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Joran Schoenmaker can today be confirmed as North Wales Crusaders latest signing for 2023. The 23 year old Dutch international will be making the move to North Wales, becoming only the second Dutchman to play in the professional ranks following on from ex St Helens, Salford, Wigan and Leigh forward Tim Jonkers. Schoenmaker has been a standout in the Netherlands for a number of years, winning the 2018 NRLB with Amsterdam Cobras and more recently turning out for hometown club Zwolle Wolves. Schoenmaker has also seen success at international level, winning the 2021 European Championship D with Netherlands and being nominated for the IRL Golden Boot award in 2022. Upon signing for Cru, Schoenmaker said: “I’m really grateful for this opportunity to be playing for Crusaders. Being the only born and raised Dutch player competing at this level, I’m looking forward to representing the Netherlands and I’m looking forward to the experience and pushing for promotion.” Head Coach Carl Forster is pleased to be signing Schoenmaker for the upcoming season and commented: “Joran has really impressed us with his athleticism and willingness to succeed. He’s really keen to join up with the squad and he will be a good addition to the team.” Good luck Joran. https://rugbyleague.nl/schoenmaker-signs-for-crusaders/

Founded the club in 2004 and many of those kids are now open age players. Some have gone on to play in the pro/semi-pro ranks too. I relocated in 2011, so there has been significant spadework done since by some terrific folk to ensure that the pathways we worked hard to establish have been seen through. I am working on a similar project here in Nottinghamshire now. At Brentwood, I remember telling the kids they could play for London one day, and didn't quite believe it myself. That's the power of a strong junior setup. What I could have said, as has been born out since, was not only that, but The Challenge Cup, Super League, International RL and World Cup. Will I be able to say the same thing for Bassetlaw kids? Too right I will...

Still Amsterdam born and 100% Dutch even if he did play for Ireland due to RL at the time having such a small footprint. Anyway hopefully Joran is the start of over 20 years of small steps in development in the likes of the Netherlands Serbia Germany and other continental nations and others can follow.. Press release is trying to tie one young Dutch player who won everything in the UK .Championships Old Trafford Wembley with a new young breed...but typical RL lets find a negative in the story. Edit Tim and his brother Martyn who played for the Netherlands organised a fund raisers in St Helens for the Dutch 2008 World Cup qualifiers which allowed the games v Georgia Russia and Serbia to go a head in the first ever WC qualification tournament. Tim is respected. Oranje through and through

18 pages in, can safely say that the answer to the question in the thread title is "We can"

Sorry to disappoint you, but my surname isn't Livid.

Think this is a very astute signing as he will give us some nastiness in the pack. One more like him and we could do some damage this year

Chatting to an old rugby friend of mine we were obviously reminiscing about the good old days, and he mentioned the collection to buy Barry Kear from Castleford. At halftime six supporters carried an open sheet onto which other supporters threw their money. Could be wrong but from what I can remember he cost £6000 and the club sold him later for £9000! I still have the shares bought to support the club - to no avail it still went to the wall. I often think what Quinn is doing on his multi million pound stud farm in Ireland. The other half of B&Q, Oldham Rugby destroyers, still shows his face around the town.

Why? Because it doesn't fit your preconceived ideas? Yes there has always been immigration but on a very small scale and over a relatively short period of time eg. Jews escaping pogroms in eastern Europe, French Huguenots, etc. As Ireland was part of the UK can they be classed as immigrants? Anyhow, watch any old newsreels from the 1890s or so onwards - virtually everyone is white. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of people had lived here for generations. Yet according to current 'thinking' we have been a multi-cultural society since the dawn of time. Everything on tv tries to reinforce this - according to the tv ads every other family in Britain is mixed race. The actual reality is that until the 1950s immigration into Britain was very small scale and it is only since then that it has increased rapidly.

Viz letter

Yes, I’m sure Leeds, Wigan, Saints et al will be keen to pick up some fat lads who can’t be facked to get out of bed on matchday.

General apathy towards the Semi Pro clubs mainly as a result of the lack of on field success for the best part of 2 decades means that the floating supporters have largely died away leaving only the ever decreasing diehards. The clubs are no longer a focal point for the towns,from a rugby point they’ve been replaced by the successful local NCL clubs and there’s also a history of distrust between the semi pro & amateur camps. Rugby League in the county needs a strategy encompassing the whole game to take it forward but the RFL doesn’t seem to have the vision or appetite to come up with one so we are left with 2 clubs without a pot to pee in who are powerless to stop the slide.

That is happening everywhere, so relatively, it is as strong as it ever has been in the past 40/50 years. How RL fans in Cumbria are interacting with the game is changing. Poor semi pro sides playing out of poor facilities against teams that are going to whollop you and/or are full of no marks anyway might not be what the RL fans in the general populace want. If they had a decent ground up there, I could see Wigan taking a home game there during the summer pitch relaying and getting 10x the average crowds of Workington and Whitehaven. By all reports, attendances at amateur clubs are more than healthy.

Here's my sole rule in these situations. Is the article written by Callum Walker? If so, ignore and move on.

We are always quoted as being in for most players, i don't believe anything till its confirmed by Rovers.

On a personal level, it is absolutely brilliant to see Brentwood Eels in there for the first time.

Same places - just a lot less distractions back then and no Premier league soccer on all weekend in the pub I'm afraid.

No it isn’t,not losing every week will certainly help though.

The solution is for every club to win, every week. Good luck arranging that.

Yes this is an opportunity for Rugby League in Wales. Young men are just not excited by the turgid (eton-wall game) mud-bath which is modern day RaRa. Even their best players struggle to entertain the crowds (see John Devereux's recent comments). The opportunity, for Rugby League lies in providing those capable, with a much faster, much more enjoyable game which encourages them to run and carry the ball as often as they can. Putting on amateur games in Wales, is making it patently obvious to any passers-by, that our game is vastly superior, so we should press on and keep encouraging these poor disenchanted lads, to get on board with the greatest game of all.

Shows if the club is successful then they may get a crowd following them. 800 to 3000 is a big jump. Chicken and egg...clubs need supporters to pay.......supporters need a club to deliver results !! 20 quid a time when your getting beat week in week out is maybe better spent on the family in the current climate. Father mother and two kids is 50 /60 quid a shot. Directors of the clubs have to provide an on and off field experience to attract supporters . But lets blame the fans. If they dont feel they are getting value for money its like any other entertainment business...they wont attend . The RFL has a lot to answer for for letting the game go to the way it is being run at the moment.

Full list of attendances for Knights home league matches in 2022: Featherstone 3602 Dewsbury 1562 Leigh 2069 Widnes 2156 Newcastle 1445 Whitehaven 1449 Halifax 2056 London 1572 Barrow 1686 Batley 2158 Bradford 1958 Sheffield 1598 Workington 2484 Looking through all the clubs, there’s some shocking crowds - Newcastle and Sheffield both posting 300 ish crowds.

Yet for some clubs owning your own ground is the be all and end all. It’s a double edged sword at best IMO.

The RFL should hang it's head in shame at its lack of support for Cumberland/Cumbria over the past four decades. The sport is on its ar&e in the county. You can now find more Cumbrians at top level union and soccer than RL.

Why? We have done very little to sell our international game. And pretty much nothing to sell the likes of Lebanon, Jamaica, Cooks etc. It's the most arrogant thing we've ever done to just stage what was not far off a standalone series of random games with little build up and stick the price tags we have done. There is a fair argument that the attendances were exceptionally strong considering the absolutely amateur way we scheduled, staged, priced and sold the games. We can't just keep sticking some games on every few years and expect fans to turn out in numbers. We have to actually put then effort in.

It really isn’t. Attendances are healthy at NCLderby games & two or three occasionally get crowds in three figures for other games but the amateur game outside a handful of clubs is in a poor state. Wigan getting a 9-10k crowd in West Cumbria would require them to a huge contingent of their own fans.

I've seen it written wrong in toilets too John ...you must be livid

Yet another Callum Walker 'exclusive'.

Rugby league has long had a demographic challenge, but I was shocked when I looked up the latest census figures for Copeland. At a time of record population across England, Copeland's fell by 5% over the last decade alone - the biggest decline of any local authority in England. Furthermore, the number of 15-24 year olds in Copeland has fallen by about 15% since 2011. This means for a semi pro team mostly relying on local players, the pool of young men available to develop into rugby league players has collapsed. This is like running up a down escalator demographically, so I'm not inclined to point the finger too hard at any party for Whitehaven's struggles, whether that be the club, fans or even the RFL. (As a side point, to show it's not all doom and gloom for RL, Salford had the biggest population growth of anywhere in the north in the last decade, up nearly 16%, so there it really is a question of why haven't we taken advantage of that)

Amended. Too many mince pies the night before.

Workington are currently supposedly still getting a new one, though much reduced in design and scale to the original plan. Whether that ever actually gets built is at best 50/50 at the moment.

So, back in the heydays of RL in the area, where did those fans come from? (A genuine question.)

Albert Kelly to the Bulls to help with their promotion push? Our excitable TRL reporter seems to think it could be a possibility.

Fair enough, was just quoting what I read, which was clearly wrong.

No, it’s not an opportunity.

Only SL Rugby at Leigh Sports Village Frisky

So if you are to idle to look for yourself John here it is, all the avid fans got an e-mail advising them of the situation, the present shirt sponsers PPS design and Build stood aside and sponsored the training kits at the same value they were doing the playing kits at such was the value of Homes Togethers offer at 6 figures per year for 2 years. Read on........ Leigh Leopards have confirmed that Homes Together Ltd have agreed a two-year main shirt sponsorship, which will be the highest sponsorship deal ever in the Club history. Homes Together Ltd, who sponsored Blake Ferguson during the 2022 season, specialise in providing residential care for young adults with learning and physical disabilities, autism and visual impairments. Homes Together’s owner Steve Jones said: “As a lifelong Leigh supporter, nothing gave me greater pride last season than seeing the club promoted into the Super League. Having been born and bred within half-a-mile of Hilton Park, Leigh Rugby has always been my biggest sporting passion. Seeing them not just promoted last season but the manner of it reminded me of the heady days of Murphy, Woods and Martyn. I had wondered for some time how we might support the club and having spoken to Derek and been impressed by his infectious enthusiasm and passion and a synergy was born. We came up with a shirt sponsorship idea that fits perfectly with the innovations that he is injecting. < > “Linking a rugby team which embodies skill, strength, speed and toughness with an organisation that deals with people with physical and learning difficulties is, we feel, ground-breaking and hopefully helps to change perceptions of disability. This is the start of an incredible partnership which I am eager to see unfold.” David Ashton-Jones, Managing Director from Homes Together said: “We are proud of the new partnership between Leigh Leopards and Homes Together. “Watching Leigh throw the instruction book out of the window and make a positive statement towards their future ambitions, has similarities with our own intent in pushing the message of strength and positivity around disability. What better way to do that than to sponsor a team in such a powerful sport as Rugby League and a team that has been close to our hearts for a very long time. Whilst the business is based in Harrogate, Leigh has a special place in our hearts, and we are determined to help this rugby club and the town in any way we can. “The next chapter is extremely exciting!” Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont revealed the back story to this record-breaking sponsorship, which followed Thursday’s successful rebrand launch, and emphasised the importance of sponsor relationships with the Leigh board, office staff and the club’s general manager, Karen Roberts. Mr Beaumont said: “To walk out of the presentation to my box in the stadium, where we were based, and see Karen anxious to talk to me about a proposition she had received to be on the front of the shirt was a shock. “You won’t believe this!” Karen exclaimed. She was so excited and rightly so. “Homes Together want to be on the front of the shirt, they love it so much, and the whole rebrand

Heritage police out in force again.

I had no idea and wasn't arguing with you about it, I genuinely didn't know. That is a genuinely unbelievable statistic. In fact, it's pretty mind-blowing and would support some sort of conspiracy theory out there. By this I mean, we've been told repeatedly about how Britain has always been a "mongrel nation" powered by immigration. If this is the case then that patently isn't true and to be honest, I'm reeling from the implications that it holds.

Crowds are now on the Wikipedia page for the 2022 championship season. I have a vague recollection of someone saying every attendance is in the end of year Rothman guide so looks like someone has kindly added them. The average for the season for York is indeed 1984.

Hunslet Squad Numbers 1. Jimmy Watson 2. Jack Render 3. Adam Ryder 4. Joe Burton 5. Kieron Lawton 6. Jake Sweeting 7. Nathan Conroy 8. Harvey Hallas 9. Sam Hallas 10. Steve Crossley 11. Josh Jordan Roberts 12. Aaron York 13. Michael Knowles 14. Daniel Barcoe 15. Nathan Newbound 17. Lewis Wray Numbers Unknown as yet. Brad Wheeler , Tyler Walton , Sam Croston, Dan Mc Grath , Morgan Punchard, Jordan Bull, Peter Ryan, Nico Rizelli. Jamie Greenwood, Fraser Stroud, Liam Carr, Jordan Syme, and Harvey Whiteley.

Well that was refreshing - it was lovely to get out and feel the wind in my hair! Thought it was a decent game. Unlike others on here, I thought out defence in the first half was OK. We would always accept a 6 point deficit to any team playing up the slope. Second half we got into it a bit more and generally thought there was only going to be one winner. Positives - McGowan, Hirst, Woods, Meadows and Morton. The attendance and the positivity from those who I spoke to about the club admission pricing initiative for next season. Thought Dewsbury were decent too, well coached and seemed to be a bit further along than us in on field organization. Negatives - We seemed to lack a bit of pace on the wings which Dewsbury exposed a couple of times, especially with the try they scored with the kick upfield from their own half. Still it all amounts to nothing other than bragging rights. I hope our dear friends from across the valley will be able to assuage their disappointment with the result with the knowledge that the attendance was announced. Happy New Year!

Eh? We're talking about online streaming......

Provide accommodation and activities for those with various disabilities - they seem to be expanding rapidly and are owned by a BIG Leigh fan - who has witnessed first hand the work the club has been/is doing supporting similar disabilities locally. I wish the club shouted more about what it does for our local community, especially those dealt a challenging card in life.

Yet 18 months ago nearly 3000 turned up at Derwent Park to watch Town in a league ONE play off final.. Guess you dont know much about West Cumbria !!! Yes times are struggling but dont knock what you dont know eh ! I have played at Central Park with under 2000 in attendance ...did you shout for Wigan to then merge with Leigh who where top dogs at the time. More areas than West Cumbria are at this moment in a bad situation and I reckon Town or Haven wont be the first ..sorry second after WWR... to go under.

Just fell short of a Cas team that cheated the salary cap but were let off with a STERN talking to from the RFL,that Leigh final was some game mind.

They'll regret it, according to a recent show Gale is the Tom Brady/Tiger Woods of Championship rugby league and fans will be flocking to grounds to catch a glimpse of him in action this season.

Didn’t they rule that bovril should be served instead of Gin and Tonic.

Lock them in place, bring the FFRXIII to the table properly as partners not hangers on. Build from there.