agreed to all of that - and to a certain extent its no fault of the clubs, who are trying to appeal to their own market with 'XXX signs new contract' and 'YYY opens village fete' type stories.

however, the RFL needs to take a lead in identifying and producing the stories that might have a mass appeal. if they send out well written PR stories that sports editors can just rip off, it wont matter that they dont have specific RL journalists trying to dig things up.

Look at the RFL website latest news - its all either negative (players being banned) or pointless (Eorl Crabtree's testimonial dinner). Not one thing that would be of interest to a national sports editor.

couple of examples of stories that might have a wider appeal off the top of my head - Jonny Lomax battling back from a life threatening injury as a kid to Saints superstar, or Ryan Bailey's redemption from jailbird to Leeds Cup Final hero. i.e. personal stories, heartwarming tales of triumph and battling through adversity.

Force the clubs to make the players available to the media more. Get some players in London every week doing the media rounds.

How much national press does the Steve Prescott story get? The fact that he is guest of honour at the cup final doesn't even warrant a mention on the RFL site. Has anyone from the RFL attempted to highlight his charitable efforts, his fight against cancer, and his OBE. Blitzing the media with that story the week before the Cup Final would be fantastic for the game - and for Steve's charity.

The game cant sit back and do nothign, then complain that the media and sponsors are not battling the way to Red Hall.

SL clubs wanted to "go it alone"

They created their own "business" and sod the hindmost!

The one thing the SL clubs are REALLY good at is marketing and media relations.

You can tell by the column inches they get. The whole x minutes they gate DAILY on SKY (sports) Mo & Rons Ball Game News channel and the whole daily y minutes they get on the beeb.

Add to that the z minutes on ITV and the non existant acknowledgement the game even exists on Channels 4 & 5 .

So that is ALL the major media in GB covered.

Regarding radio, Radio Mong won't touch it nor will Radio 2. Radio 3 is so far up it's superior air that it couldn't care less and Radio 4 may still cover the colonial game of cricket and mention the establishment sports of Oxbridge.

Radio 5 is Mo & Rons Ball Game orientated and demotes RL to DAB if it can be bothered

As for Talk(sport) Mo & Rons Ball Game it covers nowt else except Mo & Rons Ball Game.

Don't blame the RFL for the inadequacies of the SL clubs.

They made their bed they have to lie on it regarding media promotion etc.

Can't correct you as I don't remember that statement. Today's Mirror had small corner of rugby league news just after the horse racing section. I'd say The People is probably the best national for rugby league nowadays.

the championship 'not long ago'was the fourth most followed league in europe,so i would say that leagues doing ok.

by the way i didnt say RL was a dieing sport.i said two thirds of its member club were dieing on there booty and 7 or 8 clubs in SL are living from hand to mouth.

Media coverage used to be even worse. When I came down to London University from Warrington in 1973, the only paper which was guaranteed to print on a monday Sunday's RL results was the socialist rag, the Morning Star! RL coverage has not been too bad in more recent years, although I agree that in the last three or four, it's gone backwards again.

There's no doubt that wendyball is seriously to blame, as even the 'quality' papers are obsessed with it. It's not dissimilar abroad. In Italy they have two daily 'sports' papers which are 85% wendyball with the balance shared between motor racing, basketball, volleyball and athletics. A while ago The Guardian reprinted it's coverage of the 1966 World Cup wendyball final - you know, the one England actually won. The entire thing was about five paragraphs long. Were this to happen today ( thankfully unlikely with the dross that count as pro-wendyballers in this country ) The Guardian would have a 16-page supplement!

I'm sad for Chris Irvine, and the Times can sod off - I can't imagine anyone paying to access their website.

That socialist rag used to cause my normally 40 minute paper round to take an hour or so. Rugby League news and results from Division 1 right down to amateur level.


A rugby league journalist friend was told to 'take the weekend off' following the death of Bobby Robson. In the following days there wasn't enough space for rugby league and a few other sports.

i know its a problem for RL.the only problem with this is..SL is suppose to be dragging the rest of RL along with it but thats not happening is it.
whilst the 'nasty SL,your words ya baby,continues to get more sky money and a few clubs are getting more supporters through the gates,the rest of the pro game [and i include some SL clubs in this]are going nowhere.

its difficult not to throw in insults with people as patronizing as you.

am i harking back to 1995 or just to the inception of SLE?im not sure.

can you bring the rest of that post forward please so that people can judge it in its entirety[then they can slag me off if they choose to.thanks in advance.

While some clubs are growing, working on advertising, marketing, facilities, community, player standard, others just sit on their backsides expecting some kind of helping hand. I think rugby league at club level is being dragged towards the lower end rather than the top.

because once it was a sport now its a box ticking competition.