Speaker 1: This weekend was all about the cup. Wigan and Hu
Speaker 1: k Are were the teams that got up. They'll make
Speaker 1: the trip down Wembley Way in the hope that it
Speaker 1: will be their special day. But this week coming gets
Speaker 1: back to the league and the week to week that
Speaker 1: is causing fatigue. Welcome to the twenty first episode of
Speaker 1: Super League three sixty year podcast primarily about the top
Speaker 1: tier of British rugby league some lower league. John's Wing's
Speaker 1: about journalism, my poetry. My name is Lee Addison. What
Speaker 1: are you drinking there, John Davidson, I just spat coax
Speaker 1: here and my friend, be sure you're going to get
Speaker 1: to sleep when you finish this recording at eleven o'clock.
Speaker 2: It's been very very long weekend by ithing. I'll sleep
Speaker 2: like a baby.
Speaker 1: There you go. I'm a coach in Australia, John a
Speaker 1: journalist in the UK. Please read descriptions of podcasts and
Speaker 1: listen to all ones to make this introduction shorter, because
Speaker 1: we have the longest one in rugby league history. This
Speaker 1: podcasts aired on the Ashes, Rugby League Podcast, Rugby League
Speaker 1: Coach podcast platforms, as well as a Rugby League Coach
Speaker 1: YouTube channel and thank you to Rugby League dot Com
Speaker 1: that are also that are also running this for us.
Speaker 1: We don't need to go through the Super League ladder
Speaker 1: this week because it's not changed its last week Rugby
Speaker 1: League tweet of the week was worry Or who said
Speaker 1: Casford signing Damian Cook is like when your ugly Maypole's
Speaker 1: and old busty milf. I had to laugh at that
Speaker 1: one because that's also my Lee's laugh. Damian Cook signing
Speaker 1: for cass John he'll be thirty five in a month's time.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, I think if you're Cartleford and you look at
Speaker 3: how bad they've been for a few years, how bad
Speaker 3: have been this season, obviously you want to do Jill.
Speaker 2: It's about how fit he is and how much he's
Speaker 2: got left.
Speaker 3: I think from the Castward signing, I can't think of
Speaker 3: a bigger profile cast signing in recent memory, maybe since
Speaker 3: Sack Hardacre and I was obviously different because he.
Speaker 2: Kind of I think he was sort.
Speaker 3: Of the hour and leads and then he went on
Speaker 3: loan to Penrith for a bit and then yeah, I
Speaker 3: ended up a cast. But yeah, I mean in terms
Speaker 3: of profiles Australian hook car I'm still playing regular in
Speaker 3: the NRL. He is obviously getting on, but I think
Speaker 3: he could be you know, he could be a captain,
Speaker 3: they could make him captain. I think he could be
Speaker 3: a really good leader and professional for casts. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a it's a big signing.
Speaker 1: The person who did that tweet about the MILF calls
Speaker 1: himself a rugby league expert and content creator on x
Speaker 1: and then in another tweet he said about the CORP,
Speaker 1: no one's asked and I mean, my team are probably
Speaker 1: going to win it, and I'd still rather a random
Speaker 1: round of Super League. I can only imagine how the
Speaker 1: rest of league fans feel. And he said, f the
Speaker 1: Cup and f traditions. What I mean, let's let's just
Speaker 1: have a random question there. I mean, you've just you've
Speaker 1: just witnessed the Rugby League Challenge Cup this weekend. I've
Speaker 1: been where does it sit in your head? Where does
Speaker 1: it sit in people around you? In the head of
Speaker 1: people around you, Where does it sit in the rugby
Speaker 1: league rugby league pantheon?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I made that's a really really good question.
Speaker 3: I think growing up, I obviously, growing up in Australia,
Speaker 3: wasn't really aware of the traditions and the history and
Speaker 3: I know there's a few people who said they, you know,
Speaker 3: they used to watch the finals back in Australia.
Speaker 2: I could admit I never did. I wasn't really aware
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like the FA Cup Final, which you know
Speaker 3: people in Australia watched for decades and decades. But I've
Speaker 3: obviously learned a lot about it since been living in
Speaker 3: the UK and I've been to I don't know how
Speaker 3: many finals now, probably twelve or thirty. And I think
Speaker 3: it's a great competition here. There's fantastic history. I think
Speaker 3: part of the issue now is it used to be
Speaker 3: the big event. It used to be the Grand Final,
Speaker 3: isn't it? And since what ninety nine we have another
Speaker 3: Grand Final? Yeah, yet we have another Grand Final, so
Speaker 3: that's a competitor. We also have Magic Weekend, which you
Speaker 3: know has been a really big success, so big that
Speaker 3: the NRL's adopted a run with it.
Speaker 2: And we have a lot more other events.
Speaker 3: We have, you know, Vegas, we have Dublin next year,
Speaker 3: We've got Paris in a few weeks. Clubs go to
Speaker 3: Catalans and that's and now to lose as well. So
Speaker 3: that's a fun away trip, isn't it, particularly if you're
Speaker 3: in the north of England and you want to see
Speaker 3: some sunshine. So I think all those things have impacted it.
Speaker 3: And I think the other thing is there's not really
Speaker 3: a separate budget or a marketing campaign for the Cup.
Speaker 2: It's just kind of lumped together.
Speaker 3: And you know, the TV the audiences I think from
Speaker 3: Yester Today will be really good on BBC Air but
Speaker 3: I think they did a really good job broadcasting it.
Speaker 3: But both the stadiums work full and at Warrington I
Speaker 3: think was about thurning something thousand in a fifteen thousand
Speaker 3: and sixteen, but the atmosphere was fantastic, The game was
Speaker 3: you know, had had everything. It was a bit of controversy,
Speaker 3: bit of drama, big hits. So I think they're still
Speaker 3: value in the Cup. But I think it definitely needs
Speaker 3: it needs work. We need to, you know, come up
Speaker 3: with a strategy to enhance it and to I think
Speaker 3: give it more love.
Speaker 1: You could say, my plan for it would be to
Speaker 1: be have it like a big Bash, so have it
Speaker 1: breaking the season, have it as a big Bash, and
Speaker 1: then obviously the teams that the amateur teams, et cetera.
Speaker 1: They can still do the rounds when they do the rounds,
Speaker 1: championship teams, et cetera. But then if you get to
Speaker 1: say the final sixteen, that's a big bash period, so
Speaker 1: four weeks, and therefore you would need to give everybody
Speaker 1: in those sixteen teams an incentive two financially to buy
Speaker 1: a ticket for the final, so that that sells out
Speaker 1: or gets close to Again that's another question visa v. Wembley.
Speaker 1: But you do it as a big bash in the
Speaker 1: middle of the year, and then that means of the
Speaker 1: Super League clubs, you would imagine, depending on the draw,
Speaker 1: that at least eight of them are still going to
Speaker 1: be in the Cup. I mean, you could even see
Speaker 1: it even more so that they all get there just
Speaker 1: to help the player welfare. But then that also impacts
Speaker 1: the smaller clubs getting the big gate fees. I understand
Speaker 1: that too. So you have it as a big bash,
Speaker 1: and then for everybody else that isn't there in that
Speaker 1: four weeks, they've got two things they can do. You
Speaker 1: can't tell me that super League clubs wouldn't really need
Speaker 1: a rest for a few weeks right now to get
Speaker 1: some injured bodies back on the field. But you could
Speaker 1: also do a nine circuit and whatnot, and you can
Speaker 1: also play plate competitions or bowl competitions. So I just
Speaker 1: think we need to reimagine it a little bit in
Speaker 1: that midyear period. I do understand that clubs will be
Speaker 1: fearful of the bottom line and there's three Super League
Speaker 1: fixtures or four super League fixtures they'll miss out on.
Speaker 1: Same with the Championship. Again, you maybe do something with
Speaker 1: the figures and you put the onus on every club
Speaker 1: to market this four week event which you then sell
Speaker 1: to suit, to broadcasters and whatnot, because the reality is
Speaker 1: right now. I mean, using Warrior's sentiments in his tweet,
Speaker 1: he used the words as nobody is asked. That's quite
Speaker 1: a good way of putting it, because some people don't
Speaker 1: care as much.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wouldn't say nobody like I think that's that's wrong.
Speaker 3: You know, after there's sixty eight thousand people at Wembley
Speaker 3: for the final and you know half a million watch it.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's with But I do agree with
Speaker 3: you that it needs to be reimagined. It can be enhanced,
Speaker 3: and I kind of like your idea. I don't know
Speaker 3: whether the other side, whether as a preseason tournament you know,
Speaker 3: because preseason, look is, the preseason games to me.
Speaker 2: Are always a bit of a joke.
Speaker 3: But do we make it as a preseason tournament and
Speaker 3: then kind of you know, start the season off that
Speaker 3: way in the bag?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think there's things that we can
Speaker 2: look at.
Speaker 3: Whether you have you know, all the quarterfinals in one
Speaker 3: venue venue see you have another menu you can I
Speaker 3: think there's things we can do that we look at.
Speaker 3: But I don't think something with a great history and
Speaker 3: tradition and the heritage that a Challenge Cup has. And
Speaker 3: again I think even you know, grand finals at Old Trafford,
Speaker 3: I think we need a final in London every.
Speaker 2: Year for the national point of view. I don't think
Speaker 2: we give that up. Now.
Speaker 3: You can have an argument about whether you stay at
Speaker 3: Wembley because of the cost and the struggle to fill it,
Speaker 3: or you go to somewhere like Tottenham or and the Emirates.
Speaker 3: But I think we still need a show piece of
Speaker 3: end in London every year.
Speaker 1: Agreed, Johnny Tweet of the week. Understand, Nigel Wood and
Speaker 1: Roger Jones will be flying out to Brisbane to Magic
Speaker 1: Round to continue talks about the MRL potentially investing in
Speaker 1: Super League. The RL Commission is meeting in Brisbane next week.
Speaker 1: What can you tell us about that story, John, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Pretty much exactly that that's my understanding that the Jones
Speaker 3: and Wood will be going out of Brisbane next week.
Speaker 3: Obviously it's Magic Round at some horp. I think there's
Speaker 3: a women's start of Roger on the Thursday night and
Speaker 3: the Magic Round starts Friday, just down the road from
Speaker 3: u Lee and there will be.
Speaker 2: Some meetings with the arl C and all the clubs, the.
Speaker 1: NRL clubs Friday. I might see them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Well, I think there'll be some very high
Speaker 3: powered meetings about lots of things. And I think this
Speaker 3: is the chance now for the RFL, for super Leak
Speaker 3: to go to the NR and say look, because it's
Speaker 3: been you've seen all the kind of the stuff and
Speaker 3: the press and a lot of the comments that different
Speaker 3: people have made. There's a lot of crap and a
Speaker 3: lot of kind of political speak. You know, we've got
Speaker 3: all these offers and the NRL is only one of
Speaker 3: you know, the many offers we've got. I mean, that's
Speaker 3: that's nonsense. The reality is they need the NRL. Super
Speaker 3: League needs the NRL, They need the money and they
Speaker 3: need the expertise.
Speaker 1: I sent them an offer. I just wanted my name
Speaker 1: on the side of trucks.
Speaker 2: Are you misster STOWBA.
Speaker 1: Also also I was going to send some green shield stamps.
Speaker 1: You want not remember what they are?
Speaker 3: No uns unless that's Clint Gren green shield stamps. But no, no, Look,
Speaker 3: I think I think this is the chance to go
Speaker 3: and say, Okay, yeah, we want you know, we want
Speaker 3: to do business with you. We're serious, and I think
Speaker 3: it's a showing intent. Now what happens next, you know,
Speaker 3: remains to be seen. There is I think the NRL's
Speaker 3: learned in the last few weeks, the last month or
Speaker 3: whatever about how difficult and how many organizations. You know,
Speaker 3: you've got Sport England, you've got the RFL Council, You've
Speaker 3: got RL Commercial, you've got Super League, you've got the RFL.
Speaker 3: You've got all these bodies that they've got to deal with.
Speaker 3: It's not straightforward, but you know there is. You know,
Speaker 3: we can say about the game yesterday, the game today.
Speaker 3: You know there's going to be fifty sixty thousand people
Speaker 3: at Everton for Magic, the people that are in Vegas.
Speaker 3: You know, there's there's potential in England in rugby league.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, there's growth, there's there's foundations.
Speaker 3: They just need to be nourished and they need to
Speaker 3: be fed.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: You look at some of the talent that was saying
Speaker 3: this weekend like Jack Farremond, Noah Hodkinson. You know there's
Speaker 3: there's great young players coming through in in England. But
Speaker 3: we just need to make you know, the game bigger
Speaker 3: and stronger. And I think to do that, you you
Speaker 3: join forces with me and our own you make you know,
Speaker 3: you unify rugby league.
Speaker 1: Johnny's job is this week called Johnny's jabs because there's
Speaker 1: four of them KR fans troll stadiums with bad white
Speaker 1: people who don't understand journalism. J You're a winder go on.
Speaker 3: You're the one asking me about it to have pop shots. No,
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, the whole cow one. Obviously, I had
Speaker 3: a story Thursday about some allegations of bullying or a
Speaker 3: toxic environment in their in their college academy team. Now
Speaker 3: that or that story, So I'll give a quick rundown.
Speaker 3: Obviously I can't explain everything who I spoke to, and
Speaker 3: people seem to understand don't understand that you you know
Speaker 3: you should reveal every source that you speak to, and
Speaker 3: that's not how jealousm works. But there was a there
Speaker 3: was a Facebook post where I think some parents made
Speaker 3: some claims.
Speaker 2: Now I didn't see that Facebook post.
Speaker 3: I had someone contacted me and alert me to it,
Speaker 3: and then I spoke to the club. I spoke to
Speaker 3: the CEO, I spoke to a couple of other people
Speaker 3: with knowledge of the situation, close to the situation.
Speaker 2: And then I wrote a story.
Speaker 3: Now, a lot of well quite a few whole fans,
Speaker 3: and I'll say, I've got, you know, some friends who
Speaker 3: were who are whole Kar fans, and number of them,
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, the club's done tremendously well
Speaker 3: as it today has done for several years. But there
Speaker 3: were some who just sort of think that I put
Speaker 3: that story out because I'd seen something on Facebook and
Speaker 3: just reproduced it, which is.
Speaker 2: Not the case.
Speaker 3: And others saying that some sort of conspiracy to damage
Speaker 3: the club, you know, a couple of days before a
Speaker 3: big game, which is just absolutely pathetic and laughable.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, does this is this the trolls as well
Speaker 1: that you mentioned in your.
Speaker 3: Jazz Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, I think I
Speaker 3: think it's all just just on that that story. I mean,
Speaker 3: since I published that story, I've actually had several people
Speaker 3: contact me with more information about that situation.
Speaker 1: So so, in other words, that's smoke and they could
Speaker 1: be a fire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Look, I think I don't know exactly what's
Speaker 3: going on, but I think the club needs to investigate.
Speaker 2: I think that's quite clear.
Speaker 3: You know, there's there's a lot of people unhappy and
Speaker 3: it does seem you know, there's a lot of staff
Speaker 3: that have left the club, the academy set up in
Speaker 3: the last six months, so something is there's definitely something
Speaker 3: going on there that needs looking at. What that is exactly,
Speaker 3: I don't know, but the idea that I understand people
Speaker 3: are people are tribal, you know, they love the club
Speaker 3: and you know, not everything is an attack on your club,
Speaker 3: Like some things are just news.
Speaker 2: And who do you.
Speaker 1: Hate the most? John ok are Hole or Bradford Bulls.
Speaker 1: Which team is it? Come on? Reveal Reveal it now
Speaker 1: on Super League three.
Speaker 3: Sixthly Toronto's and Helen Yeah, yeah, apparently I was at
Speaker 3: obviously I was at Warrington yesterday watching the Wigans Helen's
Speaker 3: game and you know Wigan, Wigan was sensational that game,
Speaker 3: and I was giving a lot of their players praise
Speaker 3: on on Twitter and one Leads fan was saying, oh,
Speaker 3: you must be a Wigan fan. I was like, no,
Speaker 3: just just yeah, just giving my opinion.
Speaker 2: You know I'm not. I'm not a Wigan Johnny.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say the same thing to you. And
Speaker 1: you've You've given me this advice too when it comes
Speaker 1: to trolls.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's always easier when it's not you. But
Speaker 1: I say the same time, Dad, when he's looking at
Speaker 1: the comments on the Telegraph website because it's all non
Speaker 1: Man city fans and right wing people. Oh yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: so an he responds and gets all and say, Dad,
Speaker 1: if you lie down with.
Speaker 2: Dogs, you get fleas.
Speaker 1: So yes, and I'll give you another quote to Babe
Speaker 1: Ruth said, the loudest booze come from the cheapest seats.
Speaker 2: That's a good one.
Speaker 1: That one from stadiums with bad Wi Fi. Poor Come on, John,
Speaker 1: I mean, how about this for a first world problem?
Speaker 4: Eh?
Speaker 2: It is a first world problem, mate.
Speaker 3: But if you want if you want coverage, if you
Speaker 3: want content about your games and your players, then you've
Speaker 3: got to give the basic of tools for people to
Speaker 3: get that out there and in the digital world it's
Speaker 3: fairly important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Cup semi finals, let's talk about them. Saint
Speaker 1: Helen's and Dug Egg Wigan thirty two. They scored twenty
Speaker 1: two of them by halftime. Faraman got to Ecchersley, got
Speaker 1: to Wardle and Keir and scored tries. Kieran also kicked
Speaker 1: two goals. Smith kicked two goals. Great defensive effort by Wigan,
Speaker 1: clinical and attack. That's the third Challenge Cup final in
Speaker 1: five years from them. I was looking at Saint Helen's
Speaker 1: in patches and as you know, I'm I'm one of
Speaker 1: those that think Paul Rowling needs to learn how to
Speaker 1: coach defense a bit better. But the big, the big
Speaker 1: overriding thing I saw there was it looked like the
Speaker 1: player's feet were in cement when they were defending, so
Speaker 1: they couldn't move side to side very easily. So that's
Speaker 1: what That's one thing I picked up when I briefly
Speaker 1: looked at them. You said there was a few talking
Speaker 1: points from the semi two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, best best despirre Wigan all season.
Speaker 3: I think I'd lost what four of the last six,
Speaker 3: but they were they were on. They were pumped up.
Speaker 3: Everything you know in attack and the defense that was sensational.
Speaker 3: Everything the center on straatting them, they absorbed, counterpunched, and
Speaker 3: Saint Alan's had so much good ball, so much real position,
Speaker 3: they just could break them. And I think what was
Speaker 3: most pleasing from the Wigan side was that those young
Speaker 3: players like Hode, Concern and Pharamond they really stood up,
Speaker 3: They really delivered ecklessly.
Speaker 2: It was a fantastic performance.
Speaker 3: But I think the the interesting bit for me, apart
Speaker 3: from the there was obviously saying Incember smashed Warmsley and
Speaker 3: then Warmsley later smashed Incember, and when you first saw it,
Speaker 3: you saw Incember's head go back like a whiplash and
Speaker 3: you thought all that looked nasty, as in, you know,
Speaker 3: is that a hardh shot? But you watch it wasn't
Speaker 3: actually a hard shot at all. It's just a tremendously
Speaker 3: good shot. But there was some real venom, you know,
Speaker 3: as you expect with the Derby game, there's some real
Speaker 3: venom and passion in there, and that bowled off in
Speaker 3: the build up, sorry, in the in the post match,
Speaker 3: not only with I think it was Brad O'Neill with
Speaker 3: a with a sleigh John David Klemo, which he didn't
Speaker 3: take calmly to as they shook hands. And then what
Speaker 3: many Pete said about Helone's losing their way with their
Speaker 3: loan player.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean that's I didn't like. I didn't
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: I didn't like that. I mean, Matt, Matt Pete says
Speaker 1: some great things, but this week he's got that one wrong.
Speaker 1: I think when when you look when you lose, say nothing,
Speaker 1: when you win, say even less. And on all he's
Speaker 1: done there is given Saint Helen something to focus on
Speaker 1: for the next time they play Wigan, and it was
Speaker 1: it was a bit silly and also as well, Matty Pete,
Speaker 1: your team hasn't won many games in the last six weeks.
Speaker 1: You know, you you you You've had a win, just
Speaker 1: just you just didn't need to say it. You just
Speaker 1: didn't need to say it.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to I'm going to carry there because
Speaker 3: I know where you're coming from. But I'm going to
Speaker 3: carry you from not only from the journalistic point of view,
Speaker 3: but from also I've been watching the Vince mcmart documentary
Speaker 3: on Netflix, which I'm not a wrestling fan, but and
Speaker 3: probably a despicable human vincemic marn but Jeezy could sell
Speaker 3: and promote a market, particularly storylines. And that's the thing,
Speaker 3: like there's there was a motion in that win and
Speaker 3: that performance. They were really hurt from East Wigan. It
Speaker 3: really got under their skin and I think this is great,
Speaker 3: Like this just fuels up. I can't wait till the
Speaker 3: next time Wigans and Helen's play now because there'll be fireworks,
Speaker 3: Like there's real dislike and he's had a shot at
Speaker 3: Saint Helens, so you know the next time the play
Speaker 3: is going to be box office. We need, I think
Speaker 3: rugby league, particularly in England at times everyone's just a
Speaker 3: bit too humble and that doesn't want to say anything,
Speaker 3: doesn't want to upset anyone. You know, we're all we're
Speaker 3: all working class, you know, northern you know, don't get
Speaker 3: too big of a head. Like we actually need a
Speaker 3: bit of We need a bit of Vince McMahon, a
Speaker 3: bit of Eddie Hearn, a bit of Dana White. You know,
Speaker 3: we need some color and some controver and some emotion
Speaker 3: like it show us how much I feel it means
Speaker 3: to you. And I think that that really that is
Speaker 3: to respond, like because I think it was, apart from
Speaker 3: them throwing away that game in the last twelve minutes,
Speaker 3: it was the Saint Helens fans celebrating or just just gesticulating,
Speaker 3: shall I say, to the to the wig and fans,
Speaker 3: and that rubbed them up the wrong way and they've responded.
Speaker 2: But that's a state of origins build on that, isn't it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with any of it. I just know
Speaker 1: that that's not really how Super League packages itself. So
Speaker 1: therefore it was a coaching decision, I think by Matt
Speaker 1: Peete to make that decision, rather than a marketing decision.
Speaker 1: And but just and therefore from a coaching perspective, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about it from a coaching perspective. Yeah, That's where
Speaker 1: I'm coming from. So I mean, I guess that that,
Speaker 1: that and that, and you know what, John, everything that
Speaker 1: you've just been talking about there is exactly why we
Speaker 1: are in the position we are in now as a
Speaker 1: sport because the players and coaches have had too much say.
Speaker 1: The clubs have had too much say in how the
Speaker 1: game has gone forward. So clubs don't want to give
Speaker 1: the opposition anything to motivate them, so they'll keep their
Speaker 1: mouth shut and they'll talk platitudes in in in interviews,
Speaker 1: the marketers want the exact opposite. And because the clubs
Speaker 1: have had the power and I've got the power on
Speaker 1: both sides of the world. Actually, this is why we're
Speaker 1: not getting that that WWE style thing, and that's why
Speaker 1: it sticks out because it's very rare.
Speaker 3: It wasn't it with Paul Gallon back in the day.
Speaker 3: They used to pay him to have a coin said before.
Speaker 3: But look it worked because it spots that and boxings
Speaker 3: build on a UFC is build on it, rest things
Speaker 3: build on it. A lot of sports are the ashes
Speaker 3: in cricket, you know, you look all that. Look, I
Speaker 3: agree with what you're saying from a coaching point of view,
Speaker 3: but I think we need to promote rivalries, you know,
Speaker 3: and and rugby rugby league, and I say the n
Speaker 3: r L. I think the few element is huge, isn't it.
Speaker 3: And I think in England we need we need more
Speaker 3: of that. We need to, you know, and it doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be all you know, cheap shots or low
Speaker 3: blows or anything, but you know it just if you
Speaker 3: play rugby league, particularly at that level, I mean at
Speaker 3: any level. But you've got to You've got to be passionate, don't.
Speaker 3: You've got to run on a motion because it's such
Speaker 3: a physical, demanding.
Speaker 1: Sport and I think it speak. It speaks to Wigan's
Speaker 1: performance as well, because yeah, that that is an outlier
Speaker 1: compared to recent performances, and that's because the Cup means
Speaker 1: so much to the town of Wigan. But had they
Speaker 1: had a mortgage on it for so long, Worryington, I.
Speaker 3: Was going to say, they're through to the final now
Speaker 3: so they can say, you know, the Ben rubbish this
Speaker 3: season on crisis, but through the final. If they win
Speaker 3: the final, you know, you know. And I think on
Speaker 3: that despire like, okay, are a very good team playing
Speaker 3: well today. That should be a hell of a final
Speaker 3: and I think it'll be a fifty to fifty game.
Speaker 3: But you know, the desire and the emotion behind that
Speaker 3: performance was was massive. And the nil you know, because
Speaker 3: St Alan's had so much ball and St Helen's their
Speaker 3: effort was there as well, they weren't.
Speaker 1: I've got a theory about the Wembley Final. The Wembley
Speaker 1: Stadium keep the grass a little bit longer, so it's
Speaker 1: a bit of a heavier field, so he does curb
Speaker 1: some attacking instinct sometimes in the in the Wembley Final
Speaker 1: they keep the glass grass a little bit longer, I
Speaker 1: think to protect it for the For the other game,
Speaker 1: Warrington twelve whole kr thirty two. In the second semi
Speaker 1: final of the weekend, Warrington scored trail with Curry cab
Speaker 1: believe Tony Curry is still playing mate, he must be
Speaker 1: at least sixty and Stone and goals were by Snaide
Speaker 1: who got two whole k rs thirty two came two
Speaker 1: from Bachelor, two from Burgess and one from guildhar and
Speaker 1: Lewis kicked three of the goals adding Martin and whole
Speaker 1: k r started red hot in this game. They went
Speaker 1: to a fourteen lead after twenty five minutes. I guess
Speaker 1: the news item from this, first of all is the
Speaker 1: Warrington's coach, Sam Burgess kicked off at the end about
Speaker 1: the coaches, the referee. Sorry. He talked about four captains
Speaker 1: challenges that went against his side and two of them
Speaker 1: were inconclusive, and after on BBC two he said the
Speaker 1: inconclusive stuff. They get decisions wrong all the time, but
Speaker 1: how long do they want to take? It's ten past six.
Speaker 1: We kicked off at four o'clock. It's two hours and
Speaker 1: ten minutes and disappointed with the result, but it's and
Speaker 1: it needs tidying up. You can talk now, John.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think we had a few questions
Speaker 3: about this. Yeah, well look and we can. We can
Speaker 3: answer those questions.
Speaker 1: Now, I think, all right, so so I'll ask them
Speaker 1: now then so Woody Woody at West Hall of sixty eight.
Speaker 1: So time to get rid of the video refer tries
Speaker 1: and captain's challenges. It's taken over the games fans. Fans
Speaker 1: want to see fast flowing entertainment, not constant stopping video reviews.
Speaker 1: John Hodgson, John Hodgson, nineteen eighty six. Give him how
Speaker 1: much data and aspects of a team's performance or within
Speaker 1: the control of players and coaches. Do we spend too
Speaker 1: much time talking about and blaming referees?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3: We can't get rid of the video referee for tries
Speaker 3: like that's I remember how many Blanders they are in
Speaker 3: the path.
Speaker 1: It's bad. It's baked, it it's baked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we we ain't gone back to that, so that
Speaker 3: that's nonsense. We can definitely improve the way it's done.
Speaker 3: I think, I mean, I don't know if we need
Speaker 3: a shot clock, but it does seem like sometimes they
Speaker 3: are being overly cautious. Like I was watching the game
Speaker 3: today on TV and there was the try that the
Speaker 3: Warrington try. The first try, it was just kind of like,
Speaker 3: oh well that first look, that's Warrington try. Second though, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's definitely try. They went over and over and again
Speaker 3: with the captain's challenge. They're just they are taking too long.
Speaker 3: I think we need a maximum time limit. And if
Speaker 3: you can't make a decision in that, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Is it a minute, is it ninety seconds, whatever it is,
Speaker 3: you go back to the refs call because there were
Speaker 3: way too many stoppages and challenges. The other side of
Speaker 3: that is I don't think the referee, you know, it
Speaker 3: was the reason that Warrington lost Warrington. I think it
Speaker 3: was fearless early On dropped the ball on his own
Speaker 3: line and whole car score off the next set.
Speaker 2: Then James Bentley had an absolute.
Speaker 3: He lost his head, basically gave way a penalty where
Speaker 3: he attacked Michael Lewis, and he gave away about three
Speaker 3: more penalties. I was actually stune that they didn't take
Speaker 3: him off because he was he was a liability and
Speaker 3: then whole Out scored off another one of those penalties.
Speaker 3: So early on, Warrington were their own worst enemy. I
Speaker 3: don't think whole Kre were what the score suggested, that
Speaker 3: far ahead of Warrenton, even though Warrington's attack didn't really
Speaker 3: land many punches. But Warrington, sorry, just made a lot
Speaker 3: of mistakes and handed huge opportunities.
Speaker 2: Which they gleefully took.
Speaker 3: But the Captain's challenge, You're watching NRL and obviously they've
Speaker 3: got the million dollar bunker and way more cameras and everything.
Speaker 3: Is you know, it's not perfect, is it? Because people
Speaker 3: in the NRL claim, but it's more seamless, in superated.
Speaker 3: The Captain's challenge hasn't been fantastic, but I think we
Speaker 3: can improve what we've got and maybe that's.
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about video refereeing because my
Speaker 1: football team, I think have been denied a chance at
Speaker 1: winning the lead by a video ref overnight. So in
Speaker 1: terms of coaches talking about it and blame, they often
Speaker 1: do that to deflect because somebody like Sam Burgess was
Speaker 1: under pressure for his job not so long ago and
Speaker 1: getting to a cup final and winning said cup final
Speaker 1: would do an awful lot to alleviate that pressure that
Speaker 1: will still be there. I mean, just because they've won
Speaker 1: a few games so far, they actually haven't turned that
Speaker 1: into silverware yet, so the pressure will still be there
Speaker 1: and he'll be extremely disappointed and he would have just
Speaker 1: come out swinging in that interview. And that's basically what
Speaker 1: coaches do, that's why they do it. I mean, John's
Speaker 1: right that they do blame referees too much. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure the referee didn't miss any tackles, drop any ball,
Speaker 1: but it's an age old thing that coaches come up
Speaker 1: with to get headlines. Look what the media jump on
Speaker 1: as soon as it's meant and so wwe again, mate,
Speaker 1: But our way of doing w w E is to
Speaker 1: is to blame blame the referee. Now we've got the final,
Speaker 1: Wigan and who k are. First of all, both sides
Speaker 1: have had not a seamless start to Super League. Kur
Speaker 1: start was a little bit ropie. Wiggans second half of
Speaker 1: the start was a little was very ropey. So this
Speaker 1: is going to kickstart their season. Just being in the
Speaker 1: final and then winning it would kick start again for
Speaker 1: the for the vanquished. I think Saint Helen's a real
Speaker 1: worry that they didn't score a point, Yes, a real worry,
Speaker 1: and they won't take kindly in Saint Helen's to that
Speaker 1: kind of score line and missing out to Wigan in
Speaker 1: such a fashion getting dominated quite frankly. And Warrington, I
Speaker 1: know they had injuries, but that pressure dial just gets
Speaker 1: turned up a bit again for sam Burgess because they
Speaker 1: did get to the final last year. So if you like,
Speaker 1: this is a little bit of regression and that's not
Speaker 1: going to go down too well in Warrington. And I
Speaker 1: think one of the things we've been saying about the
Speaker 1: Wolves is their biggest tests yet to come, their biggest
Speaker 1: tests yet to come, their biggest tests yet to come,
Speaker 1: and they have They've had a test and they failed
Speaker 1: the first one I think, so so or one of
Speaker 1: the first ones. So yeah, that's that that's going to
Speaker 1: take some soul searching this week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: Look, I think you know Warrington today Karl Ray was
Speaker 3: off injured and I think they missed what you know
Speaker 3: to be speed and what it can bring from fullback
Speaker 3: George Williams. Now, it's my understanding he hasn't had his
Speaker 3: operation yet, but it's either a three month or a
Speaker 3: five month recovery. So we won't play again for Warrington
Speaker 3: this season. I don't think you'll make the World Cup.
Speaker 3: And I think when you take out a player of
Speaker 3: George William's ability, particularly today you and Irwin is still learning.
Speaker 3: And it was all Mark Steed and it was quite
Speaker 3: predictable Warrington's attack and they covered Danny Walker quite well,
Speaker 3: so they didn't really have many attacking options. They didn't
Speaker 3: really you know, create much and I think that could
Speaker 3: be a concern going forward. And then maybe on the
Speaker 3: Kiss of Death. But I was I was wrapping Albert
Speaker 3: Hoppawidi and Josh Smith to to someone at Warrington yesterday
Speaker 3: and they both had very tough days.
Speaker 1: You were wrapping him on this podcast last week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well you know you got to wrap the mainly
Speaker 3: Sat Augustine boys, don't you. But yeah, it was they
Speaker 3: So look, it's going to be it's going to be
Speaker 3: difficult for Orangton, yeah, because I think they haven't been
Speaker 3: you know, we were one of the top teams so
Speaker 3: far this season. But that was a comprehensive loss. And
Speaker 3: just talking briefly about Wigan, I mean a massive game
Speaker 3: this Friday leads and Wigan Leeds go away to Wigan. Leeds,
Speaker 3: having had a week off and pretty much at full fitness,
Speaker 3: will warrant at Wigan still without Bed and French without
Speaker 3: Marshall Miski, but you know, with a lot of other
Speaker 3: fit players. But that's that's going to be a hell
Speaker 3: of a game, isn't it Because I think if you know,
Speaker 3: Leeds have beaten the whole Car, they've beaten Warrington, have
Speaker 3: beaten some heavens, that's the next big step for Leeds
Speaker 3: to show.
Speaker 2: Okay, we are obviously.
Speaker 3: They're out of cup, well out of cup, but you
Speaker 3: know we can we can get to Old Trafford and
Speaker 3: we can win this competition.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we get a whole car who have met
Speaker 2: what the last two Grand finals.
Speaker 3: It should be a good game at won't we And
Speaker 3: again I don't think it'll be a high scoring, open
Speaker 3: end game, but I think it'll be very physical, will
Speaker 3: be very tight, and it will be you know, it
Speaker 3: will be brutal.
Speaker 1: Somebody did ask a question at the end, so I
Speaker 1: try and link this one now. It was basically asking
Speaker 1: about Willie Peters place in the coaching pantheon, Where's it going?
Speaker 2: Where's it gone? This question?
Speaker 1: It was Dave Dave Campbell three two ninety seven one.
Speaker 1: He said, where does really Willie Peters rank among super
Speaker 1: League coaches? And I assume he means all time there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if he's just talking
Speaker 3: you know, in the history of super League or the
Speaker 3: history of Whole Car or history of the UK game.
Speaker 2: But if you if you look at Whole.
Speaker 3: Care, is surely one of the greatest coaches Whole Car
Speaker 3: has ever had, if you look in super League, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean I think it's his fourth year. So he's
Speaker 3: got them to a few Challenge Cup finals obviously one
Speaker 3: travel last year. Well they want to they want to
Speaker 3: drop control. I can't speak if they've won four trophies
Speaker 3: in a row because they made the Broncos and the
Speaker 3: World Cup Challenge. Now he's got when we again, Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's done a fantastic job. Look, they weren't you know,
Speaker 3: he's he's helped turn them into a top club and
Speaker 3: they weren't for since the eighties, since since Lee was
Speaker 3: in nappies back in the Roger Millwood days and what
Speaker 3: eighty four, eighty five, eighty six, So.
Speaker 1: I wasn't in nappies when I was eight years old mate,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Sorry, I thought you were younger
Speaker 1: young seven six. Yeah, the skin you're just so useful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he'll go down as one of the greatest coaches
Speaker 3: in Super League history, definitely. I mean, we don't know
Speaker 3: what he will could have achieved if he stay. If
Speaker 3: he's staying longer, he's going to PNG. But yeah, he's
Speaker 3: he's done a phenomenal job, and yeah, he deserves a
Speaker 3: lot of praise.
Speaker 1: And also where the club came from, I mean I do,
Speaker 1: I do stand by it. I think Tony Smith did
Speaker 1: a lot of the heavy lifting at the start of
Speaker 1: the re the rehashing of the club, but Willie Peters
Speaker 1: put the other ingredients in from the icing and put
Speaker 1: it in the oven for a bit. Plankton apple O
Speaker 1: nine one three or six one six said, how overrated
Speaker 1: is Jack Wellsby? So we're back to say Elbans again
Speaker 1: and then we'll wrap up semi finals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he had a very tough, tough game,
Speaker 3: tough day on Saturday. Look, he's only I think it's
Speaker 3: it's his second game back playing in the halves. He's
Speaker 3: been moved around. Yeah, it obviously had a tough season
Speaker 3: last year. In particularly very tough ashes. I don't based
Speaker 3: on the ashes. I mean he's got a lot to learn,
Speaker 3: He's got an awful lot tok. Yeah, I think, Look,
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't know if he's overrated. It depends
Speaker 3: probably where you rank him. But you know, I think
Speaker 3: he should be playing at fullback. I think that's his
Speaker 3: best position. You know, I don't think Tristan Saler, well,
Speaker 3: Tristan Saler can be very good in attack. I think
Speaker 3: there's other facets of his game which you know are
Speaker 3: not there, particularly defense.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think.
Speaker 3: Look, I think Wells with more game time, whether he's
Speaker 3: rushed back from his injury, I don't know, but I think,
Speaker 3: you know, he can get back to his best and
Speaker 3: looks and Hounds will need him to get back to
Speaker 3: his best if they're are going to give the competition
Speaker 3: a shake in September.
Speaker 1: One thing I've learned in coaching and in the game
Speaker 1: and in sport, John is when somebody gets in form
Speaker 1: for six months, twelve months, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the headlines start, or it can even be in the
Speaker 1: in the community game. It can just be the pats
Speaker 1: on the back, the praise, et cetera. Players can go
Speaker 1: one of two ways, and they either stay humble and
Speaker 1: shut out all that noise and want to get even
Speaker 1: better because they want more of this, or they enjoy
Speaker 1: it a little bit too much and it's only find Margins, John,
Speaker 1: find Margins. They enjoy it a little bit too much,
Speaker 1: start believing in their own publicity. Also, it can be
Speaker 1: a sense of achievement. Now I'm not going to talk
Speaker 1: any more about any rugby league players apart from Reese
Speaker 1: Walsh in Australia because he basically had one great six months,
Speaker 1: had a bad year, had a great final series last
Speaker 1: year and then he's had a bit of a scratchy
Speaker 1: start to this year. So he's somebody who's wrestling with that.
Speaker 1: But we can look at somebody like Jack Grealish that
Speaker 1: in football achieved the Treble while he was at Man City,
Speaker 1: seemed to party a little bit harder than everyone else,
Speaker 1: and there's not been the same player since. We can
Speaker 1: look at somebody like or some people like some members
Speaker 1: of the England cricket team. When they won the Ashes
Speaker 1: in five first time in twenty years, it was an
Speaker 1: achievement that they'd probably spent a lifetime to get to
Speaker 1: Tyson Fury after he beat Klitchko. And once they've got
Speaker 1: to that certain, that certain peak, whatever their perceived peak is.
Speaker 2: Hmm.
Speaker 1: Some sports people are very good at compartmentalizing that and
Speaker 1: moving on and getting to a level far to far
Speaker 1: more start to think job done and then and then
Speaker 1: they drop off. And look, I'm talking from experience here too.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid playing rugby league, I said
Speaker 1: to myself, I'd love to represent my nation in rugby
Speaker 1: league and I wouldn't mind playing for a little bit
Speaker 1: of professional As soon as I achieved that, I definitely
Speaker 1: had a sense of achievement and I didn't really want.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say I wanted. I didn't want to do
Speaker 1: it anymore, but there was an edge gone straight away
Speaker 1: because that's all I set for myself. Yeah, so if
Speaker 1: I've set myself the goal of winning five Clive Churchill Medals,
Speaker 1: then I could still be going now for it.
Speaker 2: But so so.
Speaker 1: Wellsby could be getting a little bit of that and
Speaker 1: dealing with a little bit of that, and a lot
Speaker 1: of that depends on his mentors, his coaches how they're
Speaker 1: dealing with that too. So very very interesting some news items,
Speaker 1: and we're just going to talk about North Wales every
Speaker 1: week because they well they've been on life support, haven't they.
Speaker 2: Well the life support was pulled this week.
Speaker 3: Obviously, the old club went insolvent and then a new
Speaker 3: club was formed and the license was handed over to
Speaker 3: the new club just called North Wales Crusaders, with Jamie
Speaker 3: Elkala who was the former owner, running them, and they
Speaker 3: did manage to get a game on Saturday. They had
Speaker 3: some loans, well, a lot of loans from other clubs.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so effectively the old club is dead and
Speaker 3: a new club is RISI's place now. It's obviously going
Speaker 3: to be difficult for all the people who are owned
Speaker 3: money by the old club, but for the actual fans
Speaker 3: of the club, this is very good news because they
Speaker 3: actually have a team to support, and you know, I
Speaker 3: think Jamie you know, wants to you know, he's putting
Speaker 3: his money and he wants to keep the club going.
Speaker 3: He wants to give the area something they play out of,
Speaker 3: and you know, it seems quite a positive part of
Speaker 3: what's been an absolute nightmare and you know, a circus
Speaker 3: shall we say that that's gone on at the RFL's.
Speaker 2: Lead on as well?
Speaker 1: Shall they play next week?
Speaker 3: Yes, I believe though you know they I think part
Speaker 3: of the problem is most of their players, because they
Speaker 3: were getting unpaid, have left to join other clubs, which
Speaker 3: they're perfectly entitled to do. But yeah, they're they're looking
Speaker 3: to play out the rest of the season and you know,
Speaker 3: build from there. So look, I think it's important that
Speaker 3: we have a semi professional club in Wales, anywhere in Wales.
Speaker 3: But you know, as I said, you know that the
Speaker 3: supporters have been treated terribly and ripped off by the
Speaker 3: old owners, so you know, this is I think this
Speaker 3: is definitely a positive. But much like what happened at
Speaker 3: Salford and Fenston, there's still so many questions and answered
Speaker 3: about how this happened, why it happened, what did or
Speaker 3: didn't the RFL did, How can we learned from this situation?
Speaker 1: You know, you know, the cynic in me John and
Speaker 1: the business person is thinking maybe maybe potentially some business
Speaker 1: people are thinking, I could invest in a local club
Speaker 1: that means a lot to people, that will ignore the
Speaker 1: fact that if it goes insolvent and gets reborn again,
Speaker 1: it won't be that big an issue, and then some
Speaker 1: debts can disappear.
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think I think certainly the egg Chaser group,
Speaker 3: you know that they've run up a lot of debt.
Speaker 3: Maybe that I mean, I don't know, maybe that was
Speaker 3: the plan all along. There's certainly people who think that
Speaker 3: because in certain amount of more than fifty people who
Speaker 3: claiming that they owe the money.
Speaker 1: You see many, many billionaires. One of the critiques of
Speaker 1: them is they say, oh, he's been bankrupt sixteen times. No,
Speaker 1: the billionaire hasn't been bankrupt. The businesses they've owned have
Speaker 1: gone bankrupt and they've just started a new business and
Speaker 1: once becomes bankrupt depending on the way you structure it
Speaker 1: tax wise. It's not the person that owes anybody money,
Speaker 1: it's the business.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and personally, I mean, I'm not a finance expert.
Speaker 2: I'm not a.
Speaker 3: Business expert, but I think that's a real flaw on
Speaker 3: the system that how people can just start up companies,
Speaker 3: run up debts, you know, yeah, and walk away or
Speaker 3: seemilarly walk away with no responsibility.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think that's I mean, that's a horrible
Speaker 2: way to operate.
Speaker 3: And I'd like to think calm, I guess those people
Speaker 3: in the end, but you lore right, Ali, And I
Speaker 3: think in professional sport we see a lot of that,
Speaker 3: not just in Rougue believe in other sports as well.
Speaker 2: A lot of this going on.
Speaker 1: There are rumors, there are rumors some big sports chains
Speaker 1: just don't pay bills to some of the big sports
Speaker 1: equipment providers and just keep changing the business names. And
Speaker 1: that's how that's how they you know that, and they
Speaker 1: know they know that as the as the suppliers sorry
Speaker 1: I should have said suppliers and the and the and
Speaker 1: the sports chains are the the provider to the public.
Speaker 1: They know they're needed by said companies. So the cycle
Speaker 1: just keeps going around. So yeah, Unfortunately, I think this
Speaker 1: sometimes happens in sports clubs. Look the Glazers took over
Speaker 1: Manchester United with debt.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, Look, I think I think at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, from the Rougulay point of view is
Speaker 3: if you go you want to buy a club, they
Speaker 3: need to do they actually, I don't need to have
Speaker 3: a fit and proper person's test that you know, is serious,
Speaker 3: is real. They need to not just be like, oh well,
Speaker 3: I'll just google Lee Addison and they need to actually
Speaker 3: go out and okay, what's your business player, what are
Speaker 3: your projections? You know, how are you going to you know,
Speaker 3: maybe put arson them to put up a bond of
Speaker 3: X amount of money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if they, if they, if they paid the bond
Speaker 1: to the RFL, a significant bond, that would tell you
Speaker 1: what you need to know about their finances. Well, and
Speaker 1: that bond could save the club when they.
Speaker 3: Exactly Yeah, and when they stop paying people players tumble
Speaker 3: them and say where are money? They need to do
Speaker 3: something about it and not just look the other way.
Speaker 3: And that's what they keep doing.
Speaker 4: As I said, So for Deatherston Mtal Attrician, North Wales, Toronto,
Speaker 4: you know, like natural Attrician, and they're turning a blind
Speaker 4: eye for a reason. And on that subject, there's some
Speaker 4: changes in the RFL.
Speaker 1: John.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So this is the story I broke during the
Speaker 3: week about Rob Graham. Obviously I don't remember his exact title,
Speaker 3: but he was on the board last year. He's the
Speaker 3: director of the RFL and got removed out of company's house,
Speaker 3: which was interesting. He still works for the RFO, I believe,
Speaker 3: still waiting for a comment from them that I think
Speaker 3: Christmas will probably come sooner. But there is some speculation
Speaker 3: that him coming off the as a director is part
Speaker 3: of the desire from the NRL to have independent governance,
Speaker 3: so you know, not the same people on all the
Speaker 3: same boards.
Speaker 1: So see all interviews that are going to the second interview.
Speaker 3: Yes, I believe, Yeah, I think I think it was
Speaker 3: the I think it was six or seven candidates.
Speaker 2: Were were out there.
Speaker 3: Only one was the Strain, which is Tony Mestrov and
Speaker 3: there isn't really I haven't heard any chat about who
Speaker 3: those other candidates are. I believe there is some from
Speaker 3: other sports, but yeah, you would think with what's happening
Speaker 3: with the NRL and the talks, and obviously with the
Speaker 3: TV deal as well, it'd be an interesting I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's a wise time to be appointing a
Speaker 3: new RFL CEO amongst all this, because obviously if the
Speaker 3: NRL deal comes off, they're going to have to set
Speaker 3: up an interminute independent commission, and I imagine the RFL
Speaker 3: would want an endpoint. Okay, who's your chairman, who's your CEO?
Speaker 3: Who sits on this board? So yeah, it's it's an
Speaker 3: interesting time for he caam mckinnis or FC discourse. Yeah,
Speaker 3: not just Holoc so I believe York have also expressed
Speaker 3: an interest in signing him. So he won't be getting
Speaker 3: he won't be staying at Cronola, cam In Kem Mcinness
Speaker 3: and Perth have labeled sorry, I have offered him a
Speaker 3: big deal, but there's also genuine interest from Super again.
Speaker 3: I think I think he's a fantastic but I think
Speaker 3: he's thirty.
Speaker 1: Two years thirty three next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tough as nails. He's got a face only a
Speaker 3: mother of good love. But I think he'd be a
Speaker 3: great pro in Super League and a kind of you know,
Speaker 3: his career, his leadership. I think like much like Damian Cook,
Speaker 3: like I think, you know, on and off the field,
Speaker 3: he could he could really help build a build a culture.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean I think if you're perthy, you're
Speaker 3: definitely going in all in for him because he's probably
Speaker 3: the biggest name if they get him, the biggest name
Speaker 3: that they've signed. But I think if you Hillo se
Speaker 3: adds a lot, and he adds that he would add
Speaker 3: a lot to York. So yeah, to wait and see
Speaker 3: what he desires. I think probably his first preference is
Speaker 3: to stay in the NRL, but maybe he fancies love
Speaker 3: Fancy's Lovely Yorkshire over you know, Corslow Beach.
Speaker 1: Or what's the American what's the American football league called
Speaker 1: Soccer League.
Speaker 2: The MLS, the Major.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these some of these signings are smacking of that
Speaker 1: Lionel Messi going over at forty eight years old and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And to be fair to old editor Martin Sadler of
Speaker 1: League Express, he's been saying for years that Super League
Speaker 1: should try and follow that model, so maybe some of
Speaker 1: that is taking off. Tyson Smoothie is home single.
Speaker 2: He is.
Speaker 3: I broke the story during the week, had heard about
Speaker 3: it for a while, tried to stand it up as
Speaker 3: best I could. Now, I don't know whether Tyson I
Speaker 3: believe it's you know, his family are homesick. I think
Speaker 3: he's just had a second cholt. His partner's just had
Speaker 3: a second child recently. I don't know whether he will
Speaker 3: see out the season or he could go earlier than that,
Speaker 3: but he does have He's only the start of a
Speaker 3: three year deal. So it's a blow for Wakefield because
Speaker 3: I think he's been very good.
Speaker 2: He left no, no.
Speaker 3: No, he's still He's still in the UK now, he's
Speaker 3: still with Wakefield, only joined obviously the end of last season.
Speaker 2: You know, he's a very good player.
Speaker 3: I think he's a Grand final when the last year
Speaker 3: played in two in her own grand finals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's only twenty six. Look it's from Tawamba
Speaker 1: and I was into Wumba yesterday and trust me, the
Speaker 1: weather is similar to Wakefield right now, Tyson, I understand
Speaker 1: homesickness and I'm quite qualified to talk about it because
Speaker 1: where I live as that's right. Look, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know his personal circumstances at all, and obviously a
Speaker 1: baby makes things more difficult. But if he can just
Speaker 1: dig until the end of the year, which isn't that
Speaker 1: far away really when you think about it, it's it's
Speaker 1: only a few months, he can keep himself busy playing
Speaker 1: rugby league. And I always remember what my old man
Speaker 1: said to me when I left for Australia, said you
Speaker 1: can always come back lad, right, And you know I've
Speaker 1: dealt with several players that have been homesick in the past.
Speaker 1: I remember having some very deep and meaningfuls with Ronaldo
Speaker 1: Mulatalo when he he first moved to Cronulla, and I
Speaker 1: was very nice to him. I said, mate, if you
Speaker 1: come back to Brisbane, I'll kick your arse all the
Speaker 1: way back to Cronulla. So look, I totally get it.
Speaker 1: You get it. Yeah, I just hope it works out
Speaker 1: for him and all all parties can be happy. Quite frankly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely a Man of Steel shortlist. Talk to me about that. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to remember off the top of my head.
Speaker 1: So I've got I think Lachlan Miller was number one.
Speaker 2: Who else?
Speaker 3: Do we have Tyrone May, who's obviously been very very good, we.
Speaker 1: Have Locky Miller, I've got it coming up now, super
Speaker 1: League website. It's a bit slow though, Locky Miller, Jesse Litton,
Speaker 1: Tyron May, Brodie Croft, Daryl Clark.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's the one. Look, I think that's a fair
Speaker 2: short list.
Speaker 3: I think Jake Corners probably unlucky not to be in there.
Speaker 2: I think he's been very very good.
Speaker 3: And I think Mikey Lewis maybe had a slow start
Speaker 3: of the season, but he's been electric in recent weeks.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think. You know, they've obviously changed the
Speaker 3: panel around with Manor Steel. I don't get previously. You know,
Speaker 3: particularly when you look at the panel that's there, You've
Speaker 3: got Ellery Hanley, Paul Sculthorpe and Tonkin's, James Roby, Joe Lyden,
Speaker 3: you know, when you had people saying, I don't care
Speaker 3: who wins Man of Steel, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of laughable. I've just looked at it.
Speaker 1: I've just looked at the website and it said there's
Speaker 1: a new show called Man of Steel the Shortlist something.
Speaker 2: I watched it.
Speaker 1: Well, I've just tried it on YouTube and I ended
Speaker 1: up with a Superman video.
Speaker 2: I think you can I don't know if it's on YouTube.
Speaker 3: You can go to the super League Plus website and
Speaker 3: you can watch it for free.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how much of this is a response to what
Speaker 1: Sean Wayne said that end of last year. Much of
Speaker 1: this is reactive?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's a response to to that. Personally,
Speaker 3: I think I think they're always going to overhaul the system.
Speaker 3: I think I think it's disappointing that someone would disrespect
Speaker 3: the Man of Steel and the dream to you know,
Speaker 3: I don't think generally, you know, Kevin Maltus would have
Speaker 3: come out or I don't care who wins Dally m.
Speaker 2: You know, prior of the year doesn't matter in me.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think that really washing it.
Speaker 1: I can't ever recall an Australian coach saying that about
Speaker 1: you know, I know the Daly m winner sometimes hasn't
Speaker 1: been picked in origin or whatever it may be. And
Speaker 1: what a coach always does is talk positively about that
Speaker 1: player and say things like you just missed out because
Speaker 1: I believe you know that that tends to be what happens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I.
Speaker 3: Think I think they're all you know, worthy kendidates in
Speaker 3: their short list. Obviously, what we're eleven rounds or so in,
Speaker 3: there's plenty of footy to be played.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see who comes
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 3: You know, there's obviously a couple of Whole Car players
Speaker 3: on there, a couple of Leagues players Daryl Clarkson. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I think probably Danny Walker, Connor and Lewis are
Speaker 3: probably the ones nipping at our heels, you know, for
Speaker 3: to be in amongst that top five.
Speaker 1: Tyler Dupree, what's are you doing?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: He's gone to Cass so he was on loan to
Speaker 3: lose from Wigan. But the story that I've broken on well,
Speaker 3: which I think is quite interesting, is that Leeds went
Speaker 3: hard for him but he decided to go to Cass instead. Now,
Speaker 3: the funny thing is that the pre came through the
Speaker 3: Leeds academy and they released him I think it was
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty without playing a game for Leeds, a
Speaker 3: senior game, and.
Speaker 2: He went off to.
Speaker 3: I think it was Oldham first. Oldham were witnessed and
Speaker 3: then Saltford picked him up and he did really well
Speaker 3: at Salford and then Wigan came in for you know,
Speaker 3: paid money for him, signed him. He won a load
Speaker 3: of trophies at Wigan, but then he's fallen out of
Speaker 3: favorite Wigan and now he's off to Cast. But I
Speaker 3: think it's just interesting. Leeds, you know, obviously wanted a
Speaker 3: front rower. You know, he's played, he's played for England.
Speaker 3: Tyler Aleski's going to Perth the end of the year.
Speaker 3: He would be quite a handy replacement for him. But
Speaker 3: it's just interesting. I think with Cast they've made you know,
Speaker 3: we've talked about Damian Cook, Robbie Mulheerns going there as well.
Speaker 3: I think they've been linked with Matt Fagui from Saint
Speaker 3: Georgia Lawara. So they're making some moves Cast in the transfermaker.
Speaker 3: They just basically need a six and a seven, but
Speaker 3: they've got a they've got a front row walker and
Speaker 3: two props.
Speaker 2: I think definitely better than what they've got now.
Speaker 1: Witness of moved a fixture.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is a weird one.
Speaker 3: A lot of people were going w t E f
Speaker 3: So basically with Witness of playing Newcastle Thunder and the
Speaker 3: ninety five Cup next weekend and they're going to play
Speaker 3: at Robin Park, which is the training ground that we
Speaker 3: can play, that we can train at, which is next
Speaker 3: to the Brick Community Stadium. Now you might be asking
Speaker 3: why is Witness playing a home game at Wigan, But
Speaker 3: essentially their stadium, the Holton Stadium is owned by the
Speaker 3: Witness Council, the local council, and they've got a wedding
Speaker 3: fair on so they're going to play twenty odd miles
Speaker 3: away in Wigan, which.
Speaker 2: A lot of people which are what the hell. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's a weird one.
Speaker 3: I think it's Look, it's difficult if you don't own
Speaker 3: your own stadium, you can't determine when you use it.
Speaker 3: But I think it's another indication of you know where
Speaker 3: rugby league sits.
Speaker 2: Isn't it. We don't really have bull Cloud And.
Speaker 3: To all fairness to Newcastle and to Witness that game
Speaker 3: isn't going to get a crowd, you know. I think
Speaker 3: Witness probably these days are averaging around two thousand, maybe
Speaker 3: maybe a bit more for some of their bigger championship games.
Speaker 3: But Newcastle isn't a isn't a big game, and neither
Speaker 3: CAP games. We don't even know where the final is
Speaker 3: going to be played, so it's not a I don't
Speaker 3: think they've got a sponsor this year reader, so it's
Speaker 3: not a competition.
Speaker 2: It's really high profile or valued by a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Great stuff. Nikola Jane Lawson asked me actually make for
Speaker 1: my opinion on Jack Simfield playing with a fractured Sternham
Speaker 1: for Wakefield. I think, as we know, there's an awful
Speaker 1: lot of subculture and rugby league that praises the player
Speaker 1: that goes uninjured. There's also now this thing called player welfare,
Speaker 1: so so there's a mix now in terms of fractured Sternhams.
Speaker 1: I remember I played with one for three years I think,
Speaker 1: and a fracture can be one millimeter or it can
Speaker 1: be quite significant. To me, a fracture isn't a full break,
Speaker 1: so so the story could have been there could have
Speaker 1: been a little bit of vat put on the story
Speaker 1: put it that way, okay, But Nicholas right to be
Speaker 1: concerned about it because we talk about player welfare all
Speaker 1: the time and we've got to Rugby league's a bit
Speaker 1: silly like this. We're a sport that's obsessed with its
Speaker 1: image in terms of taking people's heads off and stuff
Speaker 1: because because we have a participation thing to think about
Speaker 1: as well. Yet we're happy for things like that to
Speaker 1: leak out as well. So I think I understand why
Speaker 1: she's asking that question quite frankly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a difficult one.
Speaker 3: I don't think you want to see players playing with
Speaker 3: serious injury.
Speaker 2: You don't want to see anyone get hurt.
Speaker 3: But as you said, it's like, you know, Johnny Sadler
Speaker 3: in the Grand Fall or Scott Sorry, Sam Burgess in
Speaker 3: the Grand Final. We lionize players who played off and
Speaker 3: play hurt. But yeah, you do wonder how how bad
Speaker 3: was this injury and what was the changes? How much
Speaker 3: could have been made worse by playing? Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's an odd one and hopefully Jacks o'kay makes a
Speaker 3: full recovery and gets back on the field too.
Speaker 1: Mark Williamson asked for fun the NRL and Super League
Speaker 1: club's partner up. Who goes with who? The perennial it's
Speaker 1: our year clubs, the too sensitive about our stadium facilities clubs,
Speaker 1: the outlandish animal print wearing gowner clubs. Must be some
Speaker 1: very good matches between the countries, so let's go. Let's
Speaker 1: go quickly through some of the categories. So the perennial
Speaker 1: it's our year clubs, that would be well, it would
Speaker 1: have been broad goals until last year. Paramatta seems to
Speaker 1: suffer from that too, there saying that Warrington, isn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the too sensitive about our stadium facilities clubs, Cronulla Tigers, Tigers.
Speaker 2: Like our probably probably mainly Yeah, the.
Speaker 1: Out the outlandish animal print wearing owner clubs, well that's
Speaker 1: Lee in England, and then it's probably Tigers, and well
Speaker 1: the Raiders do some funny things with their jerseys as well.
Speaker 2: I think, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think more if he means more what they do
Speaker 3: with their jerseys or mean the controversial owners. I think
Speaker 3: one of the differences in in Australia. I mean, you
Speaker 3: might be able to correct me here, Lee, but I
Speaker 3: can't think of an n R OL club that's kind
Speaker 3: of particularly flamboyant out their.
Speaker 2: Media hungary ego maniac ConA.
Speaker 1: I mean you could say that's quite a specific category
Speaker 1: of only you've come. Yeah, I mean you could you
Speaker 1: could say, you know, Russell Crowe is obviously high profile,
Speaker 1: but I think particularly these days, he he does you know.
Speaker 2: He keeps a pretty low profile. Russell. He's not also
Speaker 2: the sole owner of SUS That needs to be said.
Speaker 3: But there's not really a Marvin Kukash or a Bill
Speaker 3: Quinn or.
Speaker 1: The well. The two closest characters would be somebody like
Speaker 1: Phil Gould who's not a club owner, and Peter lad
Speaker 1: who's not a club owoner. No, who have trumpy and style. Yeah,
Speaker 1: approaches to things in terms of SoundBite, but.
Speaker 3: They're not Well, that's actually the best the worst worm
Speaker 3: I can think of. And he was an absolute fraud,
Speaker 3: and that was Nathan Tinkler and obviously doesn't own the
Speaker 3: Knights and hasn't for a while, but he was Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean he ran that club into the ground and
Speaker 3: he was tapping up what was a Cade Snowden when
Speaker 3: he was at Cronulla, flying away Bennett in and out
Speaker 3: on his helicopter or is rented helicopter that he probably
Speaker 3: never paid for.
Speaker 2: But yeah he did last long with the NRL.
Speaker 3: Did the old teams now running up debts all throughout
Speaker 3: Newcastle on the Hunter?
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, so yeah, so there's there's your there's your
Speaker 1: there's your match there hoy the twenty third neat why
Speaker 1: do Huddersfield not have forty twenty red markings like all
Speaker 1: the pictures do not least the red pain.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've not asked them specifically, I'd probably imagine because
Speaker 3: the but yeah it's owned by Huddersfield Town and yeah,
Speaker 3: they don't really have privacy of tenure anymore or even
Speaker 3: equal shots. So Haddersfield Town, I think want them, want
Speaker 3: them out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the forbidden game, the forbidden game, the rugby
Speaker 1: League two at the Rugby League too? On x IF
Speaker 1: and when the NRL takes over, do we need to
Speaker 1: use current players to explain RL jargon for new viewers?
Speaker 1: I thought today that I wouldn't have a clue why
Speaker 1: teams would box kick if I was a casual viewer.
Speaker 1: Imagine George Williams explaining this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, I think it's a really interesting
Speaker 3: point because obviously John Wells, back before we had every
Speaker 3: game Live used to do fantastic analysis, you know, with
Speaker 3: his with his board with you know, one of the
Speaker 3: players that come off of the game and they go
Speaker 3: through certain players and you get fantastic insight from players
Speaker 3: about why they did this or why they did that
Speaker 3: in that moment. And it is a fair point because
Speaker 3: unless you were a rust on rugby league person who's
Speaker 3: either played or watched the game closely for decades, you
Speaker 3: might not necessarily know all the jargon or about why
Speaker 3: things are happening, or you know what the comments are
Speaker 3: talking about. So maybe that's something we need to be
Speaker 3: looking at. We need to sometimes present or have someone
Speaker 3: there who can present it in more of a layman's terminology.
Speaker 1: I think I think a lot of rugby league fans
Speaker 1: don't understand some of it, quite frankly.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, you can throw, you know, you can
Speaker 3: talk about good ball areas and HD and middles and
Speaker 3: all that, and I'm sure there's a lot of people
Speaker 3: who are just saying, what the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Jordan Melling wrote to us, or wrote to me high
Speaker 1: Lee podcast listener here, John mentioned that touch in England
Speaker 1: is ran by the RF. You it's ran by the
Speaker 1: England Touch Association. Both codes have dabbled with being a
Speaker 1: part of Touch in the UK, but nothing in the
Speaker 1: way of total control has ever happened. Both codes run
Speaker 1: their own versions of Touch and as an international Touch
Speaker 1: player for the past twenty years, they have been done
Speaker 1: poorly and in the league's version, all they are after
Speaker 1: is to tick a box. I helped run Wig and
Speaker 1: Touch Club and Wig and Warriors community team. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be part of it and help run Touch with them.
Speaker 1: They seem to have no notion of what they wanted
Speaker 1: from it, and that was its own sport. Reck that
Speaker 1: Touch is much more similar to League. The RFL needs
Speaker 1: to do a lot of things better, but quick win
Speaker 1: would be developing a strong ref relationship with the ETA.
Speaker 1: I don't know who the ETA is and hold something
Speaker 1: similar to what the NRL do with Touch clubs in
Speaker 1: OZ inclusion player pathways, skill development and participation surely is
Speaker 1: an easy win here. Some of the most skillful players
Speaker 1: of all time have a Touch background Benji kle and Ponger,
Speaker 1: Sean Johnson to name but a few.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ETA is the England touchessation. I probably didn't expand
Speaker 3: myself very well it's not owned by the r few,
Speaker 3: but the rfew has kind of dominated touch in the
Speaker 3: sense that I've gone down and played with a mate
Speaker 3: who I'm trying to think. It's Dali Shway in London
Speaker 3: and it's all, you know, fifty sixty people on a
Speaker 3: Saturday morning and it's all rugby union people or rugby
Speaker 3: union players, and I seem to have a bigger Rugby
Speaker 3: union seems to have a bigger influence over touch, which
Speaker 3: is effectively rugby league without tackling and kicking in England
Speaker 3: than it does in Australia or New Zealand. So I
Speaker 3: think the RFU, sorry the RFL, should be trying to
Speaker 3: actually instead of trying to set up a rival touch thing,
Speaker 3: they need to be effectively buying or acquiring the English
Speaker 3: Touch Associate, bringing it under their administration, which is what
Speaker 3: the NRL did. I don't know, was it ten years ago.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure exactly, but you know, you can use touch.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about touches and I played played in Australia,
Speaker 3: I've played in England, I've played in Singapore. You can
Speaker 3: use it as not only a way to teach kids
Speaker 3: how to play the game, you know, how to catch pass.
Speaker 3: You know, have simple things moves the defense and you
Speaker 3: introduce the contact later. So it's a safer way you
Speaker 3: can play. You know, boys and girls together, you can
Speaker 3: play you know, the sexes by their own. But you
Speaker 3: can only use it as a participation tool. But you
Speaker 3: can also use it for the old or the people
Speaker 3: who don't want you know, one hundred and twenty curly
Speaker 3: ground Polynesian running at them at full pen like myself,
Speaker 3: or people who are old and unfit to play as
Speaker 3: a social thing.
Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty that's light.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you can use it, I think as as
Speaker 3: you know, a variant of the game to get people active,
Speaker 3: get them playing, but you know, to show a love
Speaker 3: of the game. And there's so many players in not
Speaker 3: only in Super League, but then in the hour well
Speaker 3: look Bevan French Dryfield, like all the you know, their
Speaker 3: skills that they've they've picked up from playing Touch, you know.
Speaker 1: I I think the NRL is like Touch now anyway,
Speaker 1: with all the tries that are coming in. You can
Speaker 1: argue that on that subject, the dogs are really in trouble.
Speaker 1: Snowm had a big win yesterday, but I think the
Speaker 1: story there's two stories there. Number one, that was their
Speaker 1: first game at home since Craig bellam Is diagnosis. But
Speaker 1: the second thing is when Tigers now have fallen off
Speaker 1: of cliff in the last two weeks. The last two
Speaker 1: weeks Mate lost fifty two ten to Cronuller im forty
Speaker 1: four to sixteen to Melbourne.
Speaker 2: This week.
Speaker 1: I wrote an article for the praising them in zero
Speaker 1: Tackle and since then they've been dog Tannan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's obviously it's good for Melbourne to
Speaker 3: to end their slamp and have such a resenting woe.
Speaker 3: But yeah, shame to see the Tigers drop off the dogs.
Speaker 3: Obviously they were ahead. I watched a fair bit of
Speaker 3: that game, they were heard quite a bit and then
Speaker 3: they just completely went to pot again. But the biggest result,
Speaker 3: of course would be the fantastic Seagulls.
Speaker 1: Against Anyway, moving on, so tips for next week John
Speaker 1: quicktips Huddersfield plays Saints on Thursday. I got to be honest,
Speaker 1: I think this is a bit tough on Saints playing
Speaker 1: on a Thursday after a Cup game on a Saturday,
Speaker 1: And yeah, I thought that was that was a bit
Speaker 1: poor scheduling quite frankly, But how does Field hold Saint Helens,
Speaker 1: even though the hardest w.
Speaker 2: Have the buyer, I'd have to go for some Helens.
Speaker 1: Friday, Wakefield play Catalants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be at this game at Wakefield by a
Speaker 2: fair motion.
Speaker 1: Wigan play leads.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's the game in a round. Look, I
Speaker 2: think that's.
Speaker 3: It's hard to call because I think Leeds having the
Speaker 3: break a week off pretty much a full fitness wig
Speaker 3: and you know they'll be eladed.
Speaker 2: But it was a very tough game on Saturday.
Speaker 3: But they're at home, so yeah, I think I think
Speaker 3: maybe Leeds can can get a win here.
Speaker 2: But I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 3: I think it should be a really really good game Saturday.
Speaker 1: York play Castleford.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tough, tough one to call again, I mean cas,
Speaker 3: we're dreadful. In their last game York had to win
Speaker 3: two weeks again to lose and then I think it
Speaker 3: was sinn Alnds I lost to. I might yeah, I
Speaker 3: think I think maybe York in this one.
Speaker 1: To lose in Warrington.
Speaker 3: Again to lose, big big shock over half c did
Speaker 3: not see that one coming, but I think Warrington.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Warrington have got to travel Lee Lee.
Speaker 1: According to my notes of playing hill KR, but I
Speaker 1: think I meant hill KR.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look Lea on the way back, aren't they They've won
Speaker 3: a few on the bounds there.
Speaker 2: Yeah again, you know you put a whole k R.
Speaker 3: I think they've won six in a row now might
Speaker 3: be seven, but I think, you know, Leo, I've got
Speaker 3: a really good chance of this one.
Speaker 1: And then someday Bradford host.
Speaker 3: Yeah again, I mean Bradford struggling for players, truggling to
Speaker 3: get players that you have enough fit players to to
Speaker 3: take the field, and then you've got a halo of
Speaker 3: c who thrashcass and then we're dreadful against Toulouse and
Speaker 3: obviously the coach has gone, so.
Speaker 2: It's hard to know what the form line is going
Speaker 2: to at all.
Speaker 1: Well, me and John didn't didn't talk beforehand about which
Speaker 1: after the hooter we're doing, so I'm sure we'll do
Speaker 1: that after we've stopped the recording because there might be
Speaker 1: a discussion to be had. So anyway, you'll get an
Speaker 1: after the hoot, no doubt, later this week. If not,
Speaker 1: you'll hear from us next Monday. Where can people get you, John?
Speaker 3: They can get me on Patreon and Rugby League AAP
Speaker 3: dot com long read. They can get me on Instagram
Speaker 3: at Shohnny d Davidson r L, Facebook, John Davidson Journalism
Speaker 3: X Johnny D Davidson.
Speaker 1: At Rugby League Coach for me admin at Rugby League
Speaker 1: Coach dot com. To tay you is the email at
Speaker 1: rugbyley Coach dot com. To tay you is the website.
Speaker 1: Take care, We'll what you say.