McManus rejects proposal for 11-team Super League

[Scubby]

1 hour ago, paulwalker71 said:

Really? How so?

He meant grow and then fold 

[Magic XIII]

5 hours ago, sweaty craiq said:

Urban myth due to poor facilities

 

Or running an academy grade and developing a good number of SL grade players. And having a local train station. 

[yipyee]

2 hours ago, paulwalker71 said:

Really? How so?

There will always be a home and therefore can better sell a tv package,

There will then be 2 options for full time RL for young players which will improve the playing side which will create competition at international level. Imagine the England side if Wigan or Leeds or Saints was the only academy in England?

The comp will become more french so the conception will change. For example the barcelona soccer chairman did a double take when a catalan anthem played on the tv during an airing of the challenge cup final. This then led to the game at camp nou and closer ties to catalonia in spain. 

The biggest home games for clubs are the derby games, there would then be a french derby game. The biggest attendances in SL are for derby games..

So in summary,

Another FT squad playing at the top level which creates oportunities for toug players.

2 FT squads based on French players to not only play in france but to provide players for other SL clubs

International side to benefit from additional blooded players at top level and create important competition for places.

Game in general to benefit from a raised profile of 2 prffessional teams including home competition. Increased profile to inspire young players to play XIII code.

Increased likihood of a national tv contract. Again benefit as above. With more interest more watching national games and more money flowing into the coffers

As players retire the coaching of the amateur/semi pro teams will improve and snowball, this has already start to happen but will improve with more proffesional players.

[yipyee]

30 minutes ago, Scubby said:

He meant grow and then fold 

Erm toulouse have been around nearly 100 years, 

All the flat cappers predict doom and gloom annually for London Catalan Newcastle etc.. but all are proving genuine expansion successes

[Rupert Prince]

27 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

First choice would be Toronto being taken over and continuing. Saves the drama of selecting another team.

Second, can we negotiate a TV deal in France for next year under the proviso that the are 2 French clubs? Check their conditions, and if fair, Toulouse in.

Otherwise, London (relegated team) or Featherstone (losing GFists). I'd side with London given that they had a full time team, but perhaps application process?

I see the likes of Leigh, Widnes, Bradford and Newcastle way behind these first 4 choices.

11 teams just shouldn't be an option, especially with Magic Weekend.

And all of this is during a major pandemic which has massively disrupted the game and is going to rush some club in which will have zero time or money to organise a viable team. ???

I am getting fed up with all these half baked suggestions. The game needs to sit down and organise itself. Properly.

[PEANUT HEAD]

4 hours ago, Davo5 said:

I'd be happy with Toulouse,they were top of the league when the season finished !! and it gives Leigh fans another foreign target to whinge about.

I would be happy for Toulouse as well , just another nail in the coffin of SL.

[PEANUT HEAD]

30 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

And all of this is during a major pandemic which has massively disrupted the game and is going to rush some club in which will have zero time or money to organise a viable team. ???

I am getting fed up with all these half baked suggestions. The game needs to sit down and organise itself. Properly.

That will never happen. 

[Scubby]

51 minutes ago, yipyee said:

Erm toulouse have been around nearly 100 years, 

All the flat cappers predict doom and gloom annually for London Catalan Newcastle etc.. but all are proving genuine expansion successes

I was a joke and a play on words yipyee  People know my views on Toulouse. They should have been given a place in SL years ago. 

[yipyee]

2 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

And all of this is during a major pandemic which has massively disrupted the game and is going to rush some club in which will have zero time or money to organise a viable team. ???

I am getting fed up with all these half baked suggestions. The game needs to sit down and organise itself. 

One could argue that several FT squads in the championship could make a fist of it in the SL as London did do last time they were promoted. 

Toulouse have beaten SL opponents also and were gearing up for a promotion push. 

Money is a strange one as there are several owners with personal wealth who will add money if necessary.

Both London and Toulouse would be better for SL than Wakefield, Widnes and Leigh

Sorry for singling these out but wakey are Perennial make up the numbers team and have done very little to improve their ground, fan base, player development etc..

Leigh and Widnes are just too small, have had several attempts and cannot get 5 figure crowds, cannot attract the best talent in their areas and will always be in the shadows of the SL giants on their doorstep.

[Adelaide Tiger]

3 hours ago, yipyee said:

One could argue that several FT squads in the championship could make a fist of it in the SL as London did do last time they were promoted. 

Toulouse have beaten SL opponents also and were gearing up for a promotion push. 

Money is a strange one as there are several owners with personal wealth who will add money if necessary.

Both London and Toulouse would be better for SL than Wakefield, Widnes and Leigh

Sorry for singling these out but wakey are Perennial make up the numbers team and have done very little to improve their ground, fan base, player development etc..

Leigh and Widnes are just too small, have had several attempts and cannot get 5 figure crowds, cannot attract the best talent in their areas and will always be in the shadows of the SL giants on their doorstep.

If this was a normal season with P&R then no doubt any club from Toulouse, London, Leigh, Fev that gained promotion may have a chance or avoiding relegation from SL.

BUT, this year is like no other.  I would imagine that all 4 of those teams have been hit hard by having a lot less income this year.  Even if one of them is asked to join SL next year and given an equal share of the TV money I fear that will not be enough to fund both the off field operation and fund a competitive team.  The exception might be London if David Hughes empties his pocket again.

[Harry Stottle]

14 hours ago, Davo5 said:

I'd be happy with Toulouse,they were top of the league when the season finished !! and it gives Leigh fans another foreign target to whinge about.

Sad, sad man!

[leytherz]

9 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Sad, sad man!

toulouse only were top as they had played 1 more game than leigh and fev.lets have a play off between leigh toulouse fev and london for a place in super league.lets settle it on the field like its supposed to be.if we start in a few weeks it would give the winners time to prepare for super league next year.

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, yipyee said:

There will then be 2 options for full time RL for young players which will improve the playing side which will create competition at international level. Imagine the England side if Wigan or Leeds or Saints was the only academy in England?

Yes all those British clubs have academies, but it is not from only those towns that the youngster's are picked from is it, likewise in France presently Catalan are the only French club aligned to the British game that has an academy, so it could then be construed that Catalan are the premier academy and therefore should have the pick of all the U'16 and U'19's lads with any ambition to make a career in the game in all of France, no sharing or fighting for young  players as Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Warrington, Huddersfield, Wakefield etc, etc, have to do, so the Catalan team by your reckoning should be full of French lads no need for Brits, Aussies, Kiwi's and Islanders surely that would be the case after all your argument is that with one more academy - Toulouse - France will become a much improved international team, when in reality Toulouse would be in competion with Catalan for the available youngster's of the right quality, the dependency on overseas player's will be greater if there are two French clubs in SL.

Look it is no different here, our clubs employ upto 90 overseas player's because we cannot produce enough and our junior system is at least 20 times stronger than that of France, agreed France have a structure in place and are a much better option than clubs from over the Atlantic, but it will take a hell of a long time at least 30 years to acheive even half of what you claim will happen and realistically I don't think it will happen at all, the  FFR in monetary terms is poor, immensely poor it is the infrastructure of the game in the country that requires vast improvement to provide those lads that the pro clubs can pick up, exactly the same as over here to provide the academies of Wigan, Saints, Leeds et al.

 

[Harry Stottle]

28 minutes ago, leytherz said:

toulouse only were top as they had played 1 more game than leigh and fev.lets have a play off between leigh toulouse fev and london for a place in super league.lets settle it on the field like its supposed to be.if we start in a few weeks it would give the winners time to prepare for super league next year.

To much fear factor from those on these pages for that to happen if they were the panel to choose a 12th SL team, gladly they just have an opinion and a lot of wind, I would much sooner lose in open competition than be overlooked in the boardroom.

As for choosing a team on last season's exploits what's that all about, you can't get beyond the fact that were all losers, other wise presently they would be in SL.

[Harry Stottle]

C'mon Dav, share your immense knowledge answer posts in a cohesive manner, just with answering with emojis makes you look like the thickie sat in the corner.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

11 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

And all of this is during a major pandemic which has massively disrupted the game and is going to rush some club in which will have zero time or money to organise a viable team. ???

I am getting fed up with all these half baked suggestions. The game needs to sit down and organise itself. Properly.

So you'd go with 11? What would you do at Magic Weekend?

[Davo5]

16 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

C'mon Dav, share your immense knowledge answer posts in a cohesive manner, just with answering with emojis makes you look like the thickie sat in the corner.

Ooooh,you angry,angry man,plenty of insults and late edits this morning H.

[yipyee]

33 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Yes all those British clubs have academies, but it is not from only those towns that the youngster's are picked from is it, likewise in France presently Catalan are the only French club aligned to the British game that has an academy, so it could then be construed that Catalan are the premier academy and therefore should have the pick of all the U'16 and U'19's lads with any ambition to make a career in the game in all of France, no sharing or fighting for young  players as Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Warrington, Huddersfield, Wakefield etc, etc, have to do, so the Catalan team by your reckoning should be full of French lads no need for Brits, Aussies, Kiwi's and Islanders surely that would be the case after all your argument is that with one more academy - Toulouse - France will become a much improved international team, when in reality Toulouse would be in competion with Catalan for the available youngster's of the right quality, the dependency on overseas player's will be greater if there are two French clubs in SL.

Look it is no different here, our clubs employ upto 90 overseas player's because we cannot produce enough and our junior system is at least 20 times stronger than that of France, agreed France have a structure in place and are a much better option than clubs from over the Atlantic, but it will take a hell of a long time at least 30 years to acheive even half of what you claim will happen and realistically I don't think it will happen at all, the  FFR in monetary terms is poor, immensely poor it is the infrastructure of the game in the country that requires vast improvement to provide those lads that the pro clubs can pick up, exactly the same as over here to provide the academies of Wigan, Saints, Leeds et al.

 

But thats not true,

Catalan only has a limited amount of spots and are based in one area.

Without multiple academys in the UK in addition to the big clubs we would not have Walmsley or Hardaker! Now imagine only 1 UK academy, there would only be 2 wingers so we would not have an abundance of top draw wingers as those not in the academy would play Union.

When Crudaders had a brief stint in SL there was an influx of Welh players to the league, why didnt these players come through the heartland academys??

Similar with London!

The more FT clubs in different areas the better and we will see more players being developed.

I actually think clubs employ 90 overseas players because they can as it seems to be a mission of each club to fill all quota spots.

When clubs give youth a go most step up to the plate.

I would reduce the overseas quota to 3 and remove rhe exception of the islanders as this would help remove the overseas dross and allow player development.

[Harry Stottle]

17 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

C'mon Dav, share your immense knowledge answer posts in a cohesive manner, just with answering with emojis makes you look like the thickie sat in the corner.

And another emoji, Thanks for confirming what I already suspected Dav.

[Red Willow]

Isn't there less money next year from the Sky deal ? 

Not sure the current Canada experiment is viable,  

If Toronto return I'd say that they have to meet certain criteria, the first being full visas for overseas players rather than the 6 month ones they use now.The same criteria would have to be in place for any overseas player unless joining with less than 6 months of the year left.

There has to be some punishment for this year as would apply to the British clubs had this been any of them.

 

[GUBRATS]

16 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Ooooh,you angry,angry man,plenty of insults and late edits this morning H.

Well give an opinion , contribute to a discussion , yes we all from time to time use the emoticons to have a laugh or a humourous dig , but not all the time , it becomes boring 

[GUBRATS]

18 minutes ago, yipyee said:

But thats not true,

Catalan only has a limited amount of spots and are based in one area.

Without multiple academys in the UK in addition to the big clubs we would not have Walmsley or Hardaker! Now imagine only 1 UK academy, there would only be 2 wingers so we would not have an abundance of top draw wingers as those not in the academy would play Union.

When Crudaders had a brief stint in SL there was an influx of Welh players to the league, why didnt these players come through the heartland academys??

Similar with London!

The more FT clubs in different areas the better and we will see more players being developed.

I actually think clubs employ 90 overseas players because they can as it seems to be a mission of each club to fill all quota spots.

When clubs give youth a go most step up to the plate.

I would reduce the overseas quota to 3 and remove rhe exception of the islanders as this would help remove the overseas dross and allow player development.

In essence Catalans have a whole competition as an academy , not a criticism of them by me , just the way it is , just like many of our team's it's depressing when we see the creative positions filled with players from down under , I'm ok with the monster centres and back rowers , but the key positions isn't good 

[GUBRATS]

18 minutes ago, Red Willow said:

Isn't there less money next year from the Sky deal ? 

Not sure the current Canada experiment is viable,  

If Toronto return I'd say that they have to meet certain criteria, the first being full visas for overseas players rather than the 6 month ones they use now.The same criteria would have to be in place for any overseas player unless joining with less than 6 months of the year left.

There has to be some punishment for this year as would apply to the British clubs had this been any of them.

 

Any punishment will stop Toronto surviving , basically we've a week to make up our mind on the deal any new investor/buyer is offered 

[Rupert Prince]

40 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

So you'd go with 11? What would you do at Magic Weekend?

What's special about the Magic Weekend... even if it's so important, why should we tie ourselves up in knots for one season?

Why should 1 non SL club be "selected" into SL (in a rushed half baked manner) just so we have this magic weekend?   And why should current SL clubs then risk relegation (after the trauma of Covid and resultant losses) after selecting a championship side on a thoughtless whim. 

The new tv contract is coming and RL need to pause and THINK about the future, not waste time fiddling with where to put the sticking plaster.

 

[Eddie]

9 hours ago, yipyee said:

 

Leigh and Widnes are just too small, have had several attempts and cannot get 5 figure crowds, cannot attract the best talent in their areas and will always be in the shadows of the SL giants on their doorstep.

Widnes have been world champions, and both them and Leigh can draw bigger crowds than London or Toulouse. They may not be glamorous locations but you’re too quick to dismiss them. 
 

Nobody but the big five (and potentially Toronto) can draw five figure crowds either. Might as well boot Cas and Catalans out of SL.