M j M
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Posts
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Joined
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Days Won
25
Posts posted by M j M
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15 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:
It did for licensing being issued in 2009, Leigh's ground was 90% complete inspected by the RFL then rejected in favour of Wheldon Rd, Belle Vue and The Willows, just shows what a shambles it was back then.
Stadium was only one of many criteria as you well know.
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55 minutes ago, Dunbar said:
Also so glad we get the Fox coverage here. All those quotes from the commentary team slagging off the ref came from the Nine coverage. Not a word of criticism for the ref on Fox.
I'm out of the UK and couldn't be bothered working out a VPN so listened to The Continuous Call Team.
Would it surprise anyone that they were flabbergasted and felt Klein had lost the plot?
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9 hours ago, Father Ted said:
Child was the wrong appointment for a fixture such as this. He's nowhere near the calibre of referee we need for Play Off rugby. He has just finished his period of being stood down after the shambolic officiating in the Leeds/Wiogan game at Headingly. Moore, the ref, was stood down for one week. Child the VR was stood down for six weeks. He ref'd the Wigan/Catalan game last week, his first game back.
After six weeks out he shouldn't be anywhere near the play offs.
The dis comm will have their work cut out this weeks and their finding will make interesting reading. Pity they can't discipline referees for utterly dreadful performances as in the Catalans/Leeds game.
LOL at you shoehorning in a grievance about a dubious video ref call in your team's 30 point thrashing two months ago
However a point about how the different styles of different referees impact games is more obviously true - whilst Child did things pretty much by the book, if Thaler and Child had swapped roles events would probably have turned out differently (Thaler being his usual more gobby, assertive self may have made Catalans snap out of their ill-disciplined malaise but I bet Leeds would likely still have won).
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11 hours ago, Dunbar said:
I absolutely loved Central Park, I have a painting of the stadium hanging on the wall of my office.
But I know that it wasn't the stadium I loved... it wasn't the bricks and mortar
It is the memory of a 14 year old me sitting on the wall watching my first ever game, and Mal Meninga seeming like he was something out of a comic book, that I loved.
Or the memory of a 17 year old me with another 36,000 packed in watching Wigan defeat Manly in a gladiatorial atmosphere.
Or when the Kangaroos rolled into town or the Kiwis and Wigan were playing the best in the world.
And a thousand other memories from a Sunday afternoon or even a Friday evening when I was one of a few hundred in the ground watching the A team games.
Those memories and the stadium are impossible to separate and kids today will be forging their own memories in the new stadiums.
One of the most harrowing memories of my childhood is the 1992 Regal Trophy final at Central Park. And its comedy encore, the Widnes-Leeds 1993 Challenge Cup semi final. Whenever the place is mentioned my first thoughts are of those two days.
But I loved Central Park nonetheless.
So I'm happy to go against what other people are saying. It's not the memories, God help me (although some later ones are more fondly recalled). And nope it wasn't the people there that I loved much either
No, for me it very much was Central Park as a place. Its location in the town, its meaning to the people of Wigan, the way it reeked of the history of our sport (amongst other things).
The sheer enormity of it, as it seemed to me, stood at the back of the kop end, the knowledge that this place was built for Rugby League. It was like a metaphor for how Wigan seemed to me: big, seemingly indestructible, rather dirty and the biggest and best ground we'd travel to.
The DW/JJB has lots of merits but as an outsider I feel people are kidding themselves if they think Wigan RL didn't lose a huge amount of their identity and mystique when they left the old place.
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Tony Smith is a superb coach and one of my favourite Rugby League people. After he left Leeds I was ok with him being at Wire and Hull KR because I have a bit of a soft spot for those two clubs and it was good to see him turn them around.
Unfortunately he's now gone to Hull and many years of mirth at their rib-tickling misfortunes may be coming to an end.
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Moderately amusing this.
Nicely done Salford.
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7 minutes ago, SalfordSlim said:
Have you ever been to an away game Gordon? Try a Champions League away game with Man Utd when potentially up to 10,000 travelling away fans. I think you'll find plenty more "aggro" travelling to places like the San Siro, Ajax, Lyon (yes I've been to all 3 and seen it for myself).
I've also witnessed hostility at a fair few SL away games. In my experience, Catalans fans are pretty rowdy at the start of games but as soon as you get on top as the away team they go quiet fairly quickly.
As a guy in my mid-40's I chuckle now at the memories of Hull/Leeds fans piling into the middle of "The Shed" terrace at the Willows back in the early/mid-90's. There was plenty of slap and tickle between fans back then, which ain't that surprising!
It wasn't until I was about 20 in the late 90s that I realised that the Shed wasn't just where all away fans usually happily congregated but it was us Leeds fans being dicks.
Strangely the same never happened with the Threepenny stand.
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There appeared to be a bit of fighting in one of the staircases but not much. Mostly it was just the stuff being thrown on the pitch which was obviously well over the line of what's acceptable.
I agree though it's not enough to stop me going. In a big and tight or important game it can turn into a wild atmosphere which is usually very enjoyable as an away fan, especially when your team wins (this was my sixth visit and we've won every one i've been to so far
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6 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:
The red sticks(?) were another frequently thrown object.
Yeah these things or similar were what then were handing out. Looks like you could get real purchase on these so they were a popular choice of missile.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weddecor-Fluorescent-Glowing-Graduation-Camping/dp/B08HRXZKSV
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Not that the Leeds fans were perfect. One moron spent a fair chunk of the game wandering around drunkenly winding up the home fans and got bundled out half way through the second half by four stewards.
A couple of other drunken groups also made me a little embarrassed to be British and a Loiner.
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2 hours ago, gingerjon said:
I switched off before the very end so missed this.
That sort of thing should see Cats - and any club where similar happens - playing games behind closed doors for a spell.
No idea if it was captured on Sky or not.
I wasn't really looking in that direction but out of the corner of my eye saw a large mass of people hurrying towards the tunnel from the field - which was Child surrounded by a platoon of security goons. Then a shower of presumably beer, cups etc came hailing down on the lot of them.
This is what the Leeds players were standing amongst at the end. Stuff was continuing to come down on them at this point so Smith forced them to step away a bit which is why most are stood back in the 10m zone.
The Guasch-Laborde side was worse, the touch judge on that side was a brave guy for the last 5 mins as he dodged missiles. Thought Child might stop play but guess he decided just getting it over with was the best course of action.
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21 minutes ago, JohnM said:
Didn't see it hear the game, but from the posts on here, it sounds like the game was Cats returning to their indiscipline of old and Rhinos continuing their challenge to Leeds United as the team in the Premier League with the worst record of indiscipline.
Unfortunately for you much of the shocking indiscipline came with a large, cherry red "MADE IN WIGAN" stamp.
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Seriously though the way it kicked off at the end with the last few minutes played in a rain of bottles and beer cups, Child having to be manhandled off the pitch amongst a shower of missiles, the Leeds players dodging similar as they celebrated and then the brief bit of fighting on the stairs leading to the away seating was all a bit intense.
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I'm enjoying the Huddersfield fans on here tonight most of all.
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36 minutes ago, Futtocks said:
Just for the extra touch of those waxed tips.
A game Moostache and mullet. Chef's kiss.
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Newman was not on the plane to Perpignan.
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Looks like anyone who is anyone in Rugby League is on that flight.
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8 minutes ago, daz39 said:
Have they taken them hostage in defiance to the MRP's apparent hatred toward their club?
The MRP and the referees are not the same and certainly don't have the same views on some recent incidents.
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13 minutes ago, gingerjon said:
So, just to ensure complete and total impartiality, the match officials and commentators are travelling on a privately chartered Leeds flight?
Yes it's pretty standard practice when a club charters a plane.
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Good morning fellow plane spotters.
Leeds today are flying on UR-PSL, a 737-900 (technically a 737-94X Extended Range being originally built to the order of Sky Airlines in Turkey in 2009).
As you'll have spotted the UR in the reg indicates a Ukrainian plane and yes this is one of the few active planes of Ukraine International Airlines and has been chartered out for use mostly across Eastern Europe this summer. It arrived at LBA this morning from Katowice in Poland and left for Perpignan at 1037 UK time.
The plane is a lot larger than Leeds usually use (they've been on a 50 seat Air Nostrum CRJ-200ER for earlier games).
My mole on board tells me the crew are all Ukrainian and... the flight is full! Leeds team and management plus the UK based match officials, the Sky team including Jenna and Terry and then balanced out by Leeds fans.
Now this plane can carry 200+ people. Knock off say 40 max for Leeds staff and other officials and that's at least 160 paying.
160 x £800 = £128,000. Even allowing for deducting air passenger duty or similar it stacks up well against that apparently very upsetting cost of £100k...
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5 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:
To those of us who like to observe the technicallities of the game seeing the sliding or umbrella defensive movements, the overloading of the offense on any particular side, the movements of the second phase player's joining the line, the switch of the playmakers, the setting up of rehearsed moves etc etc the best vantage point to view these is from behind the posts and quite high up, you see much more than stood on the sideline and especially so if you are sited between the 20 mtr and goal line.
Anyway you could do with a cookie cutter stand where the visiting supporters get piffed wet through at Headingley.
Have you ever been to the LSV, where you one of the 150 or so of your fantastic support that went to the League game in '17 or '21?
Wow don't get triggered because someone isn't in total awe of the LSV. And yes i've been there plenty of times including Leeds games an international and that MPG you threw away vs Catalans.
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It was always going to be very hard to postpone the game in Perpignan tomorrow so it's good news that it goes ahead. Hopefully the one on Saturday also is cleared.
If it's true that the funeral is on the Saturday after then maybe Saints will flip their game to Thursday, getting one over Wigan on game timing after all.
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Focussing on this purely logistically from a Rugby League point of view it is comedically unfortunate timing.
If they cancelled sport for ten days as is being suggested then the Grand Final will have to be moved because otherwise we've got two rounds of play offs to squeeze into six days.
The logistical challenges for the sport are immense.
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Just now, Mumby Magic said:
Never ever heard an atmosphere at Huddersfields ground.
Those three Leeds - Bradford Challenge Cup semis absolutely rocked the place!
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This week's disciplinary.
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
What's the bloody point?
There's better ways of spending time and money than on something I used to love so intensely but is now so obviously rigged and corrupted.