Irving? : Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:41 pm  

Skolars are being heavily beaten again, surely Irving has to go. His plans aren’t working and playing schoolboys is no good. The teams who many suspected to be near them are all involved in tight games but Skolars are getting slammed.

I thought that 09 would be hard for them with the losses of Davui, Puna, Gibbons, Kerr etc but its like the old days of 03/04 looking at Skolars hammerings at the minute. They need to get Mike Chan fit and Pete Hodgkinson back to help.

Quins didn’t help by knicking Latham from them, he was building something at Skolars which could have been big

: Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:40 pm  

I am not sure if sacking Cullam is the right way to go however there is a serious lack of depth and experince in the squad and it has showed over the past 2 months.
The same team has been trotting out and the same results keep coming back.
Recruitment is massive and even though I applaud the way the club is trying to go about things with trying to go with a all London boys feel, it is just not working.

The club needs to look at ways at getting experience playewrs from up North down to the club to help out the younger players.
Francis Maloney was looking at getting into coaching and still can play abit for a 35 year old. This guy is in the same mould as Latham and has great contacts all over the England through a very long career.
It would not hurt in giving this bloke a call to help out Callum.

With the CEO, having contacts in Fiji rugby, maybe he could get a couple of players over that could help the team out. A prop or backrower, 5/8 and a centre or fullback would be nice.

irving : Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:08 pm  

Where do you start about yesterdays game!!!! There were some bright moments...not many, but a few. It seemed that Skolars's would score a try and then go into reverse. Stupid errors, lack of tackling. One of the players out with injury was sitting with me yesterday and was commenting on how different things looked when watching from the stands. Flat play, no running on to the ball at pace, the way some players let the opposition run through with hardly any effort to make a tackle. Maybe the coaches should take a seat in the stands and see the game from our position. I remember some years back that the London Broncos U18's could not get a win for love nor money, then something clicked and they started beating the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Featherstone - the teams that used to think them a walk over, a joke team of London based players. Phil Jones coached them through out this time - nothing changed, just the players belief in themselves. Maybe this is what is lacking at Skolar's - self belief in what they can do when they work together. Enjoy the pics http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... c7e5ef4325 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... 30311f708a

Where do you start about yesterdays game!!!! There were some bright moments...not many, but a few. It seemed that Skolars's would score a try and then go into reverse. Stupid errors, lack of tackling. One of the players out with injury was sitting with me yesterday and was commenting on how different things looked when watching from the stands. Flat play, no running on to the ball at pace, the way some players let the opposition run through with hardly any effort to make a tackle. Maybe the coaches should take a seat in the stands and see the game from our position. I remember some years back that the London Broncos U18's could not get a win for love nor money, then something clicked and they started beating the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Featherstone - the teams that used to think them a walk over, a joke team of London based players. Phil Jones coached them through out this time - nothing changed, just the players belief in themselves. Maybe this is what is lacking at Skolar's - self belief in what they can do when they work together. Enjoy the pics http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... c7e5ef4325 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... 30311f708a

Re: irving : Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:55 pm  

cents3 wrote: Where do you start about yesterdays game!!!! There were some bright moments...not many, but a few. It seemed that Skolars's would score a try and then go into reverse. Stupid errors, lack of tackling. One of the players out with injury was sitting with me yesterday and was commenting on how different things looked when watching from the stands. Flat play, no running on to the ball at pace, the way some players let the opposition run through with hardly any effort to make a tackle. Maybe the coaches should take a seat in the stands and see the game from our position. I remember some years back that the London Broncos U18's could not get a win for love nor money, then something clicked and they started beating the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Featherstone - the teams that used to think them a walk over, a joke team of London based players. Phil Jones coached them through out this time - nothing changed, just the players belief in themselves. Maybe this is what is lacking at Skolar's - self belief in what they can do when they work together. Enjoy the pics http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... c7e5ef4325 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... 30311f708a Do you think they will win a game this season ?

cents3 wrote: Where do you start about yesterdays game!!!! There were some bright moments...not many, but a few. It seemed that Skolars's would score a try and then go into reverse. Stupid errors, lack of tackling. One of the players out with injury was sitting with me yesterday and was commenting on how different things looked when watching from the stands. Flat play, no running on to the ball at pace, the way some players let the opposition run through with hardly any effort to make a tackle. Maybe the coaches should take a seat in the stands and see the game from our position. I remember some years back that the London Broncos U18's could not get a win for love nor money, then something clicked and they started beating the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Featherstone - the teams that used to think them a walk over, a joke team of London based players. Phil Jones coached them through out this time - nothing changed, just the players belief in themselves. Maybe this is what is lacking at Skolar's - self belief in what they can do when they work together. Enjoy the pics http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... c7e5ef4325 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8 ... 30311f708a Do you think they will win a game this season ?

: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:08 pm  

You are a great forward thinking club, who really need to beef up the squad to get as much success on the pitch as you are having off it.

: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:18 pm  

The question that needs to be asked is there 25 players in London that can not only compete but be competitive in NL2. The answer is no there is not. Callum can only work with what he has , unless there was a big cash injection into the team, they will struggle this season and be lucky to get a close result , let alone a win.

: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:30 pm  

You are right Stags Fan, a cash injection is needed at the club.
It is hard to complete when you have all the rich rugby clubs in London and football which most kids play.
The club (as does Hemel, Sth London & St Albans) all do great work within the schools to promote rugby league.

However with the change in visa rules effecting recruitment, the club needs to sit down and think where to from here. The club has worked very hard off the field however successful clubs coke from what happens on the field.

While I do admire what Callum is trying to achieve, a stronger focus on scouting is needed and not bringing up players from the conference league who are clearly not up to the standard of Champ 1.
Islander and Pacific nations players are still able to play in the UK through their visa's and I think some of these players would help the side out next year as this year most will have already been picked up by clubs in Oz and NZ.
The French league have some handy players and it would not hurt looking at some of them as their season is drawing to a close.

The season is looking at finishing before it has even started which is a shame but something the club must look at so we do not go back to the dark days of getting smashed and being the easy beats of the competition again.

: Mon Mar 30, 2009 4:17 pm  

I think the real worry for Skolars is that their first two matches, against Swinton and Hunslet, who are not highly favoured for promotion have seen them ship 137 points.