Stu M wrote:
No but they still choose Manchester or Liverpool over Barcelona or Madrid
How can we pay the salaries that the NRL do though? The game simply doesn't generate enough money. The only way I could see this happening would be for marquee players to be paid by businesses through the club. Clubs can't afford to pay the top salaries like they are in the NRL.
Chicken & Egg
20 years of terrible policies from the RFL have led us to this point and the disparity with the NRL
The gaps in TV income, Exposure, Numbers playing the game etc. etc. etc. etc.
You can't just sit there now and say were that far behind like we were always this far behind and use it as a reason not to change , we weren't.
No-one is saying we could have kept up with them in parallel - But we shouldn't be this far behind
No-one is saying we should be getting the TV income they are now - But we shouldn;t have been so far behind as we are
The promotion of the game has been terrible, the dwindling numbers in the game are driven by the decision making at the top end - it's been, by and large, terrible.
Saying RL is a "Northern" game is a nit disingenuous, considering we have Cagalans/Toulouse,London etc. - We've just not done all of it very well
Rob Purdham at the Lions event on Saturday said that 10 years or so ago there were Hundreds of thousands of kids playing RL in schools in London - They're not now anywhere near to that extent.
Isn't RL juts an East Coast game in Australia??? It's not stopped them (It's not really their National game but that's a slightly different argument) and if it is their national game, it really wasn;t always that way - what did they do to make it that way? We know that's a Pipe dream here, but let's aim to make RL No2 or whatever - Because currently were lucky if were Top 10!
Your saying kids can choose to play for Man U or Liverpool
Yes - But here they haven;t go that option - So it is Wigan/Saints/Wire/Salford/Leigh etc. for a local lad or Australia - And currently that's 40/50k a year for around a 21year old or 100/120k a year in Aus for the equivalent player - it;s a no brainer
You mention getting large companies to sponsor Marguee players - Yeah do it - Do something
Wigan made a slight error in accounting for an agents fee and put it in a wrong box 3 years ago and they wanted to knock 2 points of us - FFS!!!!!
years ago Scully had contracts with Gillette etc. - They put a stop to loads of that and started counting it towards the cap etc.!!!!
Personally I agree their should be a form of Cap - Bit currently given the situation over the last 15 or so years I'd rather Not have one - The issues of not having one would be less that having one!!!!
If we are to survive for the next 50years as a fully professional game etc and stay somewhere near the Aussies etc. the game needs to throw away the cautionary/sterile safety first race to the bottom thinking of the last 15-20 years
It needs to take risks, be welcoming to new ideas, new influences, new investment etc.
The game didn;t just wake up one morning and found itself 15 years behind Australia - It Slept walked into it - We (The game/The RFL etc.) in most ways Chose this path, and it's led us here.
Someone needs to look at how that happened, and never let it happen again, and reverse some of those missed opportunities and make sure we don't continue to sleep walk
