Who’s on this week’s Rugby League Back Chat (19 Sept) ?

[Total Rugby League]

As the London Broncos ship begins to sink from Super League waters, and players start jumping for their futures, perhaps now is the right time for the club to move in with Brentford FC and share an 18000 seater stadium?

Calmer waters at Huddersfield or maybe this is just the calm before a very big storm?

Is it one rule for one club and one for another? There’s growing concern that Toronto are facing a barrage of bias as they aim to meet the minimum standards to join the elite in Super League, however SL-CEO Robert Elstone says there is absolutely no bias whatsoever, not even in France.

And, despite all the success of the St Helens season, could arch rivals Wigan be ready to steal the Super League crown?

Host Matt Shaw is joined for the big debate by League Express Editor Martyn Sadler, Huddersfield Giants assistant coach Willie Poching and Halifax head coach Simon Grix to discuss all this and more on Rugby League Back Chat this Thursday on FreeSports. Check listings here.

 

[Chris22]

Thought Willie Poaching and Simon Grid were excellent guests.

Although would be nice to go at least 12 months before discussing a structure change!

[Damien]

London should have been all over moving to Brentford's ground years ago and ideally they should have been looking at buying into the development of it. As it is London Irish have already sewn that up and are going to be tennants.

[Angelic Cynic]

I thought Willie Poching was excellent - and not only because he stated that the standard of Super League had dropped.

The guests should have more time to express their views - they are not journalists and do not have that much opportunity to get their message across.

[Man of Kent]

One of the better editions because there was a reasonable amount of genuine debate between the panelists. I prefer that to Matt Shaw just taking turns to ask questions of the guests.

[Eddie]

6 hours ago, Damien said:

London should have been all over moving to Brentford's ground years ago and ideally they should have been looking at buying into the development of it. As it is London Irish have already sewn that up and are going to be tennants.

So easy to say but I doubt that what the Broncos are able to put in would buy a row of plastic seats in a new football stadium. Plus their 2,000 gate in an 18,000 ground would look ridiculous. They’d be better off with a nice 5,000 capacity ground imho. 

[Big Picture]

A question I'd like to hear Martyn Sadler answer is this: how does he think that London could grow beyond a small stadium like Trailfinders playing teams from little northern towns which Londoners won't know or rate?

[Damien]

18 minutes ago, Eddie said:

So easy to say but I doubt that what the Broncos are able to put in would buy a row of plastic seats in a new football stadium. Plus their 2,000 gate in an 18,000 ground would look ridiculous. They’d be better off with a nice 5,000 capacity ground imho. 

Beggars can't be choosers, anything is better than nothing. Hughes has put a small fortune into London. If he'd put that money into a ground and a permanent base then they'd be far better off today. I'd also have no issues with the RFL assisting such a move.

[Eddie]

5 minutes ago, Damien said:

Beggars can't be choosers, anything is better than nothing. Hughes has put a small fortune into London. If he'd put that money into a ground and a permanent base then they'd be far better off today. I'd also have no issues with the RFL assisting such a move.

It’s easy to spend other people’s money, but I expect even a 10% share in the new Griffin Park would cost more than he’s put in to the Broncos so far. 

[Eddie]

14 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

A question I'd like to hear Martyn Sadler answer is this: how does he think that London could grow beyond a small stadium like Trailfinders playing teams from little northern towns which Londoners won't know or rate?

What’s Martin Sadler got to do with it?

[Damien]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

It’s easy to spend other people’s money, but I expect even a 10% share in the new Griffin Park would cost more than he’s put in to the Broncos so far. 

A 10% share would be £7 million, he has spent way more than that. He had spent over £20 million some years ago.

[Big Picture]

8 minutes ago, Eddie said:

What’s Martin Sadler got to do with it?

He stated on the program that he that he thinks London should aim to grow beyond a small stadium like Trailfinders, so I'd like to know how he thinks they could do that within the limits which RL currently has in the UK.

[Man of Kent]

32 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

He stated on the program that he that he thinks London should aim to grow beyond a small stadium like Trailfinders, so I'd like to know how he thinks they could do that within the limits which RL currently has in the UK.

He said they should share with Brentford (possibly not aware that London Irish got there first).

There’s other options. Wimbledon are building a new 9k ground due to open next year. That’s west-ish London and of a very suitable capacity for the Broncs.

[Big Picture]

19 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

He said they should share with Brentford (possibly not aware that London Irish got there first).

There’s other options. Wimbledon are building a new 9k ground due to open next year. That’s west-ish London and of a very suitable capacity for the Broncs.

You missed my point entirely.  They wouldn't aspire to a bigger stadium like Brentford's without a way to attract crowds of that size, so their issue is how to do that while they're stuck playing teams from little towns up north.

[John Drake]

If anyone hasn't seen the programme and would like to watch it now, here it is...

[Tommygilf]

16 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

One of the better editions because there was a reasonable amount of genuine debate between the panelists. I prefer that to Matt Shaw just taking turns to ask questions of the guests.

I agree, other panel style shows for sport etc have this element of debate which I much prefer.

[The Future is League]

I thought Wllie Poacing was excellent and talked a lot of sense about the cost of bring over a player from the NRL and it doesn't always work out losing the club money

[Oxford]

Willie Poching on when a Salary Cap is .... not a Salary Cap.

[Tommygilf]

30 minutes ago, Oxford said:

Willie Poching on when a Salary Cap is .... not a Salary Cap.

There are only two answers to what Poching is saying there. Either we equalise to the bottom what the lowest spending team in SL can afford, so what circa 1.2 million? Or we only allow into SL those that can pay to the full cap. 

I don't think either is particularly preferable but for the good of SL then the latter would be what has to happen.