Worky

Aye where's the Corinthian Spirit - They'll be wanting broken time payments next.

Who would welcome our demise? I don't get the paranoia here. The RFL don't have the money to distribute to clubs but when investors have come forward at whatever level - Cornwall / Coventry / Toulouse and back in the day Toronto they've been welcomed in. (Manchester excepted as the traditional clubs thought it was too near their territory). If either West Cumbrian club got a big benefactor and got everything up to scratch for Super League they'd be welcomed with open arms.

You're probably right and I'd go to watch them but without sorting out the financial side and facilities, we'd be likely to ride a wave for a few years before the issues facing the two clubs now, will start affecting the merged club.

But what would we be voting on? - Current State - Two clubs who don't own their own grounds and can't afford to redevelop their facilities. Joining the Teams together. Probably competitive in the Championship until the lack of investment in facilities etc takes its toll and we're back to where we started but only one team this time. I'd vote against a merger. Unless the new Town / Reds Stadium plans reveal something unacceptable to the RL side, I think this is the best opportunity to move forward with facilities and hopefully new investment. It also means we get economies of scale with the Stadium being used all year round. Let's explore being a genuine community club that will remain semi-pro but be sustainable. - Hypothetical Future - A new consortium or businessman wants to invest in RL and sees an opportunity in West Cumbria. If both Town and Haven sell to the consortium they will invest in a new Stadium in West Cumbria / Market to a wider audience (perhaps a couple of on the road games to Brunton Park and Penrith RU) / work with the amateur teams for player pathways / invest in the team to go full time and most importantly have a serious business plan over 5 years that doesn't expect 1500 people to magically turn up in the first year because if you build it they will come (that is they expect to sustain losses for a number of years as they build) - then I'd definitely vote for a merger.

I was thinking about some of the players we've had at Town and are still playing in the various leagues. What would your ideal Championship Town side look like? I'm thinking of players like Tee Ritson at Barrow and Andrew Dawson at Whitehaven. You can bring in those playing at League 1 or those who have gone back to the amateur leagues. Anyone think Moi Moi would still cut it at Championship level? I mentioned in the other thread I'd have Blaine Marwood back in the squad. Only rule is that the players must still be playing. You can't name players like Southward, Mudge, Paskins and Cec Thompson. Over to you.

This is worrying from a game prep view. It's hinted at in other posts higher up. Whose job was it to mark Matty and Fozzard? I sometimes think that's why Alex gets so much stick. Unfairly in many cases. In defense he's in a two on one situation and trying to track between them both until its too late. The coach should be guiding him on when to commit. Let the players around you worry about x. Your job is to stop y. Where's the messages out to the players on the pitch. Plan A isn't working. X and Y - your job is to keep the pressure up on these two. Leave the line if you need to. The rest of you close the gap in the line. In the footballing code I was at the Scottish FA Cup Final and Hampden. The Gretna manager was superb at the Plan B. Hearts were all over them, so he changes the tactics. Read it right and took them to penalties.

The problem for me is we no longer look drilled. In the early games we got a couple of tries from set pieces at the scrum. Jamie receives and kicks. We use the space to collect and touch down in the corner. Sure a couple of games and teams get wise. The problem is I’m not seeing any other rehearsed moves coming in to mix things up. Perhaps that’s why Forber and Doran are making sideways runs. There are looking for runners but no-one is there to pass to. We’ve gone from well drilled but the moves not always working to apparently random. Whilst I agree we need to add size, I would also say the player I miss the most from last year is Blaine Marwood due to his speed and follow up play to give us options when someone does make a break (speaking of which – I can’t remember us making a single line break at the Widnes game). On size in defence, back in the day Tee Ritson could use his speed to catch an opponent. He may not have been able to complete the tackle but managed to impede them enough for the others to catch up. Again I thought we had that type of play developing in Blaine. I’d even go as far as say the static line in defence is more of a problem than the size of the players. I might be unfair but we seemed to just watch some of the Widnes kicks that they scored from. If you can’t dive on the ball try to hoof it. Better risk a likely try than a certain try. On the bright side in the Vievers era we couldn’t field a full strength team against Leigh so were expecting a drubbing, yet it was one of the best performances I’ve seen from a Town side. In professional sport you should always play to win but never be afraid to test yourself against better opposition. I’m intending to be down at Derwent Park on Sunday. More out of hope than anything else.

Interesting point that Keith. There seems to be an attitude of bit of cash on the team a few wins and the fans come flocking but our experience has been stagnation and decline when the wheels fell off. I agree that West Cumbria is a special case for mergers due to the distance to the next Superleague Club. Rochdale fans wanting top flight Rugby League only need to go 25 miles to watch Wigan (less than Carlisle to Workington). My only concern is where will the extra funding come from to support a SL team up in Cumbria? Which sources of revenue haven't been tapped by Town or Haven or just simply unavailable at that level? For me Town and Haven should be independent if there is only funding for semi-pro RL in the area but I would add my name to those supporting a joint venture if the cash was there to go full time. Another depressing point on Co-operation was the Challenge Cup match between Haven and IIRC Warrington at the Recre a few years. It was an early kick off and televised. Town were playing an NL2 match up the road but stuck to the 3pm kick off thus guaranteeing any floating fans would miss the majority of the first half. I live out of the County but travelled back to see the Cup tie. I made the effort to travel to Derwent Park and be charged full price for around 50 to 60 minutes of the match. It was the emptiest I had seen Derwent Park during that period, yet there was no point in moving the fixture out by 45 minutes because Town fans don't watch Haven and Haven fans don't watch Town you see