NERugbyDad

Newcastle Thunder's home and away kits announced at tonight's fan meeting

The blame for the rejig of the seating being put on the the TV broadcast production requirements

My son is just back from the meeting announced last week, quick headlines. They need 100-120k to commit to season, currently have about half Looking to sell memberships, possibly tiered, where member commit to paying 10, 20, 30 quid a month or something like that. Possibly moving to Northumbria university coach lane facilities

Back in the mid 90's Sir John Hall, then Newcastle United owner, tried to create a Newcastle sporting club a bit like what exists at Barcelona but it all fell apart after a handful of years. At its height he owned Newcastle United, Newcastle Falcons RU (formerly Newcastle/Gosforth), Newcastle Cobras Ice hockey club (formerly Durham Wasps) and Newcastle Eagles basketball. Unfortunately the dream was all falling apart before Gateshead Thunders year in super league otherwise he may have swooped in and bought them and the merger with Hull might never have happened. Another sliding doors moment there.

Hearing that there are people involved with the club fighting to salvage something, the pulling out of 2024 part of the statement yesterday could be significant

Got to say gutted today. Eldest was playing for the academy this season and we knew that it looked like that was disappearing but didn't think it was going to be this bad. Genuine concerns for community game now since Thunder staff were heavily involved in the administration of NERL.

My eldest and his mate will be going regardless after I won 2 tickets through Sky VIP

My eldest has just started the second year of his A levels so has been looking at what Uni's to apply to for the past few months and his most import criteria when looking after the course has been whether they have a league team. Currently looks like his first choice is going to be Leeds but will also be applying to Newcastle and Northumbria.

Some game at thunder. Thunder were 18 - 6 up then Swinton came back and leveled it with 4 mins to go and went into a 18 - 19 lead with 2 to go. Thunder then leveled almost straight away before getting a converted try in the 80th minute to win it!

Only the 42 high tackles in the thunder v Wakefield academy game today. Son says there was no flow to the game, needs to settle in very quickly or will ruin the game. He also wasn't impressed with the 40m kick offs, says they were basically getting pinned almost on the try line every time as with a high kick forwards were able to be straight on the ball catcher evertime with no time to even pass it off.

Thunder finally win!

What seems mad to me is the fact they are introducing this mid season, surely it would have made more sense to trial from the start of a season with a full preseason of having the new rule broiled into them

My son's currently with the academy at Newcastle Thunder and this is the email parents got about these changes if you're interested in the fully details and reasons: The TaCKLE U18 Academy Law Modification Trial June -July 2023 PM The TaCKLE Academy Law Modification Trial 2023 Dear Parent / Player Here at The Rugby Football League (RFL) we continue our commitment to undertake research and change policy to improve player welfare. We are writing to inform you about a law modification trial which will take place in the Academy U-18’s in June and July this year. The TaCKLE Project In 2021, the RFL and Leeds Beckett University started the TaCKLE project. The TaCKLE project is describing the Tackle and Contact Kinematic, Load, and Exposure of rugby league players. As part of the TaCKLE project, players in the Super League, Women’s Super League and Academy have received instrumented mouthguards. Instrumented mouthguards can accurately measure head acceleration events – both the number and the magnitude. This is the first time in the history of rugby league that we have the technology to accurately do this. The overall aim of the TaCKLE project is to reduce concussions and high magnitude head acceleration events. There is an increasing concern relating to concussion, and the repetitive exposure to high magnitude head accelerations. Across sports and globally, we have seen numerous changes in concussion protocols based on new scientific research, which highlights the seriousness of this injury. The TaCKLE Academy Law Modification Trail To reduce head contact and high magnitude head acceleration events, which are both risk factors for concussion, the RFL and Leeds Beckett University are running a law modification trial across the Academy U-18 competition. The research team at Leeds Beckett University and the RFL Head Contact Working Group proposed several law modifications, which could theoretically reduce head contact and high magnitude head acceleration events. It is important that these laws are practical and do not compromise the dynamics of rugby league, whilst also prioritising player welfare. These laws were reviewed by 16 Super League coaches, 20 academy coaches, 6 performance staff, 2 medical staff, 11 match officials, 15 current players and 1 retired player. The laws were rated by the group based on importance (e.g., will the rule modification reduce the frequency of high magnitude head accelerations) and feasibility (e.g., does the rule modification compromise the dynamics of rugby league and is it easy to implement for players and referees). The law modification with the highest rating of importance was; Tackle height must be below the arm pit at initial contact, with a penalty awarded for contact on the head and neck at any point. The law modification with the highest rating of feasibility was; Kick off from opposition 40m. The TaCKLE law modification trial and the law modifications have been approved by the RFL Clinical Advisory Group, the RFL Board and the RFL Council. The TaCKLE law modification trial has also received ethics approval from Leeds Beckett University. When will the TaCKLE law modification take place and what could happen? The two law modifications will now be trialed across four rounds of U-18 Academy fixtures, between 15 June and 30 July. The two law modifications will change some aspects of the game immediately. Based on research from Leeds Beckett University and other Universities globally, it is known that the biggest risk factor for concussion to both the ball carrier and tackler is when the tackler is in an upright body position and makes contact with the ball carrier high. The concussion risk is approximately 7-fold higher when contact is made with the tackler’s head/neck, than contact with the ball carriers’ torso, and over 2-fold higher than contact with the ball carriers’ hips. The main cause of contact to the tackler’s head/neck is when the ball carrier dips and the tackler rises simultaneously, just before contact. Therefore, by reducing the legal tackle height to the arm pit, the tackler will bend lower, and less contact will be made with the ball carrier’s head. This will create a space for error, resulting in a higher tackle making contact with the chest, not the head/neck. This will reduce the risk of concussion to ball carrier and the tackler. This law trial does not change what is recommended for safe and effective tackling in RL. We are aware that the change in legal tackle height to the armpit will initially result in more penalties than normal. This may lead to players becoming frustrated in the short-term. We ask for your support and patience during this period. Collectively we need to support players, coaches and match officials as we trial these new laws. Eight match officials have been selected to referee these matches and they have already begun receiving extra training and moderation in applying these trial laws. What will happen next? Following the TaCKLE law Modification trial, the research team from Leeds Beckett University will look at changes in head contact, differences in the instrumented mouthguard data from before and after that trial, as well as general changes to the game. There will be an opportunity for players, parents, coaches and match officials to feedback on the trial. The overall findings will be considered by the RFL Clinical Advisory Group and the RFL Board. If you have any questions regarding the TaCKLE law Modification trial, please contact either: Professor Ben Jones Professor Leeds Beckett University / TaCKLE Project Lead / RFL Strategic Lead Performance, Science & Research Dr Sean Scantlebury Research Fellow Leeds Beckett University / TaCKLE law Modification trial lead researcher Paul Medley National Talent Progression Manager The importance of this period of law trials should not be underestimated. The players, coaches and match officials are part of something truly groundbreaking in the sport. We have chosen the Academy U-18 competition because the players are of a high standard and coached by a full-time professional workforce who have the expertise to help players in modifying their tackle technique to make the game safer. Yours sincerely, Dr David Rotheram RFL, Chief On-Field Officer

Not so sure with FFP, as many revenue streams as possible needed to enable the spending needed to move on from 15 years of the fat penny pincher.

Magic weekend 2021 was at St. James the weekend of September 4th and 5th after the Premier league season kicked off August 14th. I think the only problem is ensuring there is a free weekend long enough in advance for everything to be sorted, on this occasion I believe it was the international football break.

Or if you want your ticket for Magic Friday but you would like to support the Academy and have your £5 go direct to them, use the link below and select Friends and Family when picking your tickets. https://qrco.de/bdxnZN The friends and family ticket option will only appear once you've logged in/created an account.

Don't forget the curtain raiser down at Kingston Park on Friday night if 6 games isn't quite enough!

Barrow thunder tired at 18 with 11 minutes to go

I'd seen the Fev game had been swapped, hadn't seen the reason and hadn't made a connection with the date. Makes sense in some ways as crowd would be severely hit but to end up with 5 away to start the season seems mad. Why on earth has it been scheduled in for teams to have 3 in a row away anyway?

Would that be the 5 away games to start the season including Toulouse and Fev! How/Why on earth we've ended up with 5 away games on the bounce I do not know, first home game isn't until 18th March against London!

More images of the thunder home shirt from Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNoTcSNeoD/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= And the away https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNt3EwNrOg/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Exact same thoughts on the Newcastle shirts but then the wife likes the away one more

Couple more pics

Thunder finally launch their 2023 stripes 2 days before the first game of the season