AB Knight

I don’t go to many matches these days, I had to choose between RL and my music career but I’m hoping to get tickets for the Headingley match (a rare Saturday off for me!). As for the venues I think they’ve pretty much got them spot on: Start with a bang at Wembley. If I’m picky I’d have had the first match at Emirates or Spurs but at least Wembley has the potential to draw more (see my final point). Second match, a new stadium and I think it will sellout. I’ve seen some suggesting Headingley should’ve been second match but that would be ridiculous, if England lose the 1st and 2nd test and the 2nd match had been at Headingley, the 3rd test (Everton) would’ve struggled IMO. Third match, guaranteed sellout regardless of results in the previous two matches. I think this could sell out quickly and push people who miss out to decide to go to Wembley/Everton and make a day of it instead. And a huge thank you to the organisers for not choosing Elland Rd, very poor stadium with zero leg room (apart from the East Stand) which urgently needs renovating.

Just posted about this in the match thread. I’m guessing Batley lost a few to suspension after the bust up against Bradford? But York are without Ata, various players ‘2 weeks away’ from return/getting visas, and Batley beat Widnes last time out at Mount Pleasant. You’d think it would be +8 York.

I’m very surprised Skybet have given Batley +8, thought it would’ve been the other way round. It’s not been a happy hunting ground for York, 1 league win there in recent memory and they are already off the mark in the Championship. I think it will be a tight game anyway.

There’ll be a statement in 2 weeks

Delivered via Ferrari

*duplicate post*

I’d rather start with 13 players No Mitch Clark?

The whole ‘RFL hates XYZ club’ is one of the most infuriating comments I regularly read. I had to come out of a few Castleford groups on social media because I was fed up every time a referee decision didn’t go their way seeing people say the RFL have always hated Cas because they refused to merge with Wakefield/Featherstone. Yep, the RFL despise Cas so much they’ve allowed them promotion twice when they could’ve simply said their ground didn’t meet requirements or some other reason.

They’ve been paid in Ferraris

When he played for York before he always carried the ball as if he didn’t want to get injured. Then when I’ve seen him play for Sheffield he seemed to bust a gut. Hopefully it’s the latter if he does sign. I seem to remember his defence was always solid.

True, I was there when they played Castleford in front of 23k at Elland Road, a great occasion even though I was hoping for a bigger crowd.

Thank you, I thought there must’ve been a reason.

The problem with vultures and swooping for players is where do we draw the line? How happy were recently 3rd tier Hunslet when they lost Ferreira to York? How about when York snapped up Batchelor from the smaller Coventry (now Midland Hurricanes) club? I know Keighley were gutted to lose Santi, partway through the season too. I remember Salford complaining about feeling like a feeder club when they were losing the likes of Myler to Warrington but they had no complaints snapping up Olpherts from Newcastle. You can’t have it both ways, it’s the nature of sport so you have to do everything possible on (and off) the pitch to move the club forward towards the top. Anyway good to see Towse have a promising game and Knights getting off the mark

With Headingley I’ve always been surprised they didn’t push the capacity a bit more - eg have the entire South stand terracing and then seating above on a completely separate overhang tier instead of it being split in the middle as it currently is. The North stand linked up with the Carnegie stand. I’d have thought they could have got it up to 25K capacity without even touching the difficult Western Terrace. Suddenly with 25K Huddersfield/Hull doesn’t really have much over it. Appreciate it could’ve come down to funds, maximum capacity allowed by the council etc.

I just thought York were baffling at times. Playing boring risk free rugby is understandable in those conditions, but then when it came to making boring risk free scoring decisions (kickable penalty in front of the posts, opportunity of a drop goal at 6-0) they decided they were Penrith and came away with nothing. Crowd wise I don’t think they will see much change in either direction until a proper joined up strategy is put in place to make gameday an actual event. A winning team helps too. 2024 average was 2031 2023 average 1885 2022 average 1984

From memory the East Stand holds just over 3000. If I had to estimate I’d say 1200 there.

0.5 IMG points there, if I rightly remember.

That’s the record attendance for York Knights (set at previous ground Bootham Crescent). The record Knights crowd at the new stadium is exactly 4000. Both those records against Bradford. And yes I believe they sometimes posted 7-8000 crowds at Clarence Street, I’m sure someone who followed the club back then could confirm.

I have a feeling the media person at York is a young un’ who as a general rule I find just post without checking and certainly don’t tend to read/edit what they’ve just posted. It’s creeping into the BBC too, some really shoddy errors. I actually read the above release in a Borat voice. Anyway it’s good news and should be a York Knights record attendance. The current record is 4281, though I doubt it will be a record Rugby League attendance there (7139 for the Women’s Rugby League World Cup).

York 3rd Widnes dark horses Anthony Thackeray to come out of retirement for Sheffield before round 10.

From the articles I’ve read it doesn’t sound like Ken Davy would be doing a huge renovation of The Shay (not that it needs it anyway, always seems a tidy ground). New pitch, scoreboard, toilets and LED lighting. Talk of new stands etc seem like fantasy in my opinion. Dare I say it won’t cost tens of millions to achieve? I agree it sounds like the first step of a merger or at best a permanent relocation to Halifax. Keep academy teams at their training base in Huddersfield so they at least retain a presence, provide match day shuttle buses from Huddersfield for a few years, everyone is happy.

Not sure what you mean

Some lighthearted Championship predictions, not to be taken seriously so don’t get your knickers in a twist (Fev fans). After a shock Challenge Cup exit at home to Featherstone, Brian Noble moves upstairs in an ‘advisory role’ as the game caller says it’s been agreed Brian Smith is the new Bradford coach. Brian McDermott is promptly announced as the new Bulls coach. Game caller blames predictive text for the Brian Smith prediction. Fev fans in uproar as they believe the win at Odsal should guarantee them a SL place. Petitions and campaigns start about the RFL being ‘out to get them’ before they lose to Shaw Cross in the next round and all goes quiet. Anthony Thackeray comes out of retirement for the 9th time to play for Sheffield, his 3000th career game. Meanwhile Mark Aston starts his 7th appeal against the decision to suspend him even though he only has 3 weeks of the sentence left. York Knights announce Russell Crowe is onboard as joint owner, but they forget to tag his 1.4 million instagram followers. When they eventually edit it they accidentally tag Russell Howard instead. London Broncos announce they will be playing home matches at Bromley which completes their sticker book of lower league London football stadiums. IMG awards them an extra point for doing so. Barrow remove the roofs on the remaining two stands to create the only roofless championship venue. Another point goes their way courtesy of IMG.

An easy fix would be for the Salford shareholders (with their bi weekly newsletter) to forgo the next dividend, it can be reinvested into the club and they can get on with signing Nathan Clearly. Simples!