Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Sun Aug 25, 2013 3:41 pm  

jaybs wrote:

Brian Berwick is nothing but a figure head! and not a good one at that,with his past history, and failures, who does that remind you off, the whole interview was more Hot Air and Berwick self promotion, we need actions, not words, but all he will end up being is a voice for Big Nigel!

I agree really, Its Nigel wood who needs replacing, and ASAP. The club chairmen should have a vote of no confidence in him after a season of no sponsorship for the "premier" competition!

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Sun Aug 25, 2013 4:48 pm  

I'm unsure what the hold is that Nigel Woods has over Club Chairmen, he does not keep his role as CEO on his success at Halifax and even more so in his position at the RFL.

Woods managed to force through his preference change in Super League and the lower leagues for 2015, to the Championship Clubs, with promises of extra cash, only Sheffield Eagles were willing to stand up to him.

Nigel's time in control at The RFL has been one of complete failure, still no announcement of a sponsor for the Rugby League World Cup, the RFU must laugh at us as a game. I worry what the World Cup make look like on TV, if anything after yesterday's Challenge Cup it does not bode well.

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Sun Aug 25, 2013 8:17 pm  

I don't see what yesterday's Cup Final has to do with anything.

Two teams based on solid defence play safety first in poor conditions? Why I'm amazed! No teams have ever done that before in cup finals in any sport.

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Sun Aug 25, 2013 8:34 pm  

Billinge_Lump wrote:

Two teams based on solid defence play safety first in poor conditions? Why I'm amazed! No teams have ever done that before in cup finals in any sport.

I wouldn't call what Hull produced 'safety first'! In fact, they seemed rather reckless with ball in hand (or not in hand, as the case was).

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Mon Aug 26, 2013 3:32 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

I'm not having that RU viewers are more attractive to advertisers than RL ones. McDonald's, any massive global bank, payday loan companies, all of the big supermarkets and retail chains make more from 10000 RL fans than They would from 1000 (or even 9000) RU fans. The RFL marketing team is just incompetent!

I've no idea whether RFL marketing is incompetent or not but that at McDonalds, Wonga etc certainly would be if sponsoring a sport watched by c100k viewers on sky was the best marketing strategy they could come up with.

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:54 am  

Yesterday we still get letters in the weekly press, referring to Rugby Union as the minor sport compared to League, when will some take their heads out of the sand?

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:44 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

I wouldn't call what Hull produced 'safety first'! In fact, they seemed rather reckless with ball in hand (or not in hand, as the case was).

That was basic incompetence rather than an attempt as expansive play though.

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:11 pm  

jaybs wrote:

I'm unsure what the hold is that Nigel Woods has over Club Chairmen, he does not keep his role as CEO on his success at Halifax and even more so in his position at the RFL.

I,d love to take a visit into Red Hall and see what actually goes on in there. Watching the Brian Barwick video I get the impression he is just a talker with a very limited role being part time and a non exec..
He obviously has the experience and contact to open some "doorways" for rugby league but the biggest problem is with Nigel Wood standing in one doorway nothing will get past him practically and theoretically.
The best way forward might be to create a working group from the best 4 clubs who have achieved marketing successes, business plans etc off the field not particularly on it. This is because nothing of any significant future developments comes out of Red Hall with any business sense, perhaps we need to get rid of the dead wood within the RFL epicentre.

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:42 pm  

I had quite a long conversation with a Super League coach back in April. He was scathing in his views on both Nigel Wood and Gary Hetherington, saying both had far too much influence on the direction RL was heading. I was quite surprised to hear him be so open about them.

Re: Brian Barwick: RFL chairman eyes stable Super League : Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:47 pm  

How can we not have managed to get a sponsor for SL? There's no way to dress that up other than complete incompetence.

We've also seen the whole product cheapened with a ridiculous (and terribly structured) playoff system which involves 60% of the teams in SL, seasons that have (for example) seen us play wigan a ridiculous amount of time to exploit the derby day pull.

Absolutly no effort seems to be made to increase our media profile - we've just had the challenge cup final, an event watched live by over 70K people. During the weekly rounds, tens of thousands of fans are turning our and we allegedly have great viewing figures on Sky. So why, during my time in the car over the last week when I listen to radio 2, have I literally heard Rugby League mentioned fewer times than Dressage Eventing!?

Sometime I think everything about the presentation of the sport is at rock bottom. I'm watching SL Fulltime and looking at the stupid robot man animation during the opening credit. If we pride ourselves in having such great atheletes, why don't we even show them on the title roll of our programs? Remember the impressive "Rugby League of the Extrordinary" advert which we all loved? Where were the follow adverts?

Its all just so disappointing at times.