THE RFL has issued a document that has 144 recommendations for the future under 13 separate headings.

It has been labelled by the governing body as a strategic review but in reality it’s a statement of desired outcomes over a series of diverse fields, including governance issues (which has 28 recommendations mostly aimed at Sport England to ensure that the RFL’s governance is recognised as being fully compliant with the requirements of that body).

The document headings then include Super League, Tier 2 competitions, Women’s Rugby League, the Challenge Cup, Wheelchair Rugby League, the community game and player production.

Then there is a section labelled “The contest, broadcast, product and season schedule”.

The final four sections are headed “Commercial, digital and media”, “France, strategically significant markets and assets”, “International relations” and finally “Finance and recapitalisation”.

It’s interesting that the most important issue – the chronic under-capitalisation of Rugby League – is the last subject to be listed.

Ultimately the main aim of a strategic review should be to consider how to enhance the income streams that come into the game.

If that can’t be achieved, then nothing much can be done in relation to the other issues that are listed.

Everything would then just be tinkering at the edges.

Inevitably since the document was made public on Thursday, most attention has focused on a few key areas.

Perhaps the greatest reaction has been the suggestion made by recommendation number 70: “The sport should consider a new venue for the final”.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the RFL’s contract to play the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley expires in 2027, so now is an opportune time to consider the role of the game’s oldest competition.

The RFL seems to believe that because we can’t fill Wembley, we should think about taking the game away from there to a venue that 60,000 people would fill, for example, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

The trouble with that logic is that we would almost certainly find that we then couldn’t fill that venue and the next call would be for an even smaller stadium.

The point is that the Challenge Cup throughout its history since 1929 has always been linked with Wembley.

Players have a totally understandable ambition to play at Wembley.

To take the Cup Final away from Wembley would be to concede that our sport is too insignificant to fill the national stadium and we would be condemned to second-class status forever more.

The alternative is to find a way to sell all those extra seats at Wembley and to restore the game as the massive event it used to be, to attract people with even a passing interest in Rugby League to the game as an event they can’t afford to miss.

That is just one recommendation and I’m sure there are lots that I would agree with and many that I don’t.

One other heading that I would have liked to see in the report, however, is player welfare, which in my book is an issue of growing importance, given the length of the season and the demands that Rugby League places on those who play it.

Perhaps that will be an issue that is dealt with further down the track.

The Magic of the Cup

I’M not a great fan of the idea of sending Super League clubs on awayday trips to Championship clubs for the third round of the Challenge Cup.

And yet I will readily admit that it’s great to see some Championship clubs drawing decent crowds for these clashes, with Workington’s 4,169 to see them face St Helens the most impressive of the attendances on Friday and Saturday.

Nonetheless, I would still prefer the draw to be completely open, giving Super League clubs that chance to play each other, so that we could have some big games even at this stage of the competition.

Season preview with John Kear

THE current edition of the League Express Podcast sees John Kear as our guest to preview the new season, which John does in his traditional lively and thought-provoking style.

Make sure you catch it, whether it’s the video version on YouTube or the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other platforms, and I hope you enjoy the chat.