RL Cup Final Survey

[Billgreenwoodsson]

I received this today from RL HQ, who were interested in fans views of the Cup Final and Wembley etc. As a fan for some 56 years of the gretaest game in the world BY A MILE, I was keen to contribute. Alas, I totally forgot our reputation of the best sport in the world run by the worst administration organisation in the world!!!! The problem? Question 4 has 5 boxes to be filled in but if you fill in "My team playing in the Final" then you cannot answer the one that says "Abide With Me being played" and if you then fill in the scond box it blanks out the first box etc etc etc. Of course, it is only when you have filled in all boxes that you can submit your return!!! catch 22 --- so nobody will be able to fill in this questionaire!! At 7am this morning I emailed RL HQ and --- surprise surprise -- I not even got an acknowledgement, never mind a reply or apology!!! Of course you have till 11 march to send off the form or for the RL to correct this error!!! Of course, no one will have ttested before they sent it out!!! Piss ups in brewerys yet again??

[Billgreenwoodsson]

Is it merely my PC that is wrong and has anyone else filled this return in successfully? If so, and its my fault, I will apologise.

[josie andrews]

I haven’t received one.

[markill]

I received this today from RL HQ, who were interested in fans views of the Cup Final and Wembley etc. As a fan for some 56 years of the gretaest game in the world BY A MILE, I was keen to contribute. Alas, I totally forgot our reputation of the best sport in the world run by the worst administration organisation in the world!!!! The problem? Question 4 has 5 boxes to be filled in but if you fill in "My team playing in the Final" then you cannot answer the one that says "Abide With Me being played" and if you then fill in the scond box it blanks out the first box etc etc etc. Of course, it is only when you have filled in all boxes that you can submit your return!!! catch 22 --- so nobody will be able to fill in this questionaire!! At 7am this morning I emailed RL HQ and --- surprise surprise -- I not even got an acknowledgement, never mind a reply or apology!!! Of course you have till 11 march to send off the form or for the RL to correct this error!!! Of course, no one will have ttested before they sent it out!!! Piss ups in brewerys yet again??

It worked ok for me. Did seem a strange way to do it, basically have two questions asking the same thing, differently. But at least they're reaching out to fans.

I think that they sent them to people who have bought 2018 cup final tickets already.

[EDINBURGH-WARRIOR]

I filled it in and sent it back . It will do no good whats so ever they never listen.

Got several surveys about the World Cup and filled them it . All asked what international team i supported to which i replied Scotland. All i got in return was a bombardment of offers for England merchandise . Nice as it was i declined all the offers ha ha ha .

See you all on Friday

Regards , EW

[fozzieskem]

I got it and sent it back,br interesting to see if anything different happens

[DaveO]

As for the Challenge Cup Final - great showpiece that it once was, has been downgraded by everyone, it seems - even the fans.

RL must be the only professional sport that set about deliberately downgrading two competitions status in order to promote a third.

There was no way they were going to have the CC toward the seasons end potentially interfering with the status of the GF.

And of course the League was quite deliberately shorn of its prize and prize money in the early GF years in an attempt to force clubs and fans into thinking the new way was the best way.

Fans are not blameless. Plenty could not wait to diminish the league, maybe because they saw a GF with its unpredictability a way to ensure Wigan didn't win it every year (not that we did...).

The other argument in favour was it was, so many fans kept trying to tell me at the time, going to make RL far more intense and was the way to match the Aussies. Hanging everything off a few games at the end of the season was going to improve the quality and mental toughness of our teams and players so we could match the Aussies.

That lasted about five minutes. They threw out the best play off system (top 5) in order to include more clubs but even with a top four it's reduced the competition to a short knockout with no real advantage of finishing higher and with fans arguing with each other about losing games not mattering during the season and so on. No one is really interested in the middle 8's.

IMO we had the ideal structure before the change. Sure the league could be decided relatively early but clubs still had two end of season competitions to play for in the CC and the Premiership. Now the league and cup are basically an inconvenience and are over and done with before the season end.

[josie andrews]

As for the Challenge Cup Final - great showpiece that it once was, has been downgraded by everyone, it seems - even the fans.

RL must be the only professional sport that set about deliberately downgrading two competitions status in order to promote a third.

There was no way they were going to have the CC toward the seasons end potentially interfering with the status of the GF.

And of course the League was quite deliberately shorn of its prize and prize money in the early GF years in an attempt to force clubs and fans into thinking the new way was the best way.

Fans are not blameless. Plenty could not wait to diminish the league, maybe because they saw a GF with its unpredictability a way to ensure Wigan didn't win it every year (not that we did...).

The other argument in favour was it was, so many fans kept trying to tell me at the time, going to make RL far more intense and was the way to match the Aussies. Hanging everything off a few games at the end of the season was going to improve the quality and mental toughness of our teams and players so we could match the Aussies.

That lasted about five minutes. They threw out the best play off system (top 5) in order to include more clubs but even with a top four it's reduced the competition to a short knockout with no real advantage of finishing higher and with fans arguing with each other about losing games not mattering during the season and so on. No one is really interested in the middle 8's.

IMO we had the ideal structure before the change. Sure the league could be decided relatively early but clubs still had two end of season competitions to play for in the CC and the Premiership. Now the league and cup are basically an inconvenience and are over and done with before the season end.

Great post Dave, the middle 8’s is the biggest load of twaddle ever thought up!

As you say, when it was top five playoff system it was the best & also I liked the three year franchise system too, although that didn’t work to its potential except for Widnes who did everything right to gain promotion to SL.

Wakefield, Castleford (& even Leeds up to a point) should have been thrown out years ago because of the state of their “stadiums”!! IMO ????

The first two did naff all to improve their grounds! Oh, sorry, Wakey did eventually put a roof on the away end but travelling Supporters were thrown out of that stand by the locals! ????

[markill]

A grand final decided our championship title winners from 1905 to 1970. The grand final was not some new thing that only just got invented in 1998. In terms of attendances as a guide, the sport has been more popular in almost all the years of a grand final being the way the season is decided, both before and after the quarter of our games history that wasn't decided by a first past the post system. I'm certainly not saying the system is the whole reason for that, but it does confuse me how our sport's history sometimes gets forgotten.