He is excellent at the later two, which does not come close to even getting past the tea lady for an interview.

It shouldn’t be about a male of female CEO it should be about the best qualified.

the guy is a joke – stabbed Murray in the back after he showed him up at the roosters and continues to belittle ricky stuart as if to prove he is the ultimate coach.

How is your News Ltd boycott going? I hope you are watching any Fox Sports at the pub.

Dennis Fitzgerald could learn so much from him.

Interesting talk that the WRU are now thinking of adding a provinical side to the Crusaders area. It was the introduction of the provinical system that allowed the Crusaders to be born in the first place after people jacked it in when sides were merged and the Crusaders owner was dudded out of a union franchise….by none other that ex NRL CEO David Moffatt. In protest he set up the league team and it hasn’t looked back.

Reading some of the comments from the coach John Dixon offers you a rare touch of sanity in the world of spin and slander between League and Union.

You don”t employ a Catholic and hope he will spruik atheism.

Gallop is a News Limited man. They pay his keep. They pay him for results. Results means News Limited profits. The welfare of rugby league is secondary, at best.

For every North Sydney Bears fan (knowing their club – and 100 years of tradition – was defrauded of their licence), his mere presence is execrable.

But getting back to the fact that super league will have all our best players, i really think it has started now, we have lost Jason Rhyes and Ray Cashmere, along with Greg Eastwood and you have 3 of the best at the moment, They are all young and i think Cashmere was just starting to become a origin player if he hung around. It does not seem like alot but i think they are our very best quality, and cusak was very good, and i see he played in the challenge cup final.

Anyway, come 5 years from now i would love to have this conversation again. There is something about the super league that seems to be right, they have a good man in charge. I also loved the way he changed the millium game to Scotland after celtic was admitted to the comp. It was like our work is done here lets get on with it.

Funny you should mention this. I remember saying a while ago on a different subject that their is no god given right for this country to have the best RL competition in the world. As a born & bred football fan it is something that you accept that the best competitions have never & never will be in Australia purely & simply because as you say “money talks” Unfortunately (for Australian league fans that is) they have been use to having the best players in the NRL. It just needs a different mindset to the game.,accepting that the best may not be here. For football ,we join most of the countries in the world in lamenting that the cream of our players are in Europe. Why should league albeit on a smaller scale be any different? Or for that matter Union.
Doesnt mean you regard your game any less or follow it less ,you just follow the best somewhere else & the local comp adjusts to the level of the players remaining. Its very different between league & football in this respect in that football has a bigger world pool of players to draw from but still in relative terms the A-league will find its level in the world football market.
On the NRL side of the ledger it will find its level on the world scale it operates under. Thats what happens in an ever increasing global world. Fact of life.

League has been going in the North of England & flourished in its heartland small towns since the beginning of the last century. It has never flourished in the South or indeed the larger cities of England even in Leeds the only exception ,it plays second fiddle historically to the Football team.
In my home town The Sheffield Eagles struggled & ultimately failed even though in 98 I believe they won the Super League.
The same scenario in London.
Why because essentially League is a small provincial town sport ie it can provide a spectacle to a certain level to a certain audience. Once the audience becomes larger in bigger cities particularly industrial ones it cannot match the appeal of Association football.or i would say in this country AFL. The Football leagues in England reflect generally the population size of a town & the football standard is reflected accordingly. Rugby League towns in England are no bigger than what would be considered 3rd division football towns at best many 4th division & less.
To illustrate this once Wigan & Hull perhaps the largest of RL towns outside Leeds developed EPL standard football teams they surpassed the Rugby League clubs.
Remember we are talking about England here not Australia where the social conditions are very different.

With the other teams missing out this was also part of there plan to make the game more attractive to television audience which is what they are striving for, the one thing that is in this comp’s favour is that relagation is still there, so these teams that missed out are still in the running after 3 years, this again is something that makes super-league so attractive to other league clubs. I would think that they will expand to 16 teams next time and still have the relagation for other teams not in the comp. Its very good for them because the teams who have missed out know they will get a chance again within 3 years. Shame we dont have this in oz but we are 2 small a country to do this. Population i mean.

Same as what aussie rules is doing in qld and new south wales Link, rivalry between teams, wellington and warriors would build up a very good match, it would be like a state of origin game.

re the whole company thing – - it reminds me of the Emirates take over of Manchester City…………..clubs are just tradeable entities…………so, why not the NRL as a whole?

It’s not pretty from a sports fans perspective.

I have no idea how long the AFL can hold out – but I’m happy for now.

btw – - – how about Brian Waldron to replace Gallop?

Like the idea of Wellington, thought the Orca’s bid had some merit a couple of years ago. Now there’s a rivalry, Warrirors v Wellington…

re: the whole SL expansion, whilst its a bit off topic, there were calls that one of the expansion licences should have been given to Widnes/Whitehaven or a Cumbria-based side, on the basis that the Cumbria region is probably the only part of the UK where RL is number 1 sport and both these clubs have done impressive things re: junior development…think of Tasmania not been given an AFL side.

Dont know how the Celtic Crusaders will go, the WRU has recently announced that they are considering a 5th pro team in the Principality, and Welsh rugby players are amongst the best paid in the world.

Souths moving to approx $16m in revenue without pokies is impressive compared to the chook raffle club they were pre Russ. I agree it looks like they may be the future model for Sydney clubs, not just with membership but sponsorship and other revenue initiatives.

With the Reds in the Jim Beam Cup WA is building nicely. To consolidate the heartland Central Coast and Sunshine Coast should be in the mix for expansion. Not too sure on Adelaide though.