League 1 Super 8s - Knights v Toronto

[ojx]

Wow, my favorite Wolfpack game since Siddal. York were brilliant, loved having such a competitive game. Especially the excitement of trying to pull it back in the last ten minutes. As much as I enjoy the carnival beer festivals at home, I've missed the the excitement of a close finish. Hats off to both teams. Now, I have two second favorite teams, York and Hunslet.

[Derwent]

8 hours ago, Scubby said:

If Toronto win 5 of the next 6 they will be promoted automatically. Top team is promoted automatically and places 2,3,4,5 play off for second promotion spot.

They only need to win 4 out of 6 providing 2 of those wins are against Whitehaven and Barrow.

[EssexRL]

10 hours ago, ChrisM said:

Great gutsy performance from York and maybe some overconfidence from TWP. I did wonder how these constant blowouts might impact the team - they're all only human after all, and winning week in, week out has got to have some psychological effect on the team. Might be just the thing we need to kick on for the rest of the 8's. Congratulations to York for the work they put in to promoting the game this week. 

 

Yes must say I wouldn't like to be the club TWP play next. 

[Rascal Bongo Stork]

brilliant from York, well done! Really enjoyed watching that. I laughed at Rowley being all magnanimous but not being able to help himself whinging about the Referee.  I want Toronto to go up to Super League but he doesn't half get on my mammaries . Cut out all the dirty stuff and maybe your team wont get penalised constantly

Anyway - well done York, off the field and on

[The Future is League]

For me this was more than about the result, though is was a great result for York.

It was about showing that if you market games properly the people will turn up.

Again done well done to those at York RLFC for marketing the game in a positive way and showing other supposed bigger clubs how to do it.

[Jarv]

I try and get across to a York game once a year (from Hull) to hopefully watch one of the non heartland clubs so took the obvious Toronto choice. Was expecting to watch a stroll in the park but instead got my second storming game of the weekend.

Aside from York being outstanding (5 minutes at the beginning of the second half aside) you could tell this was the first time TO had been under the cosh by the indiscipline and frustration and had no answer. That said I think Toronto probably found out a lot about themselves as players/teammates and as an organization and will likely be stronger for it in the upcoming games. Credit to them on social media they seemed to really take the defeat on the chin.

I really like York as a club and really hope this was also a catalyst for them too.

[Scubby]

Wasn't it wonderful to see a packed stand at York and the team running around in the old amber and black colours? I'm sure it warmed the hearts of many an older York fan.

The fact that the club produced the biggest performance in its recent history must have made the day all the sweeter. Toronto only briefly looked like spoiling the party.

[Blind side johnny]

15 hours ago, Big Picture said:

I'm aware of that, from what I can tell too many clubs are having to make to with substandard fields in their stadiums.  There needs to be a minimum length of say 95 metres so that they can all at least be made to look like they're the full 100 metres long.

So you would like us to rebuild half of the stadiums in this league? OK, if that's what you want, consider it done.

[Blind side johnny]

10 hours ago, Big Picture said:

I have to agree too, they tend to be a bit dirty at times.  That it cost them today is a good thing, teams should be punished for dirty play and this should be a valuable lesson to the Wolfpack going forward.

A bit reminiscent of an arrogant Leigh side that dominated the Championship for so many years but couldn't accept defeat with any sort of grace. I will remember the name of their coach in a minute.

[Scubby]

5 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

A bit reminiscent of an arrogant Leigh side that dominated the Championship for so many years but couldn't accept defeat with any sort of grace. I will remember the name of their coach in a minute.

This is the easy part for Rowley and Toronto so far. There are players in that Wolfpack roster that are clearly no better than good Championship standard. Some of them also get pumped up too easily. Championship clubs will target them and they have to show they won't rise to intimidation and lose focus on the game. This is where Bailey, Bussey, Emmit etc. offer little value.

York got under their skin by not going away and it knocked them completely off their game.

[davet]

The Knights have now scored over 25% of the points that the Wolfpack have conceded this season.

48 out of the 183!!

[mickhornet]

Have they changed the system of promotion from LG1 to Champioonship from last season when there was no automatic promotion?

[Scubby]

7 minutes ago, mickhornet said:

Have they changed the system of promotion from LG1 to Champioonship from last season when there was no automatic promotion?

Yep. Details here

http://www.rugby-league.com/super-eights

 

[londonrlfan]

Wow, well done York. And great crowd too, even without the precious millions of away fans that M62 clubs bring.

Toronto aren't going to bottle promotion after blowing everyone away are they? This is why there should be automatic promotion for the team that comes top, as well as play offs. Otherwise, what's the point of having a league system if coming top isn't important?

[henage]

Well done York .

Some great skill on show , good crowed .

Thought the Ref had a good game ,made a few mistakes but overhaul was impressed .

Like the way he used the sin bin .

[David Shepherd]

Really pleased for York, always had a soft spot for them.

This defeat should do TWP the world of good, they need to be ready for some much more challenging games next year.

Typical Rowley, he really is a pennis.

[ivans82]

Well done York , great crowd , great result for a Team that was dead and buried at Christmas .Would have loved to see Paul Rowleys face at the finish .,,,Toronto play Town this coming Sunday so we expect a bit of a backlash , but we won at Thunder , and will be ready to give them a game ........Oh and by the way Toronto don`t deserve automatic promotion for finishing top as the sides don`t play each other home and away , so some sort of playoff is necessary . 

[Blind side johnny]

3 hours ago, londonrlfan said:

Wow, well done York. And great crowd too, even without the precious millions of away fans that M62 clubs bring.

Toronto aren't going to bottle promotion after blowing everyone away are they? This is why there should be automatic promotion for the team that comes top, as well as play offs. Otherwise, what's the point of having a league system if coming top isn't important?

The size of the league means that the fixtures aren't sufficiently equitable for this to happen. If all clubs played each other home and away, then fair enough, but they don't. The current system with automatic promotion for the top club after the playoffs is about as fair as it can be with this structure.

[RobertAM]

This weekends game has proven that the game is played by humans not robots. Not to take anything away from YCK who were tremendous but the WP didn't appear to be the team that swept the regular season and this will have done them good in the long term. As EssexRL put it "I wouldn't want to be the next team playing them" - indeed! Having said that every team they play from here on in will want to emulate York so methinks we're in for some cracking matches the rest of the 8's. isn't RL fantastic?

[Big Picture]

8 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

So you would like us to rebuild half of the stadiums in this league? OK, if that's what you want, consider it done.

Many are so decrepit that they need to be rebuilt or replaced in any case, so why not include a minimum field size for new/redeveloped stadiums and include it in minimum standards?  The new ones which have built can all accomodate the full 100 metres and Featherstone managed it with their redevelopment too from what I've seen of it.

[Spidey]

49 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

Many are so decrepit that they need to be rebuilt or replaced in any case, so why not include a minimum field size for new/redeveloped stadiums and include it in minimum standards?  The new ones which have built can all accomodate the full 100 metres and Featherstone managed it with their redevelopment too from what I've seen of it.

New stadiums are generally 100m. I've not seen a recent one that doesn't have a full size pitch

[DEANO]

6 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

The size of the league means that the fixtures aren't sufficiently equitable for this to happen. If all clubs played each other home and away, then fair enough, but they don't. The current system with automatic promotion for the top club after the playoffs is about as fair as it can be with this structure.

Your way off the mark with that statement. The only reason that there is no home and away fixtures is because some of the expansion clubs can't afford the extra games. The reason why there is automatic promotion this year is because the rfl expected Toronto to finish top and not to have to arrange a transatlantic game at a weeks notice. The league is not fair. Just ask barrow or York last year who had to travel to France 3 times. 

[GUBRATS]

3 hours ago, Big Picture said:

Many are so decrepit that they need to be rebuilt or replaced in any case, so why not include a minimum field size for new/redeveloped stadiums and include it in minimum standards?  The new ones which have built can all accomodate the full 100 metres and Featherstone managed it with their redevelopment too from what I've seen of it.

You really need to calm down a bit on some of your assumptions of RL and sport in general over here 

Featherstone for example , yes they have just expanded their pitch but you do realise the main feature of PO road is its pretty horrendous slope 

Generally RL pitches are bigger than football pitches , but many clubs share , I doubt they will convince many of them to demolish stands to get an extra 10 yards 

[ravens88]

Great to see York attract a crowd of 2,500, more than double their usual crowd. It was interesting to hear Phil Caplin mention that the York's twitter feed had 400,000 interactions in the last WEEK when they normally have 600,000 interactions per MONTH!!!!!

[Blind side johnny]

2 hours ago, DEANO said:

Your way off the mark with that statement. The only reason that there is no home and away fixtures is because some of the expansion clubs can't afford the extra games. The reason why there is automatic promotion this year is because the rfl expected Toronto to finish top and not to have to arrange a transatlantic game at a weeks notice. The league is not fair. Just ask barrow or York last year who had to travel to France 3 times. 

Do you know how to spell gibberish?