Re: This board : Sat Dec 29, 2012 8:39 pm  

jonh wrote:

Of this perceived mini recruitment crisis I think there is a certain amount of Rose tinted memories knocking about.

Tommy and Carmont were outstanding players without doubt and Smith and whoever replaces George have a major task on their hands.

Lima and Finch though are another story completely. In their first season they were outstanding but in my opinion their form dropped off significantly last year. Lima lost his impact and was significantly quieter, Finch at times showed sparks of genius but most of the time especially when it counted he was poor.

Taylor I anticipate will go on to be regarded as one of the best Props of his generation and I feel he will improve our team on Lima of last year from the off. Blake is a tough one, but again whilst he may not have the pedigree of Finch, in the big games, when it counts, I doubt he will play as poorly as Finch did for us last year.

Agree with a lot of this too. For me round about when FInch & Lima both announced they were off they really stopped performing. Was more obvious with Finch for me, we needed him to step up when Tommy was injured and he really didn't deliver, instead relying on the same play (usually the flat pass to Hock) over and over again

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:04 am  

TaxingChimp wrote:

:BOW:
This! A thousand times this! Don't care about the perceived "quality" or about league games not meaning much, I can't wait to sit down and watch some rugby league again!

Normally me neither, but it's the direction that the sport I love is going in that's the problem.

If it carries on, we won't have a rugby league to watch.

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:13 am  

For the first time in 15 years, I nearly didn't buy a season ticket. I eventually bought my two then a few hours later even rang up to cancel them, then a day later decided to buy them back again and give it one last year. If it's just as bad or worse next season then i'll just pick and choose my games in future.

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:47 am  

Conroy wrote:

Normally me neither, but it's the direction that the sport I love is going in that's the problem.

If it carries on, we won't have a rugby league to watch.

We're going to lose some big names no doubt, but we need to keep producing and getting behind the new guys. Only way we can hope to grow from here on.

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:58 am  

MattyB wrote:

When Tommy came to Wigan (in the wake of the Moran disaster) he wasn't this great NRL star that had come to save us. He was just a half decent young half back from Harlequins, in fact it was Moran who came to us from Quins with a much bigger reputation having performing well the previous season.

I thought Tommy blew very hot & cold under Noble and it was only in his final three years under Maguire & Wane plus cementing himself as a World Cup winning international did he perform consistently well thus elevating himself to be become arguably a world class player.

Will Blake Green be a Tommy or a Dennis Moran? Not sure yet, (the previews look promising) so hopefully the former. But let's not crucify the lad five games in if he's not killing it out on the field straight away.

With Matty Smith, he thrives on the back of a strong pack and has talent without doubt. I do think he's a confidence player though.

Simples +1

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:35 pm  

TaxingChimp wrote:

We're going to lose some big names no doubt, but we need to keep producing and getting behind the new guys. Only way we can hope to grow from here on.

But this is still a shrinking economy.

If we produce one generation of good players after another - only to see them go to another competition before we get the full benefit of them, then we never actually gain any ground. Eventually we are literally nothing more than a seedbed for someone else.

The bullish attitude of 'so what if he goes, we can always produce another one!' can be made in a strong, broad-based and wealthy competition like the NRL, but from our lips it is hollow bravado.

For me, British RL is now facing one of the biggest crises in its entire history. Unless some way is found to attract a lot more investment into the British game - and soon! - we are in big, big trouble.

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:55 pm  

For the first time in 15 years, I nearly didn't buy a season ticket. I eventually bought my two then a few hours later even rang up to cancel them, then a day later decided to buy them back again and give it one last year. If it's just as bad or worse next season then i'll just pick and choose my games in future.

Thats a fan of the current league champions and you wonder why it doesnt work in London and Manchester!!

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:06 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

But this is still a shrinking economy.

If we produce one generation of good players after another - only to see them go to another competition before we get the full benefit of them, then we never actually gain any ground. Eventually we are literally nothing more than a seedbed for someone else.

The bullish attitude of 'so what if he goes, we can always produce another one!' can be made in a strong, broad-based and wealthy competition like the NRL, but from our lips it is hollow bravado.

For me, British RL is now facing one of the biggest crises in its entire history. Unless some way is found to attract a lot more investment into the British game - and soon! - we are in big, big trouble.

I agree.

The real issue is that the RFL seemingly think that RL is a finite ring fenced bubble that cannot or will not expand or contract from both a supply and demand perspective.

They seem to think that the attraction of the sport to potential professionals will remain the same, despite artificial salary restraints which will at best limit the duration of stay for the best players and at worst act as a deterrent to them ever taking up the game in the first place.

From a fans perspective they seem to think that RL fans are like sheep and will turn up to watch their team despite the ever dwindling standards on display. This is true to some extent, but you are not going to improve attendances by "dumbing down" the relative standards on display on the park.

From a business perspective, they lack any form of coherent plan. Simply trying the game out in Wales in the hope that it might "stick" is not the answer. The answer is not where to put a team, but to get the basics in place to improve the product so that the team has a chance wherever it is placed in the country (and I firmly believe RL needs to have teams away from it's heartlands if it is to survive as a professional sport).

As for the people who want to ditch Sky...........deary me. Why on earth would you want to ditch the best chance you have of marketing the sport nationwide?


So much for the reason why "This board" is not populated from a "game wide" stance.

As for Wigan, well IL seems to have gone even further in terms of not spending the CC money (as highlighted before). SW seems to have learned nothing from last year. "This year we are more strict"

The thing is the SL competition only really gets important around July/Aug time, and realistically we will have to wait until the CC semi's to see if there has been any improvement.

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:34 pm  

wire quin wrote:

Thats a fan of the current league champions and you wonder why it doesnt work in London and Manchester!!

And there's me believing all this time that Leeds were the SL Champions

Re: This board : Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:42 pm  

EFCWARRIOR wrote:

And there's me believing all this time that Leeds were the SL Champions

Go easy on him.

He's never forgiven us for 'pinching' the Quins chairman.