Wakefield Ram

So what part of IMG strategy will generate new supporters?

Exactly that, where is the strategy to generate new supporters?

Think every team will be wanting to avoid the 1895 Cup winners Wakefield until the final.

I think that's exactly what's needed a Chief Executive sort of person to pull everything together. Like you say lots of good things are done, just never get publicised.

Having worked with many consultancies, IMGs only objective is to make money for themselves. RL is just another client on their books. If they can't make a return for themselves, RL will get dropped and whatever mess they leave behind or clubs which have gone to the wall won't matter. The last "Strategic Partnership" I encountered in the world of work ended in the client suing the consultancy. The 12 year contract will have break clauses in both sides. IMG have just re-hashed licencing with different scoring. Other than that, what exactly have they done? In what way has the sport been re-imagined?

It is difficult to know what to say. MS has given many hundreds of thousands to keep the club afloat. He could donate another couple of hundred thousand and we might make the play-offs. As someone rightly pointed out, some clubs have spent a fortune and are still in the same league as us. This season again it seems some clubs are going for broke to get into SL. What happens if they don't is another question. We will never be in SL and unless we find a Derek Beaumont willing to put £millions in over 4-5 years to build a club and support hard to see anything changing. We will be bottom 3 this season. It will depend on a few key fixtures whether we stay up or not.

Not sure there's many options to experiment with short of Ferguson putting his boots on again.

So if the first offence is a ball steal and the player retaliates by punching you penalise the punch.

It'd be safe to say you will win the 1895 Cup at a canter. I'd get your Wembley tickets sorted as soon as they come out.

Thanks to whoever sorted the ridge/pothole in the car park. The old car appreciated it.

Well done Batley.

Well definitely a game of two halves. In the first half, we let Bradford play the ball quickly so we were always on the back foot, whilst Bradford slowed our PTBs down. Given the referee seemed happy to allow constant holding down, we should have started holding down much earlier. And he seemed happy with Bradford players walking forward off the mark. We were outgunned in size down the middle and Gaskell is still a quality player. But showed some steel in the 2nd half. Think it would be fair to say the referee gave the rub of the green to Bradford. Didn't spot holding down or offside from Bradford till last minute. And baffled how Flanagan got a yellow card and Bradford got the penalty. The most serious offence gets the penalty. Also baffled in 2nd half when we got midfield penalties we didn't look to get some yards by kicking to touch. If we can produce two halves like 2nd, we could have a chance this season of staying up.

Think it'll be nearer the end, I'll go 65th minute

Who knows what to expect? Friendlies gave some hope but Keighley quashed that. Let's hope for a competitive performance and attack down Ben Blackmore's wing if he's playing.

Can't see it making any difference really. You'll probably top 100 points for 3 games on the trot which will no doubt be a record. With £1m+ playing budget and full-time you should be winning league games by 40-60 points as Leigh did in similar circumstances. The only possible banana skin is Toulouse in the GF.

The question is whether it will motivate/de-motivate the players. That's your job as a coach, man management. I remember Neil Kelly saying he wasn't a great technical coach but was a very good man manager As a coach you are just as responsible as the players. Blaming your players is guaranteed to create a bad atmosphere and that's no good for anyone. Before blaming anyone else, look in the mirror first. The question is whether that was good man management?

We can't afford to be a man down regularly this season.

Should get a decent crowd and who knows either a morale-boosting win or an extra weekends rest to save ourselves for the league....

As a Dewsbury fan enjoyed a couple of trips to Newcastle, good stadium, great fans, really hope they make a good go of it.

Who'd have guessed it......

Family commitments made me miss it. T h I was expecting a fairly close win/loss. I'm not sure playing full-time Huddersfield team and getting battered is a good idea week before season starts. And I agree with some comments on Jaymes Chapman's response. I remember a saying that coaches should react the opposite way to fans, not get too excited when they win and boost the team up when they lose. The teams performance is as much down to the coaches as the players. That we've got very inexperienced coaches at Championship level was another risk. We will see what Sunday brings against Bradford, the displays against Batley, Fev and Huddersfield were decent, so maybe it was a one off. We will see.

It's not a competition. I was referring to the drinking culture.

There are plenty of sports which don't have drinking cultures like athletics, swimming where margins between winning and losing can be tiny. Any player who thinks excessive drinking doesn't affect his performance is kidding himself. Drugs are even more risky if taken long term. Young players coming into a team will be more open to influence from older team mates. Most pro or semi-pro players make a lot of sacrifices for not very much money. Culture will always trump whatever education programmes and young players will be more easily influenced by older players. But the clubs and coaches desire to win short term will trump player welfare or culture.

Worrying times for Halifax. Can't think anyone would want to buy a stadium other than to nick it down for housing.

Some nice tries from Rams, the last Fev try looks dubious.