Derwent

Sammutt

He is sort of right though. It may be called the World Club Series but what's actually at stake for the clubs in the 2 games that aren't for the actual WCC ? Is there a trophy ? Prize money ? Medals for the players ?

They've been great entertainment and worth staging but in their purest form Bennett's comments aren't wrong. Maybe it's something that needs to be considered for next time, to give the games some tangible meaning.

Anyway, this league isn't all about Leigh and Bradford.

Nice to see that Town and Dewsbury have struck a reciprocal agreement that benefits fans of both clubs. Town are paying for free buses for Rams fans to come to Workington on Sunday, and the Rams will reciprocate when Town go to Dewsbury. A good idea IMHO.

Workington Town :

 

1. Record main sponsorship deal and all match sponsorship packages sold out before the season has started

2. Retaining Phil Vievers as coach, despite him having offers to go to bigger clubs

3. Having 19 Cumbrians in the 24 man squad

4. Highest season ticket sales for several years

5. Being able to attract quality players like Latu Fifita and especially Kurt Horton to the club

And it was proved that they are working to quotas.

 

They have worked to quotas for the last 30 years according to a friend of mine who has worked for the Jobcentre service since 1980, regardless of who the government was. It is a myth that they have been recently imposed.

Whilst not ideal from a playing perspective it's ideal from a marketing one!

No it isn't. Most season tickets are bought pre-Christmas which is the key period for selling merchandise too. That's why most clubs try to finalise and announce their squads before then to maximise the revenue during that period, which helps their cash flow in the off season and allows for better budgeting.

The total of 4 For West Cumbria is wrong, I can think of 7 with SL squad numbers off the top of my head, might even be more. The 7 that immediately spring to mind are :-

Shaun Lunt
Kyle Amor
Lee Mossop
James Donaldson
Tom Walker
Jamie Doran
Brandon Moore

 

I also don't think the Barrow figure is correct as there's at least Ben Harrison, Greg Richards and Will Maher.

Www.rugbyleaguechampionships.co.uk

No win no fee I see. Could be a cheap deal for the company.

 

People are concentrating on the stadium naming deal but the biggest aspect here is the deal with Ansaldo Energia. They are a big company, turnover in excess of £1 Billion per year, and this is their first venture into UK sports sponsorship let alone RL. They are quoted as saying "We are particularly impressed with the way that the sport of rugby league in general, and Workington Town in particular, interact with the local community. The success of the recent Rugby League World Cup demonstrated to us the potential in this area, and it’s something we want our company to be involved in for the longer term.”

On the club's 70th birthday, Workington Town have announced a "massive sponsorship deal" which will see Derwent Park being renamed as Zebra Claims Stadium. Zebra Claims, who are also main sponsor of Blackburn Rovers, are to be the joint main sponsors alongside Italian engineering giants Ansaldo Energia. For both companies it is their first ever involvement with RL. The club have announced that this is easily the biggest sponsorship deal in Town's history and is worth a significant 6 figure sum.

Our great club is 70 years old tomorrow, formed on 5th December 1944. A big happy birthday, let's hope the club gets a nice present.....

A while back I was lucky enough to have a chat with Jamie Peacock about coaching styles and I asked him about the various coaches he'd played under. His opinion was that at a club level you need a strong technical coach like Tony Smith who he rated as the best in that field. However, he said that at international level you don't need a technical coach you really need a strong manager. His opinion was based on the fact that over a short time a technical coach can not really do that much in terms of individual skills etc. He surprised me by saying that if he had to pick a coach to win a one off game or a short series then the best he's seen is Bluey McClennan. Not great technically but a genius at getting teams to bond and fired up to play for each other, a great motivator.

Can't help thinking that if we'd had Roby we might have won today and last week. No criticism of Clark who is a cracking player and going to get better, but he hasn't yet got the game management skills of Roby who makes good decisions and would have put us in the right areas of the field and knows when to scoot, when to pass and when to kick from dummy half. We'll never know of course, but I think that Roby would have made a difference.

It's reassuring to be reading this debate so far.  In the states I have no doubt there'd be a clamour of posts along the lines of "If we allowed pupils to be armed then somebody would have been able to stop him", and "put him in the chair".

 

I think the overriding feeling is one of sadness. Sadness for the family of Mrs Maguire, but also sadness for the boy's own family who by all accounts were decent responsible parents.

Why is Charnley being made a scapegoat ? He didn't do a lot today granted, but neither did any of the backs in the second half. Charnley is a finisher, he wasn't given anything to finish.