SL Calamity Howlers

A calamity howler is one that makes dismal predictions of impending disaster. Boy has RL in the UK got its fair share of them. Two examples were shown last week.

Promotion / Relegation. RL did away with p/r a few years ago and I recall complaints about it being an integral part of UK sport and must be reinstated. Well it has and with a system I think is very clever. At the very end it comes down to a game where the loser gets relegated. Since its introduction, the reverse has been prevalent many saying it is bad for a player's welfare to be put through it.

OK, many of the headlines are nothing more than click bait but still there are many who want it scrapped... presumably until it is and then we want p/r back. If other sports can handle the emotional trauma of relegation, so can tough RL players*.

Les Catalans and Relegation: One team in that sudden death final was the only French team in the elite European league, Super League. They could have gone down and again out came the click bait in the pathetic media saying it would be a catastrophic disaster for RL if they were relegated. Les Catalans even said they would return to domestic French RL if they were beaten.

Lets' put a few things straight. It wouldn't be anything like a disaster if they went down. Some lessons need to be learned by that club to be more professional in how they do things. They survived but this close shave is a wake up call. SL will still work with or without Les Catalans. There is another better run French side from Toulouse trying to get promoted to SL and also now one from Toronto. RL in the UK is on the up.

Summary: We live in a world where even the slightest ripple of change will bring an end to life as we know it. Brexit is supposed to cripple the UK but it need not. Donald Trump's election was a disaster for the US but last time I checked the nation is still functioning. To use a quote attributed to Mark twain "The reports of Rugby League's death (or being badly damaged) are greatly exaggerated".

*I'm not actually saying here whether p/r is better or not, simply either way the game won't die or suffer irreparable harm.