AB Knight

The new assistant hopefully knows the club well, has some experience with the players, is aware of the budgets and financial side of the club and overall is able to teach Fordy a few things and pass on his knowledge to help Ford improve even further as a coach. That’s right, only one man for the job....Coolie

Big club or not we are currently the main story on the BBC Rugby League website

Fully agree and that’s a point I made over on Facebook when some fans (me included) were unhappy with performances. I made the point we were still clapping the team on and off, still turning up and spending money, still gave Fordy a cheer. I’ve watched a few clubs local to wherever I’ve lived over the years (Castleford Tigers, York City, Leeds Utd) and they have all been very quick to boo their team off or have a drop off in crowds when things weren’t going well. I genuinely didn’t see or hear any of that last season at YCK.

If it’s the ‘clubs on the up’ thread in the general RL section then I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it - I’ve seen Barrow mentioned a few times, I like Barrow, some great fans and my favourite of the Cumbrian teams but just over a year ago they were in a lot of trouble having been relegated, rumoured financial difficulty (didn’t they have just £40 or something in their bank account at one point?!). A season of practically giving free tickets away (which needs a long term strategy to be successful, IMO) doesn’t make them a big club or even a club on the up. Now, if they have 2 or 3 years of growth and establish themselves as a championship club then they are a club on the up. Like I say I’m a fan of the club and they are doing some good things and have a good setup to generate income but it needs viewing over a longer period than one year. As for Mark Aston, I think he’s a good coach and notice he often likes to talk other clubs up, means less pressure on his own players. I think York are a club with great potential, doing so many things right while I still think a few things need reworking (I’ve added my thoughts on the fans survey, take em or leave em!) but at this current time I wouldn’t say we are a big club.

They’ve spelt Danny Ward wrong

Looks like we’ve signed (subject to approval from our Batley accountant) Pauli Pauli, so good they named him twice!

I can only count 4, who’s the 5th? Will Oakes, Jack Teanby, Joe Brown, BJB

I wish I did (a reference there for any Alan Partridge fans).

He drives a gravy boat

Most seasons we have one clear overachiever and one big underachiever - in my opinion in 2021 that was Whitehaven (many tipped them for relegation) and York (on the field at least). I can’t wait for 2022, I have a funny feeling Barrow will go well, when they were in the Championship in 2019 they weren’t actually that bad. Not sure they’ll be quite as good as Whitehaven this season but wouldn’t surprise me if they are within touching distance of the playoffs. My tip for underachiever (bookmark this page now, Fax fans!) is Halifax, there’s just something about their signings which make me think they’ll struggle to gel quickly. Maybe it’s because I saw York lose both their first choice halfbacks at the end of 2020 then struggle most of 2021 in that position, and now Halifax are losing Liam Harris and supposedly Connor Robinson from that position. I hope York can get into the playoffs...one huge advantage for 2022 is our new halfbacks (Liam Harris, Jamie Ellis) have both previously played for York, have both played together and aren’t coming from London and Australia. Just hope they can stay injury free. Fev to finish top, Leigh and Bradford to be up there, Newcastle too. I’m tipping Workington, Sheffield, London and Dewsbury to struggle..2 from those 4 to go down. Widnes/Whitehaven/Batley/Halifax/Barrow mid table. My hopes for Championship 2022 (apart from York to go well) are no changes to the format halfway through. I hope clubs embrace the Monday night matches on Premier and see those games as fantastic opportunities to present their club on live TV instead of moaning about lack of away fans. And no talk of conspiracies to keep clubs out of SL!

I think he’ll work well with Jamie Ellis, didn’t know they’d played together before. We should be at an advantage going into 2022 compared to 2021 - instead of one player coming up from London and one from Australia who’ve never played together (and both suffered injuries) we’ve 2 players coming from closer to York who’ve played here before and played in the same side together too, let’s hope they stay injury free.

Liam Harris, Benji Marshall or (I hope) that guy at Toulouse who got man of the match and looks like super mario!

Or anti Fev/Super League conspiracies!

That’s twice Doncaster have kicked or thrown the ball away - why waste time when you’re 12 points down with 15 minutes to play? Bizarre.

Teanby has signed up for 2022. On his day he’s a very good Championship player, let’s hope he has plenty of those days next season

I’m no great Donny fan (I find their cheap as chips season ticket strategy to be baffling) but I’d prefer a trip down the A1 than a third trip up to Cumbria. We also have a better record down there.

To be fair it doesn’t mean anything until the signing is confirmed by our Dewsbury accountant So....Danny Ward, when is he replacing Fordy again......

That’s what I was referring to, yes. It’s great marketing, no Eddie Stobart lorries needed

Oh, and we have a train station too

The award is not for which team has had the best 80 minutes every Sunday, it’s for the club itself. Men’s team - 2nd highest ever place in the championship, first visit to Wembley in 91 years. Consolidated their position as a championship club. 2nd best result against Toulouse, only Halifax pushed them closer (sorry Fev fans). Ladies team - Gone from finishing bottom in previous seasons to challenge cup runners up and play off semi finalists. The team have picked up more wins in 2021 than they did in 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined. Continued good work with the PDRL side , with the foundation (3 foundation players have come through into the 1st team) and with community clubs. Hospitality - most matches have either sold out or been very close to selling out the 500/600 capacity hospitality area. Some clubs don’t even reach that with ‘normal paying punters’ coming through the gates. Attendances - I estimate York have averaged 1800 this season, a drop of 10% from the last full season, at a time when a lot of clubs are posting 40% and 50% decreases. Away support (that old chestnut) has been 50-100 apart from Whitehaven who brought 150 ish and Bradford who travelled in good numbers as usual. We have our club name and colours all over the bus park and ride route between the stadium itself and one of the most visited cities (outside of London) in England, great for exposure. Batley, Halifax, Whitehaven, even Bradford (plus as expected Fev and Toulouse) have all had great seasons on the pitch, if the award was purely for the 80 minutes the men’s team play every weekend then those teams would all be worthy winners and York would probably be 3rd or 4th bottom. However I genuinely don’t know how things are off the pitch for them too, more than happy to be educated.

Pleased with that, never lets us down although I think there’s another level to his game which hopefully he can develop. Harris would be a good partner for someone like Jamie Ellis. I always thought his style of play was too similar to Connor Robinson which is why it didn’t always work. Nikau came back such a better player from his spell at North Wales, seemed to develop physically as well and not getting pushed into touch. Hope we keep him. Teanby just lacks a bit of consistency. He was a real handful towards the end of the season, let’s hope we see more of that. Keyes - I think I saw him play for KR against Leigh at magic, looked a handy player. Would be happy if he is on board though I’m sure a few clubs will be after. BJB - I read an interview recently where he mentioned having a lot of injury problems in the past, he does play like he’s trying to protect himself never really goes for it. I’d have him as a squad player but feel we need to look forwards. Great game at Wembley though! Den Perry - Quite a frustrating player to watch. Really good going forward and a great finisher but it’s annoying seeing him drop a nothing kick through when he could’ve stopped it with his body and made himself a cup of tea with the time he had. Seemed to happen every other match. If Batley can sort that part of his game out they’ll have a great championship player. Definitely need some big no nonsense forwards onboard.

https://yorkcityknights.com/club/knights-named-rfl-club-of-the-year/ Well done to everyone involved. Club of the year in each of the last 3 full seasons. And before the usual comments about ‘Whitehaven/Batley/Halifax have been a better team’ it’s club of the year not team of the year. Men’s team - consolidated themselves as a championship club, second highest ever championship finish, first visit to Wembley in 91 years. Ladies team - Challenge cup runners up, competed at the top compared to previous seasons when they’d been near the bottom, profile has raised significantly. Other teams - Great work in the community and with the foundation and LDRL team. Attendances - Despite COVID and the stadium management group challenges, we are (probably) one of only a few clubs to have not seen a significant drop in crowds. Across all divisions we are seeing quite a big decrease, whereas at York we’ve only dropped from 2025 in 2019 to my estimate of 1800 average for the season (with only one club this season - Bradford - bringing more than 100-150 ish). Exposure - Hospitality (a big money earner for clubs) sold out most matches, was a great initiative having the park and ride bus decked out in Knights colours. A shame the World Cup isn’t going ahead with the 8 games scheduled to take place at the LNER, hopefully this goes ahead next season. A lot more work to be done especially on the pitch but we are getting some real building blocks in place off it.

Add on Will Jubb who I think has been a real asset to the club, never let us down even though he can get even better. Hopefully someone can make this a sticky

Was interesting watching him, very secure catching kicks which I think far too many of our wingers at York have struggled with. Looks fast too. Only thing I noticed was he kept going for the intercept, not sure if that’s because Bradfords defence was bunched in the middle meaning Batley kept creating overlaps, but I don’t think it’s something Ford encourages - it’s no surprise Nikau kept going for the big hits and intercept attempts, then was shipped out to North Wales and came back and played more structured. Anyway I look forward to him playing for York, just hope it’s officially confirmed soon by our accountant in Dewsbury

Well spotted, unlike the BBC who incorrectly gave it to Harrison