It would appear that the televising of all fixtures next season will see two games featured on Sky and the other four on a rfl subscription platform rather like what happened in the past on Our League and it would be nice to think that a portion of the income from that would go to the relevant participating clubs, however I guess thats unlikely. The game appears to be in a bit of a mess at present with the Salford news yesterday and this morning a Club Chairman coming out and openly criticising the Board of the RFL in the media and IMG who he says have graded his club without even visiting it.
'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
It would appear that the televising of all fixtures next season will see two games featured on Sky and the other four on a rfl subscription platform rather like what happened in the past on Our League and it would be nice to think that a portion of the income from that would go to the relevant participating clubs, however I guess thats unlikely. The game appears to be in a bit of a mess at present with the Salford news yesterday and this morning a Club Chairman coming out and openly criticising the Board of the RFL in the media and IMG who he says have graded his club without even visiting it.
To be fair, for objective assessments based on data, why would IMG need to visit any club?
It’s not like last time with the independent assessments when somebody presumably mooched around Odsal, had lunch, decided SL needs Bradford… “B?”
This has got to be better than a system influenced by whether a Club Chairman and assessor have a shared interest in philately or fondness for pickled eggs or go back years and years.
(To be fair, even if the criteria raised a few suspicions last time, the assessments themselves didn’t cause it to fail).
It looks to me that the RFL haven't bothered to stagger the games kick off times throughout the weekend , Seems a bit stupid as many fans would probably watch one game after another increasing viewers and possible income rather than fans just picking one game out of three 8 o'clock kick offs .
Captains challenge is nonsense aswell makes the game to stop start from random guesses hoping to win the challenge
It's rugby league not tennis
I agree and its the usual tactic of Melbourne , when they want to see a tight game out, to challenge decisions in order to reset their defensive line or just slow down a game if momentum is against them. Cameron Smith was the master of this. Ref's make mistakes, both ways and it goes for and against teams, with no real obvious bias and we as fans have to just accept it. If games are televised , then surely the "bunker" can advise a ref if they think he has made an obvious error, more quickly than a Captain's Challenge. It was always accepted that you don't speak back to referees and held up as an example to other sports of how a game should be conducted, but it has slowly crept into the game now and should be policed more, in my opinion, to stop all the accusations that used to follow Sinfield and Tompkins in particular, after they were always in the referee's ear.
I agree and its the usual tactic of Melbourne , when they want to see a tight game out, to challenge decisions in order to reset their defensive line or just slow down a game if momentum is against them. Cameron Smith was the master of this. Ref's make mistakes, both ways and it goes for and against teams, with no real obvious bias and we as fans have to just accept it. If games are televised , then surely the "bunker" can advise a ref if they think he has made an obvious error, more quickly than a Captain's Challenge. It was always accepted that you don't speak back to referees and held up as an example to other sports of how a game should be conducted, but it has slowly crept into the game now and should be policed more, in my opinion, to stop all the accusations that used to follow Sinfield and Tompkins in particular, after they were always in the referee's ear.
People over here moan about the constant rule changes
But nrl are the big problem they change rules every season
And alot of them are just nonsense ( the 2 point drop goal ) been another
It looks to me that the RFL haven't bothered to stagger the games kick off times throughout the weekend , Seems a bit stupid as many fans would probably watch one game after another increasing viewers and possible income rather than fans just picking one game out of three 8 o'clock kick offs .
Wonder if it's a case of the clubs going against IMGs recommendations again? We were told there'd be no more Thursday games...and lo and behold there's Thursday games, seems to me IMG keep suggesting things, clubs keep ignoring them, fans blame IMG...cant see IMG sticking around much longer
People over here moan about the constant rule changes
But nrl are the big problem they change rules every season
The next lot are in the pipeline for consideration with a decision to be made before the end of January. They include a 5 min sin bin, Bunker having a bigger role including judging on critical forward passes and tweaking the head injury assessment rules.
Wonder if it's a case of the clubs going against IMGs recommendations again? We were told there'd be no more Thursday games...and lo and behold there's Thursday games, seems to me IMG keep suggesting things, clubs keep ignoring them, fans blame IMG...cant see IMG sticking around much longer
I think it will be the other way round Steve Dont think the RFL will want IMG to stick around The idea of employing them is to enhance the game and given they are supposed to be one of the best in their field seems to me they have done sweet FA. Its marketing that this sport needs not spreadsheet Charlies,and that could have been done much more efficiently and economically by employing a hungry small/medium sized company to market the game. Its a bit like appointing one of the big four accounting firms like KPMG to do your companies end of year accounts.Cost you a lot more money than employing a small medium company but you get nothing extra other than a big name company stamp signing off your accounts