The Lewis apologists : Fri Apr 13, 2012 8:53 am  

Reading the VT, there are many apologists for Richard Lewis, most of them fans of super league clubs, loons or both!

It is easy to see that Lewis did a good job in getting the RFL's books in the black but is it so difficult for them to see his abject failures?

A lot of these people are saying that "flatcappers", (that's anyone who has a different opinion to them!), are blaming Lewis for the Bulls going pop and on the other hand saying the licencing Lewis introduced is to protect clubs financially. I dont seem to remember seeing anyone suggest that but merely use it as evidence about the system being floored, Bradford getting a B licence whilst in a massive hole?

Licencing is a great idea, if overseen and run transparently and fairly. It seems to me, for whatever reason, Lewis wanted a super league containing X,Y and Z clubs. And he achieved this by moving goal posts, breaking the laws of the land and turning a blind eye!

Let's not forget the lies and the spin either - Leigh not having a new stadium that was already built, the attack on our club, the meetings with widnes. How would we have felt if Lewis would have come out and said, here are the clubs we are having in super league and the reasons why?

There are a few clubs in SL that are neither profressing nor getting worse, just treading water, which brings us onto our league and a club like fev. They've really turned themselves around, great side on the field, stadium improving, good youth developmen, but where will this lead? Nowhere? And what happens ultimately? Did people leave fev in disillusionment, maybe leave the game all together? Any good kids go to SL. Fev struggle again. But this won't matter cos they're a small village club with a few supporters. SL clubs can even nick all their systems allowing them to progress.

Let's hope the new guy appreciates reward for hard work, punishes lack of progress and runs a fair and transparent licencing system that strengthens the WHOLE sport.

And let's not get started on sponsorship....

Re: The Lewis apologists : Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:37 am  

The purpose of SL licencing is to protect the insiders and keep out the undesirables. That's why you'll never get transparency or equity in the process.

Re: The Lewis apologists : Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:28 pm  

Lewis has done well for the game and brought extra money in and not just at SL level. I am glad he split up GB as it gives a chance to the welsh, Scottish and Irish born players to play for their land like other sportsmen do. Theres a couple of young scots playing academy level at Hull and Hull KR that now can play for Scotland. I feel this is good. He has dragged the game forward.
I dont agree with some of his ideas like licencsing. But I feel the past 4 or 5 years he has just been an ambassador rather than the person running or should I say ruining the game. Nigel Wood was involved and was the instigator for the Welsh farce. He knew about the problems and ignored the warning signs. He pushed through the bonus point system that exists in the Championship but not done it for SL. It was Wood who decided it would be a good idea for Season ticket holders to pay bugger all and saw Fax amongst other championship teams miss out on extra cash. Wood has been joined by another useless failure in Rimmer. Whilst Lewis is not some peoples favourite person for me I would rather have him than the two idiots who have such a great record in the game and who only care about themselves and nobody else.

Re: The Lewis apologists : Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:07 pm  

I have never met Richard Lewis so I am unable to comment on what sort of a person he is but I`m sure he came to the game with high ideals but once in Red Hall I probably think he just got suckered in.I don`t think he had any alternative but to split GB up as he got money from Sport England which meant it could not be used for Ireland Scotland and Wales,I`m not saying it was a bad thing just that it was not his choice.
Rimmer was taken on to oversee the Liscensing last year so non of the mud stuck to the other two he was used by them.I attended a meeting where he was speaking and someone asked him about Sheffields` demise on his watch.He looked a bit flustered and said he blamed the Sheffield fans for the Club going under because they would not travel to Huddersfield to watch them play.
Says it all for me really, why anyone would think people from Sheffield would suddenly want to go watching Shuddersfield Giant Eagles instead of your home town club is beyond me.
Then we have Mr Wood whose gaffs are too numereous to mention so I am not even going to start as I have tea to start.

Re: The Lewis apologists : Sat Apr 14, 2012 5:18 pm  

i assume the apologists will point to the cas result today as another endorsement of how far the game has come under Mr Lewis

Re: The Lewis apologists : Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:13 am  

harry1 wrote:

i assume the apologists will point to the cas result today as another endorsement of how far the game has come under Mr Lewis

They might but is it actually a damning indictment on the fact that it isn't working?

Re: The Lewis apologists : Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:06 am  

Think Harry was being sarcastic non?

A full-time team with over a million pound spent on it should NEVER lose against a part time team with £150k spent on it. That's the simple theory anyway. What's reared its ugly head here is PRIDE, PASSION and LOVE OF THE CLUB. Disgusting isn't it? THis is supposed to be a business, not sport.

Re: The Lewis apologists : Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:25 pm  

Ooops!
The basic issue is that there are not enough top class players to fill 14 teams, and the SL top teams are already saying this, though probably so they can have a bigger slice of the pie. The answer would be to drop SL down to 10 or 12 clubs and then think about inventing a mechanism whereby the top team/temas for the next level replace the bottom teams on an annual basis.

I have no idea how this could be done but it's just a thought.