Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 3:29 pm  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote:

The above from the Leigh statement highlights why expansion is so vital for the game. Leigh have a decent passionate following for a Championship club, yet nobody has even shown an interest in taking them over. Why is that the case? IMO it’s because millionaires are not interested in owning a small town Rugby League club. Rugby League must expand to survive.

People may be interested in buying the club - but NOT from its present owner.

That official club statement,from the official club website,is quite happy/prepared/open to explain that it has not paid 6 players - simply because they are not prepared to be bought off/accept less than their contracts stipulate.

Once again the sport lays itself wide open to bad publicity.

This time on the other side of the hill from another big,professional club,in the heartlands,who commenced the season in the lowest professional tier - from which I hope they escape with victory on Sunday.

Leigh were in Super League in 2017 and had a parachute payment at the commencement of this campaign.

Still some people wonder why parents are not encouraging their children to play the sport of rugby league.

Expansion? It is more like contraction,by the day.

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:03 pm  

Ornery Optimist wrote:

That official club statement,from the official club website,is quite happy/prepared/open to explain that it has not paid 6 players - simply because they are not prepared to be bought off/accept less than their contracts stipulate.

I hope the 6 player don’t cave in to the bullying tactics and hold out for what they are legally entitled to in their contracts. The fact 4 of them played for Leigh despite Leigh not paying them shows the true character of the players compared to that of the club.

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:05 pm  

Budgiezilla wrote:

I was asking 'genuine supporters' of our game, not YOU !
To other RLFANS members who aren't a constant 'pain in the bum'.
"The RFL could have assisted in the matter, allowing BOTH sides to sign up amateurs for this 'pointless' plate final...whoever it's fault it is."
In the statement the club issued, the club has medical proof that we currently have eight players out injured. (obviously you have not read it)

Nice personal insult. The rules have been in place for the last few years, why should they be changed at the last minute just to accommodate Leigh. It was Mr Beaumont who chose to sign a load of players he couldn’t afford and then offload as many of them as possible just before the qualifiers, that’s no way to run a club and he should take full responsibility not the RFL.

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:29 pm  

Despite all the ordure surrounding Leigh and the apportioning off blame, the RFL have a choice. They can accept the inevitable and cancel, postpone or give Fev different opponents or they can make Leigh play the game, get the supporters in and then see the ref abandon the game when Leigh’s team has less than the required number needed to continue.

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:35 pm  

What a sad predicament Leigh find themselves in. Unlike others on here, I wish they can find a speedy resolution.

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:21 pm  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote:

You were in with a shout of winning and then lost by 61 points. That must have been some last 5 minutes.

Sweet baby Jesus.....

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:58 pm  

Pumpetypump wrote:

If you recall, the early 90s was the era of the 61 point try. It was 10 all until late on. I may have wiped some of the trauma from my mind but I reckon that's what it was.

He probably wasn't even born in the early nineties

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:27 pm  

RFL have now allowed academy players to be signed (so long as they haven't played 1st team RL).

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:34 pm  

Sir Kevin Sinfield wrote:

The above from the Leigh statement highlights why expansion is so vital for the game. Leigh have a decent passionate following for a Championship club, yet nobody has even shown an interest in taking them over. Why is that the case? IMO it’s because millionaires are not interested in owning a small town Rugby League club. Rugby League must expand to survive.

You really are going to need to expand on the three parts above to clarify that you're just not blindly pushing expansion with no idea of what it actually means.

Firstly, how does the Statement from Leigh, saying that to date they'd had no offers or interest show that expansion is "vital"? We've had expansion in SL for 23 seasons now, with PSG (Paris not big enough for you), London Brocos, Gateshead, Sheffield, Catalans and Crusaders and the only one bearing any kind of top flight fruit is the one that was a merger of 2 ailing clubs in a region with a core support for the game.......of the others, London survive purely through the guilty conscience of their owner, but are in no way shape or form a SL club, nor a model that the likes of Argyle will accept.
Which dovetails nicely into the second claim that Millionaires want big cities to invest in. This is again unfounded opinion....Paris is the #1 city in France, yet they happily throw cash at soccer and Union, but why not League.......Sheffield's not exactly a small place and has 2 Soccer clubs...both were in the top flight together at one stage, yet Sheffield are playig inside a running track......where's the money men? Toronto are an example of what can be achieved when you had out tickets like confetti and are prepared to make a loss...interestingly they think the receipt of £1.8 million will make them profitable next year.......boy oh boy are they in for a shock! It was costing David Hughes £2,200,000 a year to Keep the Broncos afloat with 5,000 PAYING FANS......
Lastly, we have the "must expand to survive" comment. London started taking the SKY cash when LMS was 10 years old and Tony Clubb was 9. These two are by far the best Broncos players to date some 23 years later.......and London had a small but active RL pedigree before the SKY cash. Toronto, by definition will have a couple of their products playing in SL some quarter of a century after they crate an academy......until then, they will raid SL/NRL and the NSW/QLD cup comps for players...so they aren't increasing the player pool in my lifetime. As for income.....they pay the TV production company....there is no TV deal. Their sponsor is a contra sponsor....no cash is changing hands.....they are simply a different home for average players and £1,800,000 of money that had been going into the game in the UK.

I am all for expansion, but not for the sake of it. It has to be done properly and with a series of achievable goals along the way. The statement from Toronto that they hope to make a profit next year once they receive £1,800,000 smacks of Crusaders mark II. Toronto tried and failed to find failed NFL/CFL stars who could play the game.....so they'll need to start at a younger age.....do you reckon Argyle has the patience to wait 25 years for a couple of Canadian born stars to appear? He talks of a Rugby Centre of Excellence in Canada.....I wonder how involved World Rugby will be and how long it will be before they take over?
He's a wealthy guy......great for Toronto for now, but the saviour of the game.....I don't think so.

Re: Championship Final - Featherstone vs Leigh : Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:57 pm  

How about a quote from your head coach, Danny Ward.

"It's huge, I'm a massive fan of the expansion and I love what Toronto have done," Ward added. "They have their knockers and we can debate all day about that and the heartlands.

"But I love Toulouse and Toronto, it'd be great to see a few more outpost clubs in Super League.

"I believe the game needs it, we've got to branch out and have cities around the world playing the game.

"Toronto, there's talk about a New York team, get another French team like Toulouse who are doing so well, London, Newcastle." Ward added