Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:18 pm  

Bent&Bongser wrote:

Classy riposte, Orangeman! Bless you. Hope you and the kids are well.

Your friend, Bongser.

I'm nothing if not classy mate......twas father's day down here yesterday and whilst the UK resident child was quiet, the young Kiwi born Son treated me handsomely.....stay safe and good luck in SL 2023......let's hope you win one more game than The Wire.

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:19 pm  

Bent&Bongser wrote:

Haha, Bongser is guessing you saw Tom Nisbet (on loan from Saints), decent player but not getting an awful lot of game time lately, wears No5 when he does play, but Leigh have recruited heavily since the beginning of the season. 9 appearances (other than "aquaman"), 5 tries.

Good luck next week with the visit of a Barrow team that, knowing Batley are away at Leigh, will fancy nicking home advantage in the eliminators. Mind you, Dewsbury had them sweating today and London Broncos is a better team than Dewsbury.

He might mean the bloke who brings the kicking tee on and has been doing so for over 20 years (Sean Fairhurst) you could say he had a Gary Megson hairdo

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:53 pm  

Budgiezilla wrote:

He might mean the bloke who brings the kicking tee on and has been doing so for over 20 years (Sean Fairhurst) you could say he had a Gary Megson hairdo

I think your guess is likely to be the right one Budge. I can’t see the guy I was thinking having been on your playing strength for a fair few years so don’t think it was Nisbet.

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 9:41 pm  

I thought we played okay today, Leigh are a full time professional side and are probably paying twice as much on salaries as London. They have a squad packed with solid pro's, the kind you find filling the rosters in the lower half of SL; so they just overpowered us with brute force and general competence. But, I didn't find them to be especially skilful and I think they lack the sort of speed needed for SL. I can see Leigh coming straight back down, especially when you consider how many overseas players they are going to have to trim.

I think we can take down Barrow in the final game, and if we hold this side together we can crack the upper half of the table next season.

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 10:00 pm  

Kelvin's Ferret wrote:

I thought we played okay today. I think we can take down Barrow in the final game, and if we hold this side together we can crack the upper half of the table next season.

I prefer Cake's post match assessment that it was really poor and unacceptable. As for next season, aiming for mid table won't deliver the fans we need to make the club sustainable.

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 10:08 pm  

Second London try disallowed correctly but with one of those odd laws of the game, had that been given reckon it was a different game.
Leigh were not that special today, london were poor! Todays Leigh squad will lose its core of overseas players, they will struggle next year as cannot see where they are going to recruit from.
But, some poor execution from London today, dropped ball and dumb last set play. No doubt we would have still lost but by a much better score line and some pride

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 11:07 pm  

jbuzza wrote:

I prefer Cake's post match assessment that it was really poor and unacceptable. As for next season, aiming for mid table won't deliver the fans we need to make the club sustainable.

It's no good comparing us to Leigh, they had three international wingers in their team today, yes they were all well past their prime and wouldn't be anywhere near a top SL side, but there is a level of investment in the Leigh side that no other Championship side can match (maybe Fev can come close). RL isn't like some other sports e.g. football, where a plucky underdog can hold off a much better team, the nature of the game means that semi-pro sides just can't compete with fully pro sides unless there's something very wrong with the fully pro team. They rolled over us because they were bigger and stronger and they can play consistently at a higher tempo. It's not a disgrace to be beaten when it's such a mismatch.

At the start of the season London were a shambles, the last tackle play, if it ever came, was for Moceidreke to hoof it randomly in the air. But with a few key signings in the spine we now attempt some half decent plays, yes we are one dimensional, and yes we lack true quality, but there is competency, shape, structure and patterns, even if there's no plan B, C, D etc...there is at least something resembling plan A, and that makes us competitive against most teams in this division.

I've given up on the myth of 'sustainability', I don't worry about the magical 5k average (I remember hearing this direct from Nic Cartwright's mouth in the bar at The Stoop in 2006), we need to be competitive in this division, and play some attractive RL that will appeal to RL fans in the South East catchment area. Barring a game or two a season I pretty much gave up when we moved to the Hive, and I thought I'd made a mistake coming back this season, but I've enjoyed what I've seen in the second half of the season. We want people seeing competitive, entertaining games, don't worry about SL. If I were the club I'd flood the local area with £5 ticket deals for the Barrow game, we can play entertaining stuff, even if it's not technically great.

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 11:14 pm  

I felt London put in a good effort today. Leigh were big, strong and had depth. First try after 3 minutes and I thought the pasting was underway. A minute before halftime London scored under the posts to effectively make it 12-18. But it was disallowed and Leigh went down the pitch to make it 6-24 instead. Would still have lost convincingly, but 12-18 at half time would have looked very good.

The last 30 minutes were tough. Leigh's last three tries were all scored on the final play of a set. Two towering kicks to our left flank followed by a kick through the middle.

The match today was a far better performance by London than some of the early season embarrassments. Still can't believe how poor that Newcastle performance was.

It feels more like we need some quality signings next season rather than quantity. Don't see anybody in today's 17 (no Wellington today) who has to be ditched (and there are some from earlier in the season) although some will need to drop to squad members rather than the matchday 17.

Re: Leigh : Sun Sep 04, 2022 11:52 pm  

DELUSIONAL POST FROM TOTAL RL

The Daddy

At some point during the season we were faced with the threat of relegation and I really thought the club was dying a slow death, the fans we're losing hope.

Since Mike Eccles has taken over the performances have improved considerably. They've not been perfect but standards have improved and the fans are now awaiting announcements of the club's plans for next season. That includes the decision as to whether Mike Eccles will become the permanent head coach and the backroom staff structure for 2023. What's of major importance now is that the club makes some good, ambitious signings, beefs up the pack and shows the fans that they mean business.

The club has also recently appointed a new head of commercial Mark Kemp which is a good sign, the appointment shows ambition and adds expertise into the back office. I hope we see the benefits of it next season coz there is some indication already of improvement in the way that the club is being run.

Altogether the move to Wimbledon has worked out well but clearly the team, results and performances need to match the quality of the stadium, but generally speaking Plough Lane is a step up from what we've had in recent years it's been a much needed move.

The great thing to hear as a fan is that the club has stated it's aim is to return to SL a huge relief when you consider how poorly the season started

THIS ^^^^^^^^^ IS THE TYPE OF FAN HUGHES CRAVES^^^^^^^ the sort of idiot who will pay £20 to massage Hughes ego next week at the One Club event.......we always were "one club"...it wasn't us fans who forgot that!

Re: Leigh : Mon Sep 05, 2022 7:17 am  

Kelvin's Ferret wrote:

It's no good comparing us to Leigh, they had three international wingers in their team today, yes they were all well past their prime and wouldn't be anywhere near a top SL side, but there is a level of investment in the Leigh side that no other Championship side can match (maybe Fev can come close). RL isn't like some other sports e.g. football, where a plucky underdog can hold off a much better team, the nature of the game means that semi-pro sides just can't compete with fully pro sides unless there's something very wrong with the fully pro team. They rolled over us because they were bigger and stronger and they can play consistently at a higher tempo. It's not a disgrace to be beaten when it's such a mismatch.

At the start of the season London were a shambles, the last tackle play, if it ever came, was for Moceidreke to hoof it randomly in the air. But with a few key signings in the spine we now attempt some half decent plays, yes we are one dimensional, and yes we lack true quality, but there is competency, shape, structure and patterns, even if there's no plan B, C, D etc...there is at least something resembling plan A, and that makes us competitive against most teams in this division.

I've given up on the myth of 'sustainability', I don't worry about the magical 5k average (I remember hearing this direct from Nic Cartwright's mouth in the bar at The Stoop in 2006), we need to be competitive in this division, and play some attractive RL that will appeal to RL fans in the South East catchment area. Barring a game or two a season I pretty much gave up when we moved to the Hive, and I thought I'd made a mistake coming back this season, but I've enjoyed what I've seen in the second half of the season. We want people seeing competitive, entertaining games, don't worry about SL. If I were the club I'd flood the local area with £5 ticket deals for the Barrow game, we can play entertaining stuff, even if it's not technically great.

In many respects, I don't diagree but the club needs to decide what it is aiming for.

Is it 5,000 fans in a big new stadium (which means being competitive in SL) or or are they happy to exist mid table in the Championship with 3 digit crowds (in which case they are burning cash with the current facilities). Announcements for next season will reveal which it is and I suspect the latter.