redjonn

aaaaa, I never say I'm from Liverpool having grown up in Huyton... mind you my nieces and nephews may think differently. Liverpool to me always started and ended at the boundary signposts. plus the corpy bus never came to my part of Huyton... Crosville buses only and if you fell asleep coming home yer end up in Warrington depot...

mmm Liverpool St Helens, why not Liverpool Warrington given the similar influx of people from Merseyside/Liverpool over similar years. Remembering its 15mins difference from Saints ground to Warrington ground to the other, if go via back roads (e,g, via Great Sankey)

Nowadays football is far more exciting than years passed. Of course not every game is like watching city v liverpool but many are. The England Fiji game was great to watch as was the NZ v ireland. Not all ru ga.es are poor to watch a d they continue to change the rules as they strive to improve the game, recognising the need. I love RL but many games are not exciting passing affairs. We need to improve the game on the field to attract more wider interest. Despite us claiming its TGG and being in thrall at watching what we say are absorbing matches but in other words are not exciting games.

yes, hard to disagree. Wigan in a 10 min spell after half time played somewhat more enterprising game and I think won it in that spell and provided excitement for the species/TV audience . Wigan far better team on the day and well worthy of winning the game. For me the ruck/PTB is the biggest culprit to dare I say currently a poor product that the SL offers and despite an occasional game we wonder why non fans don't flock to our shores. Congratulations to Wigan and deserved winners, not least to see their coach being successful as well as being a great bloke both when they win or lose.

on that point I think I'd like a Bollywood extravaganza show on the field as part of the warm up...

yep agreed, I do get amused that some on these forums think only about "whose the band" when it comes to making an event. Their is so much more that could be done on even we just focus on the pre game entertainment to attract different demographics, let alone of thinking about the rest of what you rightly list and sure could be added too with a decent marketing org.

Off the top of me head I'd add to your list... decision making, poor tactical field kicking, playing players out of their normal position so I wouldn't be suggesting as some are that Leeds passive defence was the cause of the poor performances, particularly without the data to show it rather than of just remembering some passive defence aspects, as distinct from playing the whole game with a lazy/tired oops sorry... erm passive defence

I was disappointed that Hull KR didn't perform better and the first 20mins they made key errors/discipline that eased Wigan to good field position and as a result a commanding start. I just thought KR seemed to be flagging arms/asking for decisions in almost every PTB or tackle that screamed to me they didn't have the focus on the play to bring the concentration and intensity needed to challenge Wigan. Never-the-less they have had a good season.

thought it was just them standing in a car park

nope never... and I still don't know what precisely they do. Of course it may or may not of prompted me to google search. I guess their marketing organisation will be monitoring any immediate uptick in web visits and enquires for their services following the press conf to see if it was a successful marketing opportunity.

I wasn't saying don't do a press conference. If your going to do a press conference well do it good. especially the business AMT, surely they would have liked to have promoted their brand more professionally.

I wasn't suggesting not doing a press conference - that was a fine idea. It was the whole presentation of it. No marketing organisation would have had just that as a well executed marketing opportunity.

well yep, it seemed quite amateurish to me... the company's as in AMT marketing department must be almost non existent to have such a press conference. Nor Leeds marketing... It sought of typified the whole of RL with respect to marketing your brand...

a ground where the kids and even grown up kids can still sneak in without paying...

yep, 20 mins is... and here I may not be good at arithmetic so best double check everyone, a quarter of the game time. So yep who knows what may have happened in that large percentage of the game time if circumstances meant a team had to change their approach,,,, What we do know is what happened in the game itself, that is Leigh had a quarter of the game time to turn it around but failed. Now I can see frustration missing out on a home play-off and the extra revenue, but I would guess they never factored in a high percentage expectation of being in top 4 when planning for the season. Never-the-less will be interesting to see Leigh do a Leeds and win GF from fifth in the league table.

Yep...

Well yes, but when he is selected for the reserve game does he have to play or can he just be an unused bench interchange...and hence my question still count as done his ban

As a matter of interest.... does the player have to play a minimum number of minutes in the match to count towards the ban, i.e. French just has to be on the bench or comes on for the first minute and then subbed, etc etc

He played well but on the other hand he had plenty of time last night, in that he wasn't put under pressure and was able to show his ability. He was very deliberate in his kicking which actually meant he was somewhat slow in executing the kicks so I wonder how against a more pressing team he would of executed his kicks/passing. Never-the-less he has only just turned 19, played well and is slowly developing and hopefully the club continue to slowly develop him within a winning team next year...

and some of us still are if we include the corresponding change to metric as part of that process .. e.g. I still can not get to grips with buying petrol with litres, still buy in pounds rather than kilograms, get confused when the Doctor/Nurse discusses my weight in Kilograms and we both get confused in trying to convert to what I understand... and when I'm converting a cookery recipe - is it 450g per pound or 500g and may be why I just can't cook the sunday joint right.... and yeah, i still think you should be able to contest/kick the ball at a PTB....

Your right that Austin made a logical choice in that from my understanding he wanted at least a 2 year deal and wanted his contract position sorted sooner than Leeds seemed to want to sort and considering his family needs for some sort of certainty as to going back to Australia or not. I am not as sure that any logic would suggest that airing his views on Sky/in public would have helped his cause assuming he preferred to stay at Leeds. I am not as certain as you that Leeds had been better with Austin except for a very few games if we look across the whole season he was playing. Accepting the fact that Leeds recent performances have been particular poor and they lack options for half back through more recent injuries. Austin period in SL has always seemed to me to be a player that one could describe as "flatters to deceive" and despite the occasional good performance which is often not more than a big booming high kick with no end result with regard to consistency. I would have been surprised that Leeds would want to give him a 2 year contract and hence the situation materialised as it did and he took the right option for himself and family. Anyway apart from Austin situation one can not disagree that Leeds recruitment and retention over recent years has been poor. In particular signing of experienced higher level players needed to complement and carry the developing youngsters.

The attributes that many would quote from watching a SL game, especially after what are a relatively few nail biting games, are equally applicable to most team sports, whether that be soccer, netball, ice hockey, hockey, etc etc. So lets take away the end-to-end play, intensity, closeness of scores that either side could have won, last minute drama, etc etc as that happens in most team sports. Now tell me what is so it that makes the sport the greatest sport... It certainly isn't simplicity and hence ease of understanding to the new watching public...

yes, I believe so, it is a maximum total no matter how many... not a great amount given the resource to develop players.

don't disagree.... I think both the overly optimistic view of the home grown talent together with what should be the top player recruitment to complement that has been poor. As I said the mismanagement of the salary cap.

I get your point but I do think the salary cap, say we say mismanagement, meant little monies for bringing in top talent. Key now that salary cap appears to be in a better position that significant improvements in personal are made to the squad. I guess you would relieve Smith of his duties today, I'm of the opinion I would give him the pre-season and first six game of next season. Hopefully he has learned his approach to pre-season was a mistake and a key part of where we are now. Having said that if their is a high calibre coach available today I may be persuaded.