Playoffs or 1895 cup : Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:09 am  

Curious question

Given the choice (assuming we can't have both, but only one), would you prefer
[*] we finish 6th but lose to fax in semi of 1895 cup,
[*] or stay in 7th, but qualify for the final

I think getting to the Final would be better long term, than finishing 6th and have Batley or Tolouse hand our asses to us (yes I know we have beat both in league recently, but playoffs would be much harder, and we would never get past Fev anyway)

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:37 am  

crashmon wrote:

Curious question

Given the choice (assuming we can't have both, but only one), would you prefer
[*] we finish 6th but lose to fax in semi of 1895 cup,
[*] or stay in 7th, but qualify for the final

I think getting to the Final would be better long term, than finishing 6th and have Batley or Tolouse hand our asses to us (yes I know we have beat both in league recently, but playoffs would be much harder, and we would never get past Fev anyway)

Think you are spot on Crashy, getting to a final with a chance of winning will always have more kudos than a gallant playoff campaign. As long of course we don't have another Leeds experience where we had no proper prop forwards & ran into a winger who had the game of his life.

Of course, the great unknown is if by some freak of nature we won the playoffs, would Hughes fund a SL team? Most of us would probably say unlikely but who knows.

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:53 pm  

The final all day long. A bit of positivity after the last couple of years which have been dire.
More broadly it’s interesting to think about whether there is actually a path to SL for Broncos now and if we got there what would we do? One assumes if we didn’t go full time we’d come straight back down getting beaten every week and seeing our crowds shrink but we have a number of key players who now have proper other jobs so wouldn’t go FT so we’d have to bin them which would be challenging. Then, when relegated we’d have to bin all the FT players, leaving us signing freely from Skolars again. I suspect our future has to be trying to get to play off standard, winning games at home and trying to embed in the community, whilst conveniently just missing out on promotion. even then though the Plough Lane conundrum IMHO means sooner or later we’ll be on our way from Merton as it just isn’t a good fit for us and has not, as far as I can see, drawn in the corporate as hoped and so the saga of how to increase interest in the club continues again.

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Tue Jul 11, 2023 10:11 am  

BigTime wrote: The final all day long. A bit of positivity after the last couple of years which have been dire. More broadly it’s interesting to think about whether there is actually a path to SL for Broncos now and if we got there what would we do? One assumes if we didn’t go full time we’d come straight back down getting beaten every week and seeing our crowds shrink but we have a number of key players who now have proper other jobs so wouldn’t go FT so we’d have to bin them which would be challenging. Then, when relegated we’d have to bin all the FT players, leaving us signing freely from Skolars again. I suspect our future has to be trying to get to play off standard, winning games at home and trying to embed in the community, whilst conveniently just missing out on promotion. even then though the Plough Lane conundrum IMHO means sooner or later we’ll be on our way from Merton as it just isn’t a good fit for us and has not, as far as I can see, drawn in the corporate as hoped and so the saga of how to increase interest in the club continues again. Agree with this, a final would be great reward for those that've stuck by the club, especially in recent years. My guess is it would probably be the clubs preference also. A London final for the London club is an easier narrative for them to push and who knows, maybe a final win would be the enticement that pushes all these prospective corporate sponsors into investing! Interesting take on 'Faxs performances too; https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... x-27296179

BigTime wrote: The final all day long. A bit of positivity after the last couple of years which have been dire. More broadly it’s interesting to think about whether there is actually a path to SL for Broncos now and if we got there what would we do? One assumes if we didn’t go full time we’d come straight back down getting beaten every week and seeing our crowds shrink but we have a number of key players who now have proper other jobs so wouldn’t go FT so we’d have to bin them which would be challenging. Then, when relegated we’d have to bin all the FT players, leaving us signing freely from Skolars again. I suspect our future has to be trying to get to play off standard, winning games at home and trying to embed in the community, whilst conveniently just missing out on promotion. even then though the Plough Lane conundrum IMHO means sooner or later we’ll be on our way from Merton as it just isn’t a good fit for us and has not, as far as I can see, drawn in the corporate as hoped and so the saga of how to increase interest in the club continues again. Agree with this, a final would be great reward for those that've stuck by the club, especially in recent years. My guess is it would probably be the clubs preference also. A London final for the London club is an easier narrative for them to push and who knows, maybe a final win would be the enticement that pushes all these prospective corporate sponsors into investing! Interesting take on 'Faxs performances too; https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... x-27296179

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Tue Jul 11, 2023 6:29 pm  

Play offs!
Simply for the fact I’m going to be away on holiday when the 1895 final is being played- and be fair, who thought there’d be any chance of us getting to a Wembley final that weekend before the season started??

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Wed Jul 12, 2023 5:57 am  

I think they will make both. Fax appear to be struggling at the mo.

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Wed Jul 12, 2023 4:25 pm  

wire-quin wrote:

I think they will make both. Fax appear to be struggling at the mo.

I have to agree WQ. Halifax performances have been poor of late. Fans are not too happy, they have been wanting the coach out for a while.
Broncos meanwhile on the pitch are performing really well.
So playoffs and a trip to Wembley seem to be on the cards. Fingers crossed!

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Wed Jul 12, 2023 5:03 pm  

1. Wembley Final.
Didn't do anything for us off the park last time and doibtful the current owners would know what to do with the opportunity this time, but still an achievement that the players and die hard 250 or so season ticket holders deserve.
2. Play offs. Anything is possible in knock out footie....ask Toronto Wolfpack. I think making the 6 would be an achievement in itself and much more so than getting lucky draws in the challenge cup and making wembley. We're already on more comp points than all of last year and Eccles is to be applauded for what's he's managed to achieve reluctantly. Again though. I don't see the management able to capitalise on such success. I'd go so far as to say if by some miracle we beat Fev in the qualifier, the club wouldn't know what to do....and we'd still average only 2k in SL because Huges would just expect fans to rock up and sulk when they don't.
Either way. Good luck to the club and those stalwarts who blindly follow them.

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Wed Jul 12, 2023 5:38 pm  

wire-quin wrote:

I think they will make both. Fax appear to be struggling at the mo.

They are going through a bad patch but still a decent side. Hopefully ‘home’ advantage will come into play.

Re: Playoffs or 1895 cup : Fri Jul 14, 2023 3:03 pm  

BigTime wrote:

They are going through a bad patch but still a decent side. Hopefully ‘home’ advantage will come into play.

Yeah, Fax might be spooked by how crap the ground we’ll play this important game on is!