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Fantastic news from the club today! Our Challenge Cup 5th round tie against Sheffield Eagles will be played at Eirias Park, Colwyn Bay on Saturday, 12th March at 13:30. Booked the day off within 5 minutes of hearing the news! Full details on the club website. https://northwalescrusaders.com/2022/03/02/details-confirmed-for-crusaders-challenge-cup-tie-with-sheffield/

More experience in the middle this year and a bigger pack (Trae OSullivan and Russ Spiers have been added) . Experienced players in the halfs (Benn Hardcastle and Dave Scott) and retained most of our squad and also the coaching team from last year. Have also added some very good young players. A number of teams above us have also strengthened but I'm fairly confident we'll be a match for many teams in the league

Let's try and help Ken Davy out... "We will be bringing together every element of the game into one" can be true "We will be dividing every element of the game into three parts" can be true We will be bringing together every element of the game into three parts" isn't a sentence that can be true

Reminds me of some of the 'great' ideas a couple of companies I've worked for came up with shortly before becoming no longer with us....

Hopefully more barrow fans turn up and town bring plenty and we show the RFL that rugby league in Cumbria is still a rugby league hot bed and maybe put some effort in up here.

Can safely say most havenfans are very happy with the draw it’s always a good game v the knights and hopefully and top game this weekend.

They'd keep a team each in elite, players not playing for the Cathares can drop back to their club of origin, it could work as a lot of young aude players are good enough for elite but not good enough to play in the best 3 teams in the elite so would be able to stay at their club and play elite instead of drifting down the divisions and often disappearing from the game., the level may drop in elite but the games will be tighter and another opening for the talented players to play a higher level, I think they want to go directly into the championship so they'd get more funding from the region as they'd expect more traveling supporters from the UK, I think it's the only way forward as the elite league is good to watch but not attracting people into the stadium or interest as most prefer to watch the super League, just look at the Catalan team, their reserve team gets hardly any fans in the stadium even though there's often a very good game and super League squad players in the team.

5th march 14.15

Whatever happens with the Raiders I am sure Ash Bateman will put his heart and soul into the job. I have seen him play at centre,stand off,hooker and in the back row for the Raiders and never gave less than 100%. Good luck to him.

dedicating $500k from that budget to go to a relief fund for community clubs in NSW and Qld that have been affected by the floods. Great story in terrible times https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-02/nrl-creates-flood-relief-fund-for-nsw-qld-grassroots-clubs/100876430

They separated to maximise commercial opportunities, now they realign to maximise commercial opportunities.

If that’s it I’d rather stay where we are . The scope for developing DP is greater

Ellis came on loan to SRD at the latter end of last season. It has to be said he impressed us with his workrate and defence. He is a Salford supporter so he was very passionate about getting his first try for us. There was a thought he might have been with the Reds this season, but it appears not so. Best of luck for him and yes maybe a year in France will take his career up another step.

A new modern grandstand is a start. If its this or nothing.... I'd still chose this. So long as it is built with a function room/bar that is actually befitting of hosting events other than on matchdays and a decent standard of facilities to attract matchday sponsors, it's better than bot clubs continuing how they are.

You do realise we are talking about a Workington stadium Billy, you seem a bit over concerned about it.

So. it sounds like your position is this: It's ok for people not to own their own home(rent or mortgage). It's ok for the majority of shops and factories not to be owned by their proprietors. Its ok for upwards of 70 % of new cars not to be owned by finance companies etc. Its ok for most offices not to be owned by their occupiers. Its ok for most companies not to own their own plant and equipment. Its ok for most transport companies not to own their own vehicles. Its ok for most shipping companies not to own their own vessels. Its ok for govt buildings not to be owned by the govt (acting for us.) However, it's NOT ok for SL clubs not to own their own stadiums.

That's a lot of eyes. Even more so when you consider how many of those viewers will have been Widnes fans.

So the new stadium is a new grandstand at bp and a plastic pitch?. And dp has to be sold to fund it? What a joke if this is correct

Leigh v Widnes 85,000 average and 105,000 peak, according to Premier's marketing boss.

On Premier for first game, should make a big deal of it and hopefully if Widnes are still doing well they will bring a few. Not the worst outcome.

That’s pipe dream stuff, it simply isn’t going to happen. We need to focus on making 1 professional European league (Super League) as strong as we possibly can. Another pro French club with feeder sides playing in Elite 1 would help achieve that imo.

Just read an article from Mr Jenkinson on consituency matters and he's looking forward to a new stadium which has got £5.5 million pounds allotted to it out of the £15.5 million for town generation! For that cash we might as well stay at DP which at the moment is looking really good on the eye. Pitch superb, terracing excellent, floodlighting top of the range. I don't know the cost for the upkeep of DP but got to be some businesses out there could help out. I reckon for the money available we won't be calling any stand "grand".

Yeah, people seem to forget that we sign NRL players at potentially 10x the rate that go the other way. In fact , if swapped out all the former NRL players playing in SL for the English players playing the NRL, the nett result would be a far, far worse standard of SL. It would actually be devastating to the game over here. Let’s look at 2021: SL developed players to NRL: Oliver Gildart NRL developed players to SL: David Fusitua, Dylan Napa, Mitchell Pearce, Kane Evans, Will Hopoate, Curtis Sironen, Joey Lussick, Patrick Mago, Cade Cust, Tyrone May, Kaide Ellis, Brodie Croft, Tim Lafai, Mitch Dunn, Danny Levi etc (I’m sure I’ve missed a few). Plus Championship: Joseph Leluia, Nene McDonald etc SL and English rugby league take advantage of poaching NRL players far more than the other way round.

They should give out branded ponchos as well like what you get at Mingo Land for the log flumes.

I think this idea of a talent drain to the NRL is a little overstated. We have had a pretty consistent number of Brits in the NRL in the over the last decade or so and the only players we have lost recently before they have really established themselves as Super League players are Bailey Hodgson, Harry Rushton and Dom Young so three youngsters... and arguably Herbie Farnworth although he didn't come through the English development system in the same way. It hardly feels like panic time just yet.

When the fixtures came out all I could see was 1 win in 4 which exactly what we’ve got,and against clubs that have spent considerably more money than us.Apart from the Bradford game,which we were shocking the other 3 games the efforts been there it’s just the quality we are lacking. So this week we are back in league action and Whitehaven away,we’ll see where we are after that game. Think we’ll see quite a few changes,players coming back from injuries and players coming in on loan to hopefully give us that bit of quality we are lacking.

Well another trip to Cumbria and hopefully a stronger team and a better performance. Not expecting a win, a Whitehaven had a morale-boosting 60-0 win at Doncaster last week, but a strong performance will put us in a good place for Newcastle next week.

Sounds good! https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12204/12555405/super-league-and-rugby-football-league-rfl-set-to-realign-in-major-change-for-rugby-league-governance

No. Free to air via their YouTube channel.

Bradford 18-22 Batley Featherstone 42-18 Halifax Leigh 46-6 Newcastle London Broncos 12-26 York Whitehaven 17-16 Dewsbury workington 12-16 Sheffield

I've genuinely forgotten - how much did Premier pay for the Championship rights in the end? There was a figure given, wasn't there?

Keeping saying it and the records got stuck so I’ll say it again. It ain’t the results that are killing me it’s the style of rugby we are playing.

....I cant be arsed anymore. Its like some of you choose to not bother reading the information, or wilfully write utter garbage.

There will be no management company as such,just a board consisting of representatives from both clubs so profits will be going directly back to the clubs. Even though I have initial reservations of how the design might be the positives will easily outweigh the negatives, less maintenance, halfing of all bills, hire of synthetic pitch and more chance to increase corporate sponsorship packages, it is the clubs that are driving this and there is absolutely zero money available for town to go it alone and stay put. There is also the community aspect this project hopefully will expand the club more ,helping develop juniors and women's teams. It is going to be a massive challenge for all involved and needs the support of all sports minded people

"It is fantastic news for the whole game of Rugby League, from the elite level of Super League right down to the community game," Super League chairman Ken Davy told Sky Sports News. “What it means is that for the first time, we will be bringing together every element of the game into three parts” Fabulous stuff, what successful sport doesn’t organise its National governance into three parts.

Hopefully getting more French sides into SL/Championship might encourage investors to get involved in places like Lyon etc

Reading those minutes very quickly it does appear as though the removal of and building a new grandstand at Borough Park together with the laying of a new artificial pitch will cost 6.5 million. Any other work will only commence once funding has been found. The stadium will be operated by a sports village company, essentially directors from Town and Reds with independent directors as well. It looks as though the proposal is to grant a long term lease to the sports village company for both borough park and Lonsdale park in return for which we would have to surrender our existing lease on Derwent Park. It doesn’t sound like there’s any financial recompense for that. I’m all for a new stadium but if the funding isn’t there now to do it properly is it going to be there in the future? Is what we will be getting worth the gamble of possible future funding? Not too sure that this is what I was expecting but hopefully the club can deal with it in the correct way.

The only way it is possible is by building enough French clubs up to Super League so that eventually they can start a conference of their own and ultimately a Pro-League from that. Imo that would need at least 6 pro teams

Sheffield City Council met yesterday and want to see more safety measures introduced before a final inspection.Football and Pop Concerts are included under the licence so every aspect has to be considered.Eagles have a 5 year agreement to play there.

The 15th of April,this very year. Home game,and victory,over London Broncos. It is just a new main stand...

Never say never. I am not saying it is going to happen tomorrow either. But it should be their long-term goal.

yep agree totally. this thread is a mix of "why did so few people turn up?" and "if its sunny wear sunglasses". the 'leisure pound' is a thing we have to fight hard for. a take it or leave it attitude from those in high places will result in people leaving it. things such as cost of parking, cant pay cash at the turnstile, gettin wet when it rains, no shelter from the wind, cant see the match when the suns out, jobsworth stewarding... all affect attendance.

Serbia has so much potential.

Just had a look at the clip, there`s definitely a bit of the Turbo Tommy Trbojevic in that powerful running style and the way he pulls through the line in some of those runs. It`s interesting because the way he moves his arms and shoulders when being tackled is very similar to Tommy. Good luck getting him a run, let us know if anything works out.

Check your facts. You obviously have no idea what you are on about. William Webb Ellis started the game of rugby when he picked up the ball and ran with it during a football game at rugby school. He was later expelled for running a tobacconist business on school premises and had to go to some deadbeat comprehensive school in Huddersfield where he tried to get pupils there interested in his rugby game. The local boys were not interested in the slightest and he could not find enough pupils to create a rugby team. Instead, the ever inventive Webb Ellis decided to play with only 13 players. His new school team regularly battered the likes of Eton and Harrow despite only having 13 boys who were able to play, and so were told that they were no longer welcome on the fixture list. As a result, the Huddersfield headmaster asked around some local schools in Yorkshire, and despite limited interest, a few schools banded together to form a local league. The headmaster of one of these schools (in Leeds) was actually Adrian Morley's great grandfather, but he missed the train to the first meeting of the league committee, so they told him that his school couldn't play in their league. It is only because of William Webb Ellis, the father of the 13 man game, that Rugby League exists.

Apparently Leon set the meeting up at Blackpool Beach.....

Did anyone watch the draw? The bag wasn't shook and was left gaping open for all Brown to see what was inside. He even looked down into it with each pick. Looked like it was organised by the Kremlin.

But if he had been with your lot he probably would have Jack'd it all in a lot earlier. See what i did there bsj.

Ash has been involved in rugby league down here for a very-long time. I think he made 1 or 2 Super League appearances at a very young age. He’s long been part of the ‘leadership group’ in recent years and has likely had a say in many sessions under Phil Carlton, Kim Williams and Aaron Wood. He’s a rookie to leading it however and it will be a steep learning curve for him. Heres the positive… he knows every rugby league player down here, disillusioned or not, he also knows a fair few union boys and has doubled the numbers at training because of his connections. These boys will play for Ash. P.S He’s Allan Bateman’s son I believe

It is easy for someone in the North of England to say there is no interest here in Wales. Welsh sport is always being run on a tight budget and has to punch above its weight to get recognition. As we have seen, when suitable resources and political conditions allow, certain sports can thrive, Welsh football was in a terrible state in the mid 80s to early 2000s, no separate organised league system till 1993, international side a joke, Cardiff/Swansea/Wrexham scrapping between themselves in the bottom division, Newport went bust and started again etc... WRL will rise again.