Sport Today

Who can trust those boys at Red hall after the Wembley Test marketing
disastor.While going to the first test I spoke to many londoners who did
not even know that there was any match being played and there was certainly
no sign of any posters in the tubes ect.It is typical of the management of
Maurice
that he then threatens not to play future test matches there when the poor
crowd
was all his doing.With this type of management there is only one way that RL
will go.

                                                  Steve Ashton  

It was a farce, a commercial loser, apart from ripping people like hubbie
and me off for 30 quid for our 7 year old by having no concessions for kids.

Regards,  Lynn

--
Keefy Randy,  Sydney Australia

: Can anyone in U.K say where all of the money that has come from News has
: gone? What proportion of it is being used to improve the standards of the
: game? Are there new academys, schemes for recruitment of young players,
: improvements in facilities etc etc? Can we look forward to having 16 or so
: clubs in Europe of a similar standard to the ones in Australia in, say, 10
: years' time?

It all goes to the clubs. British clubs being British clubs, a side like
say Featherstone (name pulled out of hat at random) might say "the
Chairman's nephew in the second team is going to be world class, we'd
better give him more money before Wigan or Bradford sign him up". The
Chairman's nephew in the second team will actually have the handling
skills of a arthritic donkey.

In short, we pay our players too much for too little. Always have, and
with the bunch of unthinking, neanderthal tossers running the game and
the clubs in this country, probably always will as well.

Some clubs are making an effort.

Leeds have always had a good development programme for kids but they've
always suffered from a similar mentality with the chequebook and tend to
go out and buy players for their first team. Their kids don't get the
chance and move on elsewhere. A couple of years ago they had a ***
called Mick Shaw who absolutely outstanding at dummy half play. About
now he would have been challenging for international honours IMO. He
currently plays in the amateur leagues having been let go by Leeds.

Bradford have pushed out the boat this year with youth development and
have just won the top award from the government for community and youth
development from a sports club. It's going to take a while for them to
reap any benefit from it though.

There are others, Wigan and Warrington being noteable examples, but
there's really not much happening over here in terms of youth
development. It does happen and what there is of it is done pretty well
by very dedicated people but there ain't enough.

Annoying fact of the week: There are more kids registered to play in
Parramatta's own in-house competitions than there are regiestered to play
in the whole of the UK.

--
Chris PRR Russell          |
Electronic Imaging Dept.   | Get your retaliation in first!
University of Bradford     |
Tel: +44 1274 385463       |

snip
So there are some hopes for clubs such as Bradford.

--
Keefy Randy,  Sydney Australia

: >
: > : Can anyone in U.K say where all of the money that has come from News has
: > : gone? What proportion of it is being used to improve the standards of the
: > : game? Are there new academys, schemes for recruitment of young players,
: > : improvements in facilities etc etc? Can we look forward to having 16 or so
: > : clubs in Europe of a similar standard to the ones in Australia in, say, 10
: > : years' time?
: >
: > It all goes to the clubs. British clubs being British clubs, a side like
: > say Featherstone (name pulled out of hat at random) might say "the
: > Chairman's nephew in the second team is going to be world class, we'd
: > better give him more money before Wigan or Bradford sign him up". The
: > Chairman's nephew in the second team will actually have the handling
: > skills of a arthritic donkey.

: I'm going to initiate a search for an arthritic donkey to be able to find
: out just how good this guy really is. If he's up to the standard you
: claim, I'll be recommending him to Western Suburbs. The last player they
: took was a guy called Hasler, who had retired from playing for Manly and
: was just about to start on his old age pension.

Hasler as in Dessie? Years ago I saw a

: snip
: So there are some hopes for clubs such as Bradford.

Yeah but it'll take a while for them to reap the benefits. Warrington got
their act together quite some time ago on that front but I don't think
they're keeping up with it as much as they were.

Part of the problem IMO with our system is relegation and promotion. I've
nothing against it as such but if there's a good chance you might get
relegated in a given season then the chances are you'll go out and buy
quick fix players who can do a job for you that season with little
expectation of them doing anything for you next year. When you do that on
a budget (as the lower crowds at the bottom of the table would suggest
you're on) then you have to start selling your better players to the top
clubs to buy in a couple of lesser quality players to boost your squad
and *** the wage bill because hey, that's what the Super League money
is for, right?

In and amongst all this your junior players aren't getting the attention
they deserve either through money or through the coaching staff trying to
keep the 1st grade side afloat and so there's no investment there for
your future.

My favoured option is one where promotion and relegation is done away
with from Super League and the clubs we have now are the ones we keep.
Those clubs are allocated teams from the amateur sides and Div1 and Div2
sides to be feeder clubs and, as a requirement of membership within the
RFL, the SL clubs are required to employ coaching staff (existing or
otherwise) at these other clubs. A structure then exists from U-9's level
right through to first grade whereby players affiliated with your club
have other teams of an equal standard to play against, thus fostering
competition, and there is a natural route of progression. The kids who
join up would then have the opportunity to find their natural level
within your organisation, be it in Super League or the games at the back of
the canal.

Seems like common sense to me so chances are it will never be adopted.
Again, Bradford have made an effort in that direction but too little too
late as usual.

It seems to me that the Grand Final system you guys have can be a
wonderful thing, if a little complex, when there is competition from top
to bottom in your league. We don't really have that. Looking at the make
up of this coming seasons fixtures the top five are going to be some
combination of Wigan, St.Helens, Bradford, Leeds and London. The rest,
bar the odd upset, are there for the ride.

Those five are competitive amongst each other in going for the championship.
The rest are competitive in avoiding relegation.

So, plan:

1) Get shut of relegation
2) Introduce mandatory partnerships with feeder clubs - the Super League
(the top British competition, not the organisation - the phrases 'ARL'
and 'must run the game' are in my kill file) is the most important
competition
3) Let things settle for a few years
4) Then introduce the Grand Final system

I've no objection to the Grand Final at the moment, my only concern is
that when uncompetitive sides are getting slapped arse about face by
Wigan and Bradford then the RFL will decide it doesn't work nor will it
ever work and they'll get rid after two seasons.

Watch this space!

: > Annoying fact of the week: There are more kids registered to play in
: > Parramatta's own in-house competitions than there are regiestered to play
: > in the whole of the UK.

: How do you find out these things? Anyway, thanks for the interesting reply.

That came from a reply I got from Brian Smith once when he was coach at
Bradford and I was motivated enough to tell other people my opinion. No
figures so I can't confirm it but he seemed quite scathing about it. I'm
still unsure whether he meant with professional UK clubs or with all
clubs. One of the reasons he ***ed off I suspect, far more of an
incentive than whopping great piles of cash from Parra anyway. :^)

Right, rant over. I'll let you get on with your coffee.

--
Chris PRR Russell          |
Electronic Imaging Dept.   | Get your retaliation in first!
University of Bradford     |
Tel: +44 1274 385463       |

--

"Fanaticism is just one step away from barbarism." Denis Diderot

: > > Annoying fact of the week: There are more kids registered to play in
: > > Parramatta's own in-house competitions than there are regiestered to play
: > > in the whole of the UK.
: >
: > How do you find out these things? Anyway, thanks for the interesting reply.

: Apparently, 89.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
: (Pinched from a Guinness adverti***t & Vic Reeves)

88.2%

--
Chris PRR Russell          |
Electronic Imaging Dept.   | Get your retaliation in first!
University of Bradford     |
Tel: +44 1274 385463       |

Right, I'm off for that coffee.

--
Keefy Randy,  Sydney Australia

Richard

--------------------------------------------------------------------

If a tree fell at a RL game in 1997 would it make a sound?

: >
: >
: >
: > How do you find out these things?

: Probably by extending his research horizons beyond those offered by the
: Manly Daily.

I'd be quite pleased if I could extend my research horizons *to* the
Manly Daily.

--
Chris PRR Russell          |
Electronic Imaging Dept.   | Get your retaliation in first!
University of Bradford     |
Tel: +44 1274 385463       |

: >


: >
: > : > > Annoying fact of the week: There are more kids registered to play in
: > : > > Parramatta's own in-house competitions than there are regiestered to play
: > : > > in the whole of the UK.
: > : >
: > : > How do you find out these things? Anyway, thanks for the interesting reply.
: >
: > : Apparently, 89.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
: > : (Pinched from a Guinness adverti***t & Vic Reeves)
: >
: > 88.2%

: 88.20001% -> I'd guarantee you just made up the 88.2% :)

My calculator only does two decimal places. :^)

--
Chris PRR Russell          |
Electronic Imaging Dept.   | Get your retaliation in first!
University of Bradford     |
Tel: +44 1274 385463       |

: > Hasler as in Dessie? Years ago I saw a

: I had visions of you suffering a heart attack or something, and with your
: last brave effort managing to just click the 'Send' button. Then I noticed
: that you'd carried on below. Thank goodness.

I'm getting slack at cutting things I'm not replying to. I feel this is
part of my duties since I just bollocked a student for doing that last
week on the departmental mailing lists and people in authority should be
inconsistent.

I haven't told anyone off this week, not for that at any rate, so I'll be
trigger happy with this one.

: Yes Dessie, finally allowed
: to be put out to grass by those *** Wests people who shouldn't have
: expected him to run around at his age. By the way, did you know that Des
: Hasler was the subject of a book by that other famous Manly supporter,
: Thomas Kennealy.

I should have heard of him. In fact I have heard of him but I can't
remember why. Is he a novelist by any chance?

: > So, plan:
: >
: > 1) Get shut of relegation
: > 2) Introduce mandatory partnerships with feeder clubs - the Super League
: > (the top British competition, not the organisation - the phrases 'ARL'
: > and 'must run the game' are in my kill file) is the most important
: > competition

: I don't think people have a problem with how News has organized its
: involvement with League in places such as UK. But I don't know, maybe they
: do.

I said that because people have jumped up and down recently at the
mention of Super League thinking the British poster has meant News Ltd
rather than the top division of British RL.

: If you use that kill file you won't see much discussion re. the
: AR(ugby)L in  the next few weeks.

The 'and' is a logical one rather than a grammatical one even though I
didn't capitalise it. Stuff only gets chopped if both phrases are in
there. Interesting though these discussions are, they only remain so when
they remain discussions rather than slanging matches between ARL and SL
people.

: By the way, if you use those words in
: one of your posts, does it mean that you don't see your own post, and all
: replies quoting what you've typed are also killed?

Err, yeah it will do. I do see my posts but I don't see the replies. Not
unless someone like you with half a brain does what you've done a few
lines up there in any case. :^)

: In other words, has
: this post been killed so that you never see it?
: If so, maybe I should take the opportunity to really say what I think of you ..
: :-)

You can do that any way mate, I'm not proud. :^)

: > : How do you find out these things? Anyway, thanks for the interesting reply.
: >
: > That came from a reply I got from Brian Smith once when he was coach at
: > Bradford and I was motivated enough to tell other people my opinion. No
: > figures so I can't confirm it but he seemed quite scathing about it. I'm
: > still unsure whether he meant with professional UK clubs or with all
: > clubs. One of the reasons he ***ed off I suspect, far more of an
: > incentive than whopping great piles of cash from Parra anyway. :^)
: >
: > Right, rant over. I'll let you get on with your coffee.

: It was well set up for Smith at Parra, as they had a lot of very good
: players who hadn't really performed well as a team in their first season
: together. So I think a big improvement was bound to be seen in any case.
: How much of it is down to Smith I don't know. I've decided to claim that
: he can't take any credit for it, as he's said some uncomplimentary things
: about Manly on the radio.

You can't like very many people then.

What is it with Australians and Brian Smith? Hardly anyone seems to like
the bloke over there. Is there some sort of deal where he has to have
coached your side before he goes from 'arrogant' to 'eloquent'?

: Right, I'm off for that coffee.

I'm off down the pub before the beer gets cold. It's the First Year's
Christmas Pub Crawl tonight so I'm going to try exchange good grades for
*** favours.

Cheers,
Chris.

--
Chris PRR Russell          |
Electronic Imaging Dept.   | Get your retaliation in first!
University of Bradford     |
Tel: +44 1274 385463       |