Worzel

I'd think it would be far more likely that we'd have ended up with a load more club owners spending money they didn't really have, chasing success they were no more likely to get, before crashing and burning like Koucash did. That bloke was a terrible human. Running around on the Craven Park pitch inciting the home crowd with his daft giant cheque, after he relegated Rovers with a team his club couldn't afford and in large part didn't end up paying the bills for. We should be relegating clubs or at least doing points deductions for financial mismanagement like that. It's as bad as doping, still cheating however you cut it. More "visionary" people like that in the game? No thanks.

Don't come here with all of your reason and logic

This whole series of events really is the gift that keeps on giving. I’m trying desperately hard not to enjoy myself, but honestly after 20 years of sneers from that lot when we were in the doldrums very hard. But I’ll be strong! I really don’t understand the media strategy though: Why leak this to their compliant, “client journalist” at the Hull Daily Mail when it’s nowhere near being in the bag? Just didn’t seem necessary to take that risk of it blowing up in their faces. I’m sure FC fans have more patience and didn’t need to be fed some interim potential news

Think that would be a good appointment. Hull would have to commit to at least a couple of player cycles with him though, he needs to be able to build his own squad - and has 2 years left on his Salford deal so won’t be leaving that without some belt & braces guarantees I’m sure.

It was meta self-deprecation. That was my whole point. But never mind

That’s rugby league, you win some, you lose some. I always said the next 5 weeks were a test of whether Rovers were a Top 4 side, or “just” a play-off side. Failed the first test, but let’s see over the remaining weeks. Mind you, that said, at least we’re not letting in 50+ every single time we play despite a £2.5m wage budget and being the city’s Big Club (TM), so at least there’s that to cling on to eh…

No that wasn't a new overider, it was contained in your initial question: "If this IMG project in its present form results in clubs below SL struggling and maybe closing down, do you want it to succeed?" The success I talked about was assumed in your question, I just restated it back. The project exists to save and grow the elite comp. Those are its terms for success. Only by saving and growing the revenue-generating elite comp does rugby league at any level have a chance for long-term survival. So if some lower league clubs fail in the transition, they would have failed anyway - whether in the same timeframe, or later. I would rather we have a stronger Super League in 5 years time, with Keighley and Swinton (or whoever) having folded, than a weaker Super League where many more clubs will be in a far worse position than they are today. The sport as a whole comes first, before any individual club.

Yes. If the project strengthens the elite comp, enabling us to grow audiences and revenues, then yes I’m fine with some clubs below SL struggling and closing down. I’d rather they didn’t, but unless we secure the elite comp we’re all ultimately doomed anyway so they’d end up closing down regardless. The sport should come before preserving a few clubs.

Oh please. The French rugby league barely has 2 francs to rub together. Does the NRL expect Fiji RL to organise and pay for internationals? If the RFL had any strategic gumption they'd understand it is their role to lead the development of northern hemisphere rugby league, and that it is in its own interests to do so.

A full international taking place as a curtain raiser to a 2nd division match, with one of the international sides being weakened by not having players who are instead playing in the more important second division match taking place afterwards? Only in rugby league. Announcing a Test match only 9 weeks in advance, and then still not putting tickets on sale, or even saying what they might cost and when and how you might buy them? Only in rugby league. How does this sort of thing happen? Hmmm. Appoint a succession of administrators from within, who’ve all “failed upwards”, culminating in making the sponsorship manager who didn’t sell any meaningful sponsorships for a decade the MD of your new commercial venture? Only in rugby league. You really couldn’t make this stuff up

Because it's just better than any other town or city with an interest in rugby league? I'm pretty sure it's that

Unless orchestrated by an outside party like the CIA, or another internal historical power base like the army, most coups are usually the leaders fault too!! End of

No, the "we" is the sports elite comp. The clubs, collectively. Your "IMG followers" jibe is unnecessary, I don't follow anyone I've my own mind, and just prefer this path to our past despite some of its limitations. This isn't some sort of religious belief!

"We" is the elite level of the sport collectively, even if some individuals are less enthusiastic than others. This is what "we" have decided to do.

Not the same thing at all, a team or organisation is a completely different context. One child is - at most - equivalent to one player in my analysis. Teams don't fail because in the disastrous way you describe because just one player doesn't meet expectations. Parents don't get to choose (recruit) their children, they deal with what they have for better or worse. But in a sports or organisational team setting long-term performance is the leaders' responsibility. Always.

"New clubs" to spread domestic RL isn't a success metric. Increasing the value of media rights, which creates a more attractive investment environment later (whether for investors into new clubs, or investors into future additional clubs) is the success metric. But the first thing comes first. If we believe that the best way to do that is move to a closed comp, based on some quality criteria broader than "spend a fortune on your team for one season", in order to provide the ability for clubs to better plan for the long-term, then this is the right path. "Spreading" doesn't matter yet. Rugby league has often put the second thing first, with dots on maps, or grandiose dreams of new comps or random events. We've tried that for years.

When performance is this far under expectation it is almost always a fault of leadership: - Either you recruited the wrong people, whether the wrong "type" because you misunderstood the mission, or the right type but not good enough because you assessed them incorrectly (whether their skills, or their culture-fit)... - Or perhaps you recruited the right people but didn't coach and develop them well, or create a culture within which they could perform... - Or maybe you recruited the right people, did the development stuff too, but failed to performance manage them on the initial times that they under-performed and create an "improvement environment" So like I say this level of failure is always a fault of leadership. One player under-performing, that's his fault and you deal with it and move on. An entire team under-performing, over an entire year? That's your fault, or the people you hired to lead them's fault (which is also your fault), and so its a cowards way out to just cast blame downwards.

Too early to tell in the forwards and outside backs, but for the spine I think Williams at 7 and Lewis at 6 is the half-back combination that gives us the best mix

Saints just lost their heads when they went two scores behind, which is shocking from such an experienced side. They had 16 minutes left, plenty of time, probably 10 or 11 sets in possession, and yet they played like they had only 4 minutes left and needed to score on the very next set. Really weird stuff.

Yeah you're right that was my misread. Not that I'm still sensitive about it at all. Oh no.

I think everyone at Rovers knows the next 4 league games are the real test of the side. I enjoy teasing some Leigh fans, but genuinely don't have a clue how decent Rovers really are yet to be honest. It's a long season, and with hindsight we've have a softish start to it. We'll know one way or the other at the end of May I think.

You went there, I merely matched the tone, although your selective editing misrepresents what I responded to. Bit weak that mate. We didn’t choke in the final. You played a team with a genuine injury crisis, with Lewis at full back, Rowan Milnes at 6 and a NSW Cup scrum half who’d only got off the plane a few weeks earlier. We still stood up like men, didn’t moan about it or make excuses, and almost won regardless. Contrast that with the almost world-class spine you lot still put out yesterday, with all the expectation-managing “woe is me” nonsense about a decimated side before the match, and the “brave defeat” stuff afterwards. Its comical. Hopefully that’s a more considered, factual response and doesn’t seem like an odd comment.

Cry a bit more, it adds to the enjoyment

I was responding to a very specific point about two players defence capability, not Rovers ability to win games or trophies. But then you knew that.

The grapes they grow on the slopes of Castle Hill must be especially bitter this spring