Thrashings happen in this sport, even in the NRL teams get nilled and concede 40+. We're having a bad(ish) year after years of attendance increases but they are still way up on where they were pre-SL. At top club level at least.



The real reason we're having problems is lack of available money from sponsors/banks. Partly recession and partly due to the RFLs failings.



It's a shame we aren't going to hold our nerve a bit, maybe get some new management in at the RFL. But it looks like loads of massive knee jerk reactions are going to happen and the game's going to become a very complicated mess in a year's time.

Define competitive.



England thrashing the Aussies at cricket this year means cricket isn't a sport?



The top 4/5 of the Premier League means that football isn't a sport - how many teams can realistically win the premier league? Scottish football isn't a sport (

) and Spanish football is about as far away as you can get from competitive and therefore sport.

IMO it is when there can be some reasonable doubt as to the result.



Me vs Usain Bolt over 100m, isn't really a race in any meaningful sense.



Blow-outs happen in sport, it is when you know in advance that it becomes a big problem.



It is true to say that we know with something approaching absolute certainty that Manchester Utd will finish above Hull City in the PL this season. Over 90 minutes in either of the games between the 2, Hull City could get some sort of result, possibly, maybe.



One 'problem' is that it is rare for a team to nick a lucky result against the run of play in RL. If one team is much better and performs somewhere close to their best, they almost invariably win. Football actually gets away with a much greater disparity between clubs, because 'you never know', whereas in RL you kind of would.

3. Though probably 2.

Just out of interest, did you therefore know in advance that the rubbish London team couldn't possibly reach the Cup semi finals? What went wrong?