Got to agree with the majority of the sentiments on here. The standard of rugby is appalling and has been getting gradually worse for years. I'd say it's gone downhill since around 2006 when Saints had a truly good team (as much as that pains me to say). I'd say our team of 2010 which I was proud to call champions was actually a poorer team than the one we had for the first part of this century who couldn't win a grand final for love nor money.
The weekly games are meaningless, course you want your team to win but they're so dull I spend half my time just having a pint and a chat and not actually watching the game. It's only the social side of things that keeps me going.
The play-off system is a farce. I think the people at the RFL need to do one simple test when they come up with their next great idea...try explaining it first to someone who isn't a rugby league fan and examine their face while you are talking to them. I've got sick, tired and quite frankly embarrassed of trying to explain our play-off system to non-rl fans at work. They just stare at you in amazement as if to say, "you what"?
The only plus point I can think of in recent years is Sam Tomkins who is a genuine superstar and a joy to watch. He is the one shining star who does attract outside interest and it's people like this we need to keep hold of to help publicise and market the game. That said who could blame him if he were to go to the NRL to truly test himself or go to RU. I think even he will be getting bored soon enough of scoring hat tricks against dire sides.
Other things which don't help are the standard of officiating during games, the inconsistency of the disciplinary panel afterwards and the head of RFL being the inept Nigel Wood.
It's also poor having such an awful international fixture schedule. I think the heads of RFL need to realise that the England thing isn't working on its own. We need to set in stone having Great Britain v Australia ashes tours atleast every 4 years if not every 2. This was the bedrock of our game for so long and for some unknown reason we turned our backs on it? At the end of the day it's a successful international team that will attract Southern media interest and subsequently sponsorship. At the moment the only people who seem interested in RL are Sky Sports and it's always dangerous to rely on one source of income. Sky aren't daft and sooner or later they will realise this and start reducing the money they pump into the game knowing that we have no one else to turn to.
I could go on and on and on there are so many things wrong with the way the game is run.
That said I will continue to attend with my usual apathy in the hope that something miraculous happens. Rugby league is still a great game with the potential to be so much better, it's just sadly run by morons.
play off system is driving people away from attending matches. It's awful going to games and seeing loads of empty seats, must be bad for players having to perform in an atmosphere like that when come the business end of the season you want to see packed crowds and feed off the energy from the stands.
