JohnM

Ask or read Tony Collins, who I believe is now emeritus professor of history at De Montfort University.

Because it can't support three.

... But.....but....graveyard johnny would prefer Laughton's golden touch .

Cottect. That is why professionaly-run successful clubs employ proper cleaners. That is why professionaly - run successful clubs don't have player-coaches, and that is why clubs have directors of rugby so that owners etc who invest don't also need to have rugby-brains. Incidentally, what was the ultimate result at Widnes of Laughton's chequebook coaching?

Aye, it's all nonsense. I remember 't days when teams had a player/ coach and 't captain cleaned out 't mens bogs cos there weren't any wimmins bogs.

Was that when he was at Widnes? I guess that policy had nothing to do with making Widnes the club it is today.

He's clearly been brought in to use his sunny disposition and humourous personality to boost the morale of the players.

Couldn't agree more and would add that It's one thing being a critic of the Reimagining project. It's another thing entirely wanting and hoping for failure.

That's what happens when a team is under pressure from a highly motivated and eager opposition. Pressure forces mistakes. Mistakes engender anxiety, anxiety engenders mistakes. Add to that excellent refereeing and you have a losing combination for Saints.

Saints were not below par, in my view. It's just that teams are learning how to handle Welsby, Roby, Hurrell etc. Couple that with Wire protecting George Williams to give him the space and time to deliver his best performance for ages. Couple that with their "go forward" and positional vision, they could have beaten anyone.

Somehow, though, I've managed to support and follow the game in varying degrees and intensity when I lived in Swinton, Manchester, Atherton, Hampshire, Switzerland, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Surrey, France and Lincolnshire. Expansion had been just as successful as keeping the game alive in the frozen north, though. Whatever happened to Huyton, Trafford, Liverpool, Belle Vue, Nottingham.....and although they are still going, look at the great names of the past: Bradford, Halifax, Widnes, and clinging on are Wakefield, Castleford, Salford. We don't even know if Leigh are going to be sustainable in the long term. Perhaps it's not geography, perhaps it's northern folk who don't want the game at all or folk who want to keep the game small and local for fear of losing control, like an episode of "The League of Gentlemen". An exaggeration and a simplification, maybe, and not intending to demean and minimise the efforts, donations, loans, investment etc. that fans and directors and owners put in, but really, it's a more complex issue than merely saying it's a northern game for northern folk. It's 2024 not 1895. The world and is people are entirely different now, compared with them. Hence IMG. They live in the here and now.

I have no problem with that, as long as they pay us royalties.

It certainly makes ME very happy!

There's no finer sight in the game.

Apparently not. The obstruction was ignored, too.