The Blues Ox
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Posts posted by The Blues Ox
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49 minutes ago, Piggy's mate said:
Awful, feel for those poor souls who went and had to suffer the worst, droning chant in sport.... Oh Ali, Ali,
Nah new songs this season. Ohhhhhhhh Lachlan Walmsley ooh aah, I wanna knooooow if you'll score a try. So pleased as its deffo an upgrade on the oh ali ali chants and I used to be so jealous that Saints fans used to sing it to Darren Albert.
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Shouldnt be punnished because the second guy he clocked can't throw as good of a punch. 10 games is ridiculous. I think 3 would be fair.
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Good to watch that, best Fax team since 2010 in my opinion. Nice been able to rest a few players tonight as well and good to see Matty Gee make his first appearence of the season and good to get Worthington back. Luckily for Dewsbury we had 3 players have off days with the goal kicking otherwise the score would have been a lot worse. Good thing for them their fate is not going to be decided in games like this.
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1 hour ago, Damien said:
Ah so 12 players only came available after every SL finished their recruitment and they would have snapped them up otherwise. I see. I guess we'll just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
You see that is where there is a flaw in your thinking. Even if those 12 players had been available before the season that does not mean that any SL teams would have gone to sign them but it also does not mean that those 12 players are not good enough to play in SL or better than some of the players already in SL teams its just that SL teams are obviously restricted where as Leigh are not. Now obviously it wasn't the case that they were all available straight away but ignoring that does not chnage the fact that in signing those players Leigh have improved the overall strength of the full time playing pool over here which is what I had originally stated.
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Fax by between 24-30 Im going for. We are looking pretty good at the moment and a good win will set us up for the game against Leigh next week. I didn't think I were going to go to the Leigh game because I still expect a hammering despite how we are playing but they have a tough scehdule so maybe they rest a couple of players or are looking a bit tired so we could make a game of it.
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9 minutes ago, RP London said:
I am not talking about a Draft system of academy players i am using the word "draft" to describe the system, it could also be an auction but its about players coming off contract and therefore already decided they are leaving the club they are at (or the club already deciding they are leaving) and so senior players.
The problem that i was responding to was about teams coming up not having the pick of the super league standard senior, experienced, players because they were already signed up to clubs that were guaranteed Super League status. Therefore leaving the dregs to be scooped up by whoever may scrape staying in the league or get promoted.. That is not going to necessarily be solved by getting the academies sorted out (however, i do agree they must be a high priority in general).. it MAY be helped with this system of having a pool of off contract players that everyone can have a go at all at the same time, including the promoted club, players that would not have been available to the promoted club in the current way of it working because they would have already signed for another club pre the end of the season etc but they wouldnt look at a club that "maybe" be relegated or one that isnt guaranteed promotion. Therefore leaving the almost never ending promoted team being relegated.
There isn't endless money for academies, they cannot be set up immediately and reap rewards immediately so they are a long term fix (potentially to a different problem as well) rather than a short term fix. They also arent an either/or they could both be done together.
I love the idea of some sort of free agency draft like they have in the NFL but the lack of money in our sport probably makes this very difficult as players don't want to leave it so late before sorting contracts out as they get paid very little as it is and it would be a huge risk which would mean the RFL putting some money aside as guarentees for players or putting aside central funding, again though SL clubs won't want that as most would struggle with any sort of cut in funding.
Imagine for the team coming up to have a chance of been able to sign any of the best players and also imagine for the players knowing that they may get a bigger offer from the promoted team than other teams that already have most of their team in place.
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18 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:
Clubs would just instantly give up on investing heavily in their youth development if they knew any other club could just come in and take them at the end of their contracts.
Ah how the other half live.
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18 hours ago, Damien said:
Great argument, 1 player. I'm sure there's English players in the Championship good enough for SL too. The very fact Ferguson ended up at Leigh doesn't exactly indicate he was inundated with offers from other clubs. Also what about the 11 or so other overseas Leigh players? Are you trying to say they are all SL standard too?
But most of them were signed after SL clubs had filled their quotas and came available late. I think most would get a gig in SL and most of them if not all of them are better than some of the players that play in SL currently which kind of supports my argument that Leigh have improved the overall quality of the full time playing pool in the game over here.
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6 hours ago, Damien said:
So a different debate. My post was on about overseas players in the Championship, I never even mentioned Leigh. If every lower league club had squads with half the players from overseas then you would have to seriously question the value of investing in them as a pathway for players.
I'm not sure how your argument works of there not being enough quality full time players for 12 SL teams but yet Leigh are somehow raising the quality of the full time player pool by employing players who aren't good enough for Super League. That's a complete contradiction. As long as Leigh aren't getting one extra penny compared to other Championship clubs to do that then that's fine. If they are getting 3 times the funding as per the last TV deal, to the disadvantage of other Championship clubs, to run that full time squad then that is completely wrong.
I'm not going to argue about academies as my views on this are quite clear, no club should be prevented from having one. This is especially so when salary cap rules give advantages to clubs developing their own players.
Blake Ferguson is not good enough for SL?
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2 hours ago, Rockingchair said:
If we want to utilise our own local young talent has opposed to having to draft in overseas players on 1 year contracts , perhaps there should be a rule that super league clubs can’t have a player under 21 from outside their home town .
I love the draft idea but I prefer it with some stipulations like I have said before. The main problem is how are you going to convince a kid who is about 14, who's parents are been told that he is going to be one of the best players in the game when the reality is the team in for him sees him as a number and knows he is not likely to make it but wants him just incase, to sign for Halifax rather than Wigan?
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13 hours ago, Damien said:
So how does clubs stacking squads with overseas players improve that or are you moving on to a different debate?
It has very little effect because the player pool is shrinking year after year because of actions of the Super League teams. There isn't enough full time players of good enough quality to fill more than 12 teams so although Leigh are not a SL team, what they have actually done is raise the overall standard of the full time player pool in the country. Its an utter farce that Leigh and other teams were not allowed to run their own academies and I am not sure how anyone can have a go at them for going down the route they have as though they are doing it to the detriment of the game.
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2 hours ago, Damien said:
Championship clubs should have at the very least the same quota rules as Super League clubs, its laughable that isn't the case. If we want the game to develop young English players then lower league clubs stacking their roster with overseas players blocks this.
Im not having a personal dig here but I read that and did laugh out loud. There are only one set of clubs that are blocking the overall progress of the game and how we develop young players, and that is the Super League clubs themselves.
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20 minutes ago, Jughead said:
If you’re going to have rules on quota spaces in Super League, is there any reason why we don’t have them at Championship level?
We used to have if I remember rightly, I think at one point we were limited to just one overseas player. At some point it seems that rule has been removed and its not really been talked about so I do find it quite funny that Leigh have really taken advantage of the rule, or lack of them, and I expect the RFL to make changes to those rules or maybe SL teams will push for the changes to try and limit Championship teams.
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15 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:
Yes I am well aware of that, but you said you hoped, intimating that you want the team to fall apart, but they can't go anywhere till this season is over can they?
You have me wrong, I think that is what Fev will possibly be hoping for because at the moment to me they look a bit of a distance behind on the pitch but ultimatley it will come down to a one off game.
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1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:
Why is that Oxy?
Cant keep all your overseas players and Im assuming on performances we have seen so far there may be a number of SL teams taking a look and its a risk signing a contract that has a failure to get in to SL clause becuase other opportunities may have already gone.
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I thought Leigh looked pretty dominant and although Fev did have a dig, Leigh made a lot of silly errors and their discipline was pretty poor at times. Ive said numerous times over the last year that the thing that stands out when you are playing Fev is the physical prescence they have on the field and size wise they dominate their opponents a lot of the time but today it stood out that Leigh just had that extra size and power all over the field. My impression at the moment is that Fev really need to hope that Leigh have an off day when it comes to the final either that or as I have mentioned before hope contract talks at Leigh can cause some unrest later in the season.
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Can't see past a Leigh win by a couple of tries or more.
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For Fax we are playing some cracking rugby at the moment but still seem capable of shooting ourselves in the foot like we did in the first half with 2 handling errors leading to holding down penalties on our line which lead to us been down to 11 men and York looking like they could run away with it. Turning point was York attacking our line and firing out a 20 yard cut out pass on our line that only found Walmsley and Fax were back in it. I know York had a lot of players missing but other than that 15-20 minute spell I thought we dominated and looked pretty classy with the ball in hand. It opens back up the race for 3rd now.
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SL clubs getting worried that both contenders might actually shake things up in the SL ladder? Should see a voted ban on promotion in 5....4....3...
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On 19/05/2022 at 10:27, The Blues Ox said:
SATURDAY 21st MAY
Featherstone Rovers v Whitehaven Fev by 54Obviously I meant at half time just to clear that up.
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54 minutes ago, spanishknight said:
Think the Knights v Fax game will be close with the Knights having 8 players out injured.
So you saying it would be a hammering for us if you had all 8 playing?
Just jesting, Im still expecting a really good tight game. York have been going about their business very nicely.
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SATURDAY 21st MAY
Bradford Bulls v Newcastle Thunder Newcastle by 4
Featherstone Rovers v Whitehaven Fev by 54SUNDAY 22nd MAY
Batley Bulldogs v London Broncos Batley by 20
Dewsbury Rams v Barrow Raiders Barrow by 10
Leigh Centurions v Workington Town Leigh by 70
York City Knights v Halifax Panthers Fax by 8Once you get past the couple of blow out scores there are some interesting looking fixtures this week. Bulls V Thunder with both teams an outside chance of the playoffs, tough trip for Barrow and its one Dewsbury might fancy, the Monday night game Sheffield have a great chance to put a marker down as genuine play off contenders and then the tie of the round is the battle for 3rd. If York can win then they make themselves big favourites for 3rd position where a Fax win puts them and Batley back in with a good shout.
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12 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:
I know you are usually spot on with your stats so i take that onboard.One thing about running downhill they can't run without their legs.First tackler down there and second round the chest stopping the offload.Once those big forwards have hit the deck a time or two they don't run so hard .
Problem with that is with them tackling round the legs it will be much quicker play the balls and the defence not much time to get back without any sort of dominant tackle. Catch 22 on that ground and Leigh look the sort of team built perfectly for that pitch with huge mobile forwards.
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Leigh have put together a right team at this stage of the competition and do look like the bench mark now. I mentioned before though closer to the end of the season when contract talks come in to play maybe that could unsettle them a bit and in a one off game you never know, Fev could get one over on them but I have a feeling the final will be at the LSV and that would be a very tough ask for Fev. I think Fax play them in a few week and Im probably not going to go, I think we will take a good beating and its an expensive trip out at this point with money tight.
Thurs 2nd June: The Betfred Championship Match Thread
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Workington Town v London Broncos London By 8
Barrow Raiders v Leigh Centurions Leigh by 18
Newcastle Thunder v Featherstone Rovers Fev by 30
Sheffield Eagles v York City Knights York by 10
Whitehaven v Batley Bulldogs Batley by 16
Widnes Vikings v Bradford Bulls Widnes by 4