OMEGA

I think Jonah Lomu was more like Manu Vatuvai than Lesley Vainikolo

RIP Masada

A few years ago Belle Vue was illegally oversized and was shortened a few metres. Up to then it was the widest and longest Professional Rugby League pitch & when maintained properly its the best as well. I was having a friendly pop at Cas

When the East Stand is completed, if it’s as the proposed plans now with WMDCs Planning Dept, then Belle Vue will be far far better than Wheldon Rd. There will be properly tarmacked on site car parking purpose built bars and food outlets Multiple, brand new, well kept toilet/baby change facilities New ticketing office & outlet huge pre match hospitality areas brand new seating with excellent unobstructed views brand new changing rooms and player/officials facilities up to date physio & Medical rooms Players gymnasium & indoor warm up areas The new North terracing will be completely brand new and will have the most up to date crush bars. There will be new up to date computerised turnstiles on both the East & West sides of the ground. The South side Hospitality boxes will still provide Executive longes, Hospitality boxes, supporters bars, food outlets, toilet facilities and some of the best views of a match anywhere in the game. The Cats Bar will also be revamped to provide a huge retailing area, more toilets, more bars and family areas. To top it off the pitch will be new and crucially ‘full sized’

I wouldn’t put a penny on the validly of RFL participation figures being correct Ive worked within multiple youth set ups, schools and the amateur game for decades and will trust the veracity of my own eyes and experiences over massaged figures designed to impress Sport England Fund underwriters. Ill give you one absolutely true example of how these numbers are counted. One 14 year old player: plays for his school team, local amateur team, in a Pro Scholarship and sometimes plays in a touch n pass League with his dad. He counted 4X on the participation numbers. Repeat that to one extent or another for hundreds if not the low thousands of lads doing similar. The same for girls and masters who also play T&P. Sometimes trying to see the positives in everything and denying the evidence in front of your eyes can be the absolute worst thing to do. We need to recognise the issues we have as a game and take some pretty immediate and meaningful actions to arrest the slide.

100% correct! Carter & Brereton didn’t & subsequently Carter on his own doesn’t maintain the facilities to anywhere near the standard as the previous owner & CEO, Glover & Elston. I know for a fact that between the hospitality block, the pitch maintenance and the upkeep of the stadium infrastructure, Glover spent around £200k to £250k a year. That’s a figure every year just to stand still! Factor in, on top of that the rent to Bank of Ireland of around £100k a year and that’s a huge chunk of revenue every year to play out of an antiquated stadium that consistently throws up challenges and is derided by everyone who experiences it. why wouldn’t Wakefield Trinity be seriously trying to obtain newer more cost effective facilities

There are no rumours! The plans lodged with Wakefield planning department are very detailed and under no one’s judgement could they be dismissed as ‘a few sketches’ unless they had a prejudice. I am as skeptical as they come and I’m certainly not a rose tinted blind, follower of those who run Trinity yet I fully expect this development to happen.

Barry Todd Coaches were often used by Trinity teams in the 80s & 90s. Wonderful bloke RIP

Let’s be totally honest then! The sports with whom we compete closest may have declining participation but they start from a level of participation which dwarfs ours and they’re not at the critically low level that Rugby Leagues at. Also they are immeasurably stronger and richer in other areas of their sport. The new magazine programme was welcome but it wasn’t on a par with those of other sports not even past programmes that Rugby League once enjoyed. NRL coverage was at a high because the Super League was put on hold, as soon as we started playing games again the NRL coverage was pared back to almost nothing. The 2019 Lions Tour was I’ll conceived and thrown together but I admit prior to the Tour I was excited to see a Lions Tour again. The experience of it didn’t live up to the expectation largely due to the ramshackle way it was thrown together and the disrespect shown by some toward the Lions traditions. The fact that I and so many were excited to see a tour surely shows that they are something we sorely need back on a regular calendar. I really hope we can get regular 4 yearly Tours by the big 3 back on the Rugby League agenda. I’d love to see some club games as part of those tours though I recognise 13 or 14 games is a thing of the past but who could forget the unofficial 4th Test Vs Wigan and the amazing spectacles of Leeds, St Helens & Hull giving it to the Ausie midweek team. Likewise getting up at 5am to watch Great Britain take on Manly, St George and Parramatta. Im glad to hear that Bet Fred are paying more for their sponsorship, let’s hope we can get the CC, Test matches and the lower divisions sponsored again. Ive become the profit of doom in this thread which is far from my usual position.

I’m not advocating anyone being thrown out, I said if Wakefield improve and modernise their stadium then Castleford might find themselves under added pressure. This could be especially so if the RFL & SL decide that the outward image of the sport needs to look more vibrant and modern to the casual sports fan. To be honest though, we’ve used ‘other metrics’ to justify a teams continued inclusion for as long as I can remember and it isn’t achieving the results we desire. I’d love for us to be in a stronger position as a sport and for promotion & relegation to be the only deciding factor in who plays in what league. Unfortunately the world has changed and we are competing in a sport/business that is ruthless. The strong will survive and the weak will fade into oblivion, that’s Rugby Leagues fate if we don’t find a way to arrest the decline. I’m straying away from the OPs intended message, I apologise for that but this is one natural line of discussion when talking about new stadiums, Castleford, Wakefield and the health of the game.

I’m not desperate anything! The game is shrinking at an alarming rate and it was long before Covid-19s effect. We've lost huge numbers of amateur teams and in some cases whole amateur clubs have disappeared. The latest Sport England participation numbers were dire and well down on 10 to 15 years ago. Viewing figure have fallen drastically over the same period of time and with that fall we’ve lost coverage and magazine shows like SL Extra Time, Boot n All, Championship coverage has pretty much disappeared and NRL coverage is well down. We can’t attract headline sponsors for our Top Tier Competition and have basically given Rights away. The international game has all but vanished apart from the World Cup! We no longer have Full Lions/Kangaroo/ Kiwi Tours, we no longer have Tri Nations competitions and we have to beg The NRL to play the WCC every year. Now believe it or not I’m not a doom monger and I’m not ringing the bell for the demise of the game but the above are all facts and we can’t afford to ignore the direction of travel the games been following for well over a decade. Something has to change and it needs to be something big and meaningful that will reinvigorate the game and help it arrest the decline.

With no disrespect to Oldham, Championship 1 or even The Championship they aren’t the face of Rugby League that we present to the world at large on a weekly basis. Its just my opinion but driven by the falling participation numbers and viewing figures I think the RFL and broadcast partners will realise they need to make big changes and be ruthless! A rebrand is needed across the game but in particular through the top tier clubs and both the BBC & SKY presentation of the game. I don’t think late 19th and very early 20th century dilapidated stadiums will fit the rebrand.

At some point in the future, not sure if it’ll be sooner or later, the RFL and Super League will grow some testicles and get serious about stadium standards. When they do the clubs that can’t match their requirements will be served a notice of demotion which will allow them a short period of time to complete the necessary building work or prepare for the Championship. Currently that would mean Wakefield Trinity closely followed by Castleford Tigers, however, if Wakefield complete the improvements currently under planning review then Castleford may well find themselves on a fast track out of SL. Why a fast track? One of SLs conundrums with Wakefield and Castleford is they have by far the worst stadiums but they have arguably the richest catchment area for talent and youth development in the whole game. If you removed both from SL then you risk shrinking the talent base for young players as there is no top tier club to isnpire the kids to pick up a rugby ball, no local community work and no local heroes who went to their school or lived at the end of their Road. If (IF) Wakefield (or Castleford for that matter) build a stadium that’s fit for purpose then they solve that conundrum for the RFL & SL leaving the other WMDC SL club under more pressure as the game tries to improve its media image. It was a fact not lost on former Wakefield Council leader Peter Box who blocked, schemed and prevaricated over all of Wakefield Trinity’s stadium plans at every opportunity! For those who do not know Box was/is a Tigers fan and shareholder.

Trevor Woodward was completely correct back in the late 70s to early 80s when he said a new ground at the yet to be developed land around what is now Pugneys. Unfortunately and like many clubs at the time, Trinity were a members club run by a committee of small time business men with limited imagination and ambition. They rejected Woodward’s proposal and diminished him in the eyes of the members so much so that he lost the Chairmanship and not long after had nothing to do with Trinity. If his vision had come to fruition, Wakefield Trinity would have emerged as one of the giants of the game. Wakefield would have had facilities as good as anyone, they’d have been attractive to new signings, the best juniors, sponsors, advertisers and hospitality. The location would have been accessible being straight off M1 junction 39 and just 2 miles south of the M62/M1 intersection. Better facilities and improved accessibility would have seen greater numbers of home and away fans, all money flowing into the coffers of Wakefield Trinity. Instead we’ve had Scaif, Ingram, Richardson, Pearman ect as Chairmen and we’ve played out of an uninviting dump that attracts no one but especially not big sponsors or advertisers. 40 years of missed opportunity and who knows how many finals etc. Sliding doors eh?

I think he’s a lump of wood of dubious character who benefited from the players around him who often carried him and bailed him out! Bottled & punched a nightclub Security man Slept with his Chelsea & England team mates wife Caught in a Sports Betting Scandal with Scott Parker Racially abused Ledly King (2004) Racially abused Anton Ferdinand (2011) Took £10k off a tabloid to betray his team and clubs privacy Dressed in full kit to pose for a team photo after THEY won a final he wasn’t involved in Without Ricardo Carvalho & Rio Ferdinand to clean up his cumbersome errors he was a liability I wouldn’t have him anywhere near the England Rugby League team.

Old team mate of mine, NEIL PUCKERING He was a superb second row/prop forward for Hull FC, played in a Challenge Cup Final at about 18 years old and looked the part but then just fizzled away. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Another Young Challenge Cup Finalist was ALAN BANKS Played for Featherstone in the Final at age 18 or something then if memory serves he never kicked on

I’ve voted for Darryl Eastlake however the best I’ve ever heard is John Helm but sadly and inevitably we lost his talent to soccer. Another not on your list but worthy of recognition is Keith Macklin

Wakefield Trinity won the Championship Grand Final which was the culmination of a play off tournament whose stated goal was that the winner would gain a Super League place. How then did Wakefield “hoodwink” the RFL? For the record Wakefield Trinity also won the League Leaders Shield that year and were clearly the best team outside SL and possibly already better than a couple of clubs already in SL. The popular urban myth that Wakefield promised a new stadium is just that, a myth it is untrue, a falsehood often quoted by so called fans of the game who are ignorant of the facts.

I’ve just watched Ewan McGregors new series ‘Long Way Up’ in which they ride from the southern tip of South America, through Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Bolivia, Patagonia, Mexico etc all the way to Los Angeles. They travel through ice & snow, up mountains and across deserts in -20 to +40 degrees and at heights of 4,700 metres above sea level. The amazing thing is they do it all on a couple of Harley Davidson ELECTRIC motorcycles. The bikes perform amazingly well in all of those conditions with only the extreme cold affecting the battery performance. Its a great series, if you like Motorcycles, great terrain and landscapes, a human story and a bit of a buddy road film then it’s a great watch. If you’re going to watch it then you’d be better taking in ‘Long Way Round’ and ‘Long Way Down’ first.

That’s great to hear sounds like he’s got some balance in his life which not too many manage after their career ends.

I thought Scott Moore had a poor game but did score an opportunist try which stretched Wakefield’s lead and probably put the game beyond Bradford. He got better the following season and became a valuable member of the team, we missed him when he was gone.

I’m guessing it was Joel Monaghan who also came to Super League due to unsavoury off field shenanigans!

I’m guessing that comment came from former Cas Tiggers Chairman Richard Wright. He’s got form for doing stuff like this!

I’ve been on a mission to smarten my house! It all started with my daughter giving me an Alexa as a birthday present about 4 years ago. As I’m a techno geek I decided that talking to it and getting the weather wasn’t enough so I started buying smart devices. Started with a couple of smart bulbs, quite a few smart sockets, a smart TV, some more bulbs, a robot Hoover, a radio/speaker and now a smart lock for the front and back doors. I have to say that they work brilliantly, I can turn the tv on and control it (volume, change channel, search programmes, set timers for recording etc). I can obviously turn lights on or off or increase brightness and even change colours. I can put the radio on and order the hoover to do a clean and make phone calls without going anywhere near my phone. At night I can shut the house down with a single command which turns off lights, the tv and locks the doors. I don’t know what’s next but the technology is amazing if you’re willing to take full advantage of it.

There were two Tyson-Wilson’s, I think they’re now both at West Hull or Skirlough or somewhere like that.