Trainman wrote:
It’s not just our bubble but also the bubble of the teams we have been playing. It could be considered unfortunate.
This is most certainly not an excuse, it is a reason (albeit one of several). The first few days after any game are rest and rehab with the actual training taking place after that. Having 4/5 days between games means we only really get to train as a team for 1 day per week. It is far from a normal season in which we might have to do this once or twice, we’ve been doing it for the last month and it will take its toll on the players.
If we want a higher quality sport we must play less games.
If you want a higher quality sport where there is a decline in the number of top quality players and a decline in support, the time has come for some clubs to merge and form less but bigger and stronger clubs.
A classic example being Salford and Swinton clubs who are both struggling both on and off the field. Salford in danger of having to leave the AJ Bell Stadium and Swinton with no Stadium of their own playing at the home of Sale RU which is nowhere near Swinton.
Thirty six clubs in three divisions with most along the M62 corridor is not a good situation to have in the present time of a poor financial state of the game, declining crowds and less quality players with only a handful having Academy teams.
Time that some owner and directors stopped burying their heads in the sand and clinging to their own little empires and faced the reality that the time has come for a complete overhaul of the game where the number of "professional" clubs is concerned.
If it does not , I fear for the games future as a fully professional sport!
A few seasons back, the Aussies did it when they said there was too many clubs around the Sydney area and they did not let objections get in the way and just went ahead with mergers with the result that the NRL is now better, bigger and stronger than what it was at the time.
