This Week In League - November 24

Unless you’re very old like me you won’t remember ever seeing live rugby league on terrestrial, free-to-air television. I have very fuzzy memories of Clive Tyldesley commentating on Saturday afternoon games broadcast regionally. Tyldesley went on to be a top football commentator for both BBC and ITV. Meanwhile television coverage of rugby league - although far more ubiquitous in these times of multi-channel digital and satellite systems - has now regressed to the point where it falls on Terry O’Connor to describe the action. 

Like just about every no-talent sixth-former with access to YouTube, rugby league is absolutely desperate for exposure. As much as O’Connor tries, even he can’t persuade the entire nation to part with enough of their hard earned to acquire a subscription to Sky Sports. Great swathes of the nation have been missing out on the greatest game these last 25 years. That’s partly because even Tanya Arnold couldn’t tell you what time The Super League Show will be broadcast by the BBC on any given week, but also because the live action has been behind a paywall. 

Finally, this is being addressed for the coming season. Super League today announced a two-year deal for Channel 4 to screen live matches. They will show 10 in 2022 including two end of season playoff games. It will all kick-off on Saturday February 12 when Leeds Rhinos host Warrington Wolves at the sponsors vacuum that is Headingley;

“The opportunity to offer live Super League action to fans on a free-to-air platform across the whole season is fantastic and one that we hope will continue to serve our current fans, as well as attract many new fans to the sport.” Said Super League Chairman (for now) Ken Davy. 

I’d like to end this section with a pithy put-down of the geriatric Tory. But on this I can’t fault him. Bravo Ken. Good job. You Tory f**k!

To France now where Catalans Dragons coach Steve McNamara has delved into the contact book     as he continues his Dick Dastardly-like pursuit of those pesky Saints. The headphone-wearing motivational speaker has called on a friend from his time as the Sydney Roosters assistant coach in the shape of prop-forward Dylan Napa. The 29 year-old has played State Of Origin for Queensland as recently as 2019, but has rather less impressively spent the last three seasons with the NRL’s whipping boys the Canterbury Bulldogs;

“I'm very excited for the opportunity.” Napa said, though it is not clear whether he was talking about joining Catalans or getting away from Canterbury;

“I have a great relationship with Steve McNamara from my time at the Roosters and can't wait to get over to France, put in the work and earn respect from my team-mates and coaching staff.” He added;

“Having worked closely with Dylan at the Roosters, I know first-hand the impact he can have in this competition.” Reckoned McNamara;

“I spoke many times with him throughout the negotiations and his will, desire and enthusiasm to get back to his best form was overwhelming.”

Touching 30, suffering from a dip in form, a slightly dodgy personal history involving leaked videos and revenge porn? Can’ say he doesn’t fit the profile for a Dragons overseas recruit.

There’s a vacancy in the Dragons prop group partly due to the departure of everyone’s second favourite Tomkins brother. Former Wigan, Hull KR and England kick & clap merchant Joel had been due to sign for Leigh Centurions. However, the female bar staff of Leigh can breathe a collective sigh of relief now that Tomkins has instead decided to retire;

“I thank Leigh for their understanding of my situation.” He began;

“I wish them every success for the future. I wanted to do the right thing by the club, and they respect that.”

Another largely forgotten ex-Wiganer - Leigh Head Of Rugby Chris Chester - put aside his annoyance at having to spend more time thinking about recruitment to comment;

“Joel's had a great, great career and he's a person I've a huge amount of respect for. He always comes across as humble and we'll miss his leadership which was one of the biggest reasons we recruited him.”

Over at Chester’s old club Wakefield there have been moves made to shed any suggestion of a negative attitude to diversity which may have arisen from their players’ very public aversion to taking the knee. Chairman Michael Carter enabled that stance, but has nevertheless led Trinity to becoming the first Super League club to sign the Muslim Athlete Charter;

“I am delighted to launch this charter with a commitment to becoming a more socially diverse and inclusive club” parped Carter, to the consternation of those blurts on Twitter who think being nice to people is ‘woke’:

“I want people of the Muslim faith to feel that they can become a part of Wakefield Trinity.” He continued. 

“Whether that is as a player, coach, staff member or fan, and (I) look forward to working progressively together on this charter.”

And on that note, having seen both Davy and Carter engaging in initiatives which I whole-heartedly support, I’m going for a lie down in a dark room. See you next week.

This Week In League - November 17

In case you don’t remember there should be a Rugby League World Cup going on right about now. Sadly, it was far too dangerous for those Australians and New Zealanders to come over to the UK in the autumn. Of course, as everyone knows Covid does not transmit during participation in any other sport - in particular rugby union - so I guess that explains why the All Blacks played Wales and Ireland recently while the Wallabies faced England. Rugby league - as it seems to on a suspiciously regular basis - just got unlucky. 

But just when you thought you could forget about it until it finally kicks off next year along comes some more negative news about the troubled tournament. It had been the plan to stage a women’s game and a men’s quarter final at Anfield but the home of Liverpool FC is apparently not available due to rebuilding work. The strangely gender-less ‘wheelchair’ final was also set for Liverpool at the city’s M & S Bank Arena. The Echo in old money. But guess what? That venue isn’t available either. It’s almost as if this was always going to be a problem as soon as the organisers buckled to the demands of the NRL mafia and agreed to postpone it for a year.

But often it isn’t the setback but how you respond that determines whether you really could run a piss-up in a brewery. In this regard the RLWC organisers left us in no doubt about their standards when they announced that the replacement for Anfield would be...Wigan. Maths enthusiasts will have noted that the DW Stadium has roughly half the capacity of Anfield which if nothing else will make it easier to fill. If there is one thing World Cup organisers fear more than the NRL mafia it is the prospect of a half full stadium at a televised match;

“A huge amount of work has gone in behind the scenes and thanks to so many people we have the opportunity to deliver a bigger and better tournament next autumn.” Insists RLWC Chief Executive John Dutton. 

Still on the subject of venue changes we turn our attention to the Summer Bash. That’s Magic Weekend for Championship clubs. Normally held in the summery seaside town of Blackpool the 2022 version looks like it will be moving to Leeds. 

It had been decided to hold the event in July following the decision to move the Challenge Cup final back to a May date. Because we don’t want an event in July but actually we do. That switch meant that Blackpool FC’s Bloomfield Road ground became unavailable due to the earlier start to the 2022/23 football season brought about by the presence of a November World Cup on the calendar. Ha! A November World Cup? That’ll never work.

Putting aside the reasons for leaving Blackpool the decision to go to the Rugby League Central destination that is Leeds throws the whole venture into question. It’s meant to be about spreading the game to new areas and attracting new fans. If we’re giving up on that noble pursuit then what we are left with is a set of pointless fixtures which distort the competition and waste everyone’s time.

Of course, there are those who welcome the switch. After all, who cares about mealy-mouthed shite about ‘spreading the game’ and ‘the good of the sport’ when there’s an afternoon in the Skyrack on offer? People will travel to Headingley in their hundreds from Featherstone and Batley. What have I got to complain about here?

Recruitment continues apace as clubs prepare for the new season. As I write we are just 85 days from the big kick-off. About time that comatose giant Wigan sprung into some action then. Bringing Shaun Wane back to oversee the new coaching team of Matty Peet, Lee Briers and Sean O’Loughlin was never going to be enough by itself. 

Lucky then that Lenners has pulled off the whopping great coup of re-signing former pie Ian Thorniley to replace the Wests Tigers-bound Oliver Gildart. Thornley spent last season taking part in post-try inquests under his own posts as part of a Leigh Centurions side which won just two of its 22 Super League matches in 2021. Now he gets an unexpected opportunity to prove that he is good enough after all for the club which bundled him out of the front door in 2016 after loan spells with South Wales Scorpions, Workington Town, Salford Red Devils and yes...Leigh Centurions. 

Wests Tigers also have their grubby paws all over Jackson Hastings now, so Wigan have moved to fill that void also. They welcome Manly Sea Eagles stand-off Cade Cust, who if nothing else has a surname which is a gift to those looking to lampoon him with pie-related puns. The bad news is that he’s quite handy. He’s made 26 appearances in three seasons with Manly, scoring nine tries and making one appearance for the Indigenous All Stars. He’s quick, elusive and has an eye for a gap. So not a Shaun Wane kind of player at all. Quite how he will respond when he is asked to cave someone’s cruciate ligament in we can only speculate.

Willie Isa is much more Wane’s type. Hard working but indisciplined and needlessly violent. Such qualities have earned him a two-year extension to his deal. Should he see it out Isa will have spent seven seasons at the club. Which is the complete embodiment of where a once great club find themselves at present. Oh Bevan. Where are you?

The phrase led by lambs almost literally applied to Wigan last season, but no longer. The arrival of Waney & The Fall Guys filled the gap left by Adrian Lam’s departure. A complete disaster of a coach who was to free-flowing attacking rugby league what Michael Vaughan is to race relations, Lam would have been forgiven for fearing that the jig was up for him as a head coach.

Along came Leigh Centurions - still clearly dazed from their Super League experience - to somehow entice Lam away from his role as Mal Meninga’s assistant with the Australian Kangaroos. The move reunites Lam with another former Wigan halfback as Chris Chester occupies the Head Of Rugby role at the Leigh Sports Village;

“The target is for us to get promoted back into Super League.” said Lam, confirming also that the boys trained well this week but just weren’t good enough;

“Now Adrian has been appointed we can sit down and assess the current playing squad and look at areas where we need to strengthen.” Said Chester, giving himself a fairly varied brief.”

Lam was Super League Coach Of The Year just 12 months ago. Quite the fall from grace, and all started by a dramatic Grand Final loss to Saints. Steve McNamara should probably keep the line to his agent open.

This Week In League - November 10

It must be at least five minutes since the self-harming sport of rugby league enjoyed a good old league restructure. The late decision to expand the 2020 playoffs from five to six clubs because otherwise Leeds Rhinos wouldn’t have qualified doesn’t really count. The last real change was when we did away with the eights concept, whether super, middle or otherwise. 

That was back in 2018, so it was surprising to note this week that the planned reshuffle to a structure of two divisions of 10 has been put on hold until the start of 2024. The original plan was to implement it at the start of 2023 but it has now been decided to delay to make it coincide with the start of a new TV deal. Whether it will it matter how many teams are in the league when games are being broadcast on niche DIY channels is a question we’re swerving for now.

The procrastination and can-kicking is nothing new for rugby league and not actually my main concern. The biggest problem with what now seems the certain introduction of 10-team divisions is that it is fundamentally A Shit Idea. It short-changes fans in offering each team only nine unique opponents. In a lame attempt to pull the wool over our eyes about this the self-preservation society known as the Super League chairmen will no doubt knock their heads together and conclude that they can still offer a 25-27 game season via the dubious gift of loop fixtures. All of which means we can look forward to five derbies a year again, just like we had in the days of the (checks notes...) super and middle eights. 

The authorities can move the pieces around but the truth is we are still hamstrung by the fact that we don’t have a big enough player pool. If we did then maybe we’d have a sensible-sized league of 14-16 teams. A league in which all those clubs with the means to go full time could do so without becoming cannon fodder for the masters of the grind at the top end of the league.

Worry not though, for just when you need evidence that things could be worse along comes the announcement that the newly Super-Leagued Toulouse Olympique will not enter the 2022 Challenge Cup. Toulouse’s non-participation in the game’s oldest competition went somewhat under the radar while they were devouring lower league opponents. But now they are in the top flight their absence is a PR disaster for the competition. It was already reeling from the decision to move next year’s final from Wembley to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - thus giving it all the sense of occasion of a gritty 1-1 draw with Watford. 

Toulouse are not a full member of the RFL and so not ‘obliged’ to enter. All of which makes entering one of the grandest competitions in sport sound like an irritating chore up there with loading the dishwasher or worse - actually washing the dishes yourself. It also highlights the discord in the game given that two of the elite 12 clubs in our game are not full members of the RFL. That hasn’t stopped Catalans Dragons from being successful - not only consistently entering but winning the Challenge Cup in 2018. Yet it does throw up images of the overcrowding by supposed authorities in boxing which has led it to a place where it is now basically controlled by a handful of very rich men. Like everything fucking else. 

Lastly we must head back north (this is rugby league after all) for news of more deck chair shuffling on doomed vessels. Specifically, there was surprise this week when Hull FC allowed mediocrity’s Marc Sneyd to move back to his first club Salford Red Devils, coached by one-time Super League poster boy Paul Rowley. Remember posters? Remember Super League marketing? 

“I've been at Hull for six years and absolutely loved every single minute of my time there, but I was ready to come back to family and things like that.” Parped Sneyd, who has done more than most to maintain FC’s long run as the game’s biggest under-achievers.

Filling the void at FC will be former Leeds Rhinos team trademark botherer Luke Gale. The former England man - whose drop goal for the Tigers against Saints in 2017 in no way still haunts me or fuels my disdain for him - insisted that the move had nothing to do with a high profile spat with Leeds coach Richard Agar last year which saw Gale lose the Rhinos captaincy;

"There was no hard feelings with what happened last year. We shook hands and we moved on.” He insisted, sticking another pin in a doll which bore more than a passing resemblance to the Leeds boss.

Gale also denies that his sudden hop east had anything to do with the arrival of Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin at the stadium formerly known as Emirates Headingley;

“There hadn't been a chat on that, and that's not the reason I'm here.” he claimed;

“I just felt the opportunity would be better moving on. That was really all there was to it.”

This Week In League - November 3 2021

It must be at least seven minutes since the game has torn itself apart over expansion. Sighs of relief all round then as along comes another Eric Perez venture to help fill the mud-slinging void. Perez’s latest attempt to launch a successful professional rugby league club takes him to Cornwall. The south west county has the appeal of being an awful lot closer to most semi-professional rugby league clubs than either Toronto or Ottawa, but is not quite close enough to the M62 for everyone. 

In the most predictable thing to happen in rugby league since Saints won another Grand Final a stream of dissenters including journalists who should know better came forward to explain to us exactly how far Cornwall is from West Yorkshire. Some of them even added helpful maps to save those contemplating the trip the bother of getting on the route planner. Cost was offered as another prohibitive factor as well as the timeless classic scenario of part-time players having to get up half an hour before go to bed - python style - and do a day’s work after such epic, Bagginsian travel. Why does every semi-pro rugby league player have to get up at dawn for work? Is it contractual?

What about player welfare, they screamed? Which is a reasonable enough question on the face of it until you consider that those asking it are the same people who don’t think their front row enforcer should have been sin-binned for cracking the opposing winger around the head because ‘the game’s gone’. Last time I checked my route planner Cornwall was in the UK so it would seem a stretch to expect the national governing body to veto Cornwall’s involvement on grounds of geography. The issue here is Perez, and the well earned scepticism around weather he could launch a banger on Bonfire night much less a professional rugby league club. There is apparently a meeting of Championship and League One clubs going on as I write. Cornwall’s involvement will no doubt be on the agenda. Don’t expect any grown up decisions to be taken.

Another creating problems without realistic solutions is Wigan legend and serial meat pie grabber Martin Offiah. The self-proclaimed greatest try scorer in the game’s history (Brian Bevan, anyone?) was busy this week bemoaning the limitations of the salary cap. According to Offiah the big problem with the modern game - like there’s only one - is that players aren’t paid enough lolly. 

This view may or may not be connected to Offiah’s current activities as a player agent. He took it a stage further when he suggested that players are paid so poorly that it is now too much of an effort for wealthy people to even bother to watch. Why would you want to watch players who might be getting paid less than you are, asks Martin? The logic of this escapes me somewhat. If had £10 less than Jeff Bezos I would still spend some of it on watching Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Matty Lees give away another six again. I neither know nor care what they earn.

There might be a serious point to be made about the cap but this is not it. Nor is it Offiah’s other assertion that we would be better off having one star-studded team winning everything like in his day because at least then you would have a high standard from that team. Has he looked at the recent roll of honour in Super League? One team does win everything but it hasn’t turned Jack Welsby into a household name. The cap may have driven down standards but its main flaw is that it doesn’t appear to have created the unpredictability that it was created for. We are 25 years in to Super League and there are still only four names on the trophy. There is a debate to be had about whether we really want the kind of unpredictability and parity seen in competitions like the NFL where winning a championship is largely a matter of hanging around and waiting your turn. 

If the game is less attractive and the players less well known then that is at least as much down to coaching and rule changes as it is the salary cap. Coaches have figured out that the most direct route to winning things with a 10metre offside line is to use your wingers as battering rams and pass the ball only when absolutely necessary. The introduction of six again only adds to the feeling that what we need for ‘entertainment’ is for everything to happen as quickly as possible with fewer of those pesky stoppage thingies. Skill and variety have become luxuries we no longer have the patience for. 

No doubt Offiah would point out it wasn’t like that in his day.