Interesting news regarding the broadcasting of games outside the NRL in Australia:
https://www.thekennel.net.au/forum/i...o-fans.118566/
It shows how forward thinking sports are embracing streaming and that accepting the old tried and tested is no longer seen as particularly fashionable.
Of course the idiots who run rugby league are probably still going to roll over like a cocker spaniel the moment SKY ask for anything. As I said before SKY offer nothing to Rugby League. A valueless media partner in just about every way.
Yes its the right link, sorry I meant to be clearer. When I said 'outside the NRL' I meant 'outside of' so in other words all the key leagues below it.
That shows a level of confidence in the sport in Australia versus the dinosaurs over here who are afraid to do anything different to what SKY tell them. I suspect the governing body in Australia will also use all the data from the steaming of the lower grade rugby to understand how it could be extrapolated to the NRL and potentially use that in the next set of negotiations.
The game is as badly covered by SKY as it was under Eddie Waring and the BBC in the 1970's. SKY offer nothing of any value for RL. Nothing. Its no wonder that they take advantage though when you consider that the RFL/SLE is as poorly run as the BDO used to be.
Last edited by eddiewaringsflatcap; 23rd January 2021 at 20:20.
I actually think it's worse than that. I think the people 'running' the sport over here are happy to let Sky run the show. Saves them doing any work.
They take the money off Sky and then do very little. I think the administration is incompetent but also lazy. They should be working their bums off.
If you get it wrong whilst trying your very best, then I can live with that because if you've the slightest bit of nous, you'll get some things right as well.
Off topic but for Belgian saint, where did you find the Shaun Wane interview you mentioned the other day please pal?
Or usher in a merger with RU very much on their terms?
What makes this whole episode so bitter is that our own club was party to kicking out the Yorkshire backsliders and Wood bit were only able to replace him with Elstone. Is that the sum total of our worth, let alone ambition?
Ill say it again, there are countless fans of this sport who would be more able at running this sport than the riff raff who leech a living off it at the moment. Sadly for them the gravy train may be about to reach its terminus.
I’ve often asked why RL fans are so bloody nice about these things. We trot up, cheer for our teams and do nothing of any real worth to protest about things going wrong in the game. The people in charge don’t care about what we think, and if they do they fool us by pandering to our warm feelings about us being the cheery little family sport where everything is lovely and rosey, and if that doesn’t work they’ll tell us the enemy is RU and we need to support our wonderful game against external enemies.
In fact, the biggest enemies this game has are internal, namely the people running the game either at the RFL or some of the clubs. They’ve allowed our game to drift in the last 20 years. How do we explain to anyone that we’ve changed the structure of the season and the playoffs 4 times in the last 20 years, and ended up back with the one we started with? How do we explain that we have a broadcast partner that has ridiculed the Cup, had an influence on the structure of the season and has used the sport during the lockdown to play politics but we still stay with them? Answers are easy, the people running the game are either cowards, inept or both. What do we do to change it? Fire the powers that be, but the only people with the power to do that are the clubs or maybe a concerted effort from people ar Sky, but most of the clubs are run by people who agree with them and Sky are hardly going to question those that allow them to influence the game and treat it as a cheap toy, so we’re screwed.
The only force we have as fans is protest. Boycotting games isn’t really an option right now, and when we are allowed back who is going to financially screw over their club by boycotting games to protest about the state of the sport? And when we’ve not turned up for games in good numbers in the playoffs it’s made little difference. Could we as RL fans set up a pan-club fan group that raised money, spoke to the media, made banners to show off at games to protest about Sky, the structure, the mismanagement etc? I see no evidence that enough even care about it, and why would the Sky cameras even show them on air anyway?
We’ve been duped because too many of us have acted like dupes. We take what we’re fed, we don’t complain, we’re told RL is the greatest game and we blame people like the RFU for our problems when the problems are our own. It’s not going to change.
I can't see a merger, the RU bods won't have that and England RU on it own is a huge brand.
I agree with you regarding that prick Elstone and have said so many times, it's no surprise things are changing at Everton with him gone.
Trying to think glass half full (mine actually is), maybe some short term pain will secure the future of the game, how I don't know exactly but it will test a few of the leeches you mention.
Dave, don't underestimate at Club level how massive Saints, Wigan and Leeds would be to Union with Wire and Sale morphing into Cheshire. It really would emerge into a national Premiership style competition.
I am not saying it will happen tomorrow but civil war is going on within the game. The RFL have a 14 million grant which I believe is underpinning them! The game is tearing itself apart. Seriously how much longer will Coleman, Caddick and Moran be dictated to by some of these OIKS. I could go on all night about Wood but he had the gift of divide and conquer and that Oldham are as vital as Saints. Those days have gone we spent 20 million on a stadium, Oldham play at a Houghton Road equivalent stadium in front of 300. Then you look at Cas and Wakey, begging bowl each year, just do enough to keep at the table and pour two pint pots of lager at 2000 visiting fans to stand in the pouring rain.
This game needs to change or die. SKY is killing us. Black lives matter, yes they do, but RL was made out to be a racist sport watched by a gang of oiks last year. Why did Billy Boston and Clive Sullivan play league? Why was Roy Francis the first black man to coach a sporting club? none of that mentioned.
Would you go and watch a •••••••ised team with those ••••s? I know I wouldn't, my Dad wouldn't, my brother wouldn't and my mates wouldn't. Neither would any of the other lot and I wouldn't want them to either. Our rivalry is what defines us, both clubs
I'm not getting into the race thing with a drink in me but I agree with you say about Sky, I agree with most of what you say but I'd like to put it out there now, drop that W***n •••• out. I'm asking you nicely.
Would I Dave? I would say no, but it depends on how this sport moves forward and if it moves forward. I walked down Christmas Eve and paid in cash for next years season ticket and if I don't see a game I will donate it again. Seriously I love Saints and really love the game. However the anger in me is around the governing bodies and SKY I hate them. It has festered for years now I despise them. Would I still be in this town without Saints? I doubt it. I do get the fact some men are throwing millions at this sport and if they walk, what is left?
Very interesting listening to how annoyed people are with Rugby League in general. For a sport which prides itself on its links to the community it certainly seems to have lost touch with it.
I think people are not only disillusioned and irritated by the lack of accountability within the sport for the many times it has shot itself in the foot, but also for being taken for granted. At every level it appears that the sport just doesn't want to listen to its main stakeholder - the fans.
The SKY coverage is a classic case in point; its dated, reinforces stereotype and is an insult to the intelligence of those who it is allegedly is broadcast to.
Then there is the fact that it does'nt take a genius to see that the titting about to the League format, the silly gimmicks and the dumbing down of the challenge cup (principally to boost TV ratings for a Tour de Britain pis$ up all for the grand total of 2 league points) has all been influenced by SKY.
Its pretty disgraceful that the Super League clubs and the sports management think we all want and enjoy the shit served up by SKY. There is a massive disconnect and its beginning to cause big problems.
Last edited by eddiewaringsflatcap; 24th January 2021 at 11:30.
Eddie you have summed it up. I have been a SKY customer for 20 years and for my sanity I need to cancel. when you watch a game with the sound off and only look at the two 40 minute halves or the 45 of football its lost you. The admin of the game I cant control but it has been broken for years and they have turned on each other now.
Last night on I T V there was a very good advert for the Rugby Union games that they are going to be showing , if any company ever does that for Rugby League that they are going to show i must have missed it.
Hey knob, you've made 26 posts. The wider point is where the game goes NO I nor any of us wants to go down any route but RL however the game is in civil war behind the scenes and owners pumping millions into stay afloat may just look at a number of options. Kerry Packer did. Your probably a Warrington fan anyway by your reply.
It reminded me something a few years back.
I found this...https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/uni...h-6305529.html
Obviously nothing happened, and it was probably just DW sabre rattling, but it was taken seriously at the time!
I am engaging in a wider debate, which runs through this thread. I am not going over old ground again. If it is straight RU with 8 man scrums line outs etc NO. If at some point, not punters like us, but serious money men who own clubs went down a hybrid route which "super 12" "nines" etc, etc have all explored a breakaway with a global broadcaster is not beyond the reams of possibility.
The game at Governance with the two bodies is as explained is engaging in civil war behind the scenes. I am of the belief the likes of Saints, Leeds and others with influential financially sound owners will only stand so much nonsense from Rimmer in one corner and Elstone in the other. They have not invested all this money in stadia to go back part time and Join one big league with Batley and sadly even Widnes. I love RL but it needs to change and quickly.