: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:13 am
Gateux,
It's a sad state of affairs but unfortunately the 'family' feeling that people used to associate with what is a brilliant game is waning massively. Nothing has done more to kill the RL community as a whole then the franchising debacle and the gap between the 'them's and the us'es' will only get wider as this goes on and we enter the farce that will be the 2011 application process. It was even apparent at board level with certain club officials pouring scorn on the applications of their rival clubs bids.. mocking modern community stadiums and the like whilst extolling the virtues of iconic stadia that will be built should 'They' be given a licence..
It's fairly patronizing to expect fans of championship clubs to want the game to go on and get stronger at the expense of something that they have devoted themselves to for the vast majority of their life..
It's like asking them to have their favourite pet put down so that other people can enjoy their own pets!!!
Do you honestly expect the reaction to have been as half as bad were relegation and promotion still in place??..
If clubs were of the belief that by attaining certain standards on and off the pitch and that winning the final were enough to gain them a place amongst the elite would anyone actually be wanting to see the crusaders fail to the extent that they are?
Instead, due to the cherry picking process put in place by the men in ties at Redhall, the feeling amongst those on the outside is that entry to SL is by means of 'dead men's shoes'. The RFL have made their expansion agenda quite clear and this only goes to further deepen the fear that there will be no possible return to SL whilst Toulouse, Gateshead, Edinburgh?? and who knows what future experimental sides wait in the wings.
There were obvious problems with the old system such as having the championship GF played in October and staging the NR cup group games at the beginning of the season?? This gave teams less time to prepare their squads for SL
Instead have the NR cup as the swansong to the season and get the GF out of the way earlier giving them time to put a side together
... instead of the old parachute payment for heading down a division why not have provided money to the newly promoted team to strengthen their side and help them become competitive.
Give greater protection to team's youngsters so that they can't be poached away as easily... Enforce a similar ruling to the one that is about to be brought into the Football PL for a set number of home-grown players to have to be played in a set number of games??
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