International rugby league forum.

[Druzik]

This is from the rleague forum. I think he will be posting on rugbyxiii.com and LU and TRL as well.

Hello International Rugby League fans,

In the light of the World Cup currently being contested in Australia and after having read several rugby league forums on the subject involving fans from all of the participating nations, it is evident that there is a lot of frustration with the way international rugby league is being run. Despite this I think most fans would agree that rugby league at the international level does have a future, and if during the next 5 years before the next planned world cup the right decisions are made than we can become a few steps closer to what we would all like our world cup to be.

Many have pointed out that it is the people in charge that are making obviously incorrect decisions which is leading to the downfall of the game at the supposed highest level. This line of thought pushed me into attempting something that has been in my mind for some time - a democratic approach to rugby league administration with decisions made by the people that matter - the fans.

The project envisaged would, in brief:


Quote:
1. Use mentioned forums to discuss the problems currently inherent or likely to appear in the international game in a deliberate manner. This could be anything from player selection criteria, game rules, regional tournaments, media involvement, advertising, proposed spending of development funds...

2. Have fans put foward concise and reasonable solutions to these problems, which would in turn be discussed further and refined.

3. Have fans elect the best few of the proposed solutions for each catergory.

4. Have volonteers collate these problems and corresponding solutions into either a single document or regionally based documents where appropriate. Make the document available to the fans on the internet.

5. Send physical copies to the RLIF and RLEF as well as other governing bodies such as the NRL, the FFRXIII, the RLF etc... and anyone else who is interested.


Obviously, a project as ambitious as this will require a lot of work, but I can't see why it would not be possible given the amount of passionate supporters that peruse these forums and spend a few minutes each day expressing their opinions. Surely a couple of hundred league fans' brains, belonging to those that live, breath and play the game, are better than those select few 'suits' at the top.

If the project is presented in a serious manner, I'm sure that the people in charge would sit up and listen to such a coherent collaboration, which I am sure would be a worldwide first for any sport.

This pilot thread will be shortly concurrently posted on LeagueUnlimited, RLfans, Rugbyleagueforums, RLeague and Rugbyxiii in order to gauge interest in the project and see whether at all you think it is feasible or even worthwhile. If enough interest is shown, other league forums will be invited to participate as well as efforts made to contact governing bodies that have no such representation (USA for example) to try and get some input from them.

We should make a decision on whether to or not to proceed in a weeks time as I am sure people will be ready to debate. The project would realistically last the majority of the offseason.


Please reply with expressions of interest or disinterest.

Thank you.

[Marv]

I was about to ask you about this, I belive he is looking for someone to put it up on TRL, I thought of you

[Druzik]

Nov 18, 2008 19:40:04 GMT 10 Marv said:

I was about to ask you about this, I belive he is looking for someone to put it up on TRL, I thought of you

Yep just did it.

[supersteve]

Im not too keen on this.


I dont think this World cup has been that poorly organised considering the resources available to the RLIF during the lead up to the event. I think having thousands of fans presenting many different views around the world on our game would simply take too long to come to a decisive decision that pleased everyone. Who would run this 'democracy'?. People from around the world express their view on a particular problem, but then who decides what the best solution is to put forward?.


Sure the current International scene is far from perfect, but I believe we are definately headed in the right direction.

[Ryan N]

Nov 18, 2008 20:37:05 GMT 10 supersteve said:

Im not too keen on this.


I dont think this World cup has been that poorly organised considering the resources available to the RLIF during the lead up to the event. I think having thousands of fans presenting many different views around the world on our game would simply take too long to come to a decisive decision that pleased everyone. Who would run this 'democracy'?. People from around the world express their view on a particular problem, but then who decides what the best solution is to put forward?.


Sure the current International scene is far from perfect, but I believe we are definately headed in the right direction.

The World Cup has been shocking. veryone knew Australia would destroy every teram in front of them. Why was PNG in the top Pool? Why did Fiji have to play Australia who won the Pool convincingly? We should have been making things harder for Australia, not easier. But that's just some of it. I hate this World Cup.

[supersteve]

If, as you say, Australia was always going to smash everyone in front of them, then why does it even matter who we played or when we played them?.

Fiji played Australia because we beat everyone, and Fiji topped pools two and three, they deserved to be in the semi with Australia. And if you look at all the teams in pools two and three, realistically none of them would have put up much of a challenge to Australia.

This World cup has had many close games, it is a shame that to date there hasnt been much of a challenge put to Australia from anyone, although im expecting the final this weekend to be much closer than 30-6. In my opinion this world cup has done far more good things than bad. The only real unappealing thing for me has been the lack of challengers for Australia, but I have really enjoyed seeing such a fantastic team show their skills and play some very entertaining RL.

[Marv]

Nov 18, 2008 21:03:29 GMT 10 Ryan N said:

The World Cup has been shocking. veryone knew Australia would destroy every teram in front of them. Why was PNG in the top Pool? Why did Fiji have to play Australia who won the Pool convincingly? We should have been making things harder for Australia, not easier. But that's just some of it. I hate this World Cup.

Which WC have you been watching, certainly not the one with 13 close games from 17?

and steve is right, Australia have been rewarded with the easy draw because they finished top, just as Eng or NZ would have been had they been good enough, so Australia won everything, and we knew they would, most people did, but look below Australia, some of the games have been fantastic, roll on 2013.

If you hate this WC so much then you wont be looking forward to how we spend the profit on international development I guess?

[muffdiver]

I think it has been an excellent world cup. So Australia smashed everybody - can't blame them for that, it's up to the others to get better. Most of the games were relatively close. The only critisisms I would make are;-
1 attendances were slightly disappointing - it was in rl heartlands
2 the format of the super group - the 3rd team should have had to play another game to get to the semi ie. v the 2nd best team in pools2/3
3 PNG were shafted being stuck in the super pool

this needs to be built on ie. regular competition every 4 years.

[Marv]

Nov 19, 2008 22:34:06 GMT 10 muffdiver said:

I think it has been an excellent world cup. So Australia smashed everybody - can't blame them for that, it's up to the others to get better. Most of the games were relatively close. The only critisisms I would make are;-
1 attendances were slightly disappointing - it was in rl heartlands
2 the format of the super group - the 3rd team should have had to play another game to get to the semi ie. v the 2nd best team in pools2/3
3 PNG were shafted being stuck in the super pool

this needs to be built on ie. regular competition every 4 years.

well said diver, a fair and accurate analysis

[muffdiver]

With regard to the super group. At first I thought it was a crap idea but I must admit I have been won over. The only change I would make is just have the big 3 in it. The winner goes straight into the semi while the other 2 go into a 'quarter final' with the 2nd place team having (in theory) the easier game.

[Druzik]

Nov 20, 2008 6:25:50 GMT 10 muffdiver said:

With regard to the super group. At first I thought it was a crap idea but I must admit I have been won over. The only change I would make is just have the big 3 in it. The winner goes straight into the semi while the other 2 go into a 'quarter final' with the 2nd place team having (in theory) the easier game.

Or
I would have the top two of the SG go through to the semis with 2 and 4 having playoffs with the top two of groups b abd c for the other two spots. That way PNG still would have had a shot and we would have avoided England v NZ two weeks in a row.

[Marv]

I think the Super Group has won a lot of people over, for me the super group was more nessecaty than anything else, there definatley could be improvements to the format, but ultimatley we need to seed the next draw in a similar fashion, provided that Tonga, Samoa and Ireland dont take the RL world by storm in the next 5 years!

[Kiwi fan]

Nov 18, 2008 21:03:29 GMT 10 Ryan N said:

Nov 18, 2008 20:37:05 GMT 10 supersteve said:

Im not too keen on this.


I dont think this World cup has been that poorly organised considering the resources available to the RLIF during the lead up to the event. I think having thousands of fans presenting many different views around the world on our game would simply take too long to come to a decisive decision that pleased everyone. Who would run this 'democracy'?. People from around the world express their view on a particular problem, but then who decides what the best solution is to put forward?.


Sure the current International scene is far from perfect, but I believe we are definately headed in the right direction.

The World Cup has been shocking. veryone knew Australia would destroy every teram in front of them. Why was PNG in the top Pool? Why did Fiji have to play Australia who won the Pool convincingly? We should have been making things harder for Australia, not easier. But that's just some of it. I hate this World Cup.

PNG were in the top pool because they were a reasonmably marketable team and their players have a lot of pride. Fiji had to play Australia because they were considered the 4th best team in the tournament and Australia were considered top (which they were). Imagine if NZ played Fiji. That would be very stupid as there would be no incentive for finishing first and having to play a much harder game against England. It should not be harder for Australia, we have improve tremendously to win this cup. It isn't the RLIF fault that Australia is just too good.

[Ryan N]

Take back everything I said. I love this World Cup! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Druzik]