M j M

You claim the RFL has "zero interest" in expanding the sport and that the RFL is only interested in "propping up" heartland clubs. I mean it doesn't take a lot of thought to understand why it is rubbish? Most of the people running the sport are Rugby League obsessives who would love to have more money to fund more things, especially in expansion areas. You could have tried to be even a bit nuanced, you could have tried to understand who the RFL are vs Super League and where the money is, and how little there is. But I get that's not your style.

This is just more ignorant bullsh1t I'm afraid. And isn't helpful in actually progressing the London cause.

So has the McNamara departure actually been announced by the Dragons or has he just been disappeared?

I agree generally on the crowd point, although I'd root the P&R argument more in general sporting fairness than intensity. That said in Cas's two relegation seasons this fixture got 11,731 and 11,016, (Friday night and Sunday afternoon respectively).

Given how close it is to Leeds and it being one of Cas's two biggest home games it should have got more. Only two Cas vs Leeds games have got a lower crowd than that in the past 20 years. Sunday afternoon or Friday evening would no doubt would have got a few more in but it looked a disappointing turnout from both sets of fans.

8,069 at the Jungle yesterday. The day and time were sub optimal but still a poor crowd for this fixture.

Broadly agree with that. There were plenty of reasons to not pick Sinfield as well as some to chose him. It's difficult for an international coach to give one player the sort of responsibility that Sinfield had at club level which may have been the reason Mcnamara tried to commit to that Sinfield/Chase partnership so early to give them time to learn to boss the team. The point earlier about shoehorning was most relevant when Sinfield was repeatedly picked at hooker.

Nice summary of upcoming games. Shame they got the kick off wrong for Leeds vs Wakey next Saturday. Which has been moved two hours later to be shown on BBC... (And yes I know these aren't a BBC specific commentary team)

This BBC TV deal continues to look materially worse than the C4 one.

The idea that Richardson has any credibility in Australia when he talks about the game in the UK is troubling indeed.

There was a huge amount of work at Leeds led by Hetherington and later Rob Oates. But the introduction of the name was cack handed at best and I would say had zero impact on the future trajectory of the club. It stuck because they stumbled upon a charismatic person to inhabit the Ronnie suit and the team very quickly became formidably competitive on the field.

Aston stabbed himself in the front through his actions.

He was too small to be a loose forward in the later part of his career, which is why he barely played there after about 2010.

Sinfield could play anywhere but he was mostly a stand off.

Not really on topic but why would you consider that shoe horning given Sinfield was the dominant stand off in Super League through that period?

It's annoying because this is the Yorkshire's biggest SL derby (excl. Hull), usually has strong crowds and almost always delivers on the field. It would be a great one to have on proper TV.

We've had enough time now for it to strongly seem that isn't going to be the case.

Fake heraldry is not a good look.

Rob Oates in this interview runs through the practical, commercial and financial aspects of bidding for the right to play at Vegas and how they formed a partnership with Hull KR on the proposal. He's very clear that Leeds's starting point was that being the home team was unviable for them.

Yes 15,000.

As has been discussed on here many times for the first decade Club Wembley ticket holders were included in the declared attendance whether they came to the game or not so taking those figures and comparing them to subsequent ones is particularly misleading.

It's also not a great stadium in lots of ways. Maybe it's because it's rarely full for Rugby League but after all these years it still hasn't captured the imagination of fans of our sport in the way the old one did.

That coaching team is one I'd appoint if I was trying to grab headlines rather than trying to build a club. I'm already worried that the Perth side will fall prey to gimmicks rather than the hard work of establishing this venture for long term success. Appointing people with somewhat slight credibility in the world of club coaching would lend more to that idea.

The results of Cas vs Leeds games at the Jungle is rarely informed by the form of the teams leading up to it. I remember one year Leeds winning the WCC vs Melbourne one week and going to bottom of the table Cas the week after and getting a good spanking. There's plenty of similar examples. I might put a couple of quid on Cas to soften the blow of a likely loss.

Cas by 4. This is always a coin toss game and form going into it is irrelevant.