Wellsy4HullFC

Whether a referee is noticed or not is not entirely his own making. Certain circumstances force him to be noticed, and nothing he could do to calm things down can prevent it. Sometimes the ref needs to nip out in the bud, and that's when they get noticed. Sometimes the ref needs to make a big call, and that gets really noticed. "Personality" comes about in HOW he deals with these calls. I guess it's finding that subjective balance between telling someone to get in with it, and telling someone to pack it in! You'll always get someone saying they should have done the opposite. You can't please everyone all the time.

I'm not quite sure how that can be described as "personality" rather than just "competent", because that's what all competent referees do. Not noticed, but also having a personality? If you want them to have personalities, they're going to be noticed on the field. If you don't want them to be noticed, they won't have personality on the field.

Last roll of the dice for Davy? Gambling on Rimmer to have enough influence to keep them in another year.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've criticised referees for not having a personality, and then criticised Kendall for by the sounds of it having a personality?... If not, you're going to have to clear up what you mean by referees having a personality.

Agreed. I said this a few weeks ago. He's consistent and stand out in attack. I think the fear is his defence won't stand up against the bigger international teams. I don't think it's going to be any worse than any other full back we have.

Just to put this into perspective, the Premier League promote 3 teams ever year into a much larger competition. Since the pandemic (because I couldn't be bothered looking further back than that), all 3 teams have won in the same round only once (Round 9 of the season just gone).

Just musing out loud. And please don't derail this into "clubs shouldn't be relying on away fans, yada yada". Would matches get more travelling fans if their club received the ticket sales? I imagine their club would promote it more and attempt to get more of their own fans there. The home team would still receive the food and drink takings, which might improve should more people go. I'm just looking at that huge stand at Wigan that sometimes is filled by local teams and sometimes is well off. These derbies should be selling out.

Magic could only work with an odd number of teams if they had 2 neutral games or if one set of teams forfeit a home game for it. E.g. Vegas: Bradford v Leigh Everton Magic: Same 12 as this year. French Magic: Catalans v Toulouse Dublin: Warrington v Wigan, Hull v Wakey You'd then need Hull KR, Saints, Cas, Huddersfield, York, Leeds, Catalans, Toulouse and London x2 to play neutral games. Could have Toulouse v London / Leeds v Catalans Paris double header. Hull KR v York, Cas v Huddersfield in Amsterdam. Saints v London somewhere in the South outside of London. Only way you'd get an odd number of teams to work if keeping Magic Weekend.

If the first round SL clubs are in is as it is now (played before the SL season starts, seeded against Championship clubs), you almost guarantee all SL clubs are involved. You then have the next round in May (as Magic is scheduled up be next year), quarters in June, semis in July, final in August (like it used to be). That's pretty much 4 months build. Plenty of time.

I fear for my club, I really do. There's very little noise going on about next season. The huge play for McNamara has resulted in the absolute crippling of the current season, and nothing to show for next season yet. All for a huge gamble on a coach nobody particularly clamoured for in place of the one who was currently in. We won't know if it was worth it until next season plays out, but if I was a betting man (I am a betting man!), I can't see significant improvement. So much rides on next year. After many poor years, an atrocious 2024 and now 2026, I can see a lot giving up if next year doesn't show signs of progression.

The only way they could be persuaded is if they had a significant increase in funding to compensate. If the NRL do come in, it may be something that see as necessary to do. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Magic Weekend in the Challenge Cup makes so much sense, especially in regards to reducing the fixture list!

I'm just thinking this could be their way of getting out on a technicality. The IMG rules that the clubs agreed to only stipulated that 12 clubs would be chosen via the gradings system. How they choose the final 2 to make 14 is up to them. I've said from the start, the hasty expansion seemed like a way to get in teams they wanted, let them improve their grading, rise above the ones they don't want, then bin them.

Am I right in that it's been reported that they will use last year's method for choosing this year? i.e. 12 teams from gradings + 2 from a committee? Surely that's how they get a team like London in and a team like Huddersfield out? Unless Huddersfield are still 12th?

Terrible defence by Catalans here. Cartwright has a job on his hands.

Every time I think we might do alright, we fold pretty early or we get a red card or something and the game is over before it even got good. Do I'm just going to assume the same.