LeytherRob

I don't think there can be any argument it wouldn't have been better as we now know there have been multiple loans taken out to pay players which would have been avoided. We can argue whether it would have been good enough but" better" is out of the question. Less debt to service is always better in this scenario.

Well the club is situated on the other side of a bridge to a whole lot of excrement at the waste treatment plant. It’s almost poetic.

Paul King must have a massive house for the collateral on that one

He didn't pull out on the morning of the game, it was the day before at captains run

I feel like you'd be better served with Lolohea and Rush in the halves rather than going back to Frawley

I really do have too much time on my hands at work sometimes, I was just surprised I hadn't included a pivot table of some sort when I loaded it up.

It's nothing to do with sticking it to the club and no one on here has advocated that. It's about a player protecting his own interests and career. Sam Stone has a good opportunity lined up to escape the dire financial circumstances at Salford and if he picks up a bad knee injury in an ultimately lost cause of a game it risks blowing up that deal and leaving him stuck at a club that can't afford to pay his wages. There is zero point in him risking himself. My opinion is 'good for Sam Stone'. Not because I wish Salford any harm but because I was at a company about 10 years ago that was in serious trouble that ultimately folded and made everyone redundant - getting out on my own terms about 3/4 months before the end was a huge weight lifted off me and I know it'll be a big relief for those getting out at Salford.

Don’t forget the transpennine cup, and the Northern Rail Bowl

I’m hoping they don’t scrap the comp entirely, 2nd tier needs neutral ground finals for that event feel. It’s bad enough the grand final got switched to a home game which used to get some decent crowds. Left field shout, but I think LSV would be potentially a good place to have the final - the size is about right and with AB Sundecks sponsoring the comp the RFL would probably get a good deal out of Beaumont to continue sponsorship and put on the same prematch band/fireworks/lasers etc that Leigh matches get since he’s got his own company doing it all now. It would be a fairly cost effective option that could still deliver a fairly good ‘event’ feel whilst being not much of a travel burden for clubs most likely to get there.

The problem Huddersfield have with perception is that they’ve been the ones driving it for a number of years now as those links show, usually fronted by Richard Thewlis. Even when the majority of tickets are a bit more expensive, and I take the point that the bargain prices only apply to certain areas, the club position these cheap tickets front and centre of the season launch. For any outsider looking in, Huddersfield are positioning themselves as Poundland amongst M&S, Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda. New customers on the whole just don’t pick their entertainment based on it being a cheap day/night out anymore, there is just far too much saturation in the market.

And the perception is entirely accurate. This was still in my google sheets from last time you claimed it was only a couple of years of cheap tickets. 2017 also had £99 tickets, but even the years that didn't were under £150 which is still way too cheap for an adult season ticket. Year Cheapest Adult price Source 2023 £149 https://giantsrl.com/article/8203/huddersfield-giants-launch-2023-season-cards 2022 £180 https://www.giantsrl.com/article/7865/new-season-card-prices-%E2%80%93-buy-yours-for-%C2%A330-per-month 2021 £99 https://www.giantsrl.com/article/7533/giants-launch-2021-season-cards 2020 £149 https://www.johnsmithsstadium.com/huddersfield-giants-season-tickets/ 2019 £139 https://twitter.com/Giantsrl/status/1071011603099852802 2018 £125 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-launch-great-season-13626132 2017 £99 https://twitter.com/Giantsrl/status/786899415181262848 2016 £120 https://twitter.com/Giantsrl/status/662297610443735040 2015 £120 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-reveal-season-ticket-7743568 2014 £99 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-announce-season-ticket-5820912 2013 £99 https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/news/huddersfield-giants-announce-season-ticket-5820912 2012 £50 https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/12196/7840973 average £110

Yeah I’d get rid of it. I thought I wanted it, but I’ve gotten so sick of waiting around for Ben Thaler to spend 5 minutes watching every conceivable angle only to go with the original decision that I find myself just wanted a decision even if it goes against Leigh. In the ground it just sucks all the atmosphere out. Don’t even get me started on teams using it when they’re 20+ points up with minutes to go….just get on with the game so everyone can go home!

He did say in one of the interviews that essentially O'Brien was one of his favourites at the club. Personally I think our shape and ball movement is far better with McNamara partnering Lam and it's been slowly growing game by game. Since we haven't been able to find the right half to bring in from NRL for this year yet, I'd rather us stick with McNamara and Lam for a few more games to see how it progresses.

Leeds have really impressed me this year and I think they’re the only team that would be able to consistently challenge Wigan and KR this year. I’m not confident of Leigh’s chances at Headingly. Leigh are keeping in the fight on the back of making sure we’re consistently dispatching the teams near the bottom, however ugly the wins are. Something which has hurt clubs like Hull FC - losing to Cas and Huddersfield. Hopefully we can start to get on a roll but I think next year will be better for us to challenge since there will be very little player churn and our very young and pretty inexperienced squad will be a year older and wiser.

Great win that, felt like a big step forward in a few different facets of the game after some really iffy performances of late.

Unbelievable effort in defence then, though we were done

He’s been progressing nicely the past few weeks. I think he deserves to keep the shirt for now when O’Brien comes back.

To be fair, that offload was never on from Trout

I’d argue Hall had more hands on Niu there than Hanley did for the penalty earlier

Poor challenge that, would have been better using that earlier on the penalty given against Hanley for the challenge in the air

Been a great first half with both teams looking threatening in attack. Glad to see we’ve used the week off well and are playing with better shape than we have all year.

If they haven’t pulled the tag off it’s play on and the ball is live. On the flip side, attackers on the receiving end can get one hand on their next tag for a quick play the ball.

Just been catching up on the game as I was out yesterday but what I think you are all referring to, is a fairly common tactic in the wheelchair game where teams will grab a tag but intentionally delay ripping it off(usually by grabbing a handful of shirt at the same time). It gives your team time to get reset in defence and is basically the wheelchair game equivalent of holding up the attacking player.

Agree in principle, but you need money and arenas to do that. Both are hard to come by(unless you are Wigan).

The sport is growing at a very good pace, but there’s 2 huge challenges to growth: •Cost - it’s an incredibly expensive sport to get into both for clubs and individuals(if you want to buy your own kit). You’re talking £5-8k for a decent chair, £850 just for a set of good wheels. You then have all the costs of facilities(£5-10k a year) and all the other kit which adds up, then of course match officials etc. Games are free to attend(certainly below SL) so there is no return for a lot of outlay. •Player pool - it’s a struggle to get players in because there aren’t enough impaired players to go around and even for able bodied converts to the game(of which you should only be fielding 2 out of 5 on the pitch at any one time), there’s quite a tough transition to get used to the mechanics of a chair. There is a lot of organic growth happening on the back of the World Cup win that people won’t necessarily see. The WSL recently expanded and new teams are joining the Wheelchair Championship on a yearly basis - Salford joined this year after a development year in 2025, Leigh are aiming for 2026. Leigh incidentally were able to kickstart their team with a donation of chairs from the World Cup fund, with the club now taking up the significant levels of funding needed. I believe Saints are also in very early phases of setting up a team. A national merit league is in place for development teams which are springing up.