Kevin Nicholas

I was taken aback by comments regarding our charity so let’s put that to one side. All other criticism I can accept and listen to and Drigdog was right I said we couldn’t be precious about criticism. As for a new BOD then again that is a matter of criticism so a fair point although perhaps a bit surprising in my view when we are debt free, have a decent stadium and sit 4th in Championship. All the sport are suffering with low crowds which the sport is trying to address through Rfl and a new partner. Also there is no queue of wealthy individuals looking to give money to RL Clubs but if anyone thinks there are people then my only point was you find them and direct them to me to discuss. The Club is not at risk of going under but we are losing money which will hamper our wish to be at the top of the table fighting for promotion not at the bottom fighting relegation. We are looking at ways to address that with help. i will leave it that that for now.

Sometimes i totally despair. Thankfully not too often or i would pack in tomorrow. mj1970 and Barfield lad just suddenly appear have have plenty to say. Well perhaps you could join forces and find a person with plenty of £’s who is willing to put it into the Club with no strings attached and tell them to come and speak to me. Tell them they won’t have to wait long as there isn’t a queue. in the meantime the present board will keep trying hard to improve and regrettably for mj1970 Beverley’s Pink Weekend will continue.

See other topic as Draw not sold out yet regrettably so please buy tickets then next time may up the prize!!

Yes hopefully it should be out there now and we haven’t plugged it before as plugged Pink Fest and BeerFest and Draw but are now on with this as it needs to be a financial success and it will be a good event i am sure.

Last post should say Please Buy Now not what it does

Wish we had sold out so quickly. I thought same that it was unbelievably quick!! But… sadly a technical hitch which has now been rectified!! Still plenty to sell so we lease buy now and let’s get it sold out. If sells out fairly quickly will do another one and may even up the prize so on social media need to share it as people can buy without leaving home and can be interested in winning £1,000 even if no interest in Bulldogs or Rugby League for that matter.

I just want to say that whatever is put on here whether critical or not is fine as we can’t be too precious if inviting input and these are very difficult, challenging and worrying times ahead which is even more depressing when our present team is doing so well and we are watching great rugby.

Correct that first box was a Community office and we did get some funds towards that. Now the office is the portacabin lower down where we got no further funding. Thinking about it that first box could be used for sponsors on match days if not used by the Community team. As from this year website traffic has been removed by Rfl as a funding factor for whatever reason. We will get out there the names of all boxes. I am not saying the website is of no use just apparently not the first port of call perhaps nowadays. So if looking for particular information about the Club maybe but not the first place to browse for news and not the place to prompt people from. Still should be a good source of information and news though.

I keep getting told websites are oldhat and everything is social media so is this wrong? I have no idea. The boxes in K2 Stand are sold out with season long sponsors apart from one big one near half way line. They were not built with lottery funding but with the help from sponsors and monies from finishing in Middle8’s in 2016 by the way. The boxes have got signs on with names of explayers but due to lockdown maybe we have not publicised them enough which we will do now. This is interesting for fans but regrettably doesn’t get more people to Club. So there is plenty of things that we are open to criticism for but moving forward how can we get it out there to get more people watching us is a massive problem which we have not solved and if we are to survive we need to. We as a Club are not alone by the way.

As for coaches then Supporters Club would still run a coach if could get people to go I am sure. A 50 seater needs 50 people to make it pay not 10 and cost of a coach now is ridiculous so it can’t run at a loss. I so wish we could take a full coach to away games but I don’t think we can. If I am wrong please let 50 tell me I am and we will rectify it.

John puts news out on Twitter & Facebook yet it either doesn’t get to people’s notice or it does but has no impact on whoever sees it. We ask people to share posts again to try to get it out there. But is it working? We need to sell the Grand Draw tickets, we need to get bigger gates than 800, we need to engage with people. We are trying but it appears we are failing. Anybody any ideas how we can improve because we are frustrated and not sure what to do. We let people in for £11 but still can’t get 1,000 there. We win games and play decent rugby but still.... There must be something we can do but are not doing.

Just to say in almost 25 years as Chairman as an all round performance that is probably the best i have witnessed against a strong Featherstone team. We were able to retain players this year from 2021 which itself was a superb season but at a cost taking into account significantly reduced funding. We have got to find a way to get through this season with as little financial damage as possible to beable to build for next year which could be a crucially important one. These are exciting times on the field but worrying and extremely challenging times off it. We clearly have a winning team and so a start needs to be a bumper crowd v Whitehaven next week. We desperately need support and now.

Josh Hodson had suspected broken collar bone but at A&E advised not broken just a bad bang then so hopefully not out too long.

Kick off time will probably be 6.30pm. it certainly will not be 3pm.

Just to clarify our position has never changed just maybe peoples interpretation. I have previously indicated that in my view SL is not the be all and end all such that we risk our financial stability to try to achieve that. That remains the position. i have never said we have no wish or ambition to go in SL. We do have that dream and ambition and have always had it but only if we can achieve it within our budget which clearly has been and will continue to be a big ask. That budget does not match the budgets of some other Clubs and there are two basic reasons. 1. I personally and nobody else at the Club has sufficient finance to put money in like for example Derek at Leigh. Putting money in is not an investment it is a gift that you are unlikely to ever get back by the way. 2. We do not get sufficient crowds to match teams in the Championship to create sufficient income. However the Club has a group of supporters that help us punch above our weight, a stable board that run it on a sound financial basis, pick great coaches and honest players who give of their best which together makes a superb Club and one which again I personally am very proud of. We always aim to be competitive and after that who knows what might happen! If it does happen we have plans in place to always protect the Club and give of our best in a way we want to do it without any fear of what anybody thinks. For now though we just want to play a game v Royal Navy and make it a memorable occasion next week.

In case anyone missed it on another topic our attendance v York was 971. I often get asked for the attendance by a journalist when i often have not been in our office where the counter is so have no idea and unbelievably this is not one of my priorities. At the York game i was asked once and I didn’t know. If I don’t forget and have nothing else to do i will make it my new year’s resolution to check the attendance and get John to announce it during the game then journalists don’t have to ask to find out.

The attendance at the York game was 971 for anyone who wants to know. I was asked once shortly after the match by one journalist and i was doing other things and also at the time didn’t know. I was never asked again and presumably neither was anyone else at the Club. Anyway people now know. It was disappointing as we expected many more than that but the weather played a big part in reducing the gate.

Just to say the support at Newcastle was absolutely brilliant. Thankfully you were all rewarded with a great win. We have undoubtedly an absolutely great set of players and I personally feel so proud of this. Hopefully we get a good crowd this week to keep us on an even keel. These are potentially very special days so please spread the word, lets get a good crowd and all enjoy a special moment. It will undoubtedly be a great game to watch. See you there !! Bring a mate and help do your bit!!

Disappointed that no comments on here about this event presumably because not present. I can confirm it was a superb event for Rugby League people. Anyone who did attend could not fail to be impressed by Robert Hicks and Arron Moore who came across as good people who do their best to get decisions right. They are not perfect so clearly can make a mistake a bit like players or you and me in everyday life. However they do prepare as best they possibly can both in full time and part time game. i can highly recommend it if we repeat the event later this season or next and i think anyone who went will be of the same opinion as the feedback we had was superb.

The score was perhaps a bit harsh but i thought we looked promising apart from a few errors and it is better the week before our Big game that we are tested rather than play a team that is weaker than Fax will be and get a win. So despite score i thought it was a good game to watch.

The Clubs were supportive of the Bash being at Headingley. It is easier to get to. It is an iconic Rugby League stadium and so money stays in our game. I personally think it will be a great event there where players will enjoy playing and also supporters will enjoy. You can go for a great day out or it’s possible to stay over I’m sure. Headingley Lodge is there as well so can look over the cricket field. A first class Test venue if we are ever allowed to have Tests!! Clearly you can never please everyone as i for one would also like to see it at York one year. Not too fussed if is an advantage for York City Knights.

Just to clarify we have signed and announced 24 players but have just signed two further players who are young lads with no Championship experience who want a chance. They should be announced this week.

Should we employ a Media person? Simple answer- No Should we even mildly criticise our media team? Simple answer- No Could we market the Club better? Simple answer- Maybe but look at our potential audience and what would it cost and what could be our return? So a marketing person says you’ll never know if don’t try which sounds a great response. Tell that same marketing person we are prepared to employ you and pay you on a results basis and they quickly disappear. The main marketing needs to be done by Rfl for the sport as a whole to be cost effective. As for Media then the Rfl moniter our performance and some of our money is based on that performance and bearing in mind our crowds and population our media team do pretty well. We have John, Joe & Dan doing their best for zero pay when also having jobs. Just as an example- our Facebook performance In year up to 30/9/20 our Facebook views were over 294,000 which was the highest in the Championship/ League1. That’s right No.1!! Our Facebook likes were 5th overall behind Widnes, Bulls, Barrow,& Featherstone . This year I expect us to be 6th behind Leigh with likes and not sure where we will stand with views. That may not get us 1st, 5th or 6th best gates but it does get us out there. Of course there is room for improvement eg. Our website or Instagram and there are other things we could do (other than letting everyone in for free) but with our resources and potential we are not doing too bad and we did finish 4th in League and have signed 26 players without knowing our finances next year and we have kept our best players so there is actually plenty to be positive about until we lose a game at least.

Presentation Night will not include presentation to player sponsors. Do Forum & indeed Bissa wish to make any presentation? If someone could let me know. 07831230999

Final push. We are so nearly there with our Pink target if anyone forgot or whatever please buy a ticket before draw tomorrow. Also thanks for offer of support to sponsor our Club draw and hope to announce another signing shortly. We are getting there as well.