Even knowing nobody may ever see it, I thought I’d make the effort to login on a device that works here and make a 12,675th and final post before RLfans closes next month.

I had a lot of fun here over nearly 20 years, making some friends and frienemies along the way. From the Paul Cooke saga through to signing off with Rovers having won the treble (that still barely feels real)… yeah, it was a bit of journey.

I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone who played a part in this sites existence, I've really missed it since it started having issues and will miss it more when it's gone altogether.

It used to be brilliant. Why is it closing ?

As stated on the other thread about the site closing - it is such a shame. It used to be such a vibrant, engaging, and argumentative (at times!) place for every lover of RL to post. Well done to all who kept it going for so long! I have set up a Hull FC forum on Proboards - if anyone wishes to join, feel free. There a links to other forums that I know about from there. Or, if you wish just to message me to see if you want to set up a forum for your team, I can advise on some first steps https://hullfcfans.proboards.com/

As stated on the other thread about the site closing - it is such a shame. It used to be such a vibrant, engaging, and argumentative (at times!) place for every lover of RL to post. Well done to all who kept it going for so long! I have set up a Hull FC forum on Proboards - if anyone wishes to join, feel free. There a links to other forums that I know about from there. Or, if you wish just to message me to see if you want to set up a forum for your team, I can advise on some first steps https://hullfcfans.proboards.com/

I also felt the urge to post on here despite the fact I’ve no idea if anyone will actually see it.


The Leigh forum was consistently one of the busiest on the network, going back 24 years by my reckoning!


The power that the forums held really can’t be underestimated. Regularly at club events there would be various topics raised by directors and head coaches that related to discussions on here. We even had a head coach begging fans not to speculate about injuries as it became common for a while for rival clubs to scour the forums for team news!


RLFans was also the spur for IMBRL which saw the forums play RL against each other - some very fiercely contested games particularly against Wigan and Warrington!


Playing as a 17 year old was a real baptism on and off the the field, and I made some mates for life on the back of it, a couple of them sadly no longer with us.


It sparked all manner of friendships with people from other clubs. Was mad to think that bumping in to people at the Ashes game at Everton were folk known only from posting on here.


A lot of forums died a death with the creation of the Facebook groups and life is much the poorer for it.


I still visit the TotalRL forum most days, but it’s certainly not the same as the club-specific community this place created.


Thank you to all those who played a part. RIP Paul and Johnny you pair of mad gets.