wiganermike
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Posts posted by wiganermike
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1 hour ago, Martyn Sadler said:
The link doesn't seem to be working.
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11 hours ago, yipyee said:
You do your breakdown for Bradford and we can compare notes
I doubt that they would score anywhere near Kirmond's pouch's jokey 1.7 points comment but if a club in the position that Bradford are (and have been for almost a decade now) were anywhere close to scoring 17 out of 20 then it would be time to tear up the criteria lists and start again when designing the grading system.
I would expect a score in the 9-12 points range for Bradford.
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15 minutes ago, Jughead said:
No, sorry, it’s a five team competition. My mistake. Even so, pointless nonsense cup.
I would say you are looking at it the wrong way around. IMHO what we (and the RFL) refer to as the early rounds of the Challenge Cup (those before the SL clubs take part) are in reality the early rounds of the 1895 Cup which is for everyone below SL. The Challenge Cup is now a de facto 16 club competition for the 12 SL clubs plus four qualifiers (currently the qualifiers will be the four clubs that reach the 1895 SFs).
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30 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:
Interesting…..most of my rugby watching years I have focussed on the bottom, not the top….it comes with being born in Rochdale!
If your ratings were to be correct then Hornets creep into second tier while unbeaten Dewsbury, Oldham, Hunslet, Workington (all teams we have yet to beat) miss out.
Seems to be no point in putting together a winning team or building up crowds. Just keep doing whatever it is that got you in the Grade B rating.
Will we be spending hours of TV time and pages of newspapers discussing the things that would help avoid ‘relegation’? What would that be …because it sure aint winning rugby games.
Although the grading scores will determine the 12 clubs in SL from 2025 it has been stated throughout that traditional P&R will continue to happen at the end of each season between Championship and League 1. As such I would consider that the grading scores (whether they are similar to Mick Gledhill's estimates or not) below the 12 highest rated clubs would be merely indicative of how much and where each club needs to improve to be capable of reaching SL rather than determining which league they play in. Performance on the pitch (and not a given club's grading score) would determine whether a club is in Championship or League 1 based on what we have been told.
If Doncaster for example were graded as one of the top 12 clubs going into 2025 they would be elevated to SL. If not they would stay in the league that their league performance had determined.
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10 minutes ago, ChristianB said:
Gary Schofield is as entitled to an opinion as anyone, but it might be better to avoid 'assertive certainty' until the season has actually begun.
Either way, he is in for a surprise.
I do hope Gary makes it to a game at the Memorial Ground and enjoys eating a bit of 'humble pasty'.
Garry Schofield has a job where he is paid to produce controversial opinion pieces designed to get people talking. So that's what he does, he may or may not believe a lot of the stuff he says or writes but he does what he does to get people talking. He has brought us gems such as Paul Rowley should be England coach and Jordan Lilley being the answer to England's half back dilemma in the recent past. His opinions on Cornwall are similar to those he has espoused about other expansion clubs so I wouldn't take them to heart. He performs a similar purpose to that of Phil Clarke on Sky Sports, to make outlandish proclamations designed to garner reaction (and thus clicks/viewers/publicity for the outlet he is broadcasting or writing for). Personally I don't mind reading his column but I wouldn't be likely to agree with much of what he says.
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3 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:
I was surprised that a new team in the NRL was launched with just a nickname such as the Dolphins.
I don’t understand really how that will work in the long run unless the other NRL teams ditch reference to their place names too.
That seems drastic - is it really the direction of travel in Australia? A move towards every franchise lovers dream scenario.
It seems odd that they have dropped the location from their name when joining the NRL but they must see a reason for doing so.
It isn't a rugby league club but Sheffield Wednesday were known as The Wednesday from their formation until 1929 when they added Sheffield to the name. They joined the football league as The Wednesday in 1892. As mentioned on the thread about RL in London a few RU clubs in London operate with a nickname only, Saracens, Harlequins etc.
It isn't unknown for sports clubs to just have the moniker and no location but the dropping the location having previously used it at the point of stepping up to the top level is probably unique.
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10 hours ago, idrewthehaggis said:
Exeter Chiefs
In our post post modernist world, demonstrative declarations of admiration for native American warrior hood is mere offence now. Yes Calvin, it might have been acceptable in the 80's, but not now.
Still crude all that happened is a badge alteration.
Sale Sharks.
In the historical lexicon of Cheshire and Manchester, I do not recall a Shark having any relevance.
A worker bee - yes.
A grinning Cat - yup.
But shark, not even late down the Ship Canal.
You can imagine it at the PR consultancy "brain storm" (as they would have been called then) and Hugo and Clemency are debating what rhythms with Sale.
In the great alliteration game, clearly they ditched Sailors, Smugglers, Skinny Dippers, Saints, Swans, Seagulls, Shamen, Sanitarians and so on.
Meanwhile the more robust RL would have merely looked at the average remaining punter on a Friday nigh/Saturday morning 2am in Leeds and Wigan, where a many rhino lass and warrior laddie is abound.
With regard to the relevance of sharks in Cheshire, the area contains large salt deposits (and mines) as a legacy from the period of prehistory when it was covered by a sea so at that stage at least sharks could have been found in Cheshire. I suspect as you say the name was selected for alliterative reasons as with many others rather than as reference to the ancient sea though a link could be claimed to exist.
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12 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:
Why did Warrington get rid of Zingari??
Presumably as they obtained a settled home ground as I believe Zingari (an Italian dialect word for gypsies) referred to them not having a home venue and travelling around to play. That former moniker has been covered in threads on various fora previously. Were they still using it then perhaps this would have been a club moniker that came in for criticism and came to be changed/dropped as others have been.
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5 minutes ago, Jughead said:
Is it sc-on or sc-own Thoroughbreds?
It should probably be Scoon as I would expect it was named after Scone in Scotland the place where Scottish monarchs were crowned.
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1 hour ago, headtackle said:
Good luck Cornwall. A hot bed of Union players so hopefully they can put a decent squad together and be competitive
in terms of helping them develop a pre season game against a big name SL club would help generate some interest. I know the seasons may not be in sync but surely Saints,Wigan, Leeds etc could send a reserve team Anyone know what their pre season plans are
Also would be good if the hot/cold balls in the cup draw gave them a plum home tie on tv
Should be an interesting year
Cornwall are not entering the cup this year.
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2 hours ago, Sitona said:
Why would Cornwall play in Torquay, it’s over 100 miles and a couple of hours away from Falmouth. No one has suggested, for example, West Wales play in Swindon or Barrow play in Widnes or Leeds play in Leicester. Surely better to build presence and fan base in their local area?
It is also in Devon so I don't imagine any team called Cornwall would be too appealing to the locals in Torquay anyway.
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Sat 22 July : Betfred RL Challenge Cup Semi Final : St Helens v Leigh Leopards KO 14:30 BBC1
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Congratulations to Leigh. Great defensive effort from them.