Super 8's

[Evil Homer]

Leigh are now promoted I think. Which once again is bad news for the competition, and everyone really.

 

[langpark]

Come on, I know you hate Leigh, but they've earned it! Salford are just as much a waste of space in SL as you believe Leigh will be. Be Leigh will surely draw higher crowds. Fair play to them!

 

[Evil Homer]

Come on, I know you hate Leigh, but they've earned it! Salford are just as much a waste of space in SL as you believe Leigh will be. Be Leigh will surely draw higher crowds. Fair play to them!

They have 'earned it' in so much that they have a millionaire owner who has brought in a bunch of 30+ year old ex-Super League players on big salaries. Salford is a better club than Leigh, at least Salford run juniors and are based in something like an untapped area for the sport. I think you would struggle to find anyone within British RL that would be happy about a club like Leigh being in Super League. I just hope they can do better than last time when they were pretty much the biggest embarrassment in the competition's history.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

They're both shit.

If Bradford were run competently they should be there.

Or if the sport was run competently Toulouse would be (years ago).

 

[Evil Homer]

They're both shit.

If Bradford were run competently they should be there.

Or if the sport was run competently Toulouse would be (years ago).

Toulouse weren't ready before this year, you can argue that they're not ready still because they still don't have a stadium, they're currently playing in Blagnac which is a good location but apparently a dump while their actual ground is supposedly being 'renovated' by the council (no idea what that means). Bradford definitely should be there and it's a tragedy that they're not really.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Catalans didn't have a stadium until they were admitted.

It's almost comical that the only thing the rfl has done in living memory that could be considered mildly successful, ie admitting Catalans to SL by giving them a couple of years notice and ensuring their place regardless of whatever P&R existed at the time, has not been replicated. Any other organisation, especially one with such a low batting average, who stumbled on a clearly successful strategy or process or idea (whatever you'd call it), would immediately look at how they could replicate it.

 

[roughyedspud]

Who woke this toad up?

 

[East Coast Tiger]

As good a contribution as ever.

 

[WireMan]

What have toulouse done to deserve a free ride? Nothing.
Bradford are a basket case and the league does not need more badly run Yorkshire clubs in it.
Leigh have good support, good backing and there own ground. That makes them better placed than wakey, cas, Hull kr, Bradford and Huddersfield.
The tragedy is that these clubs hold the game back.

 

[Evil Homer]

What have toulouse done to deserve a free ride? Nothing.
Bradford are a basket case and the league does not need more badly run Yorkshire clubs in it.
Leigh have good support, good backing and there own ground. That makes them better placed than wakey, cas, Hull kr, Bradford and Huddersfield.
The tragedy is that these clubs hold the game back.

WTF? Cas, Wakey, Hull KR and Bradford all have their own grounds and better support than Leigh, in fact Leigh don't have their own ground, it's owned by a stadium company and Leigh pay rent to play there similar to Huddersfield. Huddersfield also have better crowds, a better stadium, better backing and better infrastructure. What Leigh have is a millionaire backer who is happy to throw money at aging mercenaries until he can eventually find something that sticks. The guy also happens to be an absolute cretin. This happened last time Leigh got promoted to SL, braindead idiots talking about how they were a big club with support better than most SL teams because they spent years playing in a league where half the teams are ghost clubs with ~500 fans. They finished that season with 2 wins from 28 and an average of 43 points conceded per game, and a crowd average of less than 5,000. As said, hopefully they do better this time.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

What have toulouse done to deserve a free ride?

What did Catalans do? They didn't even exist before they were accepted into SL. They were a merger between three existing small clubs. A lot of people said they weren't the best place for a French SL club at the time. They didn't have a decent ground.

Now they are consistently competitive, have better crowds than most, have a ground that provides RL with a good venue for club and international footy, have all their home games televised, which also means more exposure for English clubs and the game in general in the UK and France, have inspired huge growth in the game at amateur and junior level in the Perpignan area, almost certainly influenced the growth of the game in northern Spain, produced most of the French national team for the past decade and given English fans an away trip to a desirable location.

Now what has any other club in SL done? Many of whom were given a "free ride" into SL in the first place if just being chosen by the governing body is the definition of a free ride.

And if Catalans has achieved so much, why would an opportunity to replicate that with Toulouse be ignored and even hampered for so many years?

 

[JasonE]

Leigh are definitely in SL now, they only need to win one more game and they will not lose to Batley. It looks like the playoff between 4th and 5th will be Salford and Hull KR.

 

[deluded pom?]

What a wonderful eight days that was. With a bit of luck things may even get better.

 

[deluded pom?]

Hull KR 18-25 Leigh.

Hats off to Leigh! I'd love to see a team finally get promoted!

Kelly suspended for this match for being a naughty boy and getting back late from Australia apparently.

 

[WireMan]

WTF? Cas, Wakey, Hull KR and Bradford all have their own grounds

The race to the bottom is strong in this one.
I wish the rfl wanted to grow the game more than the standards above but I actually think they are happy with that.

Oh and Wakefield are about to move out of Wakefield.

What is wrong with working with the local council to get a new stadium and having money? How bizarre to think that is bad. I assume you prefer the Wakefield/Bradford model of success.

 

[WireMan]

Now what has any other club in SL done? Many of whom were given a "free ride" into SL in the first place if just being chosen by the governing body is the definition of a free ride.

And if Catalans has achieved so much, why would an opportunity to replicate that with Toulouse be ignored and even hampered for so many years?

Which clubs? Do you know RL existed before super league?
Toulouse have a way into superleague. Just do what Leigh are doing.
Get some money, a nice ground and all the other bad things teams do to get ahead and win promotion.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Which clubs? Do you know RL existed before super league?
Toulouse have a way into superleague. Just do what Leigh are doing.
Get some money, a nice ground and all the other bad things teams do to get ahead and win promotion.

Of course I know RL existed before SL...it started in 1908 in Sydney as everyone knows..

Remember the current SL teams were all given licences. Widnes didn't win the championship when they were promoted, so were they given a 'free ride'? And plenty of clubs did 'earn' promotion but were rejected, like Fev and I think Keighley as well. So this notion that it's all about 'earning' a place is a very movable philosophy.

What it actually comes down to is doing what is best for the sport and it seems pretty clear the SL needs desperately to expand its horizons. Toulouse has been the obvious choice for years. Even before Crusaders failed and London dropped out.

 

[WireMan]

I see what you are saying but we don't have franchises anymore.
Whether we should have kept that system a bit longer is open to debate, but they didn't so toulouse, London, Toronto etc cannot be given a free ride anymore.
It is now upto clubs to get themselves to the top which IMO is better than trusting the rfl to use common sense.

 

[CC_Roosters]

I see what you are saying but we don't have franchises anymore.
Whether we should have kept that system a bit longer is open to debate, but they didn't so toulouse, London, Toronto etc cannot be given a free ride anymore.
It is now upto clubs to get themselves to the top which IMO is better than trusting the rfl to use common sense.

What would be the reaction if they repeated the Catalans process and said for the 2019 season both Toulouse and Toronto would be given admission into an expanded 14 team league with exemption from relegation? (of course super 8s would be axed for this to happen). Would still leave the same 11 English clubs in super league as there is now with Catalans so nobody would be getting shafted

The pro 12 which is being left miles behind the English and French union comps are looking to North America for expansion with Canadian and USA teams being mooted to try and improve their broadcast revenue. Mind you they have structural issues to with the Walsh regions seemingly underperforming off the field.

 

[adamkungl]

I think leaving Promo-Relegation (not necessarily super8s) will see Toulouse at least hitting top grade in short order.
The aims in the short to medium term should be :

a) To have the cap getting closer gradually to NRL levels
b) To have the Championship made up of full time teams.

24 full time teams across 2 division would be a very strong base.
League1 3rd division to be semi-professional entry-league basically as it is now.
This requires increased funding across divs 2 and 3.