Standee wrote:
You would hope AP could get together with the owners/CEO's of other clubs and make the RFL understand that the quality of officiating is damaging the game and putting their investment and players livelihoods in jeopardy. With so many leisure options available to people the game is at genuine risk of falling attendances if this continues, couple it with the atrocious "commentary" provided by Sky and the incredibly questionable Stobart sponsorship deal and the future looks questionable if nothing changes. The RFL seem to think the fans are still "flat caps and whippets".
I completely agree.
Obviously my views on the game are clouded by the fact we've seen about 1 decent/average season in 5 years (2010) but I am sick and tired of leaving a game and only talking about the abysmal decisions of the officials. I am sick and tired of seeing games where the Ref just allows both sides to play offside all game, which results in players being tackled as soon as they play the ball, allowing little attacking play.
I would have been in favour of the Stobart deal if it stipulated that ALL Stobart trucks would be painted in the SL livery over say a 2 year period, as this would have meant a large presence on the roads. Instead we have got a handful of trucks painted, and no cash to go with it.
SKY's commentary team are getting worse and worse every year, and now seem to offer nothing but irrelevant facts 'PlayerX last knocked on in the 3rd tackle in 2006' or just hype up games that even the casual RL fan knows isn't a classic (recent England-Exiles games) I know they have to try and avoid viewers switching off, but there is nothing wrong with constructive criticism of how a team is playing or on the quality of a game.
my other big RFL gripe is that they have taken a genuinely good opportunity of playing the RL World Cup in a 'dead' summer in the sporting calender, but have proceeded to mess it all up. So we have scenarios where the most attractive game in the tournament England-Australia, is played at the English RL heartland of Cardiff
Meanwhile England and NZ don't even meet in the group stage at all.
