M j M
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Posts posted by M j M
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2 hours ago, Coggo said:
Nigel Wood certainly has a large appetite for the game.
This is genuinely the level of debate a large number of people who are anti-Nigel Wood operate at.
I know Rugby League's internecine warfare gets people down but personally I find few things more depressing in the sport than trying to assess what is a pretty complex administrative legacy when half the people discussing it can't move beyond buffet jokes.
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1 hour ago, soulboy said:
Dougie from “The Aves”.
Put “Roger the Dodger “ through for the winner in the 3rd test at the SCG in 1970.
That was the last GB team to beat the Aussies in a 3 test series ( which will never happen again and that includes England )
Wearing the number 26 no less.
That's one of my favourite pieces of Eddie Waring commentary. If we dealt with our glorious history properly "Millward! MillWARD!" should be imprinted on our brains due to how often it is repeated (especially if, as Tony Collins likes to believe, he calls Millward "an ethereal boy" afterwards).
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This makes me really sad.
Doug Laughton was coach of Leeds from 1991 to 1995 and I can honestly say there's never been a Leeds coach before or since who made watching the team so much fun. It was only a sidenote in his career really but it has always stuck with me how much of an impact he made. Some of course (hello Schoey!) view this whole period much more negatively than I do but, if nothing else, he signed Kevin Sinfield.
RIP Doug Laughton, one of the game's winners and a real personality as well.
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17 hours ago, londonbronco said:Dolphins Buying into London Broncos. Really - or could they??? Let’s clear up some of the nonsense floating around. Despite all the chatter, there’s zero confirmation that the NRL’s Dolphins have bought a stake in the London Broncos. But that doesn’t mean nothing is going on. Recent reports say Leeds Rhinos’ CEO Gary Hetherington is about to step into a new role with the Broncos as executive chairman. This move could potentially tie into an arrangement involving the Dolphins, aimed at giving the sport a boost in London, but that’s a far cry from the Dolphins owning the club. Let’s keep things in perspective here: The Broncos are still a work in progress, and some connections to the NRL are definitely in play but don’t buy into the clickbait that says the Dolphins are taking over. The reality is, we’re talking about partnerships, not a full-blown acquisition. Keep your eyes on the ball and what Matt Adamson will propose for the northern hemisphere game!!
There is no way Hetherington is going to have given up his role at Leeds without there being something of substance lined up or already signed. You "doing your own research" means nothing because these things are rarely done in public.
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1 hour ago, binosh said:
In that case Danson wins.
Nope it would be a fascinating league with Huddersfield and London Broncos duking it out for the title.
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2 hours ago, Martyn Sadler said:
In your previous post you said "I've no idea if Nigel Wood is the right answer as an interim."
But in this post you've given him quite a solid reference.
I don't know who the alternatives are and I deliberately didn't go into the Never Wood case which is mostly Odsal, a sense of decline over his period in charge and something about buffets.
But his cv as you suggest improves once more when you throw it into contrast with those who followed him.
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53 minutes ago, Just Browny said:
You're someone whose views I respect, can you make the case for Wood?
I believe everything was rosy but I've seen no evidence that things were so bad we needed a sweeping coup and bloodletting 6 weeks into the season. And I am certain that going back to the drawing board, getting rid of IMG and fiddling with structures again is just going to set the game back another 5-10 years.
I agree it would be mad to get rid of IMG or change the structures now. But the RFL and its board seemed utterly anonymous and impotent. Even some of the words around the resignations suggested what I could perceive as a problem if I was being particularly cynical. I've seen several company boards where they all got along famously but the company was failing and nobody was doing anything because they liked each other and didn't want a row. And they'd all bring reports from their respective areas showing lots of statistics trending in the right direction so everyone agree that it was all ok for another month.
What about Nigel Wood? I know there are a long list of negatives, running Rugby League you will soon accumulate those and maybe some should be disqualifying. Back in the day a lot of this centred around his pro-expansionism but for some reason that doesn't get talked about much now. But everyone always talks around or down Wood's achievements, or conveniently attributes them to someone else (even when the other people go out of their way to give Wood credit).
So let's make a case on those. It's actually vanishingly rare we can give any RFL head a list of positive accomplishments so his is doubly impressive: The 2013 World Cup - of which he was tournament director - was a huge success unlike the 2000 and 2021 versions. Although on the subject of the latter it was Wood who talked George Osborne into giving it millions of pounds of government money badged as levelling up funding. It was under his leadership we secured the best ever tv deal as well as the best ever levels of Sport England support.
My impression is that Wood is a man who is surprisingly engaging in person and who can make deals and encourage people to give the game their support and their money. No matter how it turned out in the end just think about what happened following that flight when Marwan Koukash found himself strapped into a seat next to Wood for a few hours and emerged as prospective owner of a Rugby League club.
It may or may not be a selling point but we also know that Nigel Wood is a Rugby League tragic who is as obsessed with the sport and its history as the best on here. We may have decided that the sort of bland, grey, somewhat detached leadership in charge for the past few years was appropriate. But I think the sport needs a fighter who will also have an understanding of the sport's many rival factions which, like it or not, do need balancing if the leadership is to get anything done. If they can find someone in that mould who also has Wood's deal making abilities we should go for them but for now I can see why the clubs would want to bring the original back to try and break some of the malaise.
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Some, in their desperation to talk down Wood or Beaumont are strangely contorting themselves into defending the leadership of the RFL. Who have showed little sign of action, initiative or visibility for several years.
I've no idea if Nigel Wood is the right answer as an interim. He was relatively competent when he was at the RFL before and is available so maybe. I'm much more certain though that the Johnson/Sutton era was taking the RFL nowhere and that action to deal with that malaise was reasonable. (And, while we're dealing with the absurd, I'm also sure that John Davidson is not Rugby League's Bob Woodward).
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4 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:
John is one of the few journalists who challenges the status quo. This is a clear attempt to silence him
Whenever I look behind the detail of Davidson's stories they tend to be either him creating a headline after misunderstanding something or him trying to pull a gotcha. He was one of the worst during the Mark Aston saga.
So I find myself having a tiny and very strange form of sympathy with Richard Agar.
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4 hours ago, Padge said:
His legacy is a failing flailing club.
His legacy is the only club in Super League which is self-sustaining.
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36 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
No I was quite aware of that. But he did have way too much involvement in the playing squad for more years than he should have.
It's not like Hetherington was some unqualified director interfering with the playing squad.
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2 hours ago, JohnM said:
At present, yes. Two days a week it is said. Come the end of the season.....why not?
Come the end of the season, once he gets the Headingley Ashes test out of the way as his sign off, he will be running London full time.
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1 hour ago, Hopie said:
For me 2010 was the start of the period when Leeds started to allow their squad to decline, internationals leaving and not being replaced. Whilst they were still one of the better teams
A 15 year period of decline in which they won four Grand Finals, three Challenge Cups, a league leaders shield and a World Club title. I'm happy to settle for that as just a spell of being off the boil.
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1 hour ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
I didn't dispute his impact or indeed his involvement in getting the stadium redeveloped. I said he should've moved on 8 years ago and the ground would've still got redeveloped, because the funding was secured and Paul Caddick was still onboard. I stick by that.
Like many people you seem to think his role was solely about the team on the field when in fact the most important part of the CEO role was creating a business that funded the Rugby League team(s).
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2 minutes ago, Just Browny said:
Were Leeds ever close to extinction (genuine question) and when?
They're referring to 1996 when they took over. Directly no, "extinction" wasn't on the cards given there were two offers to buy the club. However rescuing Leeds from huge debts and closure are part of the Caddick-Hetherington fairytale now.
The alternative though involved being bought by the owners of Leeds Utd and moving the team to Elland Road. There is a chance that something pretty terrible could have happened down the line when Leeds Utd had one of their financial meltdowns and non core, unprofitable bits of the business were jettisoned. Leeds would have survived I'm sure but could have ended up scrambling around for places to play and that's the sort of slippery slope that can destroy a club.
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2 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:
I wonder if the Australian NRL are taking over the RFL league and have recruited Gary to run London Broncos / Dophins ?
Leeds have confirmed that he is going to be working for London.
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6 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong .I am under the impression that Hetherington is part owner ,had shares in the club I wonder if he will sell them
He owns 19%, Oates 5% and Caddick 76%.
That stake will be worth several million so will be interesting both to see if he sells but also who would buy it (other than Caddick).
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1 minute ago, JohnM said:
So ..Wood is in charge of RFL pro team..extended to end of season...the Hetherignton takes over.
Hetherington would always have been a great choice to run the RFL. But he has much bigger fish to fry now at London.
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Oates is becoming Managing Director and JJB CEO. I sincerely hope Oates is the one making the key decisions and JJB is more of a figurehead, despite the title.
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49 minutes ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:
Didn't really need Etherington for that to happen though - Paul Caddick oversaw that for the most part. Agree re JJB - he loves the club no question, but whether he has the right credentials to fulfil that role is a completely different matter.
His name is Hetherington. He's been one of the most influential people in the history of the sport, you'd have thought you'd know his name by now.
And Hetherington created the business that funded the stadium, if you think it didn't need his involvement you're crazy.
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2 minutes ago, M j M said:
Biggest year on year % increase of the season so far?
Scrub that, it's actually down on Wire vs Catalan last season
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1 minute ago, Leyther_Matt said:
11,100 at Wire
Biggest year on year % increase of the season so far?
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57 minutes ago, Bull Mania said:
I can see Leeds getting a walloping!
Good news about Salford. Time to move on.
All this talk of Salford being victims of something or another obscures the real injured party in all this which is Leeds who will now be forced to play a full strength and unnecessarily rested Salford team.
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5 minutes ago, -Trinity- said:
It's always been like that, and just goes to show how far we have come. From owners who did everything on the cheap, to Matt OCD Ellis
OK yeah, I see it now. I've stood there a few times and knew it was on different levels, just from this particular angle it looked like a section had been removed.
SL clubs look to reinstate Nigel Wood.
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
So we've got to the "Consultants are great" stage?
The involvement of IMG was a hell of a lot of a better idea than Elstone and most of the SL clubs had with getting Private Equity involvement for a pittance.
But beyond the Great Spreadsheet we need to see more action and more results from them. I wouldn't back Wood & Co getting rid of IMG at all but asking for a bit more tangible isn't unreasonable.