You'll probably expect lots of numbers in my review of the year. There are a few, but I found myself keener to reflect on the journey and the experience of 2014 being a Rugby League podcaster - if you want numbers, there are plenty in the season review episode!
1,500 plus Twitter followers, nearly 6,000 reads of our blogs and over 13,000 plays of our shows. Its been quite a year!
I'll be honest, I thought we'd get through a month with a handful of followers, a few listens from encouraging family and friends and a few curious others dipping in here and there. So to come as far as we have has been great.
The whole idea of staring the show for me was to broaden my experiences as a Rugby League fan. The seed was planted when I went with Tom to some Bradford games purely as a neutral in 2013. This was something relatively new to me, other than sitting around waiting for Wigan at Magic and a Northern Rail Cup Final I had cheap tickets for. It was good to hear a wider range of views, to see how much other fans cared about their team first hand, in amongst them.
From there, through a little bit of planning and a lot of just landing on what we ended up with, a podcast was born.
The result has been that this year I saw games from all three professional divisions and have had conversations (real or on social media) with club owners, RFL officials, TV pundits, journalists, professional players and fans from all over the world. I watched Rugby League in 14 different venues and saw every Super League side live at least twice. I visited some stadiums for the first time in years and others for the first time ever.
The show has given me a happy excuse to go to more Rugby League, to watch more Rugby League, to read more about Rugby League and to write more about Rugby League. And of course, to talk more about Rugby League.
You see, whilst I've been a Wigan season ticket holder since I was at school and lived in Lancashire all my life, I'm not from a Rugby League town and the sport isn't played in schools where I grew up. Few of my friends really understood Rugby League and even fewer actively follow the sport.
From conversations with my granddad and uncle, to internet forums, to Twitter and blog, my opportunities for RL conversation have grown as time has gone by. I've enjoyed that, and no more so than this years where that engagement level has gone through the roof.
My highlights of the season include Wigan's away win at Saints, the entire Magic Weekend - not just Wigan's win over Leeds - and Origin I. Though my biggest highlight was putting together Episode 40.
It was great that so many of you had taken the time to vote for our awards and it was so much fun listening to some of your voices with your season reviews. Whilst we couldn't fit everything we wanted to say in the show, it helped me remember some of the fun times we had along the way.
It's been really enjoyable getting to know a lot more rugby league people and getting to see a lot more opinions and views. That brings me to my closing thoughts really.
I want to end with a big thank you! Firstly to Tom for putting some impetus behind this idea and giving some balance to a show that becomes eminently more listenable with his input. Secondly, and crucially, to you, our listeners, readers and followers. This show would not have come so far without the involvement and support we get from you guys.
A massive thank you to every single follow, tweet, play, read, share and conversation at a game!
I hope you all come back next year and keep bringing new people into the SLP family.
Thanks again!
Mark
SLP
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