Leaderboard

Saw this on the Community board, thought it could do with a wider audience. Some good news. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid037j1ocgKfR7eGqJgSEseDmWj6taJXmc8YnqRCcU4ybMcnD8N6edFnkbhxQhP7wkXwl&id=61568398817776 Hemel have a six figure grant (with them contributing 25% of costs) to upgrade the pitch at Pennine Way to ensure year round usage.

So IMG proposed, and has voted in a system that would expand the league to 14 when clubs improved themselves to a higher standard and funding had increased to a level to support it. And now the clubs are heading towards overriding that and include clubs deemed not good enough and without money to fund it. But still, IMG are the issue here.

Thanks to London Broncos CEO Jason Loubsers generosity, 30 free tickets to today’s game were provided free for our students. Another 10 were determined to go so our school paid for them. 40 kids who have never been nor would probably ever get to Wembley. We were shouting for Warrington but not to be. Great to see all of them enjoying the game and wanting more.

Rumours around, not posting a link to Daily Mail, that Billy will be awarded a Knighthood in the Kings honours this month.

My notes from the meeting Gary Hetherington opened by outlining his vision for London to be the biggest club in the game, competitive at the top level in Super League and playing in the World Club challenge. To do this the club needed to engage not just with the people in the room but also the 26 community clubs in London and the Southeast so their pathway was to the London club. He acknowledged that London; s fanbase was drawn from all over London and the Southeast and the aim was to create the best matchday ambience (experience) in the league with a low-cost sport that was inclusive drawing support from all sectors of society. In response to a questioner in Wigan shirt about NRL Europe Gray Hetherington confirmed that there is no proposal from the NRL on the table. He knew Phil Gould quite well who had advocated two London clubs and Australians knew the benefit of a London team but do not know how where or when to do it. Developing the international Game is seen as low hanging fruit for both the RFL and NRL. With regards to Ownership, David Hughes transferred his shares to Gary. He is not a wealthy man and is looking to put an ownership group together and is speaking to people with a genuine interest. But these investors have to be people with something to offer as investors he was not looking for sleeping partners. If you invest in London, You need to be an ongoing contributor bringing in sponsorship and connectivity and the idea is to have a number of these forming a group, He could not update on this now but the hope was to have this in place in the foreseeable future. All ideas to generate interest and income needed to be low or nil cost as the club as the club has more costs and expenses than income. I personally will be sending in a few low / nil cost ideas from other sports he might want to consider. The role of Matt Adamson, who is now back in Australia is to work with Australian brands to create investment and sponsorship of the London club which is more attractive to Australians than the northern towns. There is a lot of work being done behind the scenes at the moment on building connected partnerships. The Australian High Commission is seen as a key supporter of the club as 100,000 Australians are in the London area along with Kiwis and pacific islanders. The Fijian ambassador to London being in attendance at the launch at the High Commission. It is hoped to turn this expat community into supporters of the London club along of course with more fans from London and the Southeast. The name change is not decided on; the mood of the Room was anti any change. There is a project bubbling away looking at if this would be advantageous to change the name and brand in respect of pricing, marketing and commercially. Gary went on to say that when Leeds changed from being the Loiners to the Rhinos, it was a very unpopular move at the time but one that served to galvanise interest and commitment to the club. As for name change suggestions, he confirmed that one suggestion had been made by a media personality who was not from the UK (IMO Steve Mascord who was on the other side of the room) to “London Rugby League”. There is no funding at present to strengthen the squad, and Mike Eccles acknowledged that the club was in a relegation battle at the foot of the Championship. He was confident the club would stay up once there was a bit more continuity in the side. Hegave away one nugget in that Danny ward had won promotion ion 2018 on a playing budget reduced by £ 350,000 which underscores what a good coach Danny was / is. The club expects Conor O’Beirne back for the Toulouse game and Lewis Bienek back the week after that. The biggest problem from Mike Eccles perspective is that other clubs raid London talent and those who were given the opportunity down here. So, it’s all about retaining London’s better players. Mike also went on to say that players tended to come from areas of the Southeast that were similar to the northern heartlands (Hemel and Medway) and there was a lot of Rugby Union players from Hemel playing for St Albans Centurions in the summer months and enjoying it. The Leeds RL Foundation will be offering advice to the London RL Foundation and in response to a question about youngsters playing on the pitch at half-time. Noone seemed to know the position of AFC Wimbledon on this, but Rick Jones of the London RL Foundation said that in respect of the Wembley Ashes Test match, the RFL had advised part of their agreement with Wembley stadium limited was no on-pitch activity outside the main game. On the RFL’s attitude to the London Club, Gary Hetherington replied that the RFL had one Development Officer for the whole of London and the Southeast and they were currently rewriting their funding and Governance. The RFL needed the London club. to succeed because in order to retain UK government funding they need to demonstrate that they are increasing participation in the game away from the RL heartlands. On IMG Gary was of the view that a game had a misconception about IMG, they are advisors not decision makers. Their recommendations need to be agreed by the clubs and there was not the money in the game to fund their recommendations. The grading was good even for a club like Leeds because it enabled clubs to identify areas of weakness but there is an issue about the integrity of promotion and relegation. London is making a big push to market the Bradford Game at the end of the season.

To tolerate is to accept: to accept is to condone: to condone is to encourage. The purpose of arm waving - generally accompanied by physical and audible expressions of disgust and contempt - is to redirect the officials’ attention, to suggest that the officials are missing something, to gain an unearned advantage; immediately with a six-again or a penalty; later with an altered perception by the officials. It’s rehearsed, encouraged by the coach, practised, perfected. The benefits are valuable. Those six-agains can turn a game or contribute to maintaining dominance. It may not be a total coincidence that the team that may be at the top of the arm-waving league is also the team at the top of the league table. It’s dissent, it’s offensive, it’s an attempt to highlight that the officials are not doing their job. It shows the sport in a poor light. It's not unlikely that it contributes to other levels of dissent. It probably contributes to spectator abuse of the officials. Perhaps it even reaches down to U14 level. It could be stopped completely within 15 minutes of the next round of fixtures, with an early released warning and few deserved penalties. Overstating my case, perhaps, but why isn't it stopped?

The pitch funding project was almost three years in the making and the club held off from sorting out the grandstand issues until the ground funding was resolved. The grandstand came from the 2012 Olympics (it was used at Earls Court for the indoor volleyball) and while of the highest quality the decking is wooden and it all needs replacing at significant cost. While the original purpose of the grandstand was to accommodate League 1 etc crowds, the club recognises that having such a facility makes Pennine Way a more welcoming environment for community rugby league.

I'm sorry but I've been sternly advised by one M. Sadler not to pay any attention to what journalists say they've heard from unnamed sources.

Is the Readers Poll in LE this Monday: Do you approve of Nigel Wood's appointment? 1. Yes 2. Yes (in blue)

I was very pleasently surprised reading today's FT that they had a very positive piece about Wigan and Warrington in Vegas which made up the bulk of an article about sports tourism. I am not sure how accessible articles are if you are not a subscriber but the link is - https://www.ft.com/content/5e2ebb5c-7625-42fb-aabe-f081668c3bf2 The writer seemed to really enjoy his experience of watching the games and being with the fans. He also noted that a number of locals had come along with one Wigan fan describing RL as "NFL without the padding"! It was also positive about RL's attempt to expand its market. It sometimes feels the game is all about one crisis after another or missed opportunity so reading something positive and that presented the sport as having its act together was great.

The Game Caller

They own a long term lease on it. 150 years ish. The RFL bought the lease in 2012 for about £1.2m. They were spending about 190k on maintenance annually. Bradford bought it back for £260,000 in 2024. In entirely unrelated trivia in 2012 Nigel Wood was chief executive of the rfl, leaving in 2018. In 2019 he became an owner of Bradford and in 2021 their chairman. He's now returned as rfl senior executive director (definitely not chief executive) but remains a part owner of the Bradford. I don’t know why I mentioned that, since it has no connection to anything. Just sharing some Bradford facts that happened to randomly be on my mind I guess.

Finally back home and settled after the weekend. My thoughts: Obviously Warrington the better team. Sneyd, Dufty, Fitzgibbon (didn't realise he was that aggressive, but it was cruel he wasn't on the winning side) and Vaughn were massive. For Rovers the back 3 coped well under extreme pressure. There were some courageous defensive efforts up the middle, but beyond that the pack took a bit of a hiding. The slating of Lewis I get, but I didn't see the GB captain do much more, they were equally ineffectual (weather?). If we are talking about GB though... Does Sneyd's performance maybe give Harry Smith some competition for the organising half's role? My only criticism of Warrington's game management was that they left themselves in a precarious 4 point lead position throughout the second half, despite the territory. With a 4 point advantage you are only a slight mistake, bounce of the ball or a dodgy call (i do believe it was a try) from blowing it all. I'm over the moon to win, but feel for the Warry fans. I felt that pain a couple of years ago in golden point and it isn't nice. Their team has shown that they are a top 4 side and i look forward to the inevitable play off battle and i wish you all the best for the rest of the season.

I assume that when you put these arguments to Nigel he replied, "I'm not reading all that, just call everyone prejudiced."

All four debuted today cheered on by 8 others from school including both the head and the deputy head. Whilst they lost heavily they loved every second and learned so much - they’ve never played on grass before nor have they ever managed more than 7/8 a side in training. Next week aiming for at least 6 or 7 to get a game. also great that today these countries were represented playing RL: Nigeria Jamaica Sierra Leone and St Lucia. Genuinely the proudest day of my 30 years in the job

‘While taking a pleasant stroll along the promenade of Rooley Avenue, I slipped on a discarded 2003 Bullmania flag. In a matter of panic, and unable to stop my forward motion, I somehow tumbled into the boardroom at Odsal stadium. In the apparent confusion, I put my hand out to grab anything to stop my fall, this happened to be a pen and I accidentally signed a contract buying back the lease for £940,000 less than it was sold for. As far as I am concerned that is the end of the matter, thank you.’

I would add to this the safety net for keeping players in the game. If you're a academy player looking at your future career prospects would you feel secure knowing if you don't make it as SL level immediately your only option is dropping into the community game? Would a semi-pro league to fall back on not be encouraging when you're deciding whether to fully commit to rugby as a career? Tyler Dupree gets released from Leeds academy and is questioning whether to continue. He takes up a semi-pro contract at Oldham for a season, is then signed by Widnes, within half a season Salford have picked him up, two years later Wigan have paid a transfer fee for him and he's an England international. What does the alternative look like where there's no decent standard semi-pro structure for him to drop into while he develops into an SL standard player? Matty Smith has a half season loan to Widnes before becoming an SL standard player, goes off to win a few trophies, and then returns to Widnes for a couple of years to wind down his career and assess his future options. If you'd asked the 20 year old Matty Smith if he would prefer that when his body starts to give out (at a point in time that he cannot predict) he would be happy retiring there and then because no SL will want him, or if he'd prefer to go back to Widnes for a few years, get paid some kind of salary and work out what it is he wants to do with the rest of his working life, which is he picking?

Dear God, Martyn we've done this subject to death but if you weren't so blinded by your fealty to The Great Leader you'd be able to apply a little more nuance, and some of your points might land. As it is, people price them out. Of course Wood was good at some things, but a fairer-minded assessor would recognise that those lay in areas of financial prudence and operational governance. Not strategy. After the 2000 World Cup that was very important for the sport, and his work should be appreciated. But there is little evidence of his strategic insight or capability, and plenty of evidence in the negative column. On the Super 8's, they were a number-crunchers solution to internal political challenges in search of a strategy. It focused the sport's narrative at the end of the season on poor sides, playing a poor brand of rugby, in front of smaller crowds made up of fans who'd endured a bad season. Sport is about excellence, and new audiences - the general sports viewers we need - are attracted by having the elite version of the game presented to them, not the weak. It's why more Aussies watch the race to the play-offs than the Cowboys versus the Tigers. Thank God we ditched it before it did even more damage. The TV deal was a factor of external market dynamics: Sky feared a well-resourced new entrant, and so proactively took us off the table ahead of time (now there's an example of good strategy) Then how about the international game? Wood didn't invent the Four Nations in the way many readers may imply from your note. The actual success was the creation of the Tri Nations, again an exercise in using the sport's elite to build interest from a general sports audience. That was 'invented' by the Aussies, heavily influenced by Wayne Bennett, seeing the value of rugby union's own Tri Nations and seeking an equivalent. What Wood did was later turn it into a Four Nations concept, which weakened its pull as an elite event by adding an annual whipping boy (seeing a theme yet?), and may well have been a factor in its ultimate demise. Finally, what about Magic? I thought the Magic Weekend was a great idea, credit where credit is due. The intention was to retain and develop an audience in South Wales that we had incubated through holding the Challenge Cup there (note that those 3 years were the last time we had geniune 75,000 attendances for the cup final). Again though the RFL under Nigel demonstrated it's poor grasp on long-term strategy by abandoning Cardiff as a venue, allegedly seeing it as a potential travelling circus to attract local authority subsidy. But in reality that hasn't happened, and we have decided to stick with one location, and just taken it back up north to be closer to the heartland fanbase (when the heartland fanbase already have regular rugby on their doorstep and that wasn't the point of the weekend on its creation). Rather than committing to Cardiff for the long-term and building on the platform we'd started... another example of financial tactics (short-term seeking local authority subsidy; securing an event by enabling a base of more local attendees) overcoming effective long-term growth strategy (building an audience in South Wales) So, what we have is reems of evidence of a man capable of delivering prudent financial management, and good operational governance, but incapable of strategy. That's a classic CFO or COO personal profile, and precisely why such people need to work with a strategic CEO in order to achieve results. It doesn't mean Wood is incompetent, but it does mean that he is the wrong profile of individual for the job ahead of us.

I still find it bizarre that there are people who are incredulous at the idea of an agency being paid a fee for the work they do.

Sorry but you are in complete denial and showing how little you know about the RFL Head Injury Protocols which for the 100th time were not followed.

The way people defending Aston have tried to belittle and shift responsibility onto this lady is the most repulsive aspect of this whole case. Despite him losing his case you, his other defenders and Aston's ignorant/incompetent friends in the media are still at it.

I think that it’s fantastic to have a female ref, and fair credit to her for getting qualified and now reffing matches. To be honest, it’s ###### poor that people then seem to think that it’s because of some kind of woke agenda, rather than her abilities as an official. Someone before mentioned about people getting jobs due to ‘Box ticking’. To be honest I’ve worked at many local authorities over the years and can honestly say, that I’ve never encountered it.

Oh my, the hypocrisy is priceless.

Mark Aston picked Matty Marsh and played him depite having no confirmation that he'd been signed off. Everything else is pretty much irrelevant.

Have some shame Martyn, this is embarrassing.

Hunslet seemed quite happy to identify her as a doctor: https://hunsletrlfc.com/player/hannah-cole/ Below are the relevant extracts from the disciplinary hearing, key bits highlighted and two parts - in 16 and 17 - underlined. Hannah Cole could not have been clearer or more professional. She stated that she would do a neuro-assessment and when. Julie Turton also comes out of this well. Really you are just defending the indefensible here. I would also say that there has been a strong element of misogyny in this whole affair and that a male medical professional would not have been pressurised in the same way. Finally, it is well reported that the player had to be off work with headaches on the days after the game adding further to the need for caution: ORT Disciplinary proceedings 17th October 2024 Chair HHJ C Batty, Alan Hunte, Chris Chapman 13. On the 21st March HC received an email from Mr Heys requesting that she sign MM off as having completed the GRTP protocol so that he would be able to return to play in the clubs upcoming Challenge Cup fixture against Wigan on the 22nd March 2024. 14. Hannah Cole then sought information from Mr Heys regarding MM’s GRTP protocol to satisfy herself that it had been completed properly and so that she was able to sign the player fit to return to play. Mr Heys informed her (via text) that MM had undergone contact sessions on the 18th, 19th and 20th March 2024. He said then that the SCOAT had been completed on 18th March and that Mr Marsh had been Cognigram passed on the 19th March 2024. MM should not have proceeded from Stage 3 to 4 initial non-contact training drills to contact training, until he reported being symptom free and the cognigram test had been passed and signed off by doctor/equivalent. 15. HC said that she would not sign MM asking why she had not been contacted to sign him off prior to his return to contact sessions and asking who had completed the tests. Mr Heys then changed his account of when the sessions had taken place. He then said they were the 19th, 20th and 21st March. The 19th was a Tuesday and 21st a Thursday. The club do not train on those day and so she asked Mr Heys who had completed the contact sessions and the SCOAT. Mr Heys then informed her that MM had done light contact with his brother in a field in Hull on the 18th March 2024. The session had not been observed or documented and this concerned HC as it was contrary to the GRTP and also the RFL Medical Standards. In addition she had not signed him off to progress from Stage 3 as is also required. 16. Hannah Cole says that following the above dialogue, she had strong concerns and again reiterated that she would not be signing Mr Marsh off to return to play as she did not feel that the GRTP as per Medical Standards forming part of RFL Operational Rules had been followed and stated that she would see him for a neuro-assessment the coming week and decide what to do from there. 17. On the 22nd March the day of the Wigan match Mr Heys contacted HC to ask if there was a solution to the MM issue, in other words can you find a way to sign him off so that he can play? He repeated that there had been contact sessions on the 19,20 and 21 March.She refused to indulge this and said she would not sign him off. She also contacted the RFL to appraise them and stating that she would not be signing him off for the Wigan match via email. 18. Mr Heys then sought to circumvent the need for HC signing MM off and went directly to Julie Turton who is the RFL Medical and Welfare Manager he emailed her at 12.11pm asking whether MM would be able to play in the Wigan match. In the email he explained that the error was his and that the player had not been signed off before the Contact sessions at Stage 4 although he had now completed the SCOAT and cognigram. She told him no. “The sign off to RTP for the player is solely down to Hannah as the club doctor/equivalent, the final responsibility to do so lies with her” 19. Mr Heys acknowledged this thanking Ms Turton at 12.31. Notwithstanding this MM was selected to play and played in the match against Wigan Warriors that evening. 20. On the 23rd March Mr Heys contacted HC again via text message, advising her that “Head Coach MA had made the decision to play Mr Marsh in the Wigan fixture as he had felt that all stages of the GRTP had been completed with no issues and that they would 'deal with the consequences later” Thursday 21st March 2024 71. MH had by now liaised with HC and she had refused to sign MM off. MH said that he called MA who did not answer and so he had left a message on his voicemail. The message he said was to inform him MM was not signed off and could not therefore play. 72. MA agreed that there had been a message left on voicemail but was not in a position to say what was on the message as it was garbled Friday 22nd March 2024 AM 73. MH said they spoke on the telephone on the morning. He was a little unclear about who had called who. 74. MH -I told him Marshy not signed off to play HC refuses to sign him off. I am not sure exactly a number of times he asked, is he fit to play? has he passed his tests? and I said yes he is fit to play and he had passed his tests but he is not signed off 75. MH - Yes I gave him that detail [that he is not signed off shouldn’t be playing] otherwise I wouldn’t have rung him 76. MH I said that he shouldn’t be playing he is not signed off we need to get him signed off or he can't play. [it was put to him in cross- examination that he had not said in his statement that he can't play if he is not signed off and he said that if he didn’t say it, it was implied]. 77. MH said that MA responded by asking me to find a solution to the situation which is when the email went to the RFL [to Julie Turton]. 78. MA – said that he had received the garbled message and that he phoned MH who said to him that MM wasn’t signed off but he will get this sorted. Friday 22nd PM 79. MH explained that he had approached MA on the coach to the game. He said that remembered sitting opposite him at some point during the journey. 80. MH I remember sitting opposite MA and telling him that MM was not signed off and there would be consequences he said that we will deal with the consequences later. MH then said that MA then asked someone else on the coach and asked if he was available to play and that person said yes he was available to play. 81. MH I remember those words I am absolutely sure about that. 82. MA said that no such conversation ever took place.

Some parents are crazy..

Congratulations neither us deserved to lose that game enjoy your night and Wembley win

I can see KR doing the double this year. I know it would annoy many of my fellow FC fans, but it would be good for the city. In my opinion, it might push our owners to continue improving our club's setup. Hopefully, that would mean Hull becomes a strong city in terms of league performance—and that FC becomes a strong challenger to KR. It could even spark a rivalry similar to the great Saints vs Wigan confrontations of the past 30years, which would be fantastic for the game as a whole.

Can we please not make up fictional roles for Nigel to appoint himself to..?

Are they locating to Barking, or the Isle of Dogs. Or just Barking,,,,,

Something for those pesky away fans moves a step closer.

As a Trinity fan, I'm over the moon that we are even been talked about as top 6 contenders at this (or any), stage of the season. However it plays out, it's already been a remarkable season for Trinity.

Absolutely let’s start penalisingit. Can I add another pet hate that’s creeping into the game. Players caught on the last tackle refusing to hand the ball over and even throwing it away rather than give it to the opposition. Just penalise it would be stopped in a round.

A much better article here: The rugby legend Wales didn't want because of the colour of his skin Billy Boston has become the first ever rugby league player to receive a knighthood, as part of the King's 2025 Birthday Honours He grew up in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, is regarded as one of the best rugby league players of all time and now Billy Boston has become the first to receive a knighthood. But the truth is that Billy Boston's incredible skills were not wanted by Wales or his home city thanks to prejudice. Billy, who began playing rugby union as a school boy and represented Neath and Pontypridd in the early 1950s, said he had wanted to play for Wales "with all his heart". That dream was not to be but he went on to find recognition across the border, switching from union to become one of rugby league's all-time legends. Billy was sixth of 11 children born to merchant seaman John Boston, from Sierra Leone, and Nellie who came from Cardiff's Irish community. Born in Butetown in 1934 he represented the Cardiff Schoolboys team in the late 1940s and began his rugby union career with Cardiff International Athletics Club. When racism left his talents overlooked by the union in Wales, Billy became one of the so-called “codebreakers” - the black and mixed race players who switched from rugby union to league to get on in the sport they loved. More than 150 Welsh rugby union internationals moved to the North of England from 1895 onwards to play rugby league professionally. .... https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/rugby-legend-wales-didnt-want-31824679

As others have intimated here, the news story here isn't that Odsal meets minimum standards. Mick Gledhill has been making that point for some time, they haven't suddenly achieved this. The story is what minimum standards covers and doesn't cover (not just for Bradford, but for all clubs). For instance, take the pitch. The maximum pitch length and width for professional RL are 100m long and 68m wide, and most SL pitches are pretty close to those dimensions. One exception is Castleford, which Google Earth measurements indicates is about 91m long, but pretty much the full 68m wide. The minimum dimensions are 88m long and 55m wide, and that's exactly what Odsal was measured at in 2021 - previously they had had to have special dispensation as it was only 51m wide at one stage. But let's be honest here - the 55m width is a ridiculously inadequate measurement for Championship rugby league, let alone SL. That's just about a 20% reduction on standard pitches, and whereas the shorter length pitch could be argued not to have a huge impact on gameplay other than making 40/20s a bit easier, having a pitch that is 13m less wide than most other ones makes it much harder to create openings - it just looks wrong when defences can easily shut down passing movements because there is no room for creativity, and that's a massive impact on overall viewer experience. But Bradford lose no IMG points for this, just as they lose no points for the general state of the ground, the distant view for spectators from the terracing etc. They have spent huge amounts on the squad this year (perhaps more than any other team in the Championship) and will presumably get IMG points for owner investment in that regard, yet are allowed to ignore the general state of the ground, and the aesthetic impact on the overall experience of the stock car track that has squeezed the playing area so much. Meanwhile, they will actually pick up IMG points for cosmetic box-ticking exercises such as increasing the gantry size and putting a big screen up (even though it's too far from the main stand to be of any practical use). Then add to that the fact that they get a full extra point over some of their Championship rivals simply because of their geographical location, and it's puzzling that there isn't more of an outcry amongst rugby league journalists about how the whole IMG scoring system is playing out.

First of all can I say congratulations on the win yesterday. A very close game that could have gone either way. From a Fev point of view the decision to go right 90 seconds from time, instead of left to Reynold for the drop goal, cost us the game. I was surprised to hear Applegarth say that was your worse performance of the season, watching the game back both teams were very good considering the conditions. I thought that both sides gave their all and there are not many, if any, teams in the championship would have beaten either side yesterday. I firmly believe that at least one of the teams yesterday will be in the play off final, not sure which but I hope one of them win the playoff final.

"Tell me you're a Bradford fan without telling me you're a Bradford fan."

We should parade the trophy around Odsal before the game next week. As Jim Bowen would say, 'look at what you could have won'.

Not bad at all, great team performance today but a special mention to Toa at fullback , match winning tackle, took every high ball in awful conditions and many metres made bringing the ball out.

Lewis may have got the win at the end of the match, but I am not sure anyone could watch both of their performances seperately and say that Lewis was the better player on the day.

If a club investing in academy pathways and totally renovating a stadium/training facility for their woman's team kills off the league, then shame on all the other clubs.

My first student went to Brixton Bulls training tonight. He has so many challenges yet he’s overcoming them himself and with the help of the Bulls his future will only be brighter.

They can’t produce updates, write minutes or, it seems, understand basic corporate structures. We know they didn’t read the detail of a *12 year* deal before signing. But they have a bit of money so they must be wise and true and clever and strategic .

On behalf of the club we'd like to thank everyone who attended on Sunday. The crowd was 899 and that consisted of 170 children of which many were supporting the Broughton Red Rose takeover day. It was great to see those kids on the pitch and it brings such a good vibe to the matchday. It's healthy that there's plenty of discussion on this forum, when the comments stop, and the phones don't ring then we have a huge problem. From the club's perspective tthe most frustrating thing can be comments like 'I won't be back' and 'absolute rubbish' on the wider platforms when we are clearly making progress on & off the pitch. It wasn't a great performance, but the games lost this season against opposition in our league / 1895 cup have been by 2,4 and then 8 points on Sunday. We were punished for mistakes as discussed by the coaching department in interview. On the loss itself, we weren't played of the park like the we did to Swinton in spells and Keighley away for even longer. When we get it right we are an exciting watch, the challenge is consistency and we hope we can receive that in return from the fanbase. It's sport, there are 2 teams and usually in RL there are winners and losers, not many draws and we'd just hope that a fairer, wider view of what we are doing is the message delivered from all our die hard and consistent Supporters, as you are our best advert, you are on the streets and in the pubs, talking to floating fans who still have an interest, we know the interest is there locally when bigger games are here, hence 3000 v Leigh of which 600 were Leigh fans, 2400 v Whitehaven. These are not the games that hurt us, it's the league programme where consistent crowds are needed which help us plan as we strive to improve the club, these crowds are needed to allow us to keep improving the overall quality of the squad, which would help us reduce the inconsistency of performance. The team is not far away, 3rd in the league, been top at 1 point, and a winning run of 6 in a row shows that the team has the ability. We ask you to be our voices of positivity in defeat, however difficult that can be and especially in a season of real progress, a club on a upward trend that takes time to fully build and to not forget that we were rarely above 6th last season and to keep encouraging others to come and be part of the journey accepting the ups and downs of a sporting clubs results. The current league programme hasn't been helped by Cornwall pulling out so here's a quick heads up of how things are shaping and how we have put together the next month or so. We play Swinton away next on the 15th June, if you can't make that trip the Ladies are at home v Illingworth Ladies that day, 2pm ko and then it's 2 consecutive exciting home double headers, these are great days, showcasing how far the club has come in just over 2 years. 22nd June. 11am - Workington Town Ladies v Fryston Warriors ladies 1-2 Takeover day. 3pm - Town v Newcastle Thunder 5pm - Daley Rogers in the marquee! After that 13th July - Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team charity fundraising day and another double header, get spreading the word and banging the drum! 11am - Ladies v Wakefield Trinity 1-2 Takeover day. 3pm - Town v Midlands Hurricanes 445pm - The Johnny Morton Show 530 - Charity shirt auction! Thank you and UTT Workington Town RLFC

Looking at the last 30 years we can see votes for all sorts of things, often contradictory. It isn't a good indicator of anything really, amd tbh vote results are a good reason to lessen the power of the clubs. They breakaway, they get back together, more than once, they vote in licensing, they vote out licensing, they vote in the Super 8s, they vote out the Super 8s. And so on. The power and the ever changing views of a small number of Northern men are holding the game back here.

York RLFC, Newcastle Thunder and NRL's Penrith Panthers have come together to launch a dynamic new three-year High Performance & Pathways Partnership designed to accelerate the development of players, coaches, and community programs throughout the North East. CLICKY You have to assume this is how York finally get their coveted academy license, and what a huge area of talent to scout and nurture too... Up the North East player developing Knights!

About time. This would have worked well as a pre-big-match game, just like we used to have with the Silk Cut Plate competition, but it was always on a hiding to nothing as a post-big-match event. We've clearly chosen to prioritise the women's final as the premium supporting match, for understandable reasons. If so the logical thing is to bring back the old lower leagues cup comp, with a final held at a sensible venue... we had a great time when Rovers won the Northern Rail cup in Blackpool back in the day.

Wow what a game,two good teams going for it,shame they had to be a loser.Congratulations on your win today