The General 'Toronto Wolfpack' Discussion Thread

[burnleywelsh]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

Are they as good as Bateman and Williams right now ?

Was Bateman and Williams as good as the players that they immediately replaced on their debut seasons ??

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, DEANO said:

Well considering they ain’t producing players yet it’ll be longer than 20 years. If they have a youth set up or reserves who are they going to play against 

I did say 20+ , that does give me some ' leeway ' , and I'm suggesting ' a ' player who because of TWP in a few years takes up RL in Ontario , and just happens to be good enough to get picked by a UK club or defects from a Union background ? , In other words I'm being generous 

[GUBRATS]

8 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

At this point, who cares how many players they have? You can’t say, have a team wanting to enter RL from Peterborough and say ‘right in 20 years time, when you have local players, get back to us and we’ll let you in’ you need to get a more widespread game, which gets exposed to more people, which in time leads to more players - but it takes time, years and years. Giving up after a season or two results in the game we have today, geographically limited.

I haven't said that , and nobody has ever asked any team to do that 

But also because of that , it is realistic to be careful how many teams you are willing to admit whose existence isn't producing any players ( yes this point might well now draw in claims of heartland clubs not ' producing ' players ? , But those clubs helped to start producing players in their areas over a 100 years ago and still do ) 

I am fine with Toronto , I'm glad they got promoted to their financial level rather than tipping the Championship massively out of balance , but that doesn't mean they cannot be questioned on compliance with the structure they have freely joined , and their future contributions ?

[GUBRATS]

16 minutes ago, burnleywelsh said:

Was Bateman and Williams as good as the players that they immediately replaced on their debut seasons ??

Who were those players ? , Did they leave the competition ?

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Johnoco said:

This time it’s Toronto. Before that it was Catalans, or London or Sheffield or.....

Theres always a reason in RL to ‘look after the heartlands’. Which is why we are where we are today. 

Yes it is , with enough players currently to supply a team in Canada , that is where we are , thankfully because of the heartlands 

In truth your answer above is poor , I expected more , or are you saying I'm right ?

[THE RED ROOSTER]

2 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

Mutual consent. No surprise if they asked him to leave having presided over their recruitment 

https://www.torontowolfpack.com/toronto-wolfpack-and-brian-noble-agree-to-part-ways/

 

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Johnoco said:

You’re happy with RL being a small time regional game. I’m not. 

I'm not in charge of RL , plenty of stuff in RL I'm not happy with , if I had been in charge we would have had more semi pro RL clubs in the UK 

I'm not in charge of the club I support , for a while I was part owner but soon realised others wanted different things to me , and they had more money to burn than me , so plenty I'm not happy with how my club operates , but I still support my club 

Now if we have a situation where my club is denied access to improve itself by moving up to SL via on field results , then my support for club and definitely the sport might change , it's a conundrum , and nobody has provided me with an answer yet 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

2 hours ago, POR said:

NO he's cup tied for FEV's match against Barrow saturday so FEV have agreed to allow loanee greg worthington return to  TWP for fridays game  and yes he will then return to FEV on Monday but if FEV had been playing a league match  this weekend he would have stayed at FEV

I'd love to know how he's 'cup tied'?

[burnleywelsh]

22 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Who were those players ? , Did they leave the competition ?

Don't know. I'm not a Wigan fan. But whoever they replaced 'moved on', whether they retired or switched clubs. Do you know? But whatever happened they were replaced. 

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, burnleywelsh said:

Don't know. I'm not a Wigan fan. But whoever they replaced 'moved on', whether they retired or switched clubs. Do you know? But whatever happened they were replaced. 

No idea , that's why I asked 

Obviously they were replaced , but again , are Wigan stronger NOW without Bateman and Williams ? 

 

[Man of Kent]

12 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

 

 

[TboneFromTO]

17 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

 

Bless you sir, for your brave and wonderful use of futurama

[DEANO]

40 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Who were those players ? , Did they leave the competition ?

And who replaced those players and so on

[burnleywelsh]

14 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

No idea , that's why I asked 

Obviously they were replaced , but again , are Wigan stronger NOW without Bateman and Williams ? 

 

Were Wigan stronger when Williams replaced Blake Green? Clubs go through transition. It’s all hypothetical, were Wigan stronger before Bateman  and Williams ?? Will they be stronger in a couple of years with Harry Smith and Jake Shorrocks ? Who knows how they will develop? They could become twice the players that Bateman and Williams were for Wigan.

[GUBRATS]

7 minutes ago, burnleywelsh said:

Were Wigan stronger when Williams replaced Blake Green? Clubs go through transition. It’s all hypothetical, were Wigan stronger before Bateman  and Williams ?? Will they be stronger in a couple of years with Harry Smith and Jake Shorrocks ? Who knows how they will develop? They could become twice the players that Bateman and Williams were for Wigan.

Blake Green ? , So he went back home ? 

We can speculate on individual changes for hours , but ultimately losing say 20 players to Toronto is doable , losing another 30/40 would start to bite into the player pool IMO

[burnleywelsh]

8 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Blake Green ? , So he went back home ? 

We can speculate on individual changes for hours , but ultimately losing say 20 players to Toronto is doable , losing another 30/40 would start to bite into the player pool IMO

In your opinion......exactly.........not in mine. You’re right, we could speculate for hours.....but not tonight. Up early tomorrow. Good night and God bless.

[Big Picture]

3 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Just seen your usual emoji answer without comment, it is all about perspective, I see multiple teams being generated in NA who will not produce SL quality player's in any numbers in the next 30/40 years as being detrimental to the game over here, if nothing else the game will degenerate in terms of quality, teams will have to give way to include these new entities in the top division simply because there will not be enough player's to go round, we employ over 90 overseas player's as it is because we can't  produce enough and a good 75% of those we import are just of an average quality, many people will walk away from the game, irrespective of all the daydreamers who believe speccies will switch allegiance to the "Super Clubs" over here it just won't happen.

I could go on but I won't, that is just a portion of how I see this NA excersize being harmful, instead of grumbling with a one finger reaction, convert me, tell me how it will work, why it will be good for the whole of the game over here you myst have some thoughts on the subject, please share.

It's good for the whole game in a few ways.

First as burnleywelsh pointed out it creates additional opportunities for players to play the game professionally, as other players come in and take up the spaces they vacated at their former clubs.  More current players will stay in the game as a consequence.

Second and more important though, it's the key to stopping the decline in the player pool and then growing the pool back up again.  That will result from more boys and young men (both over here and back in the UK) being inspired to take up the game in the first place and then stick with it because it shows them that the game is a bigger deal than they'd have thought it was otherwise.

Third, as it raises the game's profile it will start to break down the stereotypes about it being small time, regional and having limited appeal, a necessary step to get more and better media coverage and more money from broadcasters and sponsors.

[Kayakman]

1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

It's good for the whole game in a few ways.

First as burnleywelsh pointed out it creates additional opportunities for players to play the game professionally, as other players come in and take up the spaces they vacated as their former clubs.  More current players will stay in the game as a consequence.

Second and more important though, it's the key to stopping the decline in the player pool and then growing the pool back up again.  That will result from more boys and young men (both over here and back in the UK) being inspired to take up the game in the first place and then stick with it because it shows them that the game is a bigger deal than they'd have thought it was otherwise.

Third, as it raises the game's profile it will start to break down the stereotypes about it being small time, regional and having limited appeal, a necessary step to get more and better media coverage and more money from broadcasters and sponsors.

Noble has left now...wonder who the new director of rugby operations will be.....Vickers?

[TIWIT]

10 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

Noble has left now...wonder who the new director of rugby operations will be.....Vickers?

Parky?

[Hela Wigmen]

I wonder if the new challenge sought by Noble is teaming up with Eric Perez again, this time with the Ottawa club?

[Kayakman]

4 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

I wonder if the new challenge sought by Noble is teaming up with Eric Perez again, this time with the Ottawa club?

Wouldn't that be a wild announcement!   That one would really rock the boat!

[Kayakman]

5 minutes ago, TIWIT said:

Parky?

I'm sure he is typing out a doomsday prediction for the Wolfpack on a keyboard somewhere.,,,others also.