The Richardson proposals, though having traction in Australia, have several glaring issues.
Perhaps the most difficult to overcome would be that teams in this exclusive league would need to have "primacy of tenure" over their home ground.  You can't possibly have the situation where fixtures are being dictated by ground owners who want to renew their playing area in the football close season.  By my calculation, this would exclude Hull FC, Wigan, London, Toulouse, York, Doncaster, Salford, Huddersfield. Oldham and probably many others.


Next, if Leeds became the representative club for our area, who could bear to support them?  Would the non chosen clubs be left to fend for themselves in a part-time purgatory and would that be better than supporting Leeds?  The majority would just walk away.  Since the acrimonious carve up of the formation of Super League, it has taken until now for crowds across the game to start a continual upward trend.  That's a lot to throw away on a hunch.


With 10 teams playing 18 games/ season that would require massive input of TV revenue to even maintain the status quo in teems of club finances.  That in itself isn't much use as most clubs are losing millions of pounds every year.  Cost bases would increase with only 9 home games per year and having to pay increased salaries to their players.


The Challenge Cup would presumably remain in the domain of the RFL so the 8 English clubs would be excluded or it would become a mockery of a competition either because of the enormous gulf between NRLE and the rest of the game or the potential embarrassment of one of these clubs losing to an outcast club.


Would Wakefield be prepared to be a feeder club to Leeds or perhaps take the view that switching to RU would be a better option for the City of Wakefield.


As all the TV channels seem to be determined to continue to feed the voracious monster that is football, Why would this proposal have any attraction over the current product?  Surely it is better that now we are generating a more consistent, competitive product, the game continues to make incremental improvements and forces better links with a variety of broadcasters.


Lastly, clubs have followed the RFL directives and bought into the IMG vision which still has several years to run.  If these clubs are now told to disappear into a black hole with no escape hatch, then surely they would be fully justified in suing the RFL for the millions of pounds that have been spent in the pursuit of ground and facilities improvements.

If he can deliver us a £60m per year broadcast deal, I'll be a fan. But for me the problem is that Sutton, Hetherington, Beaumont et al all said he'd depart after the review - when really we all knew that was a lie. And while being lied to is bad, to know you're being lied to it feels worse. Then to see Beaumont gurning his way through Leigh's celebrations in Perpignan on the same day just smelled off to me.

Trojan Horse: Fil: Nigel Wood remaining in charge.... Rugby league descends into farce Guessing you’re not a fan. You may not like the guy but I’m a firm believer in judging on results.  We will see if it is a farce or a wise move in due course. The Stobart “deal” and the situation with Odsal should be sufficient evidence to show that Wood is too incompetent to lead a conga line never mind a sport.

Trojan Horse: Fil: Nigel Wood remaining in charge.... Rugby league descends into farce Guessing you’re not a fan. You may not like the guy but I’m a firm believer in judging on results.  We will see if it is a farce or a wise move in due course. The Stobart “deal” and the situation with Odsal should be sufficient evidence to show that Wood is too incompetent to lead a conga line never mind a sport.

Willzay: Trojan Horse: Fil: Nigel Wood remaining in charge.... Rugby league descends into farce Guessing you’re not a fan. You may not like the guy but I’m a firm believer in judging on results.  We will see if it is a farce or a wise move in due course. The Stobart “deal” and the situation with Odsal should be sufficient evidence to show that Wood is too incompetent to lead a conga line never mind a sport.

Willzay: Trojan Horse: Fil: Nigel Wood remaining in charge.... Rugby league descends into farce Guessing you’re not a fan. You may not like the guy but I’m a firm believer in judging on results.  We will see if it is a farce or a wise move in due course. The Stobart “deal” and the situation with Odsal should be sufficient evidence to show that Wood is too incompetent to lead a conga line never mind a sport.

Can someone please sort this site out. 


I typed a whole post again and when submitting it auto refreshed and flashed up with text and signs and then my post was blank. 


It’s a joke. 

Willzay: Trojan Horse: Fil: Nigel Wood remaining in charge.... Rugby league descends into farce Guessing you’re not a fan. You may not like the guy but I’m a firm believer in judging on results.  We will see if it is a farce or a wise move in due course. The Stobart “deal” and the situation with Odsal should be sufficient evidence to show that Wood is too incompetent to lead a conga line never mind a sport. Absolutely, he’s a real wolf in sheep’s clothing, that Odsal lease sales for over one million £ to RFL and buying it for Bradford for around 400 thousand cost the  RFL and the member clubs around 700 thousand, I don’t trust the man.

Willzay: Trojan Horse: Fil: Nigel Wood remaining in charge.... Rugby league descends into farce Guessing you’re not a fan. You may not like the guy but I’m a firm believer in judging on results.  We will see if it is a farce or a wise move in due course. The Stobart “deal” and the situation with Odsal should be sufficient evidence to show that Wood is too incompetent to lead a conga line never mind a sport. Absolutely, he’s a real wolf in sheep’s clothing, that Odsal lease sales for over one million £ to RFL and buying it for Bradford for around 400 thousand cost the  RFL and the member clubs around 700 thousand, I don’t trust the man.