Explain - No Manchester Super League ?

[marv]

I was brought up in Salford and were always referred to Manchester centre as "town" so in essence Manchester/Salford are inseparable twins and on a map are joined well and truly along the entire hip.

I know a couple of guys from saford, one lives up here in the lakes now near me, when he goes "home" for the weekend "town" is most certainly manchester city centre. but if you were to suggest he was a manc, he would be unhappy.

driving around the place aswell your almost unable to tell when manchester starts and salford stops, apart from the lovely pink signage in salford!!

people can quote wiki all they like to tell us where this place starts or that place stops, its not even remotley close to real peoples opinion and experience.

 

[bowes]

For the record the only Manchester club will be playing the only (adults) Liverpool club this year in the North West Premier division of the last ever Rugby League Conference:

Mancunians
Liverpool Buccaneers
Wigan Riversiders
Widnes West Bank
Accrington & Leyland Lions
East Lancashire Vikings

 

[Evil Homer]

Is that a step up for the Mancs? Sure they were only at merit league level last year. Also do you have any additional info about the new Conference structure for next year Bowes?

 

[bowes]

They were in the Regional last year, so one division step up

As for divisions:

National:
Warrington Wizards
Gateshead Lightning
Bramley
Huddersfield Underbank Rangers
Kippax
Dewsbury Celtic
Featherstone Lions
Hemel
Coventry
Nottingham
Valley Cougars

Scotland Premier
Edinburgh
Fife
Moray Eels
Carluke
Ayrshire
Easterhouse

Scottish Regional:
Falkirk
Moray Titans
Ayr Knights
Aberdeen Warriors
Cumbernauld

North East Premier:
Gateshead Storm
Gateshead Spartans
Wallsend
Peterlee
Sunderland
Jarrow

North East Regional:
Whitley Bay
Winlaton
Cramlington
Durham Demons
Northallerton
Peterlee 'A'
East Cumbria Crusaders
Hartlepool

North West Premier:
as stated

North West Regional:
Crewe & Nantwich
Chester
Blackpool Sea Eagles
Chorley Panthers
Rochdale Cobras
Cadishead Rhinos

Yorkshire (West)
East Leeds
Leeds Akkies
Parkside Hawks
Shaw Cross Sharks
Guiseley Rangers
Lindley Swifts
Prospect Pirates
Doncaster Toll Bar

Yorkshire (East)
Scarborough
York Lokomotive
Moorends-Thorne
Rotherham
Barnsley
Walton Warriors
Knottingley Rockware Stolze
Cutsyke Raiders

Midlands (West)
TBC

Midlands (East)
TBC

West
Oxford
Swindon
Bristol A
Gloucestershire
Wiltshire Wyverns

South West
Devon Sharks
East Devon
North Devon
Exeter
Plymouth
Somerset Vikings
South Somerset
South Dorset

Welsh Premier:
TBC

Welsh Regional:
TBC

South Premier:
St Albans
Eastern Rhinos
West London
South London
Hammersmith
Hainault

East Regional:
TBC

London & South Regional:
Greenwich
Medway
Elmbridge
Guildford
Portsmouth
Southampton
Sussex

 

[manoj p]

There is a Super League club based in Manchester. Salford. They have over 100 years worth of history, and one of the oldest Rugby League grounds (again, over 100 years, and this is their last season in it).


In Manchester, though, there is a lot of competition with other teams. Rugby Union is big in England, and Sale Sharks are based in Stockport, which is a different district of Greater Manchester.
You then have the dominance of football, with both Manchester United and Manchester City around (especially Manchester United, which is also based in Salford).

Like union is a factor in Manchester. :lol:

 

[bowes]

Like union is a factor in Manchester. :lol:

It was in 1895. But now only popular in the posh boroughs to the south rather than the city itself though even then no match for soccer (Sale are a lot bigger than Salford mind)

 

[manoj p]

Union has no presence in Manchester.

 

[bowes]

Very little in Manchester the city itself (it's folly to say none) but it's still bigger there than RL which has only just got a club there again at ANY level.

 

[Goldfields_Titans]

(Sale are a lot bigger than Salford mind)

Judging by what? Crowds, stadium size or income? :roll:

 

[bowes]

What a strange post.

I don't know about stadium but Sale get significantly bigger crowds than Salford (not hard) even if poor by RU premiership standards and have much higher income and much better on field performances.

If you're talking the former Greater Manchester that got scrapped 25 years ago then Wigan are of course bigger than Sale but Sale are bigger than unpopular Salford.

 

[bowes]

They were in the Regional last year, so one division step up

As for divisions:

National:
Warrington Wizards
Gateshead Lightning
Bramley
Huddersfield Underbank Rangers
Kippax
Dewsbury Celtic
Featherstone Lions
Hemel
Coventry
Nottingham
Valley Cougars

Scotland Premier
Edinburgh
Fife
Moray Eels
Carluke
Ayrshire
Easterhouse

Scottish Regional:
Falkirk
Moray Titans
Ayr Knights
Aberdeen Warriors
Cumbernauld

North East Premier:
Gateshead Storm
Gateshead Spartans
Wallsend
Peterlee
Sunderland
Jarrow

North East Regional:
Whitley Bay
Winlaton
Cramlington
Durham Demons
Northallerton
Peterlee 'A'
East Cumbria Crusaders
Hartlepool

North West Premier:
as stated

North West Regional:
Crewe & Nantwich
Chester
Blackpool Sea Eagles
Chorley Panthers
Rochdale Cobras
Cadishead Rhinos

Yorkshire (West)
East Leeds
Leeds Akkies
Parkside Hawks
Shaw Cross Sharks
Guiseley Rangers
Lindley Swifts
Prospect Pirates
Doncaster Toll Bar

Yorkshire (East)
Scarborough
York Lokomotive
Moorends-Thorne
Rotherham
Barnsley
Walton Warriors
Knottingley Rockware Stolze
Cutsyke Raiders

Midlands (West)
TBC

Midlands (East)
TBC

West
Oxford
Swindon
Bristol A
Gloucestershire
Wiltshire Wyverns

South West
Devon Sharks
East Devon
North Devon
Exeter
Plymouth
Somerset Vikings
South Somerset
South Dorset

Welsh Premier:
TBC

Welsh Regional:
TBC

South Premier:
St Albans
Eastern Rhinos
West London
South London
Hammersmith
Hainault

East Regional:
TBC

London & South Regional:
Greenwich
Medway
Elmbridge
Guildford
Portsmouth
Southampton
Sussex

East:
Northampton A
Bedford
St Ives
Norwich
Bury
Gladiators (Sudbury)

Welsh Premier:
Bridgend
Cardiff
CPC Bears
Torfaen
Titans (Machen)
Valley Cougars A

Championship:
Blackwood
NPT Steelers
Tydfil Wildcats
Dyffryn Devils
Bonymaen Broncos

 

[roughyedspud]

we could do with edinburgh eagles joining championship 1...with a eagles 'A' side remaining in the scottish league...


as well as coventry bears and probably hemel too

its about time the RFL pitched in and stepped them up

 

[bowes]

we could do with edinburgh eagles joining championship 1...with a eagles 'A' side remaining in the scottish league...


as well as coventry bears and probably hemel too

its about time the RFL pitched in and stepped them up

Hemel and probably Coventry will step up sooner rather than later, could even be next year. Not convinced by Edinburgh they don't even run juniors, down the list below not just Hemel and Coventry but also Nottingham, Bristol, Northampton, Bramley and another Welsh club as far as I'm concerned. Still I wouldn't be surprised to see a Scottish club one day (from the West where they have more junior clubs though not Edinburgh Eagles who are after all just one team that is Napier University in summer), maybe by 2015, unlike Ireland where they have ZERO junior development.

The problem is there's no intermediate league to really build them up in between the Scottish League and Championship 1, whereas there will be a Southern Conference as of next year (hopefully open to South Wales clubs though I haven't heard that confirmed).

 

[Evil Homer]

Good to see Coventry having a bit of a resurgence. I remember watching them win the NL3 in 2003/4 and thinking how much potential they had, not sure what happened but it all seemed to go downhill from there. Have they managed to build back to those levels now and find a suitable stadium?

 

[manoj p]

Union for instance has had very, very few crowds of any significance in Manchester.

Rugby league - decades and decades of them.

 

[bowes]

Coventry in 2004 had no juniors whatsoever and half the side were Australian so was all paper thin.

Now we're back at the Butts (about 4000 capacity) have had the midlands champion school at 4 age groups (the 5th our local champion lost in the final) and we have Under 11s, 13s, 14s, 16s and 18s with the city having 3 open age men's sides at various parts of the city and us being in the process of setting up 4 junior teams for various age groups! Also we still have our women's side and now have started girls' teams.

Much better basically and on the back of a weaker RU club. The one issue is on field standard for fir
Championship 1, guess we'll need Scorpions style open trials.

Whether we'll step up to C1 next year or not it's too early to say but there'd be a lot more chance than if we'd stepped up in 2004 when we'd have certainly folded.

 

[bowes]

Union for instance has had very, very few crowds of any significance in Manchester.

Rugby league - decades and decades of them.

What big Manchester crowds are they? Apart from obviously Old Trafford there's been no pro RL in Manchester since the mid-50s. If you're trying to claim Wigan well it's about 25 miles away and nearer Liverpool. Out of clubs nearer Manchester than that then Sale are best supported.

 

[Goldfields_Titans]

What big Manchester crowds are they? Apart from obviously Old Trafford there's been no pro RL in Manchester since the mid-50s. If you're trying to claim Wigan well it's about 25 miles away and nearer Liverpool. Out of clubs nearer Manchester than that then Sale are best supported.

I think Swinton once played Wigan or somebody at Maine rd and there was 40k for it in the 50s or 60s.

 

[roughyedspud]

maine road used to hold the championship final

 

[bowes]

I think Swinton once played Wigan or somebody at Maine rd and there was 40k for it in the 50s or 60s.

Sounds believable then but Swinton get little more than 1/100 of that crowd now.

Sounds like I was wrong on the specifics but the point still stands these aren't going to be Manchester based fans