The summarisation is not without merit in respect to the advantage RU had/has over RL by way of its entrenchment as a 'sport of favour' amongst opinion formers in the media but its wrong to ignore RL's failure to manage its affairs properly to at least make itself a more attractive proposition to media and big business.
The management of the sport has been appalling at times with a series of blunders which have totally undermined the credibility of the sport. Far worse is the apparent lack of any corporate governance to hold the culprits to account.
How would holding them to accouNt improve the past? It may make you feel better watching someone suffer but it improves nothing and turns people off taking the roles on future. What people want is the RFL along with refs to be flogged in front of crowds in a witch hunt. Those days have passed, if someone doesn't perform then they move on, but are we failImg to grow because of the RFL or would anyone fail with this product? We are a small regional sport, we had our chance with mergers but decided we were big enough without them, well it hasn't worked out and the money people have moved on. We are held back by our heritage, rather than use it as part of our promotion it holds us back. History doesn't change if the sport moves on, the history is still there. People have come and gone, money peop,e have come in and left very quickly, Leigh, Salford, London years ago, it's far to small minded.
A regional sport cannot compete on a national or international level with union, regardless on what we believe or wish to believe. Imo the fans are holding the game back, stuck in the old days, always harping back to how it was, a semi pro sport!
Everyone blames the rfl for Cumbria, but they have slowly reduced their own foothold over years, Toronto have done more in two years than those clubs over many many years
The more we focus on our victim status at the hands of the media the more we wallow in self pity. I don't care how biased they are, it's our job to change them through creating and selling something good, not by feeling sorry for ourselves
Drop the red herring of union and concentrate on us, improve us before we point fingers everywhere else
Im not sure how to answer this because your concluding two paragraphs were part of my original point. To answer your question on corporate governance - quite simple, its part of life mate. A CEO of a plc is accountable to its shareholders, a public organisation to government and/or quangos etc etc. Its a journey into the ridiculous to under estimate its importance and conclude its part of a ‘witch hunt’. That type of remark is totally misdirected and quite frankly, silly.
In fact the chairman of our own club made a similar point as mine that the RFL lacks good governance and sense of performance management. These are important because it keeps people honest as opposed to a beer and sandwich club. For example when Leighton Samuel vanished into the night with a nice pot of money (also having undermined the licencing system with the visa scandal) and Celtic Crusaders were left homeless who was held culpable?
That was one of many shocking mismanagements that have reduced the sports credibility and ergo, profile. Good governance can help the cream rise to the top and extricate weak links. Never has it been more required at the RFL.
Last edited by eddiewaringsflatcap; 7th January 2019 at 19:24.
Fair enough, just seen so many people slate others without knowing much about it. So often the individual is blamed well the reality is the situation is almost impossible. Sometimes it's the position not the person. From what you say the RFL just doesn't have a structure of people management in place, I'd love to spend a few days there and witness what happens before I judged to heavily
just look back over the last 20 or so years Upside. The very fact that the top elite clubs are pulling away when they should be the flagship of the game tells you everything you need to know.
The RFL should simply ask Superleague to govern the whole game before it collapses completely.
Learned comment from The Don
A valid question not least because:
1. I'd doubt that the SL clubs would have the resources/time to govern the entirety of the game.
2. There would surely be conflicts of interest / segregation of duties if they did - e.g funding of the sport would be a prime example.
There is a need for the RFL but it needs to look very differently than it does today. That equates to root and branch transformation of its organisational structure and it's personnel amongst other things.