

Well no not really. The point I was making was that Solly for instance wasn't rubbish here and great there. Nor was he unsuccessful here because that is the unavoidable nature of RL in Europe. RL in this country has failed to create success even accounting for the external headwind it faces. That isnt because we are cursed with a constant stream of baboons as leaders. Its because we afford too much power to self-interest which makes administering the sport well near impossible. However good the NRL input is. If there isnt the power to implement it, it wont matter.

Administrators can still be successful in challenging market conditions. Where we are today is a culmination of the decisions we took, not a pre-ordained destination. It isnt an argument that SL would be the NRL. The bar they are judged against isnt relative to the NRL. The RFL and our administrators have failed judged against the aims and trajectory of RL in this country. Plenty of administrators have looked incompetent in RL but very competent elsewhere and this isn't the first or last challenging environment they have worked in. Look at Richard Lewis, successful outside the game, arguably the most successful administrator in the last 30 years here. Still had to fight clubs every step of the way for everything. Rob Elstone had success outside RL, disastrous in. Sally Bolton successful outside RL couldnt create anything really lasting in it. Simon Johnson senior positions at the premier league, SIS, FA, yet apparently atrocious in RL. Solly, Johnson, Elstone, Richardson have all told us the same thing, the same thing people like Hudgell inside the game now are telling us. The governance and structures are wrong and self interest rules.

Yeah, big Nige would be on the beach otherwise obvs. Nowt happens during the playoffs. Can rustle up a multi-million deal pretty much from scratch in a week or so. Easy stuff

But we are talking about the same administrators. Successful in oz, less so here. Its probably not because they are incompetent here and compentent there. Competent administrators do make a difference, can and will change things, but they can only do what the structures allow.

A lot seems to have happened in a week considering last week there was no detail discussed never mind agreed and it wasn't a priority for anyone.

Theres an alternative. That the people involved aren't good, bad, incompetent or genius but the structures in place in european RL make it ungovernable and success nearly impossible.

Was it when I said the reported first offer was so bad, illogical and made no sense i dont believe in the slightest it existed in a form close to what was reported that led you to think i was in favour of it? Just cartoonishly disingenuous If Big Nigel and Rhodri have negotiated them from a deal which was 10% escalating for 5 years for £30, which would have meant them taking more than £30m out of the game in those 5 years to this deal All with an unserious, bullying counterparty, All without any real detail until last week Well, they are wasted in RL, we need to get them over to the UN to sort out this Israel/Palestine kerfuffle. Either that or the first bid wasn't quite what was reported and discussions were a bit more in depth etc

A lodger already pays me rent. We have a situation here where the NRL are seemingly paying way over the market rate for the TV rights to games three to seven, the cost of broadcasting them and some money to the lower leagues. And in return they will market and adminstrate the comp, have little outright control of the important decisions. And all we have to do is admit london. A club we wanted in anyway and give up a bit of equity? We've reached moon on a stick proportions here. Unless there is something hidden away and not yet released this is an absolute sweetheart deal. Its my neighbour paying my mortgage in exchange for building me an extension.