wiggler

I see that RFL is trying to keep our spirits up with a best ever try contest. Fair play for that. My best ever try does not make it on to the list - probably because it is Australian. Mark Coyne scoring in the dying seconds of the 1st state of origin match 1994 still does it for me - it won the match against fantastic opposition away from home. Here is what Wikipedia has to say; "For 75 minutes New South Wales were the better side and led 12-4 as a trickle of spectators began to make an early exit to beat the traffic. Those that left missed one of the greatest rugby league miracles of all time. With five minutes to go Willie Carne scored for Queensland reaching over his head to take a pass from centre Mark Coyne. Maroons captain Mal Meninga kicked the conversion but the Blues defence rallied from the kick-off and they kept the Queenslanders pinned in their own quarter as the clock ticked down. With 60 seconds remaining and trailing 12-10 Queensland launched one last attacking wave from deep inside their own half. Halfback Allan Langer initiated the play, firing a long ball to Kevin Walters. The five-eighth passed to Willie Carne, whose overhead pass released Steve Renouf. The Test centre raced up-field as suddenly the tension rose. The Maroons threw a rapid-fire series of chain passes spanning the breadth of the SFS. The Blues' defence gathered in numbers but as each Queensland player met a tackler he would find another man at his outside shoulder. Renouf, Michael Hancock, Darren Smith, Langer and Mal Meninga all handled and suddenly Mark Coyne was accepting a pass metres out as Brad Fittler and Ricky Stuart tried in vain to bring Coyne down only to see him slide to the line, reach out and score. Television commentator Ray Warren famously exclaimed, "That's not a try—that's a miracle!" Fittler buried his head in the turf, Stuart in frustration kicked the corner post sky-high and the New South Wales crowd were plunged into deathly silence with 32 seconds left on the clock and the game gone." Most of you reading this will probably have seen it but if you haven't had that pleasure you can find it on YouTube. It still make the hair rise on the back of my neck, especially with the great commentary from Warren, Vautin and Sterling. Absolute magic. Lets hope we see one just as good and just as timely from England in next year's World Cup Final. Wouldn't that be a joy to behold?

As we have little to discuss and lots of time to fill I got to thinking about away strips. When I was a lad I used to look forward to seeing the away teams in their club colours - the blue and yellow of Leeds, the white and red of Saints, the black and orange of Cas - you get my drift. In many respects those colours helped to define the clubs and their brand image (assuming such a concept existed back when dinosaurs still roamed) for me. Now I understand the commercial logic of an away strip but what I don't get is why are so many of them are variations of black rather than a reversal of the basic club colours? Take Cas for example. Home strip basically orange (or yellow/amber/gold) shirts, black shorts. Very nice. Very tigerey. 2020 away strip black with a grey v. Why not make part of the v orange or even have orange shorts? That way the club would be maintaining its core colour scheme (i.e. looking a bit like a TIGER) whilst not clashing with any opponents. On the animal related theme I have never understood why Rochdale HORNETS wear red and blue rather than yellow and black. At least Wath Brow get it right! Club colours or variations on black - which do you prefer? P.S. Apologies to any real black/grey tigers that are reading this post. No offence intended - I just did not know you existed, but congratulations on your reading skills!

I find it rather unsavoury that as soon as rugby league is called off it appears that, straight away, the RFL is going to ask the government for financial support. Any financial support the government might provide would come out of tax revenue or public borrowing. The same tax revenue that is under enormous pressure at the moment to meet increased healthcare costs. I can imagine a lot of zero hour contract workers will not be getting work in the leisure industries over the next few weeks and I guess there will be little or no overtime either. VAT is also going to be savaged, albeit over a slightly longer timescale. That means tax revenues are going to FALL over the next few months, at least until the proposed restrictions are lifted. I also think it will be quite hard to increase public borrowing atm with such low interest rates, so that way of raising cash may not be feasible, particularly as other countries may also be looking to do the same. The country is likely to have less tax revenue to spend at a time when public expenditure is likely to rise so I think the RFL should put its begging bowl away - at least until the country (and indeed the world) has got through this situation. The haste with which that bowl has come out is rather tasteless. There are currently more important things to spend our money on than propping up poorly financially managed sports. What do you think?

I was looking at the OuRLeague page for the Sheffield Town game and I noticed that Sheffield had changed their logo/club crest from their original version and the new badge looks good. Contemporary and impactful. The new Ottawa (whatever you think of the concept) crest also looks top notch. By contrast the Town badge looks outdated (who can read Latin these days, especially with the long standing typo!) and somewhat amateurish in design. Do unicorns with anchors in their mouths really communicate what RL & Workington Town are about? It is also over detailed which makes it hard to embroider well, especially when small. So maybe it is time for a new cleaner, contemporary club logo/badge/crest? I appreciate that the majority of people reading this will be Town fans and you may not see the value of such a change. However, I suggest it is clear from attendances and sponsorship that the club is only really appealing to diehards. It needs to broaden its appeal if it is to thrive and a new logo could be the first step. FMCG companies and retailers spend millions on creating and then tweaking their logos to keep them relevant to their target audiences. It is not a panacea - just a step in the right direction. When done properly it has worked well in our own sport - look at Leeds Rhinos, Cas Tigers or Bradford Bulls. I know the latter have fallen down the pecking order but I would argue that that is not the fault of the branding but poor financial management. Even St Helens, who have not gone down the added descriptor route, have adopted a new logo in the fairly recent past. Another benefit of a good logo comes from apparel and merchandise sales. If people like the logo and buy into the brand values then they are more likely to buy something featuring the logo. When I am in Leeds I see more people in the city centre wearing Rhinos gear than Leeds United. It should be the other way around based on attendances so why isn't it? Maybe the Rhinos look is cooler? If a new logo could be of benefit might it also be the right time for a name change. Heresy? Maybe, but it is hard to put much imagery into the word 'Town' and it is not even a chant friendly word on the terraces, is it? Miami Dolphins and Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) Raiders NFL outfits sell a LOT of merchandise despite not being that successful lately. I wonder if they would sell as much if they had been called Miami Municipality or Oakland Conurbation and did not have the strong brand imagery a good descriptor adds? So, should a new name just affect the descriptor element of the club name? Or should we go even further and try to appeal to a wider geographical area by replacing Workington and focussing on Allerdale, West Cumbria or maybe even Cumbria as a whole? How about these to get you thinking - West Coast Jets? West Cumbria Power? Cumbria Chiefs? West Cumbria Steelers (pays homage to our industrial past)? Allerdale Sharks? Allerdale Storm? West Coast Wizards? Cumbria Seahawks? Some food for thought. Enjoy chewing it over - just don't choke on it!

I emailed Oldham RLFC the week before last - no response. I called the mobile number shown on the website yesterday and today - no pick and no answer phone. If the club cannot be bothered to reply to a potential customer why should I bother to make the effort and spend my money to attend the game? Poor customer service to someone who wanted to buy a ticket in advance. Not to worry though as there are plenty of other clubs to spend my money with.

As Bradford Bulls have not been able to make a success of their recent tenure at Odsal and have no city home now, how about merging with Dewsbury to form the Dewsbury Bulls? That way money could be invested to develop Owl Lane rather than blowing it on some new 'boutique' white elephant in Bradford. Look at the Oakland Raiders in the NFL. They are moving to Las Vegas next year and will be called the Las Vegas Raiders. NFL teams move quite often and tend to keep the nickname whilst changing the location to appeal to potential new local customers. Makes sense to me and the NFL clubs know how to run themselves as sustainable entities. Should the miracle happen and a new home is found for a professional club in Bradford the Bradford Bulls could be resurrected then. A club playing in Dewsbury called Bradford will have little appeal to Dewsbury people and the Bradford fan base is likely to slowly drift away over time. Don't believe that could happen to a once great club? No? I will leave you with one word as a potential domesday scenario - Swinton.

I attended the Wath Brow v Thatto Heath game on Saturday as a neutral. I enjoyed my visit to Cleator Moor. Thatto Heath scored a very late try to tie the game. At the end of the game I was a little disappointed to hear a large number of home supporters soundly booing the ref as he came off. He had to work the game alone as there were no official touch judges so cut a somewhat lonely figure as he came off. I thought he did an adequate job overall and did not deserve to be boo-ed off. What about the 'RESPECT THE REF' campaign that was featured in the match day programme? No point 'talking the talk' if you don't 'walk the walk'. I appreciate that emotions get high, but it was not the ref who failed to deal with the bomb that led to the equaliser. On a lighter note why can I only get XL cheese crisps in west Cumbria? Now they ARE something to shout about! I wish the Brow good luck for the rest of the season and I hope to see them in the NCL grand final, presumably at Widnes. Maybe even against Thatto Heath?

Just to add to the confusion/entertainment value the RFL NCL website has now moved the next 2 Salford City NC 'fixtures' to Friday evenings with a 7.30 KO! Is that the best they can manage? At least they won't show as fixtures when Saturday comes around!! I guess that is their logic.

I know that Salford City Roosters have withdrawn from the NC some weeks ago. However, looking at today's fixtures it says they are playing at Eastmoor KO 14.30 - but if I go to results it shows Eastmoor have already 'won' this game 46-12! It seems unprofessional of the RFL not to show this fixture as postponed. I hope nobody ends up travelling to watch a non- existent Salford City game because of poor website management. Same thing happens with other leagues - Chorley Panthers game today has been conceded by their opponents but it is showing as a fixture with a 14.30 KO yet the result is already in the results section. Surely once a 'result' is added then the fixture should no longer appear (or be shown as cancelled) in the fixture section?

When and where will this game take place? All I can find is weekend of 26/10.

Thank you for replying to my post. To answer your questions - I don't know how it is (proposed to be) funded. I have not seen the business plan. I was asking a question, as it seems likely that the Allerdale tax payer will bear some of the cost and I think any money spent on this project might be better utilised elsewhere in the community.

I appreciate that forums are not the be all and end all of activity, but I am concerned to see how little comment there is from Keighley fans on this forum bearing in mind the current parlous situation of the club. Is anybody from Keighley actually that bothered about the future of the club?

i am sure a new stadium in Workington could be delightful for both Town and Reds but why should the Allerdale taxpayer fund it? There are higher priorities such as education, elderly care, libraries, roads and health. If Allerdale spends millions on a sports ground then that is money that cannot be spent elsewhere. If Town and Reds cannot fund their own stadium then why do they deserve to be in business? Both are supposedly commercial businesses but they have both run their businesses into the ground so why should the taxpayer save them? Failing businesses being propped up by public sector funding is not a viable long term solution.

I am a little bemused by the takeover of the club by a seemingly faceless company that has no history of interest in RL? What exactly has the new owner bought? If it includes the ground then this could be prime building land. The land might be worth a lot more than keeping it as a rugby ground.

I got an email from the RFL promoting some SL gmaes this weekend. I was disappointed not to see a mention of the free entry offer at Swinton today as I think this is a great way to push the game around Manchester. I emailed them and asked them why no mention of Swinton's initiative. Guess what? No reply. I think that says something about what the RFL thinks of the non-SL gmae and it's general attitude towards customer service. Even a quick 'thanks for your message' would have been polite. It is much cheaper to retain customers than it is to recruit new ones but maybe the RFL does not realise this!