Jamie Peacock

[Robin Evans]

It was attractive to the punter bob. Was!

Rugby has moved on a pace these last 20 years. The game is towing as it is, but if RL was to revert back to a part time sport it would be the end. All decent players would leave for overseas or Union... even part time union pays better than league does at some clubs.

The game would lose sponsorship and within a decade all we'd have left is diminishing pockets of the amateur game.

60 years ago you had footy or rugby to watch on saturdays and very little else to do. Now there are endless attractions that drag punters away. RL is in a continued struggle for their share of those attractions.

[eltel]

Could not agree more we have been brainwashed by the rich we know whats best for you clan or should I say better pick a pocket or two club.

Other than brute strength no matter how these superleague players have managed to attain it the game is overall no better than it ever was. The likes of Paul Newlove and John Gilbert running through defences was brilliant and well worth the money to go and watch in the cold depths of winter when other sports went into hibernation.

I have said it many times superleague would die if the lower clubs ourselves included broke away from this shower running the rfl just where will they get their players from. Yorks v lancs cups again not toronto v frenchies for me.

[Robin Evans]

If we broke away?

How would the "break away" survive?

Who would fund the competition?

Who would fund training, monitoring and paying match officials, the administrators etc

Who would sponsor that "break away"?

Cos sky wouldn't. Barring the middle 8s (and this is only a new development) sky are only interested in SL and the tri nations.

We would get jack all...

So.... how would we survive. The break away would be finished within a year

The finances are a matter of record Tel.

[eltel]

We survived before without sky just remember that is how league first started breaking away from union.

[Robin Evans]

Aye... i survived headlice at school... i dont want them again either

So instead of platitudes of how the game once was, i asked a few qiestions tel.

Just tell me how we would do it. Cos for the life of me i cant see how a breakaway would work

[Robin Evans]

Look at the championship clubs now. Unless there's a delbert in the background as at leigh clubs are towin. Sheffield are all but bust and other teeter at the edge.

Look at our own. We've flirted with winding up orders.

Hardy (if any) clubs rund 2nd teams or juniors now.

Take away central funding and the numbers just don't support a breakaway. The breakaway would be bankrupt before it starts.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Look at the championship clubs now. Unless there's a delbert in the background as at leigh clubs are towin. Sheffield are all but bust and other teeter at the edge.

Look at our own. We've flirted with winding up orders.

Hardy (if any) clubs rund 2nd teams or juniors now.

Take away central funding and the numbers just don't support a breakaway. The breakaway would be bankrupt before it starts.

Exactly...frankly I'm surprised the Championship clubs have been allocated the big pots that they can currently scoop if they reach the Middle 8s. Apparently in the last season of the old-style Championship play-offs, you won 50 grand for winning the Grand Final and 25k for being league leaders.Obviously you'd get central funding on top of that but I'd bet it didn't amount to anywhere near what you can expect now if you hit that hallowed top 4 spot.

 

Whether the distribution is fair to the lower Championship teams is another matter entirely, of course, and there is a hint of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in that respect, but as it stands the door is at least open to small clubs getting decent money. Most Championship clubs are struggling to survive even with their central funding; take that away and most would fold very quickly.

[haskey]

Agreed

[pont rover]

Now the Wigan owner is having his say.

http://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_23745-lenagan-laments-super-8s.html

[Piggy's mate]

Does he appreciate just how little trickles down to the Championship and what difference would this make to SL, other than a couple more Aussies getting more brass!

[jamescolin]

He is in effect saying that the conditions of finance should be laid out so that a Championship club couldn't afford to qualify for SL. It sounds like a secret society that doesn't allow outsiders in. If you have the finance then welcome to the organisation if you haven't then you are illegal ####.

In a game that broke away from RU so the players could have broken time payments and was set up amongst working class people his comments amount to a disgraceful disassociation from the roots of the game. The trend he is suggesting would see the disappeareance of a lot of clubs leaving just the usual boring few.

[Blue Pike]

Now the Wigan owner is having his say.

That is without doubt the worst thing I have ever read .Absolutely discusted in what he has said.How can he get away with that I bet there are a few in super league that think that way .it is a slur on not just the championship clubs but Rugby league itself.What an awful greedy man!!

http://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_23745-lenagan-laments-super-8s.html

[The Grinder]

And all the super league clubs are getting more money than they where before the middle eights concept. Before the 8's there was 14 clubs rather than 12. If you assume that all the money that goes to the championship clubs equates to the same as one super league club (which it will not be far off) then the super league clubs are getting 1/13th of the money when before they were getting 1/14th.

The truth is that if Wigan were getting a 1/4th of the money it still wouldn't be enough!