The IMG Gradings Thread - Post all your IMG Gradings related questions or comments here

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

Can just see the coaches team talk next year

”Come on lads, its a big game today, a real 0.14 pointer with them being just below us.  Win today and another 0.011 points next week and we should be safe”

 

As funny as your post is AB , I'd suggest it will be more of 

" Thanks lads for your efforts in securing us a 7th place finish and just missing out on the play offs , but due to our lack of social media engagement we'll be removed from SL next year , so you'll all have to find another club " 

[Pulga]

Absolutely loving all the fans having an absolute dummy spit. This had to happen because P&R with no minimum spend has meant mediocrity has been rewarded. 

I welcome the English to 2023. You might like it here.

[Harry Stottle]

2 hours ago, Chrispmartha said:

They need to finish in the best position they can, so you’ve basically written your team off then?

What is that position Chris that will keep them in SL, fag packet calcs says 5th again may not be good enough.

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Or IMG will realise that their system which has convinced a few., only a week after its presentation is flawed already, how much more will come of it time will tell, might be better if they packed in now before their reputation gets really tarnished.

If only they would pack it in, this grading has already ruined the integrity of the sport. I’m going to find it hard to be enthused about the English club professional game next season if this craziness continues. 

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, Pulga said:

Absolutely loving all the fans having an absolute dummy spit. This had to happen because P&R with no minimum spend has meant mediocrity has been rewarded. 

I welcome the English to 2023. You might like it here.

London’s mediocrity certainly isn’t being rewarded. 

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

London’s mediocrity certainly isn’t being rewarded. 

Top post 

[Griff]

On the positive side, we made it to page 100.

[Harry Stottle]

54 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Which could also happen with normal relegation.

Off course it could,but that would be on merit which is acceptable, counting clicks on a keyboard, how many live in a certain post code, if directors have padded seats to plonk their brown ones on amongst other criteria completely divorced from sport is not acceptable.

[JohnM]

57 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Which part of it don't you understand?

The bit where you reveal your ignorance.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, JohnM said:

The bit where you reveal your ignorance.

So you do attend games ? 

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, JohnM said:

All of it. So come on, translate it into 

1 hour ago, JohnM said:

From the BBC Sport website,

"Sutton stressed the grading announcement was not final, and that everyone involved in the process needs to take on board what they have learned up to this point.etc...etc...

What we aimed to do with this illustrative year was to allow people to get used to it, as well as ourselves, and we could learn a lot from the process - but also the timing of how and when we do things," Sutton continued.

"As we should do with any big project we undertake, we need to learn from it, and the review is already under way. We'll report that back to our council in December and talk about how we do it next year when it's for real."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/67261448

 

I watched Tony Sutton on Saturday on the TV, and I am sure I could see the strings that were working him hanging down.

What we need to remember is Tony is from the old school, promoted from within, no wonder he was taken in by IMG, hopefully he may be seeing the error of this excersize.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Harry Stottle

[Harry Stottle]

25 minutes ago, Pulga said:

Absolutely loving all the fans having an absolute dummy spit. This had to happen because P&R with no minimum spend has meant mediocrity has been rewarded. 

I welcome the English to 2023. You might like it here.

Oi Drongo, have you noticed what the promoted club to SL did in 2023.

[Harry Stottle]

25 minutes ago, Eddie said:

If only they would pack it in, this grading has already ruined the integrity of the sport. I’m going to find it hard to be enthused about the English club professional game next season if this craziness continues. 

As I said Eddie, it's only anoraks like us who frequent these platforms know much about it, just wait until the word spreads.

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

22 minutes ago, JohnM said:

The bit where you reveal your ignorance.

Bloody hell, I've rattled your cage. It was a statement of fact sprinkled with a dose of sarcasm. I thought if anyone would understand sarcasm on here it would be you.  However I'll explain it for you.  In the previous few pages a few of us have mentioned that this could turn us away from the game.  You in your inimitable style while replying to Starbug tell him that you know better.  I actually found your comment offensive. I replied sarcastically. You obviously didn't like it. So now you know.

[JohnM]

21 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Bloody hell, I've rattled your cage. It was a statement of fact sprinkled with a dose of sarcasm. I thought if anyone would understand sarcasm on here it would be you.  However I'll explain it for you.  In the previous few pages a few of us have mentioned that this could turn us away from the game.  You in your inimitable style while replying to Starbug tell him that you know better.  I actually found your comment offensive. I replied sarcastically. You obviously didn't like it. So now you know.

Would that it were that simple. Gubrats was closer to the mark when he suggested you were implying I don't go to games.  Not that it's any business of his or yours. I started going to games around 1958-1959,  though I have to admit that since having had serious heart valve surgery four years ago, plus degenerative arthritis in my lower back and hips I've chosen my games with care, since my mobility is somewhat limited and living miles from the nearest SL club doesn't help. Not once, though in all of those years, not once, throughout the many ups and downs of the sport have I ever said that the game is gone, or that I'd stop going because I disagreed with some aspect of the structure. That would be childish, and would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

I suggest, though, that those amongst us who say they are going to turn away from the game because of the new structure will not actually do so.

[Anita Bath]

4 hours ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

I've heard of Castleford and Barrow, who's the other one?

Rochdale…had their financial portion downgraded further I belive…not that I understand all these things….I am simply a fan of the game. Downgrade it any y more and it will be negative..

[Chrispmartha]

7 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Simply Chris, NO

Says it all really. You’d rather the system fail and the sport go backwards just because you disagree with a league structure.

I find that odd.

[Chrispmartha]

7 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

It already has Chris 

No it hasn’t. It hasn’t even been implemented yet.

[GUBRATS]

23 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

No it hasn’t. It hasn’t even been implemented yet.

It already has for Leeds Wigan,Wire,Dragons,Saints,FC,HKR and to a lesser degree for Salford and the Giants , they are all essentially safe from relegation for next year and will be able to easily recruit for 2025 

[GUBRATS]

6 hours ago, JohnM said:

Would that it were that simple. Gubrats was closer to the mark when he suggested you were implying I don't go to games.  Not that it's any business of his or yours. I started going to games around 1958-1959,  though I have to admit that since having had serious heart valve surgery four years ago, plus degenerative arthritis in my lower back and hips I've chosen my games with care, since my mobility is somewhat limited and living miles from the nearest SL club doesn't help. Not once, though in all of those years, not once, throughout the many ups and downs of the sport have I ever said that the game is gone, or that I'd stop going because I disagreed with some aspect of the structure. That would be childish, and would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

I suggest, though, that those amongst us who say they are going to turn away from the game because of the new structure will not actually do so.

And as I put earlier , that's exactly what happened last time , after 3 years of Licencing I was attending maybe 2-3 home games against the more interesting opposition and a similar number of away games for a ' day out ' , that compared to around 90% of all games previously , it wasn't a conscious decision , the feeling around the sport had changed , I will expect that to happen again to those frozen out , not maybe overnight , but a slow creeping decline 

As MJM put at the top of the last page , the idea that any club frozen out for 3 years will be able to build their club to the point to displace a club already in is fanciful 

[Chrispmartha]

10 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

And as I put earlier , that's exactly what happened last time , after 3 years of Licencing I was attending maybe 2-3 home games against the more interesting opposition and a similar number of away games for a ' day out ' , that compared to around 90% of all games previously , it wasn't a conscious decision , the feeling around the sport had changed , I will expect that to happen again to those frozen out , not maybe overnight , but a slow creeping decline 

As MJM put at the top of the last page , the idea that any club frozen out for 3 years will be able to build their club to the point to displace a club already in is fanciful 

Yet some of those clubs and their owners that you think will be ‘frozen out’ have welcomed the proposal, including your clubs owner.

We are never going to agree because we’ve got fundamentally different ideas on what will make the game stronger and more marketable.

You seem to think that will happen by creating jeopardy with P&R I think it is by making the elite league and the elite teams stronger.

Although you’ve never answered my question of what system you prefer I can only presume 2 think the current system is the best ? The problem is it’s not working is it so something needs to change.

[Eddie]

45 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

And as I put earlier , that's exactly what happened last time , after 3 years of Licencing I was attending maybe 2-3 home games against the more interesting opposition and a similar number of away games for a ' day out ' , that compared to around 90% of all games previously , it wasn't a conscious decision , the feeling around the sport had changed , I will expect that to happen again to those frozen out , not maybe overnight , but a slow creeping decline 

As MJM put at the top of the last page , the idea that any club frozen out for 3 years will be able to build their club to the point to displace a club already in is fanciful 

Agreed, why would London Broncos fans bother going to games next season for example, and what incentive do their owners have to invest in a squad capable of challenging to stay up. Workington and Whitehaven also, they’ve been cut adrift.  The catchment criteria in particular is shameful. 

[phiggins]

Sorry, I know this will have been asked but not trawling through 100 pages. But what happens if 6 extra clubs make it to 15 points next year?

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, phiggins said:

Sorry, I know this will have been asked but not trawling through 100 pages. But what happens if 6 extra clubs make it to 15 points next year?

They have always said the top tier would expand to meet the numbers of Grade A clubs - in the unlikely event of that happening then the division would expand.

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, phiggins said:

Sorry, I know this will have been asked but not trawling through 100 pages. But what happens if 6 extra clubs make it to 15 points next year?

They won't