Cumbrian Fanatic

http://www.totalrl.com/former-england-footballer-tony-adams-to-become-new-rfl-president/ Never saw that coming. It doesn't seem that long ago Andy Burnham was given the position, I suppose being the Mayor of Manchester he has plenty of other things on his plate. Be interesting to see how this goes

Switched on the television this morning only to see an interview on Good Morning Britain with Tony Adams about becoming the RFL president, I switched on after it had started so didn't catch it all, but in addition to taking up the position they had him talking about a few other things including helping over 400 RL players at Sporting Chance - he said RL player welfare is second to none. They also got him talking about being a captain and leadership and he spoke about having a vision and a goal then getting a good team behind you and taking them forward with you, he was speaking about Sporting Chance and Arsenal but could have been making a pitch for becoming CEO of the RFL. Spoke very well and a good bit of publicity for the game

Yeah go one I'll take that wager how much do you want to put on?

That did cross my mind too

Even if Toulouse played Toronto on a Challenge cup weekend that still leaves an extra game to fit in when the winner plays Catalan with no free week available. More importantly why should Catalan be disadvantaged compared to all other SL teams, by having an extra game, when defending the trophy?

I agree 100%, if there is a way of fitting Toronto and Toulouse into the draw then it should be taken, I'm just not sure how this can be done this season at this stage. From next season include everyone with nobody paying a bond. Re-reading my post I can see I may not have been as clear as I could have been

The next move should be obvious, which means it probably won't happen. Quietly drop the demand for Catalan to pay the bond and include them in the draw, as mentioned above, because of the structure it's probably now too late to let Toronto and Toulouse in this season but they should be given assurances that it will not happen next season. Then quietly work with the clubs to help with ticket sales should one of the teams get to the final in the future, in fact the RFL should be working with all clubs on ticket sales anyhow. In reality there'll probably we some sort of fudged compromise where Catalan put up some kind of bond or guarantee a number for ticket sales, probably with no figure put, then both teams can claim their actions were justified.

You ever tried getting a pound off someone from Millom? you wouldn't be joking if you had to, they make Yorkshiremen look generous to a fault

It was the obvious choice especially after choosing the Siddal v Toronto game a couple of years ago, still I'm glad they chose it though they might change their mind when they see how they have to get to Millom.

Realistically you would need a ground of 65-70,000 to hold the Challenge cup final, that leaves London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Manchester unless people want to dumb it down further and take it to stadiums of around 50,000 or less

Thanks for that, it was the junior swap system I was thinking of, glad to see its still in operation

Great initiative, I hope it pays off for you. A few years ago a few teams seemed to let children in for £1 o £2 I think, does this still happen?

A merger between Whitehaven and Workington is possible as there is only 8 miles between them, much of it dual carriage way now, is it likely? probably not, I'm with DavidM, great in theory and I am not against it in fact it makes sense to me, but there are so many against it that its almost certainly never going to happen. Anyone thinking that Barrow could be part of any merger between Whitehaven and Workington is absolutely clueless about the geography and history of Cumbria. It's 45 miles from Whitehaven to Barrow and in parts its like driving through a farm yard, you'd be lucky to do it in 1 1/2 hours. Trains between Whitehaven and Barrow take a similar amount of time, are incredibly old and unreliable and only actually started running on a Sunday this year, so could easily be pulled from the timetable. Last train back from Barrow back to West Cumbria is 17:17 miss that and you're travelling on Monday. Nobody is going to travel between West Cumbria and Barrow to watch a home game

I'm sure I've seen somewhere that the bond was to be lodged and in the event of one of the teams making the final then it would be off set against ticket sales, given the tickets 'reserved' for the finalists are priced at £50 then to recover all the bond 10,000 tickets would need to be sold

Just seen that, I got 7, which was a little disappointing seeing as I went to every one bar 2 of those finals

Just had a look at the link and while the headline is spelt correctly and calls on them to resign, in the text Brian Barwick is referred to as "Brain" - No he's not! there isn't one between them after this decision

Its now made it on to the BBC Sport website https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/46763920 The RFL really are world leaders in getting negative publicity for the sport thay run

It won't take 30 Years at this rate. Good on Catalan for standing their ground, why should the defending holders pay a bond when other teams do not have to

What a great post and welcome aboard, not just to the forum but to the game. Please don't be put off by the negatives, for the most part it's because people care deeply about the game, there are many many more positives you'll take from the game and you'll have some great times. I can't put it better than a Hull KR fan I was talking to once about the game and the community, he just sad "That's rugby league mate"

I've got a weekend away sorted 16th March, I'll catch them at Egremont though

Thanks It did occur to me that may be the case but thought I would ask. Living in Cumbria, we get the NE regional news on the BBC and, as you probably know, The Falcons feature quite heavily on it. I did wonder if you both being at the same level in your respective competitions might balance it up, but I also see how a drop in income and profile for the Falcons would affect Thunder.

Genuine question to the OP. Obviously Newcastle Thunder going up would be a good thing for Rugby League in the area but would this be helped or hindered if it was alongside Newcastle Falcons being relegated from the RU premiership? I can see both pros and cons to that situation but have no idea how it would be likely to work out, I just wondered what those closer to the club thought

If Hunslet Club Parkside haven't lost any players then they are the team everyone will be chasing again. To go the season unbeaten again is a big ask but maybe not beyond them, last season they were run close a few times but kept coming out on top, which shows their resolve as well as being an excellent side. I suppose to beat them a team needs to be on top of their game for 80 minutes and probably needs a bit of luck too. I hope it happens, not because of any dislike for HCP but to keep it interesting at the top for as long as possible. After HCP the chasing pack will probably consist of the teams that made up positions 2-6 last season - I haven't seen anything of Thornhill to comment, their order will probably down to who has the best luck with injuries etc.

Similar situation, there's about 5 miles between Egremont and Kells which is the greatest distance between the 3 clubs and now Hensingham have joined the NCL, they are closer to the other 3 teams than that. People realise that clashes cannot be avoided but it did seem to happen many times with all 3 teams were at home one week then all away the next. Edit: Just checked the results, it didn't happen as many times as I'd have guessed it did, some fixture dates did change through the year but probably more due to perception

When a team is away you get quite a few of their supporters going to watch one of the other teams, this is especially true with a derby game, if the third team is at home the crowd difference is noticeable. For example, I have seen quite a lot of people I know to follow Kells at Egremont v Wath Brow games when Kells are away or not playing but you could easily pick any combination. Last season the biggest factor in the lower crowds at some of the derbies appeared to be whether the game was on Freesports or not