SL clubs look to reinstate Nigel Wood.

[Bull Mania]

19 hours ago, M j M said:

So much of what people said about him was couched in this sort of terminology. It was really pathetic in retrospect that we didn't have a higher standard of discussion about his successes (of which there were quite a few) and failures.

You only have to look at the stuff the "journalist" is retweeting about him. Unintelligent insults. 

I'm not a big fan of Nigel. I don't thnk he should be in a capacity at the RFL. But as you say there's an inability to have a grown up debate on his tenure. I've always thought he was just an easy caricature of the sports failings. He had some good things and some poor ones ( the Odsal farce will rightly always be a stain on his tenure) 

But look at the stuff about the Sobart deal that lazily gets thrown about. This isn't a kop out for Wood as he was the chief exec. But people always conveniently leave the detail out that there were two deals on the table. One was from Betfair (I believe around a £1 million at the time) and the Stobart deal. It's was the CLUBS who voted for the Sobart deal. 

Forget about Wood. What the RFL needs is someone who isn't from the RFL to come in and give it new life and fresh ideas. The clubs need to be kept well aware from the governance. 

[Griff]

15 hours ago, Padge said:

Most of the other nine, is not the other nine, and understanding an imaginary number and no names means none in reality.

Imaginary numbers are something different, actually.

 

[The Masked Poster]

17 minutes ago, Griff said:

Imaginary numbers are something different, actually.

 

Without watching the video, I actually used to understand imaginary numbers as I learnt them in engineering mathematics. But I don't have a clue about them now, totally wiped from my now pea sized brain.

Oh and different number bases too. 

[Sports Prophet]

My lasting memory of Nigel Wood will always be of a discussion I had with him in 2020 where he said the one rule change he would want to see in RL is the removal of a knock on as an infringement. I was kind of lost for words  

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

My lasting memory of Nigel Wood will always be of a discussion I had with him in 2020 where he said the one rule change he would want to see in RL is the removal of a knock on as an infringement. I was kind of lost for words  

Just think where the game would have been now if we'd have taken this route!!!

[Sports Prophet]

Just now, Dave T said:

Just think where the game would have been now if we'd have taken this route!!!

What a visionary  

[Sports Prophet]

Just now, Dave T said:

Just think where the game would have been now if we'd have taken this route!!!

AFL maybe… sorry, couldn’t help myself

[M j M]

4 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

My lasting memory of Nigel Wood will always be of a discussion I had with him in 2020 where he said the one rule change he would want to see in RL is the removal of a knock on as an infringement. I was kind of lost for words  

I believe this is a Sadler idea isn't it?

[Sports Prophet]

1 minute ago, M j M said:

I believe this is a Sadler idea isn't it?

Who knows, but anyone else supporting this idea needs immediate removal from the sport  

[Griff]

13 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Without watching the video, I actually used to understand imaginary numbers as I learnt them in engineering mathematics. But I don't have a clue about them now, totally wiped from my now pea sized brain.

Oh and different number bases too. 

Different number bases are more to do with computing.  Binary numbers can be abbreviated by writing them in octal or hexadecimal.

[Padge]

39 minutes ago, Griff said:

Imaginary numbers are something different, actually.

 

Are you trying to get to the root of the problem.

[The Phantom Horseman]

38 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

My lasting memory of Nigel Wood will always be of a discussion I had with him in 2020 where he said the one rule change he would want to see in RL is the removal of a knock on as an infringement. I was kind of lost for words  

This is effectively the rule they have in American Football, where it's called a "fumble" and the attacking team retains possession if it retains the ball.

The outcome of that rule is whenever there's a fumble and it's a close contest to see who can recover it first, multiple players (sometimes a dozen or more) pile on top of the ball and the officials often have to peel them off one by one and only then ascertain who is awarded the ball, and these pile-ons are notorious for nefarious activities intended to "encourage" the opponent to relinquish the ball.

[dkw]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

My lasting memory of Nigel Wood will always be of a discussion I had with him in 2020 where he said the one rule change he would want to see in RL is the removal of a knock on as an infringement. I was kind of lost for words  

They partially changed it though for "insert club you dislike here"......

[Coggo]

I see Eamonn McManus and Paul Lakin have joined the board of RL Commercial. 

 

[phiggins]

https://x.com/johnnyddavidson/status/1889968745247920333

Edited February 13 by phiggins

[Dave T]

53 minutes ago, phiggins said:

https://x.com/johnnyddavidson/status/1889968745247920333

Always interesting to read the discussions further down. As the conversation progresses about the SL clubs Davidson praises Wigan and then claims that too many of the club bosses are stuck in the past. Who does he mean? Because many clubs have shown real progress over the years - does he mean Catalans, Leeds, Wire, Hull KR, Saints? Surely he doesn't mean Wakey, or Leigh who have made great progress? 

Does he mean Cas and Hull with their new owners? Or Salford with theirs?

That leaves Huddersfield with Davey.

Many clubs are doing good stuff in really challenging environment, but this narrative that they are all backwards, inward looking incompetents is off the mark imo.

That said, I wouldn't trust them to run the governing body, the previous couple of times has been a disaster.

[binosh]

I’m led to believe that most (of not all) of the SL club owners are unhappy with the direction of the RFL heirachy and are unhappy at some of the decisions (or lack of) and Beaumont/Hetherington are their nominated spokesmen.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, binosh said:

I’m led to believe that most (of not all) of the SL club owners are unhappy with the direction of the RFL heirachy and are unhappy at some of the decisions (or lack of) and Beaumont/Hetherington are their nominated spokesmen.

It'd be good to understand a couple of things here. Firstly, what are the responsibilities of the RFL now that some things have been hived off to RLCom? And secondly, which of these areas do the owners think they are failing on.

 

[Gooleboy]

32 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It'd be good to understand a couple of things here. Firstly, what are the responsibilities of the RFL now that some things have been hived off to RLCom? And secondly, which of these areas do the owners think they are failing on.

 

Will there be a second coming for Elstone, once the darling of the SL Chairmen!

[JohnM]

Perhaps the malcontents will break away to join Beaumont's Ultimate Rugby League.

[Hopie]

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/rugby-league-bound-for-civil-war-as-rfl-fight-super-league-led-plans-for-chairman-removal

 

All sounds great, another way to see a cut in funding!

[lucky 7]

On 13/02/2025 at 22:48, Gooleboy said:

Will there be a second coming for Elstone, once the darling of the SL Chairmen!

That went well didn't it 

[DoubleD]

On 12/02/2025 at 10:03, Bull Mania said:

Forget about Wood. What the RFL needs is someone who isn't from the RFL to come in and give it new life and fresh ideas. The clubs need to be kept well aware from the governance. 

In principle this should be the case. However the issue is the poor calibre of personnel that get employed by the RFL and as such the clubs believe they could do a better job. This is a perpetual cycle because of the death by cuts by RFL which only leads them to offer less financially attractive packages for roles which only serves to have an undesired effect. 

Didn’t Wood leave with a £500k exit package? How soon clubs forget 

[Toby Chopra]

Two weeks on I'm still struggling to understand the "Why?" in all of this, given so much is in the hands of RLCom/IMG now anyway. What do they want doing differently?

If it's just about personal animosities/putting a mate into a cushy job/Nigel doing it on the cheap (select one or more!) then it doesn't bode well. But ultimately perhaps it doesn't make that much difference anyway, which says a lot about the role.

[Damien]

I'd love to see the rationale behind this. Clubs being unhappy with the direction and leadership of the sport is all a little vague.

I like the direction the sport is going and I think we have seen some big improvements. That has been driven by the clubs and the whole IMG/RL Commercial setup.

Outside that, which I am presuming this coup doesnt cover, what exactly is failing so badly with the RFL that we need a change. I am not defending the RFL, I think they are poor, but they were poor when Wood was there too. Its all just coming across as let's get our pal back in charge again just because.