Rugby League Dead....

Got something to discuss about RL in general? Then this is the place to post it.
The Yonner
Posts: 104
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:02 pm

Re: Rugby League Dead....

Post by The Yonner »

DaveO wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:19 pm Going back to semi pro would be fraught with problems. What are you going to do? Ban clubs from paying players enough for them to be full time? That would be the ultimate irony with RL banning such payments to players in a similar way to how RU was supposedly amateur.

It would be back to none-jobs being given to players by the owners company and brown envelopes passed under the table.

The solution isn’t going semi pro but the sport finally admitting two things. 1) There isn’t enough money to fund more than about 12 or 14 full time teams and 2) promotion and relegation between a full time league and a semi pro one does not and never has worked. Promotion and relegation needs to end. It works well in Australia with no P&R.
Yes the transition would be problematic. But you could introduce a rule to allow say five full-time players per squad (a variation on marquee players like we have now) with a salary cap for the whole squad.

The way the progressives would like RL to go is a 12 team super league with 2 teams from France, 2 from North America, 2 from London/Wales, leaving just six franchises for the traditional M62 corridor clubs. The rest can just go and rot.

Somewhere along the road we have cut adrift clubs with potential support bases similar in size to the remaining super league clubs: Oldham, Halifax, Bradford, Widnes, Featherstone, Workington, Barrow to name just a few. Reverting to part time creates a way back for some of these, although some will never recover their former status.

If not this, then the only viable solution for a full-time sport would be merger with rugby union. Not a bad idea in my opinion, but nobody seems to be considering it.
DaveO
Posts: 15880
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 5:32 pm

Re: Rugby League Dead....

Post by DaveO »

The Yonner wrote:
DaveO wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:19 pm Going back to semi pro would be fraught with problems. What are you going to do? Ban clubs from paying players enough for them to be full time? That would be the ultimate irony with RL banning such payments to players in a similar way to how RU was supposedly amateur.

It would be back to none-jobs being given to players by the owners company and brown envelopes passed under the table.

The solution isn’t going semi pro but the sport finally admitting two things. 1) There isn’t enough money to fund more than about 12 or 14 full time teams and 2) promotion and relegation between a full time league and a semi pro one does not and never has worked. Promotion and relegation needs to end. It works well in Australia with no P&R.
Yes the transition would be problematic. But you could introduce a rule to allow say five full-time players per squad (a variation on marquee players like we have now) with a salary cap for the whole squad.

The way the progressives would like RL to go is a 12 team super league with 2 teams from France, 2 from North America, 2 from London/Wales, leaving just six franchises for the traditional M62 corridor clubs. The rest can just go and rot.

Somewhere along the road we have cut adrift clubs with potential support bases similar in size to the remaining super league clubs: Oldham, Halifax, Bradford, Widnes, Featherstone, Workington, Barrow to name just a few. Reverting to part time creates a way back for some of these, although some will never recover their former status.

If not this, then the only viable solution for a full-time sport would be merger with rugby union. Not a bad idea in my opinion, but nobody seems to be considering it.
Going semi pro in any form also kills off the international game. You can’t expect players who play in such a competition which would inevitably be of lower standard to go up against the Aussies and Kiwi’s.

Five full time players for clubs just acknowledges what I said about there not being enough money on the game. What it also does is give clubs who have so far failed to prove they are capable of being a professional club a lifeline. It’s rewarding incompetence and mediocrity. Some of these clubs are amateur in every way as
in how they are run other than they pay a few quid to players. In effect it’s saying to clubs like Wigan and Saints you have to donate half your team to Halifax and Batley.

It may be some clubs outside of SL currently would make a better job of it than some in it currently if but that’s what franchising if done properly is supposed to sort out.

I have never agreed with the notion we need North American sides in SL and I can’t say I am that keen on the French involvement either but we also have far too many teams in a very small area especially in West Yorkshire where you fall out of one RL town and into another in a few hundred yards. I don’t think trying to elevate all these teams to semi pro status to compete with Wigan and Saints etc is a sensible idea in 2021. No one is saying they can’t exist but there is only room for one franchise from that area in a full time league.
Post Reply