So how about the momentum of League then? From what I gathered there was steady growth in things like junior participation, crowds, media coverage etc.
We've achieved critical mass, in my opinion. It was touch and go after the disaster of the 2000 World Cup, but the improvement since then has been stellar.
We are no longer a sport confined to the traditional heartlands, there are teams almost everywhere in the country - importantly, this includes universities. I think basically all universities now have a RL team many have more than one and a women's team. This includes Oxford and Cambridge, who play a televised match every year. Oxford offered a RL scholarship, which would have been entirely unbelievable only a few short years ago.
There are regular competitions in Ireland, Scotland and Wales (including universities). There always were, to some extent, but it seems that development is being taken very seriously now and some funding is being allocated accordingly.
Youth development at the pro clubs is now a consideration in the franchising system, and we're starting to see lots of players coming through from the youth systems.
My own club, St. Helens, was never really a powerhouse of the junior game in the manner of Wigan or Leeds, but we have quite a few kids filtering into the 1st team who have genuine potential. The likes of Dixon, Wheeler and Eastmond are electric, and all the clubs are starting to produce players in positions where we have been weak at international level in the past few years; the halves and backs.
The pro clubs are taking their facilities seriously. We've seen Hull FC and Warrington move to new grounds, with a commensurate increas in attendances and corporate support. This increase in attendance has been somewhere between 50% to 100%. Saints should be in a new ground in the next few years, and I expect the same increase there.
We've demonstrated that we can take our big games anywhere in the UK and do well - the Challenge Cup at Murrayfield (Scotland), the Millenium Stadium (Wales) spring to mind. We can also pull quite a few for the regular season games on the Magic Weekend in Wales and Scotland, and the Catalans got nearly 20k when they took a game to Barcelona this year. There is very serious talk of Toulouse joining the SL (they currently play i the division below in the English competition), and they have a hell of a lot of council and commercial money behind them if they do.
Basically, the game has enough momentum that it will really take some stopping. Only absolutely geniused choices can significantly hinder us, and with people like Lewis in charge I can't see it happening. The game is gradually being taken out of the control of a group of local Northern interests, and the most enthusiastic and committed people involved in the game are frequently the neophytes running the clubs outside the traditional heartlands.
We're also getting some interesting people involved in running the clubs; Warrington, Widnes, Saints and now Wigan have people in charge who are not really of the old guard. these are people with real business acumen, and in the case of Saints the transformance has been quite incredible. We've gone from being literally minutes from bankruptcy to being on a stable financial footing and being very, very close to building a new single-purpose RL ground even given the economic collapse, which was felt more keenly in England than Aus.
I know in some articles they refer to League towns, places like Hull (recent comment on how the soccer team played like they were under the six tackle rule 'not surprising considering they're from a rugby league town' kinda thing) but what does that mean in England? I know here in Australia a League town can probably be marked by how excited everyone gets if their team is doing well going into the finals. The town/city is decked out in the teams colours by fans of the game, mayors and councillors start taking bets amongst each other and the local papers start doing feature articles on their favourite players etc. Does any of this happen in the heartlands up in England? I know there's only been relatively few teams make it to the grand final up there but if a team like Hull FC get to the GF would you see the town all decked out in bunting etc or would it just be noted at the club or something? (Catalans Cup appearance is the obvious one I can think of)
Maybe not to the same extent as in Aus, as RL there is an all-encompassing sporting Juggernaut in the regions it is strong. But such a buzz it's certainly there in most cases.
Things aren't perfect over here, but I went from borderline despair in 200 (I genuinely thought we might be done for as a major pro sport) to being extremely bullish about the condition of the game now.
