Successful league 1 season launch

[OriginalMrC]

Says a lot about the state of the game when 3 clubs can't even be arsed to send someone to the season launch. 

Stuff like this really annoys me and is a perfect example of why I've become disillusioned with the game. People can't even get the basics right. What message does this send out to sponsors and would be investors into the sport. Not only that when IMG look at the state of the sport it really won't be surprising when they ask what value does league 1 offer. 

[gingerjon]

They didn't have all the clubs at the Championship launch either

[OriginalMrC]

11 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

They didn't have all the clubs at the Championship launch either

Sponsors in both comps are delighted I'm sure. Clubs also scratching their heads wondering why they can't grow their revenue 

[Number 16]

Which clubs are missing?

[Barley Mow]

8 minutes ago, Number 16 said:

Which clubs are missing?

North Wales, London Skolars and Cornwall. (Toulouse and London Broncos the missing clubs from the Championship photos)

Edited February 12, 2023 by Barley Mow

[Rach]

5 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

North Wales, London Skolars and Cornwall.

Be interesting to see how many of the Northern clubs would have attended had it been held in Cornwall or London rather than Keighley ?

#justanobservation

Edited February 12, 2023 by Rach

[Midlands hobo]

So what the excuse for North Wales?

[RigbyLuger]

37 minutes ago, Rach said:

Be interesting to see how many of the Northern clubs would have attended had it been held in Cornwall or London rather than Keighley ?

#justanobservation

It's always likely to be near where the majority of the clubs and media are though, isn't it? 

[Rene_Artois]

Shows real apathy from the 3 clubs not represented. Realistically the eventual winner will come from 5 of the 7 that bothered turning up. Actually I'd go as far as just 3.

[Jughead]

Aren’t these things typically held during the week, anyway? I’m not making excuses for clubs but it seems daft to expect a part-time rugby league player to travel 772 miles, 418 miles or 246 miles (just an example, I don’t expect players to live at stadiums) for a photo and a quick chat on a Tuesday afternoon   in Keighley.

I don’t get why there’s a season launch for League One. I know what a season launch is for and why but it’s the same every year. Stand in full kit next to the trophy looking moody for the annual stock image for the third tier and most likely some nice quotes that League Express can whack on the League One page that Player A says his team are aiming for the top four or that Player B and his team are aiming to be the best of the rest with some hope that they’ll get the odd scalp of a heartland team depending on the location of their club. It’s all very same-y and with most things to do with the sport, poorly executed. 

So, we’ve got half a photo and will run with that for 2023. It’s just daft and sums up the RFL, their attitude and their interest levels in League One. 

[Tommygilf]

25 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Aren’t these things typically held during the week, anyway? I’m not making excuses for clubs but it seems daft to expect a part-time rugby league player to travel 772 miles, 418 miles or 246 miles (just an example, I don’t expect players to live at stadiums) for a photo and a quick chat on a Tuesday afternoon   in Keighley.

Almost certainly the main issue here.

[gogledd]

5 hours ago, Midlands hobo said:

So what the excuse for North Wales?

Perhaps our players were working their normal jobs and couldn't get time off to travel to Keighley and back for a photograph.

[langpark]

Yes players have a job/life outside RL. But surely ONE out of 25 players could have pulled it off, had the club and RFL both really wanted it to happen. 

 

[Tommygilf]

16 minutes ago, langpark said:

Yes players have a job/life outside RL. But surely ONE out of 25 players could have pulled it off, had the club and RFL both really wanted it to happen. 

Its perfectly possible that they couldn't/didn't want to? Were they paying for the time off?

 

[langpark]

20 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Its perfectly possible that they couldn't/didn't want to? Were they paying for the time off?

That is why I mentioned RFL, obviously they should cover the travel expenses at least.  However, I believe with even better forward planning, you could pull this off with minimal expense.

For example, had this been done in December. I am pretty sure every team has a northerner in their ranks.  Make sure a notherner that plays for; Cornwall, Skolars. Thunder and Hurricanes have taken a full kit with them before their go home for the off-season.  Set a date, rendez-vous in Huddersfield, for example, and make sure a player from each club can attend.  Sure, they will still need to cover some fuel expenses, but this is far more affordable and manageable for all involved.

[Exiled red]

Could they not have photoshopped them in?

[RigbyLuger]

If the RFL just didn't bother with a season launch, people would moan they didn't care about League 1.

[Gomersall]

9 minutes ago, langpark said:

That is why I mentioned RFL, obviously they should cover the travel expenses at least.  However, I believe with even better forward planning, you could pull this off with minimal expense.

For example, had this been done in December. I am pretty sure every team has a northerner in their ranks.  Make sure a notherner that plays for; Cornwall, Skolars. Thunder and Hurricanes have taken a full kit with them before their go home for the off-season.  Set a date, rendez-vous in Huddersfield, for example, and make sure a player from each club can attend.  Sure, they will still need to cover some fuel expenses, but this is far more affordable and manageable for all involved.

The problem there is if a club/s change their shirts, as often happens, even at L1 level, someone will point out that the player/s from club X/Y/Z is wearing last season’s shirt and claim how tin pot the sport is.

[tim2]

45 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Its perfectly possible that they couldn't/didn't want to? Were they paying for the time off?

 

What like some sort of broken-time payment? Never, sir, I say never!

[Midlands hobo]

56 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Its perfectly possible that they couldn't/didn't want to? Were they paying for the time off?

 

Let's face it they could Photoshop it if needed 

[OriginalMrC]

The clubs could have sent someone to the launch I am sure. However, they weren't all there and instead of the RFL posting a terrible looking photo they could have easily produced a graphic which had the captains from all the clubs. I realise there's not much money in league 1 but it's still considered to and elite part of the sport and everyone should act like it is. 

[gingerjon]

54 minutes ago, tim2 said:

What like some sort of broken-time payment? Never, sir, I say never!

If they can’t afford to pose cross armed next to a trophy then they shouldn’t pose cross armed next to a trophy 

[creditwhereitsdews]

You really have to wonder how rugby league can be considered a professional sport these days.
To many clubs it seems professionalism is just paying players and having a silly nickname.
As well my RL team, I also follow a team in the 10th-tier of the football pyramid and I can safely say the latter is a far more professional and ambitious organisation than many clubs in the second and third tier of rugby league, my own included.

[Madrileño]

53 minutes ago, creditwhereitsdews said:

You really have to wonder how rugby league can be considered a professional sport these days.
To many clubs it seems professionalism is just paying players and having a silly nickname.
As well my RL team, I also follow a team in the 10th-tier of the football pyramid and I can safely say the latter is a far more professional and ambitious organisation than many clubs in the second and third tier of rugby league, my own included.

I totally agree with what you are saying, but nobody in the real world calls these teams "professional". An example of 'the real world' would be football. I can imagine that neither you nor anyone else calls your Tier 10 football club "professional", and rightly so.

It is peculiar to rugby league on England that people refer to teams like Hunslet as "professional". They are literally a shade above amateur. They train a couple of nights a week, have tiny budgets, minimal medical, minimal S&C, minimal sports science, players and staff all have other jobs. They are barely semi pro, and have very little that differentiates them from decent NCL teams. On the pitch, it is basically amateur stuff and we can sèe that when teams like Whitehaven get promoted to the Championship and get thumped by a Featherstone or a Bradford. 

I find it completely bizarre. I cannot imagine IMG being remotely interested in carrying these clubs along. 

[Barley Mow]

12 hours ago, Madrileño said:

I totally agree with what you are saying, but nobody in the real world calls these teams "professional". An example of 'the real world' would be football. I can imagine that neither you nor anyone else calls your Tier 10 football club "professional", and rightly so.

It is peculiar to rugby league on England that people refer to teams like Hunslet as "professional". They are literally a shade above amateur. They train a couple of nights a week, have tiny budgets, minimal medical, minimal S&C, minimal sports science, players and staff all have other jobs. They are barely semi pro, and have very little that differentiates them from decent NCL teams. On the pitch, it is basically amateur stuff and we can sèe that when teams like Whitehaven get promoted to the Championship and get thumped by a Featherstone or a Bradford. 

I find it completely bizarre. I cannot imagine IMG being remotely interested in carrying these clubs along. 

Of course many of our professional clubs are similar in terms of profile to non-league football clubs.

The use of the term professional however is a result of the differentiation in British rugby league between RFL full member clubs, who are allowed to pay players, and recreational clubs who aren't RFL members themselves and can't pay players.

I'm not aware of other sports with a long history of that differentiation.

In UK RL when we say professional it simply means those clubs who are allowed to be professional (should they wish to and have the means).

We have 34 RFL full members (plus 2 french guest teams) in the professional British system. In Australian terms this is essentially 34 first grade clubs - This number has fluctuated between mid-twenties and mid-thirties over the years, but has always been too many for all of the clubs to play each other twice during the season. Consequently, they were split either geographically or into divisions, but traditionally all retained the same status of RFL membership and permission to pay players.

None of these clubs were what you would describe as professional until TV money came into the game in the '90s. Until then almost all players were part time, but the clubs were called professional because they could pay players.

Now the top clubs are able to pay a full time squad, but all the others retain their full RFL membership and permission to pay players, so their status remains the same and they are still called professional.

It may be unique to RL, but in the context of this sport in this country, it makes sense.

I'm not sure if IMG will have any power to remove RFL membership from clubs they don't want to 'carry', but I for one hope they won't. We were told they would have a 'whole game' approach and I hope that is the case.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Barley Mow