M j M
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Posts posted by M j M
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28 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
Smart enough to know it but dumb enough to try it? Is that your stance? Otherwise I’m confused what your point is.Â
No. They are smart enough to know it and smart enough not to try it, I'd have thought that was obvious, notwithstanding the ludicrous fantasy Rugby League stuff some people are posting on here.
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25 minutes ago, Dave T said:
TBF, Wood was running the show by the time that deal was signed, although Lewis as Chairman championed it.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/16729988.amp
I think it's established that Wood was against it but Lewis pushed it through.
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19 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
2 questionsÂ
Do you know what scale means?Â
Do you know what industry Betfred operate in?Â
ÂÂ
Sure.
I also know that the UK and NSW/Queensland/Aus are fundamentally different sporting markets and the people running the NRL are smart enough to know it.
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14 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
They'll believe they can do something akin to what their business model is in Aus, albeit on a smaller scale.Â
A huge TV deal achieved because they are the dominant sport in their region of Australia, allied to clubs getting grants from Leagues Clubs who make millions off the back of working class people gambling their lives away?Â
Call me cynical but I'm not so sure that that's a replicable business model for the UK.
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3 hours ago, Damien said:
Radlinksi with the opposite view to McManus:
“WHAT’S the worst that can happen?” – That’s the view of Wigan Warriors chief executive Kris Radlinski when talking about raising the Super League salary cap.
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McManus did say the vote to keep the cap was 11 to 1.
He didn't name names but I don't think anybody is surprised who the one was.
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6 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
Which bit is imaginary? Whether or not the NRL are willing to use it is a fair point, but there's nothing imaginary about the financial clout they have.Â
The NRL is not as different from Super League as some think - the guys running it remain answerable in lots of ways to the clubs. The NRL simply isn't going to throw a load of money at British clubs to, as was suggested, give directly to the players via a salary cap increase. It's just fantastical nonsense and Abdo and V'Landys would get torn to shreds by their clubs if it happened.
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1 minute ago, londonbronco said:
What does that mean if you read the post and interpreted the post properly? Â I expect you're what I label as a 'traditionalist'.
You've claimed Nigel Wood was anti-expansion. That's just utterly untrue.
I don't know what your labels really mean but my core beliefs (as, amongst other things, an on/off London Broncos member since the late 90s) are that it's possible to secure a viable presence in London without trashing, both verbally and in actions, the sport's northern heartlands. Because the latter remain absolutely fundamental to the sport's future in this country.
And if you think the NRL will believe any differently you've been paying zero attention to their strategy these past 30 years. Namely establishing and to some degree propping up a single strategic expansion team whilst otherwise focussing their energies on making the game as big and strong as it can possibly be in its heartlands. Only now is the NRL looking at further expansion, when it can do so from a position of a very solid base in its core markets.
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3 minutes ago, Copa said:
It’s getting interesting now!Â
If this happens I can easily imagine V’landys increasing payments to participating clubs and a salary cap increase. That will attract the best players from the excluded clubs.
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Where on earth is all this imaginary money coming from?
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1 hour ago, londonbronco said:
His track record suggests he’d see NRL involvement as a threat to the RFL’s independence. When Toronto and Toulouse were trying to push the game into a more global direction, Wood wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet. His approach was all about keeping the heartlands onside, rather than embracing expansionism.
I honestly have no idea how you have managed to interpret Nigel Wood's time in charge in an anti expansion way.
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2 hours ago, Treizistance said:
Bang on. The brains trust in charge of the RFL don't need enabling, they need stopping. If it takes the big clubs joining an NRL Europe/Atlantic
The big clubs have just overseen the dismissal of most of the senior RFL team. They literally have just been stopped.
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2 minutes ago, Henson Park Old Firm said:
 But in reality the status quo is much more worse, perfect example was the famous Stobart Super League deal.Â
A deal championed by the last person in charge who was brought in from outside the sport.
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12 minutes ago, Roy Haggerty said:
It’s all critical mass. Those big clubs are the engine of RL here. If the majority went, the rest would feel forced to go. There’s no future for Leeds if they don’t have games against Wigan/Saints/Hull etc.Â
Leeds, and Wigan, know the league can't possibly function without them so there is power both ways on that argument.
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8 minutes ago, Martyn Sadler said:I hope not, although Gary's departure makes that less certain.
The problem is that with clubs losing around ÂŁ30 million collectively each year, I fear they will grab the money rather than making sensible long term decisions.
I think Caddick and the new/promoted management at Leeds are pretty well aligned with the Hetherington view of the world. And Leeds are back to generating cash again now so grabbing money isn't such a motivation as for some other clubs.
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2 hours ago, Martyn Sadler said:
The latest I've been told is that the NRL would establish an eight-team competition that would include London and Catalans and six others, which would probably be Wigan, Warrington, St Helens, Leeds and the two Hull clubs.
Eight clubs wouldn't be enough.
There's no way Leeds would vote to join that.
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The NRL has and remains very conservative and cautious when it comes to expanding in Australia/New Zealand. The idea that they're going to burn tens of millions of dollars on expansion in Europe is delusional.
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32 minutes ago, Wakefield Ram said:
Having worked for a number of very large organizations, I'd say this is spot on. He made the point that these highly-paid directors couldn't be bothered to attend Test Matches, Championship GFs let alone SL games.
There's a director merry-go-round where the main objective is to earn as much as they can , back scratch and embellish their CVs and then leave after 2-3 years. So whether RL prospers is irrelevant. And the five figure cheques relate to their monthly pay.Â
I have some sympathy for this view but it's hard to know exactly what was happening without knowing the individuals.
About 30 pages back I tried visualising an RFL board meeting and wondered if it was one of those, which i've seen, where people heading up different bits reported back with long lists of positive developments and achievements in self-created metrics, brief mention was then made of cataclysmic failures on financial and strategic fronts and then it was adjourned.Â
Everything I'm hearing from the owners - and they are not a reliable or even trustworthy bunch - suggests a similar perception on their part of how the RFL was run.Â
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11 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:
Also, he is responsible for the business model at St Helens. If the business model is wrong, it's in his gift to correct it - either by growing revenues or cutting costs.Â
Unilateral disarmament in sporting salaries is really quite difficult to achieve, you get that surely?
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1 minute ago, Padge said:
Rugby League was born from the desire of the elite clubs to control the game and not be controlled from the centre (RFU).
Â
I'm sure you are well aware there was a hell of a lot more to it than that.
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6 minutes ago, Martyn Sadler said:
You may not think he's classy, whatever that means, but he did build a brand new stadium dedicated to Rugby League and controlled exclusively by a Rugby League club, without getting a great deal of help from elsewhere.
I think the ÂŁ20m or whatever it was from Mike Coleman probably helped.
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2 hours ago, Dave W said:
If I might put my tinfoil hat on here for a moment, my concern here would be an 'Atlas Shrugged' scenario: The wealthy individuals running the top clubs casting off the shackles of RFL governance, abandoning the funding of lower leagues entirely, keeping all the money for themselves and re-shaping SL with the clubs they want in there.
I'm not suggesting that will be the case here, but it could happen at some point. They've definitely got a grudge against the French teams and the total number of those of us who watch semi-pro rugby league (the little people) barely reaches 15000 on a good week.
None of that tallies with the Nigel Wood or Gary Hetherington view of the world so, if that's the masterplan, two of the key people don't know about it.
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1 hour ago, M j M said:
There's a risk of nostalgia-ising Ryan Bailey but his greatest moments came when the opposition side totally lost it and he had done nothing other than wind them up.
I have of course done Bailey a disservice. Everyone knows that this was his finest moment.
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There's a risk of nostalgia-ising Ryan Bailey but his greatest moments came when the opposition side totally lost it and he had done nothing other than wind them up.
Which Grand Final was it where the game ended with a posse of opposition players surrounding Bailey whilst Leeds won the game? I think maybe the Warrington one in 2012?Â
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1 hour ago, fieldofclothofgold said:Yes Bailey TMSFMISLÂ lol. That grand final was probably his best housery peice .
Bailey was largely all show though. His success was in winding up opposition players and he rarely actually got done for anything.
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Newman is one of the team's supposed star players so none of that is his role - the truth is he lacks anything like Bailey's self control.
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The man himself after probably his finest moment as a coach.
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24 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:
There is also the great Mick Gledhill too .I'm sure he still lurks on here .he was a great poster when he was much youngerÂ
Sorry to say he it but in my view he wasn't and isn't.
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England v Australia 2025 - coming to the UK!
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
We've already been round this loads of times but given how very ambitious the first two venues are and the strong desire to have a game in Yorkshire Newcastle would have been a real risk for a potential dead rubber.