It will go down like a lead balloon, but this international nonsense and all the focus on it is farcical, pie in the sky BS.

They are on a different planet, but the NRL thrives so why can't SL? An even bigger goal would be to look American sports who also thrive without any international calendars too. All that success was originally based off the quality of their leagues and the quality of week to week competition (not 4, or 5 international games at the end is the year). Even bl00dy darts make more of a spectacle than we do.

What makes RL the best sport in the world, imo of course, is rivalries and the passion of the fans. I honestly believe that if the Hearns had taken over, then they'd have marketed the $h!t out of the league and sold its positives. That's how this game grows, that's how this game survives.

We need more international imports and ways to retain better talent. All with the goal of making the domestic competition the main focus. Obviously this won't ever happen, but I'm using it as a way to make a point, if RL in Australia was suddenly banned and the top talent came over to SL we'd see the game grow. Why? Because the games would be of a better standard, the skills and highlights would be better etc.

Fully agree about Eddie Hearn taking over. They had preliminary talks I believe but it went nowhere.

RL needs some fresh eyes on the game, some innovative out of the box thinking. Something that the Hearns would bring in spades. Too many dinosaurs in charge of the game.

No we don’t. We could get Elon Musk in but nothing will work when clubs don’t do enough off their own back. There are 4 teams in SL who get it. Saints, Wigan, Leeds and Catalans. The rest are complete rabble who will never get it right until they change the personnel at the very top of their club. Look at Warrington. They should be massive but their business plan is built upon social media likes. Like wtf! Really? As long as they get followers on Facebook they are happy. Look at Wigan. They have just won the reserve grand final by using their academy players. That is quality and potentially setting themselves up with a number of first team regulars in a few years. In the meantime warrington are trying to think of ways to get more Tik tok followers.

Saints and Wigan didn’t get to where they are by luck. Or by external companies with no ties to rugby league trying to change things for the better. They did it theirselves

The Hearns would always have been a huge punt. They have a background in selling indoor ‘lads sports’ like Darts and Boxing (I go to both now and again). Those sports are individual sports, where the audience are there for a drinking session, as much as the sport but this is a family game and a team sport. It just isn’t the same and whilst I’m sure they have been bold with it all, there would be no guarantees it would work.

Now I’m loathed to agree with Lebron, Wolf, Curry, 69 mon but he’s right in that the formula isn’t rocket science when it comes to being a successful rugby league club. There have been 4 winners of the Superleague title since 1996. The rest of the game should feel embarrassed, especially clubs like Hull FC and Wire who have had enough advantages over the rest to at least snare one. Hull are a big big club and Wire have had fortunes thrown at them but they’ve both cut corners when it comes to academy production. I don’t give a club like Catalans loads of credit tbh. They throw money at problems but it’s telling IMG want to put in a stipulation that they need to have a set number of French players. A club like Salford have done great this season, with a squad full of players brought through other clubs systems (bar Sneyd). They’ve gone great and their fans have had a great time but it’s not sustainable. Leigh will come up but again, it isn’t sustainable, it’s simply existing off other clubs work.

I’m really interested to see how this grading system will work. I sincerely hope there is a big weighting towards working in your community and bringing players through your system. As sad as it is, there are loads of clubs that need to be forced down that path.

The problem with Hull FC is they (and their supporters) are so transfixed on being the best club in the city as its the only thing that matters they choose to ignore the fact that they are miles behind the Top 4 year on year. This works vice versa with Hull KR too.

Two midtable teams hoping to simply be above the other over the last thirty five years.

Over the same period of time Wigan and Saints have taunted each other with periods of success. As one wins the league, the other usually not far behind is trying to plot a downfall. I'm convinced this is why the two clubs have maintained a steady procession of success.

WOW just WOW you made a lot of sense there 69

to be fair wires youth recruitment has been superb in the last few years, I think they will start to reap that in the next few

The sad thing is we have been here before (start of SL) with franchises, setup requirements about grounds/academy, gradings, improvement plans etc etc etc.

It worked briefly then (despite the stupid expansion plans of the time - Paris really?) but very quickly got watered down by the clubs with no ambition who couldn't and wouldn't change over a fairly short time frame the plans were watered down/amended and finally abandoned.

I honestly cannot see things being any different this time, the (usual) naysayers will say nay and water down the ideas and we will end up with some kind of hybrid (read lack of ambition) plan that maintains the status quo as much as possible and drifts back to the old ways within a short time.

Mere survival for some clubs seems to be the highest business plan they can conceive.

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/agent-re ... nos-59773/ Interesting read. I wonder if Wigan have a similar process?

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/agent-re ... nos-59773/ Interesting read. I wonder if Wigan have a similar process?

Those of us who remember what Hull and Hull KR were back in the 70s and 80s will agree with this wholeheartedly.

Humberside should be an RL fortress, but unfortunately they've now become the game's Celtic and Rangers, two dwarfs continually arguing about who is tallest. I've not seen anything in the IMG plans suggesting mergers, but these two ought to be prime candidates, as the game's so-called 'greatest derby of them all' (which never ends and seems to occur permanently at mid or lower table), is holding the rest of us back.