Allan Marsden

The question is Leeds fans wrongly lambasting Clarke because they cannot understand a person can write something whereby they articulate some opinions being given throughout RL but when they offer THEIR opinion they differentiate by saying In My Opinion. The whole article is fair. He refutes the call for a penalty try against Leeds for example and he praises McGuire. Even when questioned later by Hemmings, Clarke states that the view is one being held by many. To then get a Leeds fan (yourself Terry), the Leeds coach and the Leeds/GB captain lying and make numerous false accusations is totally hypocritical. The Wigan team / coach are the only ones acting with any class.

No his article is fair and balanced. The Rugby Gods part is not his view. You obviously missed Clarke giving his view "IMO he has been excellent/outstanding for Leeds this season" As somebody who has played the game then you should know that the players reaction was one that is the norm in sport to such an act of cheating at such an important part of a game. You would also know and there was no reason to think otherwise that his injury was not initially to be thought to be very serious. When Valencia was badly injured for Man Utd it was immediately obvious. The Wigan v Leeds it was far from obvious. Indeed, many thought he was feigning injury knowing he had commited foul play. An agge old tactic that you as somebody who has played the game would be well aware of. I imagine and believe you have a very good knowledge of the game but where Leeds are concerned bias overrides knowledge and objectivity.

Higham is luck to get selected IMO but the other lucky selection and the most frustrating player is Carvell. Physically he has it, he has some skills but his error rate is awful.

RLaction was a super programme. Far better than Scrumdown and on a par with the Brian Smith / Clive Tyldsley programme

No but it is an infamous game and quite well documented so I read about it but had never seen any picture of the game ntil this.

The coloured player was the subject of foul play AFTER biting Gary Stephens. The second file.

Double post

There is no evidence that teams monopolising a competition is bad for that sport's spectators. Somebody used Scottish football as an example. I daresay ever Scottish club is thankful for the economic benefits Rangers and Celtics bring just as Spanish football clubs are similarly glad for Real and Barca. Australia tour after tour destroyed British clubs / won test series after test series but the fans kept coming and asking for more. When Wigan were enjoying the best example of modern day monopolisation the attendances for games v Wigan were invariably the highest or one of the highest for any other club etc. The Eels and the Bulldogs dominated the NSWRL competition in the 1980's but the game grew etc Boxing fans love nothing better than a trilogy of fights. Repeat fights create huge interest. So on that basis all we have are illogical rantings of the jealous. The very same fans that said Salary Cap MUST HAVE IT for the Good of the game without considering that even in those so called dark days of evil clubs like Widnes, Halifax, Featherston, Sheffield and even Warrington won competitions whereas in a salary cap franchise era such events become even rarer. So please remember if you are favour of a salary cap / franchising then predictability is part of the price you accept. Maybe many RL fans should have read the small print before letting jealousy and spite rule their heads.

On the subject, Hull KR consistently bring the largest number of away supporters to the DW (apart from Saints) and other than a handful of numptys the overwhelming majority of KR supporters were fantastic. I believe about half a dozen objects (coins in the main) were thrown. However, every club has a tiny minority of numptys just as every village / town or city does. As long as Wigan and KR attempt to identify the numptys and take action then I do not see the need for any fines other than perhaps a suspended one to give fans fair warning that their actions will harm their own club. I think the Castleford fine was OTT. Players also need to behave sensibly. Leeds players gesturing at Wigan fans and verbally abusing them, Sam T last week throwing the ball at Leeds fans and this week Martin Gleeson doing likewise is something that needs o stop ASAP. Likewise some of the tweeting on twitter by so called professionals needs to be looked at.

Straws Clutching At - REARRANGE

This for the good of the game / SL competition nonsense is just that NONSENSE and routinely spouted by fans who are jealous of success obtained by others. RFL fans are often told please swallow this its for the good of the game be it salary cap, be it franchising. You see all these things were / are supposedly for the good of the game. Hilarously, the people who then spout such nonsensical rhetoric then say ah but denying clubs automatic promotion is for the good of the game. You hate football full stop BUT that boring, predictable competition is more successful than ever. Odd that isn't it. Youir rhetoric makes you feel better but such self indulgent spite would be better told lying on a couch in front of a psychologist. Somebody show me where one team winning trophies on a regular basis has been bad for a sport / bad for RL and ALSO explain to me how all these great ideas that were for the good of the game, a panacea have seemingly made it even more predictable. Will Featherstone lift a CC trophy again? Sheffield?

If it happens then so be it. Only those jealous and spiteful complain when a team / teams dominate for a number of season yet it is often good for the sport and can drive standards within that sport upwards. If Wire won a 3rd successive CC in 2011 would that be a bad thing? a 4th in 2012? No IMO If Leeds win a 4th GF would that be bad? No. Wigan winning 8 CCs / St George winning 11? GFs in a row Barca / Real dominating Spanish football year after year, Man U / Chelsea / Arsenal dominating the Premier League. You could go on and on. Never has it been proven to damage any sport other than in the tiny heads of the bitter and twisted who would be jealous of anybody / anything.

Wires problem is (and I hope they continue) want to play a more high risk brand of RL which becomes an even bigger gamble in the wet weather. The Roosters under Brian adopt the same philosophy but the weather is far more conducive to the style of play. I do think the coach made a mistake re Myler. Once for the Cup Final you can understand but repeated tinkering and in addition tinkering at 9 creates instability. A couple of players are over rated and do not earn their salary. Carvell is the obvious example. However, Wire do have a better youth development programme now and one or two very good youngsters are emerging. Wire need these youngsters coming through because time is limited in terms of the experience core of players and their impact could be lost before the youngsters are blooded and brought through. Time will tell but I hope Wire continue to follow the Smith philosophy.

There is indeed a gulf but it is the young players with potential that can bridge that gap. Sure a team needs some experience from hard headed professionals which Fev have with the likes of Dickens but it is the young outside backs that are exciting SL clubs because a couple have far more potential than some recent signings by Bradford for example. I think Widnes have seen the way forward and having met the criteria have put a lot of time and energy into developing an U18 / Youth system but it will not happen overnight. Far too many clubs like Leigh like Halifax sign past their sell by date ex SL players with no future beyond the Championship.

Fev have the best set of young players in the Championship. I cannot fathom why other Yorkshire clubs are not doing their upmost to prise them from Post Office Road.

Do Fev need SL ? Doing very well in the Championship and developing young exciting home grown talent.

Nobody has said it was or is apart from you Hannibal. I think you need to think before you type and stop trying to cash cheques you cannot afford. If there was no comparison because the 2 countries are so far apart then why did you try to make one but more importantly why did Australians start coming across the globe to learn about RL and take back what they learned in the late 50's and 60's. The international transfer ban was and ignorance always is the biggest hinderance to RL development wherever it may be.

Oldham v York it is

You are actually qualifying and supporting my POV Maximus. Quantity should produce more potential players but quality of development and subsequent standards is far more important and can overcome disadvantages. We have the demographic advantage. In terms of market appeal we have far less. However, the Australians have fostered a winning mentality, a greater drive towards participation and the coaching / competition thereby provided is far better. They have made more from a position of disadvantage. Perhaps if people stop trying to pretend we are this great nation and that there are farcical so called reasons like demographics then we would move forward internationally. Unfortunately, our culture is detrimental to sporting success. It wasn't in the past and the Australians learnt about modern RL from ourselves, advanced it, took knowledge from elsewhere, the USA etc and got better and better. In 1982, so called respected figures were trotted out to say ah but ah but they are only fitter, we are proper RL players with more skill (Ironic you still get some British fans that believe that) We actually started to close the gap between 1986 - 1992 but thwe great British trait of envy and jealousy resulted in this overwhelming and ridiculous shout for equality and the gap now is greater than then and will widen unless more British players play in the NRL. In terms of attendances. Every game is televised in Australia, some on terrestrial TV so we cannot blame TV. Maybe TV helps or should help promote a sport. Some Australia games have teams far further geographically apart than we encounter so we cannot say ah but disance etc. Maybe the simple truth is RL is high profile in Australia compared to Britain and that Australia develop sportsmen / women far better than Britain to the point the profile of the sport becomes less important. We are a low profile sport in a country that poorly develops sportsmen and women IMO.

I am educated to Postgraduate standard in Geography. Hence I think I understand demographics be it from the various uses and even demography. Given the biggest % of Australian residents from overseas were born in the UK and that many Australians come from UK parents and that Australia does not benefit from the superior athletic genes of an Afro-Carribean population like the UK then I would argue that even taking into account other demographics then Australia has no advantage, some may say a disadvantage. You then look bluntly at 22 million v nearly 70 million aprox and even if we had a disadvantage demographically then we should still on sheer number overcome it. Do not use the ah but we have soccer argument because as a self confessed demographics expert Mr Hannibal (very stupid name BTW) a growing number of Australians come from footballing countries and Australia does well at many sports. Likewise demographics does not explain why Australia has been more successful than the U.K re tennis. Personally, I think demographics is a poor excuse for failure. I mean in 1958 or 1962 the demographics of our players was far worse than it is now but the players / the country was the world leader in RL. Maybe the personal qualities of the population/players and coaching was better then in the UK then whereas now it is better in Australia. Hey though what do I know compared to the great Hannibal. I have been a member since 2006. I prefer quality over output whereas you clearly do not.

I have watched every game in the NRL in 2010 and wevery televised game of SL + Wigan games. Sorry but the standard is far higher in the NRL. I hate the fact it is but I refuse to pretend it is not. However, the bigger gulf is at schoolboy and Toyota/Academy level.

Marty there is a clique on this forum that like to insult and try to bully any poster whilst making as many pointless posts as anybody here.

The demographics favour us, the media profile does not.

That is silly, the standard and entertainment value of the NRL is far ahead of SL and 2010 has been a poor SL season overall as the salary cap now takes full effect. The play off games have been a very poor standard with teams struggling to pass the ball at times. The number of memorable games in 2010 probably total between a half dozen and a dozen. We had more in previous seasons. Perhaps we (SL) need to take a good look at our game in terms of the timing of the season (summer rugby this weekend?) franchising, the salary cap etc.

Pointless thread