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A lot to digest from the Toronto Wolfpack decisions. Here are some ramblings on what that might actually mean and what it says about the state of the game in the UK.
1/ I’m not 100% sure if this is brinkmanship from David Argyle. I like the bloke but for too long they’ve run roughshod over things. Wrong visas, not paying suppliers on time - which happens in every business but…
2/ The Wolfpack are trying to make friends and influence people. The fact they were allowed to enter without proper visas is frightening. It happened before to the Crusaders and with PSG. Exposes the governing body for not doing their homework. Again.
3/ The governing body didn’t have a plan for that and also things like sponsorship, membership of RFL, share of TV revenues etc. which shows they just expected it all to fall over. It didn’t because Argyle has a lot of money.
4/ I don’t think the British game has done enough to help them flourish. It’s almost as if some clubs have a slightly masochistic desire in wanting to see their demise. It’s jealousy, fear, tall poppy syndrome.
5/ If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. For too long RL has cut corners, tried the easy way out. Castles made on sand. In 125 years the only real growth has been in NSW, QLD and NZ
6/ Kind of crazy some random guy from WA with a boatload of mining cash decided one day: "yeah f*** it, I’ll join this batshit crazy comp run like the Phoenix Club”
7/ They made it as hard as possible for Toronto and forced them to start in the bottom division. They destroyed teams who relied on students, ruining that competition in the process. They worked their way up and then SL tried to pull the door shut.
8/ It’s a shame for Toronto and what seemed like a pretty good way of expanding. I’m sure we’ll be looking back at this moment and see this as *another* missed goal.
9/ This sport is 125 years old in six weeks. When is it going to grow up? Johnny Foreigner is not the enemy to the sport's future. The short-sightedness of small town club owners and broken business models are the issue. As the Canadians would say: "pretty f*cked, eh?"
