Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:30 pm  

vb1981 wrote:

Worry not, Celtic wont be with us beyond 2012.

Lets just hope all these Australians & New Zealanders all have the correct papaerwork

i cant see beyond 2010 for them myself but you never know

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:47 pm  

vb1981 wrote:

Worry not, Celtic wont be with us beyond 2012.

Lets just hope all these Australians & New Zealanders all have the correct papaerwork

I have it on very good authority that there Macedonian passports are in the post!!!!!!

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:01 am  

Fully wrote:

More. They are allowed 14 overseas players.

How many overseas players do we have?

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:54 am  

t-r-i-n-i-t-y wrote:

Aye, shut Crusaders, Quins, Skolars, Hemel, Sheffield and whoever else down. Why even try spread our game? Let's go back to winter, unlimited tackles, Yorkshire & Lancashire leagues and working down the pit in the morning and playing in the afternoon.

If it turns out that Crusaders doesn"t work, so be it. Better to have had a go than never bothered.

If it as not worked it was never going to work like it as not worked in Sheffield, Doncaster, Kent, Southend, Cradiff, Gateshead or London for the last 28 years

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:00 am  

t-r-i-n-i-t-y wrote:

Aye, shut Crusaders, Quins, Skolars, Hemel, Sheffield and whoever else down. Why even try spread our game? Let's go back to winter, unlimited tackles, Yorkshire & Lancashire leagues and working down the pit in the morning and playing in the afternoon.

If it turns out that Crusaders doesn"t work, so be it. Better to have had a go than never bothered.

I'm afraid in that one thread you have perfectly reflected the expansion strategy based on class inferiority which has so poorly served our game. The advances in the product have largely been nullified by the fascination with being seen as a national game. What would have been wrong with being the biggest game in the M62 corridor? The opportunity to do this was there pre FA Premier League but the administrators were too busy in Fulham and Cardiff first time.

So now we have no industry and a dwindling sport but hey whilst Wigan and Hull have top flight football teams and kids in Widnes are watching second grade rugby we are pumping money into a dead duck.

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:15 am  

rubber man wrote:

I'm afraid in that one thread you have perfectly reflected the expansion strategy based on class inferiority which has so poorly served our game. The advances in the product have largely been nullified by the fascination with being seen as a national game. What would have been wrong with being the biggest game in the M62 corridor? The opportunity to do this was there pre FA Premier League but the administrators were too busy in Fulham and Cardiff first time.

Must have missed how rugby league crowds rivalled those of football pre-1992. We've long been second fiddle along the M62 corridor, as every other sport is in this country! By expanding, or trying to, we increase the potential numbers coming through the gates and watching on TV.

Watch the crowds at Hull City tumble when they are relegated, same for Wigan. Want evidence - look at Bradford City!

Can expansion work? Yes. Does it always work? No. Has the way the Crusaders have gone so far been perfect? Not at all, but how long is it since this founder member club of the Northern Rugby Football Union lurched from one financial crisis to another? And we are far from the only one!

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:04 am  

t-r-i-n-i-t-y wrote:

Must have missed how rugby league crowds rivalled those of football pre-1992. We've long been second fiddle along the M62 corridor, as every other sport is in this country! By expanding, or trying to, we increase the potential numbers coming through the gates and watching on TV.

Watch the crowds at Hull City tumble when they are relegated, same for Wigan. Want evidence - look at Bradford City!

Can expansion work? Yes. Does it always work? No. Has the way the Crusaders have gone so far been perfect? Not at all, but how long is it since this founder member club of the Northern Rugby Football Union lurched from one financial crisis to another? And we are far from the only one!

I have watched RL for 40 years name me one club where so called expansion as worked barr Catalan (RL heartland)
As for Bradford City average gate of 11400 this season 12700 last not bad for a 4th division side

rubber man hit the nail on the head

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:49 am  

GET EM ON SIDE REF wrote:

I have watched RL for 40 years name me one club where so called expansion as worked barr Catalan (RL heartland)

Whitehaven (Formed 1948)?

Fair enough, you don't think it'll work, so don't you think we should even try expand and get more people interested in rugby league? All sports other than football have to do that - from union, to basketball, ice hockey and gridiron - to get more media attention and more sponsorship money.

What you really can't judge is one club over a 3-5 year period. You have to go at it long-term, in terms of building up a fanbase and growing your own players - as Quins are just doing now after nearly 30 years of trying to establish roots.

If clubs in the heartland spend beyond their means, fail to attract new support, spend too much on even lower rate Aussies than we have in the Super League, why should they get more help?

No-one can criticise Crusaders' recruitment policy when we brought Winterstein over to this country at the expense of giving our own young talent the chance, can they?

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:57 am  

GET EM ON SIDE REF wrote:

you want to wake up and smell the coffee kid RL will never take off outside its heartlands as much as I would like to see it. and before you say it Catalan is a RL heartland unlike London or bloody Wales South or North

If the South of France is a Rugby League heartland and its a European Superleague then it should follow that Toulouse, Carcassonne, Lyon and Villeneuve have just as much right to lay claim to a Superleague place as Widnes, Leigh, Halifax and Wakefield do. Far too often I hear the "but Catalans are in a Rugby League heartland" excuse trotted out only for the same person to refuse to acknowledge that clubs in the south of France have as much right to Superleague as English heartland teams. I'm happy to accept the argument that Catalans are in a Rugby League heartland, it forms the basis of my argument as to why Toulouse should be in Superleague come 2012.

Re: Martin signed for Crusaders : Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:01 pm  

Dan155 wrote:

If the South of France is a Rugby League heartland and its a European Superleague then it should follow that Toulouse, Carcassonne, Lyon and Villeneuve have just as much right to lay claim to a Superleague place as Widnes, Leigh, Halifax and Wakefield do. Far too often I hear the "but Catalans are in a Rugby League heartland" excuse trotted out only for the same person to refuse to acknowledge that clubs in the south of France have as much right to Superleague as English heartland teams. I'm happy to accept the argument that Catalans are in a Rugby League heartland, it forms the basis of my argument as to why Toulouse should be in Superleague come 2012.

I don't know why you have lumped Wakefield into your list of non SL clubs other than it fits into the current mindset on these boards re anti Wakefield stance.

I would agree though that expansion might work best if we admit more French clubs and then work on closing the geographical gap between southern France and the M62.