LeytherRob

I think Smith has been past his sell by date as a top end coach for a few years now. I don't think he has it in him to build much more than a mid table club these days. Probably more suited to a director of rugby role providing a sounding board to a younger coach

Good interview and gotta say, love rugby league used to get quite a bit of stick but since but since Aaron Bower joined the quality of content is right up there in terms of the UK RL media scene.

I think the on field stuff is relevant but not necessarily in the traditional way. With money so tight, I think there is quite a bit of pressure on SRD to perform on the field to avoid fans dropping off as it would further compound the financial issues.

In fairness, this is one situation where SaRL's laziness and penchant for plagarism comes in handy, since they've just copied and pasted the full response from the conservative councillors. Doesn't paint a particularly good picture particularly with several unpaid loans still owed to the council

If the ground deal doesn't go ahead and they have an insolvency event, they could well get relegated since it results in a full letter downgrade in the IMG scores(so would go from B to C).

I believe so, think it was 2001 during Neil Turley's record breaking 55 try season. Think he got 5 at Chorley that day.

Reminds me of the old ground chorley used to play at in the early 00s. Used to enjoy sitting on the grass verge along the touchline.

The overflow to the stand is basically standing at the perimeter fence like when at amateur clubs. They're planning that new stadium with Sheffield FC though that will be 5k capacity

Yes I don't think it's any coincidence that Huddersfield went from finishing top 3 in 2022 with Levi to 9th with Peats/Milner in 2023. Hooker is the most important position in the game for me, you can have the best halfbacks or forwards in the world but if that first ball out the tackle is slow or inaccurate then defences have all the time in the world to shut down the play, same with having a hooker with no run threat. Levi had both of those qualities, Milner has neither for me. If I had to pick one English player to throw marquee money at that would transform Huddersfield tomorrow, it would be Andy Ackers and not Tom Burgess.

Salford seem to be one of the few clubs who are currently down on ST numbers from what i've seen on their pages. Can't say i overly blame the fans either. I'd be pretty downbeat going into this year if i was a Salford fan.

I agree. Maybe I'm wrong but there just doesn't seem to be any real plan in place when it comes to recruitment for Ian Watson the last couple of years, after years at clubs with limited budgets in Salford and Swinton he comes off like a kid in a sweetshop who's just got his pocket money for the first time. It looked that way last year when he brought in Connor despite having arguably better options already at the club and ended up with constantly chopping and changing his pivots because he couldn't figure out how to fit them in. Then he kept blaming poor form on Olly Russell being injured because he was supposed to be the organizer that held all his mavericks together, before going signing Clune and dropping Russell down the pecking order. Now despite having a pretty decent pack with a lot of depth of up and comers, they've spaffed a monster contract on a mid 30's low minutes impact prop. They'd have been far better off spending that money on getting a top class hooker in to replace Adam Milner or a strike centre to replace Marsters.

Would be interesting to see if that is the case. From my visit there, it's very much a stadium along the same lines as Salford's ,with a big/nice main stand and 3 basic/small sheds, except smaller (8.5k total capacity). The south stand did seem slightly bigger than the North which was the smallest stand, but I'd be surprised if it was any bigger than 1.3k especially when you factor in the -10% on capacity for unreserved seating.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/inside-the-deal-how-huddersfield-giants-secured-the-signing-of-tom-burgess Huddersfield apparently making him the highest paid player in the league next year

Where did you get the figure on 1800 capacity from? Having been in that stand for the CC game last year i don't see how that stand can possibly hold 1800

Chris Hill signed a new 2 year deal last year so he's under contract for 2025

Looking at the availability on the ticket site compared to games last year, I reckon about 6k sold so far which is what we got for the fixture against Hudds last year and tickets only went on general sale today. 8k should hopefully be doable.

He'll be 32 start of next year, turning 33 in April. I'm a bit nonplussed by this to be honest. In isolation it is a big statement signing, bringing back an England prop, but it feels a bit pointless in the context of Huddersfield. Huddersfield have been stacked in the forwards for a few years now to the point where they've been losing players they want to keep like Owen Trout. I don't think signing another mid 30s prop is going to fix what's wrong with Huddersfield and if they've given him a big contract it just puts them at further risk of losing more of their younger talent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/68229917 ask and you shall receive..

For anyone interested by the way, maybe even journalists claiming this has 'finally been achieved', the all time SL table has been on the RL project website for years and is likely where Hull live got the info from. Link here: https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/competitions/super-league/tables.html

You must be new here

I mean the fixtures that aren't going to be the 2 picks for TV, once the streaming services are launched.

highlights from the St's Salford friendly. Good quality broadcast, testing things out for the non sky broadcasts moving forward maybe?

True, but 14 of those were pulled from the reserves team and aren't named in their 24 man squad for the year. Seen some suggestions on one of the Salford pages that Adam Sidlow might be off too leaving them with 23 players for the start of the season. If they pick up a couple of injuries early in the year they're going to be deep in the mire.

Saints 52-10 Salford. Probably to be expecting considering how paper thin Salfords squad is.

highlights from Wire v Leigh last night, footage isnt the best though. 2nd try from Leigh was a cracker.