Andy Wilson in league weekly

[andyc]

Just been reading his article about crowds down in the duper league and crowds in our leagues disappearing all together,which is very worrying.His answer to this is what i have been suggesting for a few years is splt the top twenty teams into 2 leagues spreading the money to make full times squads and bring promotion and relagation back.They are saying crowds have gone down but i think 2 or 3 years ago cas and wakey got 10 or 12 thousands to watch their last match to see who got relagated. so getting rid of relagation must have an impacted on crowds as well as excitment to the end of the season.

andys formate of the leagues would have less financial impact and playing standard on the teams being pro moted.

ROVERS ROVERS

Edited June 14, 2010 by andyc

[DMS]

Like you i read his comments and thought he was bang on the mark. SL crowds are well down on previous years and the crowds at semi pro level are dissapearing down the pan. We desperately need a return to P+R and two full time leagues. Ok the quality might suffer in the short term but this is a long term strategy for our game. Something i don't think the RL heirarchy have even thought about.

Edited June 14, 2010 by DMS

[Vic Johnson]

An excellent article and something some of us have been banging on about since the inception of Sooper Dooper. (Read my letter in the 'other' paper last week.) To play your heart out all season for nothing at the end is absolutely BONKERS. I think the RFL are bonkers if they cannot see the lifeblood of our sport being drained out by the lack of competition for the very top spot. BRING BACK COMPETITIVE LEAGUES WITH PROMOTION AND RELEGATION NOW!!

[PJT]

Couldn't agree more. Terry Mullaney has posted on here many times the merits of sharing the money more equally and having a Super League 1 or 2. Unfortunately for the foreseable future I can't see it happening.

Good that more people are advocating it though. I'm not surprised that gates are going down, I'm enjoying this season due to being top etc but I think the sport as a whole is becoming stale and bland.

[Phil Loxton]

If the RL don't sit up and take notice of this article now it is going to be too late. Less than 3000 saw Crusaders and Bulls in the super League. Fans are not interested anymore. Games are becoming more like friendlies akin to what Rugby Union was years ago before they instituted proper league tables. Come on Lewis come out of your hole and get this sport back on its feet and then do us all a favour and hop off back to the sport you know a little bit about.

[Bob Crowther]

Interesting article in R. Leaguer by Martin Sadler asking the question "Is the RFL fit for purpose?. Slags Lewis off for hiding behiond the scenes.

I agree with all points mentioned and I do believe that the game is slowly dying from the top.

[Robin Evans]

The game is on it's @rse Bob. The pair in charge of the game are presiding over a potentially disaterous tenure and we are powerless to prevent it. The game will continue to slowly decline unless preventitive steps to reverse the licencing system, reintroduce P&R and focus even more on junior development are taken immediately!! That is a massive "must do".

People at amateur clubs putting their free time in week in week out with little/no support beyond their own fund raising is admirable, but if our game is to halt the decline, the reducing numbers of players/clubs must be addressed equally to the inequalities in the professional game.

[oldrover]

you lot haven't been reading the right books. don't you know it's all the vichy governments fault.

[Terry Mullaney]

Listening to Radio Leeds yesterday Terry Matterson said that if Cas hadn't have beaten Catalans then their season might have been effectively over. Worrying comment with more than a third of the season to go. If he's right then how would Cas have persuaded existing and new fans to fork out

[Vic Johnson]

Well said Terry Matterson. It's time for all clubs to speak out and very loudly.

[Robin Evans]

i hate to say this, but kellington's daftest, currently on holiday in turkey, has been saying this for years. It's difficult to imagine suggy as a visionary, but the clot has more or less been advocating what is being touted in the wilson article for a very long time!

I have to say terry, unless those very issues are addressed, and immediately, the game will continue to drip down the soil pipe!

[Terry Mullaney]

Well said Terry Matterson. It's time for all clubs to speak out and very loudly.

I don't think he realised what he was saying though Vic!

[Matt J]

Is this the same Andy Wilson that does an article for Guardian online I think it is? I read a very dirty piece of his work today where he used the dirty M word quite a lot and it involved Us, Wakey and C*s.

[PJT]

Have regular readers noted that Andy Lockwood (if I remember his name rightly) always slags the Thursday night game off in his piece under the match report? Every week he moans about something, whether it being the number of knock-ons or the number of penalties. Every opportunity given, he is there with the snide comments. Basically, he says its a rubbish spectacle and not worth tuning in. He always gives a number of thinly veiled digs at West Yorkshire based teams or any team in the "heartlands". He was very critical of our game last week at Halifax.

I've already stopped buying the League Express each week for a certain person who for some daft reason gets column inches in the weekly paper and the monthly mag (yes he's stopped on here but talks utter balls on the any other business forum), looks like another bit of brass saved by not getting the League Weekly!

Edited June 17, 2010 by PJT

[Bob Fowler]

Have regular readers noted that Andy Lockwood (if I remember his name rightly) always slags the Thursday night game off in his piece under the match report? Every week he moans about something, whether it being the number of knock-ons or the number of penalties. Every opportunity given, he is there with the snide comments. Basically, he says its a rubbish spectacle and not worth tuning in. He always gives a number of thinly veiled digs at West Yorkshire based teams or any team in the "heartlands". He was very critical of our game last week at Halifax.

I've already stopped buying the League Express each week for a certain person who for some daft reason gets column inches in the weekly paper and the monthly mag (yes he's stopped on here but talks utter balls on the any other business forum), looks like another bit of brass saved by not getting the League Weekly!

It's DANNY Lockwood, Paul and he doesn't like Fev at all.

[superten]

i seem to remember writing an article simular to what he is saying about three months ago in the rugby league fan mail section and got slaughtered by all.Also put the idea on here months ago when i first joined and again got slaughtered now a journo from a news paper suggest it u all think its wonderful

[Matt J]

i seem to remember writing an article simular to what he is saying about three months ago in the rugby league fan mail section and got slaughtered by all.Also put the idea on here months ago when i first joined and again got slaughtered now a journo from a news paper suggest it u all think its wonderful

Think what wonderful? promotion and relegation? this forum has ALWAYS been pro-P+R and anti franchise.

If i'm on the right lines here your version of 2 SL's would have been a Super League made up of teams that dont exist? am I right? but no, this forum has always been in favour of promotion and relegation.

[DEANO]

Think what wonderful? promotion and relegation? this forum has ALWAYS been pro-P+R and anti franchise.

If i'm on the right lines here your version of 2 SL's would have been a Super League made up of teams that dont exist? am I right? but no, this forum has always been in favour of promotion and relegation.

so why do you asspire to be in it or is it super duper league is good as long as were in it