DimmestStar

For some time now Rovers have been a big club off the pitch and getting bigger. The top businessmen in the area are all on board and Rovers are now competing for the very best players including marquee overseas talent. Owning the ground and attracting top events plus Craven Streat and numerous other revenue generating schemes have transformed the economic fortunes of the club. Of course it doesn't mean a lot to fans without success on the pitch but Rovers are building something that will last for years to come. The fans at Headingley were tremendous and really did make a difference. To outnumber a club like Wigan by 3 to 1 is amazing and the volume at the ground was ear splitting. The TV focussed on the East side of the ground but Rovers had many more in the South and North. I would also like to congratulate Leigh on deservedly reaching the final themselves. It seems that every new challenge comes the same to them and they have not been found wanting at any time. Beaumont is nothing if not a big personality and he is being rewarded for yes his money but also his ambition and determination. A lot is being made of this 'surprise' final but the current Super League table shows Leigh as the highest placed west of the Pennines and Rovers the highest placed east of the Pennines. It's going to be a fantastic day out for the Leigh and Rovers fans and if the semi finals are anything to go by it will be a thrilling game.

Wigan don't lose semi finals but there's always a first time. Rovers have Batchelor, Ryan, Schneider, Lewis, Linnett and Hall available which will help a lot but still without Abdull, Coote, Hadley, Sue and Wood. OK that's just 4 certain starters but for Rovers that's a big positive. Schneider looks an inspired replacement for Abdull and that's a reflection of the new financially secure Hull KR. Rovers are now approaching 10,000 ticket sales with Wigan struggling to surpass 2,500. There's going to be a massive advantage in support for Rovers but how much that will favour us I don't know. I've already booked our Wembley hotel .....albeit with a nil cost cancellation! Honestly the Wembley decider probably needs a Hull KR v Hull final to get something approaching a crowd of yesteryear.

Hull KR 40 + coaches and 3 times as many ticket sales as Wigan. Looking like maybe 7,000 Robins descending on Headingley. Ok Wigan might have the edge on the pitch...might not.. but surely in these days of IMG criteria Rovers should be in the final already?

8.000 paying customers which is why Pearson has cut next years budget by £500k.

Leigh on a winning run Salford on a losing run. Both have to end sometime.

Rovers have kept their season alive here. Second half Rhinos had massive possession and mostly in the Rovers 20 .Every six seemed to become 12 and sometimes 18. But Rovers kept them to just one score and took it to extra time. Extra time and it was Leeds under pressure and Rovers took advantage. Honestly if Jordan Abdull had been playing tonight in the wet conditions I don't think Leeds could have handled him. He won't be available for the semi final but Brad Schneider might just be a decent replacement.

Rovers have a massive semi final a week later and top 6 is now looking unlikely. The bookies have Leeds as big favourites, Rovers have two thirds of their first choice absent and Leeds are building up for a big finish. The bookies have Leeds at 1/9 understandably.

I take my 'punishment' of missing the next 6 Hull FC games.

Kendall is my least favourite referee and possibly I've shouted far worse abuse at him from the stands than Griffin did on the pitch. Especially when he was officiating a game involving his former club Huddersfield. But I'm just a fan and Griffin is a player. If Griffin had waited until, like me he was out of earshot he wouldn't be facing a 6 game ban.

SKY are the only multi million pound show in town and that's obvious and let's be fair they have been a good partner to our sport for a long time. C4 piggy back but pay little to nothing. SKY will pay no more than they think they need to and why would they? The idea that they will pay extra simply because IMG are on board is laughable. But it isn't just about there being no one else to out bid them. Clearly there isn't. But there are (I imagine) a 6 figure audience of subscribers paying high dollar who would quit if there was no Super League. I know I would Impossible to know how many exactly. Just how much SKY would lose if the entire rugby league audience deserted them is unclear. But it's a gamble for SKY just as it is for Rugby League.

Your words 'can't afford' and 'shoestring budget' tell a story.

Couple of weeks ago I visited the AJBell and the club 'shop' is a bench outside the burger van with a few scarves for sale. There's a most attractive shop but alas it's for Sale Sharks only and closed and in darkness on Salford match day.

The idea of a successful RL club in Cornwall is exciting. It can't happen and it won't happen unfortunately. Similar to trying out Stornoway or Lerwick. Not as potty as Ottawa but still potty.

Neville Costigan was born in Rabaul Papua New Guinea and has played international RL for just one country , Papua New Guinea. As everyone knows a holiday on the great barrier reef and you are eligible for Queensland! Blake Green was rubbished as another Hull KR rubbish overseas signing, 2 years later Wigan paid a 6 figure transfer fee and has now won a cup winners medal as has Scott Taylor a Hull KR product who Wigan also paid a big transfer fee for. We would have loved to have kept him but good luck to Scott now a HKR product challenge cup winner. Rovers despite not being the richest of clubs have paid transfer fees for English players Greg Eden and Adam Walker who have been outstanding and played regular first team which they would not have done otherwise. Liam Watts rejected at age 16 by Castleford was rescued from the scrapheap by Rovers and gained England Knights honours before moving to Hull FC again for a transfer fee.St Helens have now signed another HKR product Rich Beaumont who couldn't quite make first team at Rovers. Craig Hall a local talent not wanted by Hull FC signed by Rovers and done well. Alex Brown signed from lower league by Rovers and proved himself a worthy SL player. Josh Hodgson signed as a young kid from Hull FC who really should have kept hold.now a first team regular and England Knights player. Local youngsters Jordan Cox, Liam Salter (MoM v Leeds) James Green, Aaaron Ollett and Sonny Essolment playing important roles all making their debut in the last 2 seasons and out of area kids like Tyla Hepi & George Griffin playing big roles for Rovers this year. The fact is that you know sweet FA about Rovers. The relatively small overseas contingent at HKR is very important because Rovers make very good overseas signings they are key players. Hull FC this year have an all Australian half back pairing, an Australian ex Hull KR full back, an Australian ex Hull KR second row forward and a soon to be retired Australian prop. Next year they are recruiting another ex Hull KR foreigner. If that floats their boat no problem they are quite entitled but this anti Hull KR nonsense of yours just doesn't bear close examination.

Goldcoaster just likes to wind everyone up I feel. He surely must be if he wants everyone to think Costigan is Australian! Rovers have 13 Hull born players in the first team squad the highest number of local players of any team in Super League and didn't they do well against Leeds. The year on year reduction in overseas players kicks on at a pace with 6 overseas departures and only 3 signings for 2014. I'm sure he'd love us to replace Dobson with a kid from the U19's but even Wigan needed to pay a big transfer fee to sign Blake Green from us such is the dearth of quality British half backs.

I believe that if yourselves in the press had been part of the process you would probably have been enthused. Instead you are presented with the findings afterwards and out comes the negativity. For me the licensing system was brought into disrepute when a basket case like Crusaders almost had Wakefield sent into oblivion and we all know it WOULD have happened if Crusaders hadn't have pulled out of their own accord. Look at Wakefield now, 10,000 crowd last week what an utter disgrace it would have been for a club never once finishing bottom of Super League to make way for such a half baked alternative. Never again can we have the status of clubs decided by a few blokes in suits sat around a table it has be about performance on the pitch. With the multiple financial failures of Super League clubs under the licensing system something had to change. If your newspaper was losing money hand over fist and people on a forum said no we like things as they are I'm sure you'd have no choice but to ignore them. I think we have a brilliant and innovative solution to some of the games problems which importantly tries to address problems not just in Super League but across all divisions. Of course it will not be perfect and it will not please everyone but some of these people are still fantasising about SL clubs in places like Barcelona and would happily kick out a club with thousands of fans like Wakefield to accommodate them. Meanwhile there are people running and financing rugby league clubs who are actually the most important people in the game. They've hired professionals to come up with ideas and have chosen what they think to be the pick of options presented. Don't like it? Why not stump up a few million to relieve the owners of some of their burden then I expect you'll get a say too.

Neil Hudgell will stand down when and only when there is someone equally capable of taking over. He has stated this over and again and that he will not do anything that is not in the best interests of the club. The thing with Neil is that he is a fan who became chairman not a chairman who became a fan like Pearson & Koukash and I mean that as no criticism of those two. But unlike them he can never walk away it's a lifelong passion, a part of him, so he is never ever just going to leave the club in the lurch. That's why he sometimes wears his heart on his sleeve but there is no doubt his outburst earlier this season was a calculated attempt to attract new investment. He & fellow investor Rob Crossland had concluded that the decade of year on year growth they have presided over had levelled off and they couldn't take the club further on their own. New investors are now on board and the financing of the club for 2014 and beyond now secure. The new investors wanted Neil Hudgell to stay on as chairman and Rob Crossland as vice chairman, and with the financial burden now shared 4 ways Neil & Rob were delighted to agree. Discussions continue over historical debt (the debts secured by Hudgell & Crossland) but Neil says they are getting close on that too. Negotiations are still ongoing with other potential investors which may or may not come to fruition. The golf stand at the north end of our ground was often derided but at least it was a half decent facility with a view not needing binoculors. This year it has been a building site pending the opening of our new £8m North Stand. It 'should' have been open for the start of this season thus increasing the capacity of MS3CP significantly but instead ....the capacity was decreased. If you were NH or RC putting the fruits of everything you have ever achieved in your whole life into Hull Kingston Rovers that would be deflating and others don't give a fig about Hull KR and why should you but us Rovers fans really, really do. There's no way we're ever going to go away. There's about 8,000 people for whom Hull Kingston Rovers is the most important thing in their lives. Another 150,000 who say 'Rovers' when asked 'Rovers or Hull?' This magnificent city of Kings Town Upon Hull...obviously with 2 wonderful Rugby League clubs one has to be inferior and IMO it happens to be the club recently known as Hull FC but formerly Hull Sharks and before that HUll RLFC. But would I want this barcoded set of underachievers to disappeasr off the face of the Rugby League planet? Too right I WOULD. As they would us. Rugby League in its biggest stronghold ...Kings Town Upon Hull. I

Dobson, Paterson, O'Hara, Withers, Paea and Mika all leaving so that will be 6 foreigners out and 3 in. Welham, Cox, Salter are all decent Super League players and another Rovers product Scott Taylor was considered good enough by Wigan to pay a transfer fee for. Rovers have also been recruiting good young English players like Josh Hodgson,Greg Eden, Adam Walker and George Griffin. None of those players were getting much first team rugby before they came to Rovers now they are regular Super League players and the team is doing quite well in 6th place.

Rugby League undeservedly is a small sport. Outside of this small world of ours we have one or two names well known nationwide. These include the Rovers of Featherstone & Hull Kingston. Fabulous, unmistakeable brand names we can celebrate. Let's keep them both.