´óÏó´«Ã½

Can we have some more english head coaches please? Its not looking too good for next season at the moment.

It frustrates me when in the very little publicity we get, in many cases the accent is australian.

Well done Brian, i think you have done very well down there with the juniors and i hope you do get the top leeds job soon. I hope Francis Cummins is getting the gig in London.

The whole set-up at Harlequins has been put into place - good. Teams outside of the M62 corridor can only claim to be contributing towards the general health of the game so long as they're producing home-grown players, and the days of Harlequins having to depend on more than their fair share of Aussies are long gone.

Let's not escape the truth though. Harlequins have been one of the worst Super League teams this season. Maybe Sharp and LMS would be staying if Harlequins were realistically competing for silverware. I'm sure the local population would peel their eyes away from the Union side for more than three seconds too, if that were the case. But it isn't.

Harlequins need a coach that will take them somewhere now the groundworks have been set. I hear Matterson's name being touted and that already fills me with dread - not even making the play-offs this year behind Crusaders.

Im a saints fan who lives in London and i go and watch Quins when i can. As much as I would love it, im not sure if it will ever take off in London. The fans who go and watch are excellent, but there is obviously not enough of them. I was at the Quins v Saints game this season, when they ran a double header with a Union game. When the Union game finished the majority of the Union fans left. So the bigger audience they were hoping for never happened.

I like what they are trying with the Friday night games, though I will be in Lithuania on on 3rd Sept, so will miss the Warrington game and was in Spain when they tried in July

If Rugby League is ever to break out of the M62 corridor it needs to find a way to get the likes of Harlequins up to the levels of Saints, Wigan and Leeds. The Quins' policy of nuturing youth, with links to every amateur RL club south of Birmingham, is realistically the only way to go.

The club has been transformed, behind the scenes, in recent years from one that couldn't field a reserve team and was a pension pot for aging Aussies. Now the crowd is seeing players who have grown up in the same suburbs as them - Feltham raised Krasniqi, for example.

Hopefully, a good team of home grown talent will leads to some success, which will lead to bigger crowds. That or Mr Abromovich tires of wendy ball and decides to purchase the Quins.

Losing LMS would be a big loss. Sharp is fast, but not the greatest in defence. The Quins still have a long way to go and next season could be really tough. However, I think they are on the right path.

Big Brian is a legend. A true hard man on the pitch (and in the ring), and an intelligent, passionate coach of it. And he gave me a can of beer on the pitch after Bradford won the title at Sheffield in 1997. Stones, I grant you, but I was utterly star struck...

left field suggestion but i wouldn't be suprised to see Andy Farrell in this role. promotion from being water boy at Saracens last season and already lives locally

It wouldn't suprise me to see Francis Cummings as head coach with Willie Poching as assistant.

Hi George - good blog. couple of points. Im immensely proud at the talent that has come through - as a result of both Quins and the community teams efforts. Real slap in the face to the M62's and im sure more will come through. No doubt about it - this is the only way forward for us -and so the other answer is can we bolster crowds and does the RFL have the guts to stick by us???

We are really up against it with a hostile and indifferent media in London and I truly believe that we punch abve our weight. I was not the biggest fan of McDermott but recognise what he (and anyone else) is up against down here.

I'm told by a friend that Karl Harrison and Paul March as Head Coach and Assistant next season. What do you reckon George? I'm 6 bottles of Grimbergen poorer for Mac leaving before the seasons end and I'll be another 6 poorer if it's the case.

I'm not sure those of us who have had to ensure Quins performances over the last 18 months would agree that BM has left the club in good shape. He seems to have struggled to motivate the team at times and performances have been inconsistent at best.

BM is naive not to understood the importance of growing crowds in London. The RFL do having urged the club to address this back in December 2009. Surely BM knows that the depth of David Hughes's pockets are ultimately limited and that the club needs to generate income to be viable in the long term.

Of course, the emphasis on developing local talent has been a welcome strategy but BM is not the only one who deserves to take credit for that. It could also be argued that once promising players (e.g. Clubb, LMS, Melling) have reached the first team level their further development has been somewhat dissapointing.

"It could also be argued that once promising players (e.g. Clubb, LMS, Melling) have reached the first team level their further development has been somewhat dissapointing." - The fact is they are just about average. If clubb and LMS werent londoners and were from up north they wouldnt get anywhere near the same press or even be picked for england. You only have to look at their stats to know this. The biggest problem is the amateur game in london is not big enough to support an elite club. Amateur rugby breeds talent and generates interest the most important factors to create a rugby league culture and to support a professional team. Its all about giving both ways. Harlequins are giving it out, in terms of coaching and community work but the effort coming the other way from the amateur game isnt nearly big enough or good enough.

One thing nobody is mentioning is success.

If London/Quins had a top draw side packed with top SL stars & NRL stars plus a couple of well known rugby converts, and won the comp every other year. Then I'm sure the picture would be very different.

I remember back in'97 when they beat Canberra. Next week they got 10K against Brisbane. Their average crowd was over 5K per game.

The success slipped shortly afterwards and so did the crowds & interest.

The '99 thrashing by Leeds in CC Final nailed it.

Success on the pitch is the only yardstick in London.

It's already packed full with average Rugby & Soccer teams. Adding an average League team changes nothing.

The club has done well on a shoestring in my opinion.

A 12 team heartland comp is the only way forward for League in UK.

League & Rugby fans don't mix in UK. In Aus & NZ fans have interest in both codes & watch both S14 & NRL without much conflict.

Don't understand AFL though...

I can confirm Karl Harrison will definately NOT be joining Quins.

Think about it step backwards Batley get bigger crowds than Quins if they are around next year!!!!!

I think Brian will be an asset to Leeds bringing his experiences, good and bad with him and hope Quins give Franny the opertunity to prove himself.

how about Shaun Edwards at wasps and see if he would be interested with Andy Farrell being his assistant.Whichever way it goes the one thing that would be a disaster to the sport would be for the club to lose it's licence that would be the death nail to the sport in the capital

Fulham, London & Harlequins have been struggling for crowds for 30 years. Can't see how they are going to improve either. As for Big Mac, he's done as good a job as he could with what he has to work with but Quins aren't going to earn a Grand Final place anytime soon. Best bet for them is a good run in the Challenge Cup.

So after 20 years of the RFL and later SKY, manipulating the rules and throwing away good money to ensure Quins (or whatever the title of the London Club is or will be in the future), they are still an abject failure on and off the field and Big Mac has jumped ship for ready made glory. Who could really blame him.

Catalans will finish bottom of the table and Crusaders will make the top 8 by having a team of Aussies and having buckets of money thrown at them by the RFL to keep them afloat and the rules changed to ensure their existence.

The international teams of France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland are a laughing stock and England are as far behind the Aussies as ever.

And yet the RFL (and Sky) will tell us that the licencing process is fair and is a success. The RFL should stop bailing out the losers and let the process of natural selection take its course. If SKY withdrew their support (money) and therefore their influence, the game would disappear straight back to its heartland. And why not. That's where the winners are anyway.

Hateinjustice, were you having a bad Monday morning?

The people who play rugby league in the south need a professional club down there. It is now producing players for super league.

French rugby league had almost disappeared before the Catalans have reenergised the area.

I went to the crusaders on Saturday and can tell you the fans were very enthusiastic. The work done by the celtic crusaders is producing a very good academy who are all welsh. This will produce SL players.

The more people playing the game in more areas, the bigger the pool to pick from and the better quality we will get at the top of the game.

The international game has struggled in the past because we have never had enough players from those countries to produce serious competition at test level over here. We need to have that regular international competition to be ready for the aussies in the future.

Your solution would see no international competition and a smaller player pool. The RFL have not got everything right (far from it) but they have a strategy which i can see the merits of. There's some serious competition out there, success and reward doesn't come easily and without effort!!! Just like most things in life!!

Sorry toffeesaint, not a bad Monday - just realism.

If the south want a rugby club, why after 20+ years and a whole lot of support, haven't they yet got one. Heaven knows they've got the resources if that was what the PUBLIC wanted. The same applies to the French game.

Could I suggest that in the interests of development and expansion, Saints are willing to give up their SL place. You seem to be saying that even though other clubs are more successful than say Quins, they should still be sacrificed to the dream of expansionism.