Sat 26-Sun 27 Jun: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[ShropshireBull]

3 minutes ago, crashmon said:

On the Broncos, what will be interesting will be what the match day experience will be like at PL.  We all know that ealing is just temporary until August, so I can kind of understand why they only going with bare mininum, but at PL they should have

• Buck and Dusty back for the kids
• Mascots etc (although this might be due to covid why no mascots this year)
• Food / beer on sale
• some form of merchandise in the club shop
• Match Program back (even if like the little ones we had at Barnet)

But of course this being london, we probably will never see Buck or Dusty again

Mascots are the best cheap advertising clubs can get. Press dont care for official announcements but you get a mascot horse hitting up London landmarks and the internet will do the rest for you. 

[RigbyLuger]

2 hours ago, binosh said:

The James Ford bubble has well and truly burst!! I have said it before and I will say it again thank god Leigh got the nod for that 12th spot.

York have carried on their 2020 form & lost 7 from 11 

His agent can link him with a Super League job on his next podcast.

[POR]

10 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Mascots are the best cheap advertising clubs can get. Press dont care for official announcements but you get a mascot horse hitting up London landmarks and the internet will do the rest for you. 

With all due respect SB the only worthy equine mascot is Percy the Pit Pony at FEV

[mickmike wilson]

3 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

No but they probably got a pint or two and sponsors like to see thriving events.  

A few will be picking up a season ticket next time around I am sure.  

The majority paid in but probably a fair few entered for free before 1pm & they then turn into an captive audience who would have spent enough money on food & drink to make it viable as the club put on entertainment before (Ladies game) & after with videos & music etc & they trebleled theconsessions for maximising your ability to spend, Win/win 

[meast]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

I think the point you are missing  (or choosing to miss) is that were Newcastle or York to get to SL they would take the game to untapped areas of commercial potential.  

Also in 2017 York were getting 800 average. Fast forward 2 seasons and it is 2000.  York were getting 4000 in League 1 against Bulls on a cold Feb in 2018. You are telling me they arent getting 5-6k versus Leeds, Hull FC or Hull KR ? Give over.

 

They may get 4,000 as a one off or for the odd game, that doesn't mean they'll get average gates if 4,000, Huddersfield have had a few crowds over 10k but we will never average that.

You claim "they would" but based on what exactly!

The whole point is that clubs like York and Newcastle need to carry on growing organically for a few more years before they can even be considered SL material, if they're promoted on merit, on the field then fine, but that's not what people are wanting, they're wanting Wakefield, Huddersfield, Salford etc forcibly removed from the top tier because York and Newcastle MIGHT pull the odd big crowd in and MIGHT get new fans and sponsors on board, and MIGHT compete better.

Other than might, there's nothing to warrant York or Newcastle being anywhere near to a SL place right now or for the next few years 

Edited June 27 by meast

[meast]

1 hour ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Went to the Broncos today with my 12 year old.

Not having a dig for the sake of it however after attending Warrington Wolves on Thursday one was brought down to earth.

Crowd I reckon 350 max (Maybe 300) which included I would say 30 from Swinton add on wags etc and the real figure would be around 250 + of which I would say 100 are ex RL fans from up north (Mainly older who have been going for years) that leaves 150 Londoners.

Bar was empty (Last year it was packed)

No food on sale lets be honest its not even worth a burger van to turn up as it would not cover the petrol money little along the fee.

Where the hell the club announcer was found god knows (Prob a nice guy) however it reminded me of hospital radio totally amateur hour.

 

I looked for the merchandise to buy my son a replica shirt nothing to be seen (Last couple of seasons Steve Mascord organised things with his other half and it was very good) 

 

I really dont see where the club can go from here (Academy fantastic) match day experience out of 10 Minus 10 totally awful in fact appalling.

 

P 

That's a real shame, I really enjoyed my visit to trailfinders and thought the set up, atmosphere, etc was terrific.

[ShropshireBull]

2 minutes ago, meast said:

They may get 4,000 as a one off or for the odd game, that doesn't mean they'll get average gates if 4,000, Huddersfield have had a few crowds over 10k but we will never average that.

The while point is that clubs like York and Newcastle need to carry on growing organically for a few more years before they can even be considered SL material, if they're promoted on merit, on the field then fine, but that's not what people are wanting, they're wanting Wakefield, Huddersfield, Salford etc forcibly removed from the top tier because York and Newcastle MIGHT pull the odd big crowd in and MIGHT get new fans and sponsors on board, and MIGHT compete better.

Other than might, there's nothing to warrant York or Newcastle being anywhere near to a SL place right now or for the next few years 

I am confident that York would average over 5000 over 13 games. I dont want teams forcibly removed but I do think that the self interest of 11 uk based teams should not hold back the game.  I want a 14 team SL and teams like York would be a welcome addition.

[mickmike wilson]

3 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yeah think they did last week hence my comment. 

Make an event of it - Toronto style

 

They’re doing it for every home game & it’s working as we must be averaging somewhere around 2500 atm

[mickmike wilson]

2 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Apologies for not thinking about that crashmon however no one apart from myself was even in the q:(

Keep on attending & take more people with you & you’ll be a positive influence 

[The Blues Ox]

Just having a look at the remaining fixtures and standings and it looks like its going to be really tight between Fax, Batley, Bradford, london and Widnes for the remaining places in the top 6. Out of those I expect Fax, Widnes, London, and Widnes to win another 7 or 8 games each with Batley looking to have the toughest remaining fixtures where I can only see them picking up another 6 or so wins. No doubt theres a lot of twists and turns to come but a lot of the final positions could come down to if some teams end up going to Toulouse or not.

At the moment my understanding is that it is not in their best interests to play any home games at least not until another team catches them up on wins in which case they may have to play some of their home fixtures over here. I may be wrong on that but I think their points stand whatever but they do have to play a minimum number of games in which case if they fail to do that their win % would be out of the window and they would finish where their points would have them. I may be totally wrong on that afterall this is Rugby League.

[Magic XIII]

10 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Went to the Broncos today with my 12 year old.

Not having a dig for the sake of it however after attending Warrington Wolves on Thursday one was brought down to earth.

Crowd I reckon 350 max (Maybe 300) which included I would say 30 from Swinton add on wags etc and the real figure would be around 250 + of which I would say 100 are ex RL fans from up north (Mainly older who have been going for years) that leaves 150 Londoners.

Bar was empty (Last year it was packed)

No food on sale lets be honest its not even worth a burger van to turn up as it would not cover the petrol money little along the fee.

Where the hell the club announcer was found god knows (Prob a nice guy) however it reminded me of hospital radio totally amateur hour.

 

I looked for the merchandise to buy my son a replica shirt nothing to be seen (Last couple of seasons Steve Mascord organised things with his other half and it was very good) 

 

I really dont see where the club can go from here (Academy fantastic) match day experience out of 10 Minus 10 totally awful in fact appalling.

 

P 

I applaud you for sticking with it.

I’ve said on here previously, until Broncos convince me they have some sort of long term strategy, then I’ll be keeping my hard earned in my pocket. Hardly missing it to be honest; nice to do other things and when the BBC score notifications come through, I just shake my head.

MW suggests below that you should bring a friend, but it sounds like there just isn’t enough on offer, on or off the field, to get them hooked, if anything it would put them off.

Only a couple of years ago we were competing in SL, and years before that competing in Championship, with a decent side and vibrant if not limited off field at Ealing. Hughes, Loubser and Milner have just let everything slide to such a point that the Broncos club now bears no resemblance to that of 2+ years ago.

Maybe they are holding out for the Dons move, to solve all their woes, but given that hasn’t even been voted on by Merton Council, goodness knows when that will happen.

As for 10 academy products in the 17. Laudable, but lets be honest most aren’t good enough at this stage in their development for even mid table Championship. A couple will never be good enough. Drip feed academy into an experienced team, that’s what happens everywhere else.

[Trojan]

On 26/06/2021 at 21:43, Fevrover said:

Why not ? They are in the Championship so have to play everyone.

Wrong again. I thought Newcastle would offer a stiffer test for Fev. I understand Lee Briers was at POR watching Gale

[RigbyLuger]

23 minutes ago, Trojan said:

Wrong again. I thought Newcastle would offer a stiffer test for Fev. I understand Lee Briers was at POR watching Gale

Where is Briers going for a start?

[JonM]

4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Just having a look at the remaining fixtures and standings and it looks like its going to be really tight between Fax, Batley, Bradford, london and Widnes for the remaining places in the top 6. Out of those I expect Fax, Widnes, London, and Widnes to win another 7 or 8 games each with Batley looking to have the toughest remaining fixtures where I can only see them picking up another 6 or so wins.

Injuries will start to become a big factor. Bradford are clearly a different proposition without Danny Brough. Widnes had two (non-playing) wingers on the bench yesterday which makes me think that one or two more injuries would be a big problem.

[The Blues Ox]

40 minutes ago, JonM said:

Injuries will start to become a big factor. Bradford are clearly a different proposition without Danny Brough. Widnes had two (non-playing) wingers on the bench yesterday which makes me think that one or two more injuries would be a big problem.

Agreed I think Fax were down to 18 players and Batley 17 yesterday as well.

[ShropshireBull]

Just now, The Blues Ox said:

Agreed I think Fax were down to 18 players and Batley 17 yesterday as well.

Lots of teams are doing it tough. Think it shows the depth when say Swinton can stick with London for so long and collapse at end. Simply tired bodies and you need a strong 17 for the full 80. Everyone beating everyone now. If Widnes can get that win at Fax they will believe they are right back in it. 

Really pleased for Widnes that they have turned the corner on and off the field. Better things to come from them next year no doubt. 

[ShropshireBull]

5 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Just having a look at the remaining fixtures and standings and it looks like its going to be really tight between Fax, Batley, Bradford, london and Widnes for the remaining places in the top 6. Out of those I expect Fax, Widnes, London, and Widnes to win another 7 or 8 games each with Batley looking to have the toughest remaining fixtures where I can only see them picking up another 6 or so wins. No doubt theres a lot of twists and turns to come but a lot of the final positions could come down to if some teams end up going to Toulouse or not.

At the moment my understanding is that it is not in their best interests to play any home games at least not until another team catches them up on wins in which case they may have to play some of their home fixtures over here. I may be wrong on that but I think their points stand whatever but they do have to play a minimum number of games in which case if they fail to do that their win % would be out of the window and they would finish where their points would have them. I may be totally wrong on that afterall this is Rugby League.

Fewer injuries for Toulouse as well.  They wont have many excuses if they dont go up. 

[Trojan]

2 hours ago, RigbyLuger said:

Where is Briers going for a start?

Wherever that is presumably he hopes to take Gale with him

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

8 hours ago, Magic XIII said:

 

MW suggests below that you should bring a friend, but it sounds like there just isn’t enough on offer, on or off the field, to get them hooked, if anything it would put them off

Maybe they are holding out for the Dons move, to solve all their woes

I've bright friends before buy no way now. It would put them off for sure. It is depressing 

Yes I can only assume hope there is deliberately no effort being made because the Dons move is where effort will be made again 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

13 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Just having a look at the remaining fixtures and standings and it looks like its going to be really tight between Fax, Batley, Bradford, london and Widnes for the remaining places in the top 6. Out of those I expect Fax, Widnes, London, and Widnes to win another 7 or 8 games each with Batley looking to have the toughest remaining fixtures where I can only see them picking up another 6 or so wins. No doubt theres a lot of twists and turns to come but a lot of the final positions could come down to if some teams end up going to Toulouse or not.

At the moment my understanding is that it is not in their best interests to play any home games at least not until another team catches them up on wins in which case they may have to play some of their home fixtures over here. I may be wrong on that but I think their points stand whatever but they do have to play a minimum number of games in which case if they fail to do that their win % would be out of the window and they would finish where their points would have them. I may be totally wrong on that afterall this is Rugby League.

Not sure they do if games are postponed due to Covid 

the Board have also ruled that Toulouse matches postponed as a result of the current quarantine regulations will not count as postponed for either Toulouse or their opponents – so that neither are penalised for circumstances beyond their control.

[kiggy]

17 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

Fewer injuries for Toulouse as well.  They wont have many excuses if they dont go up. 

less games mean they might not even have played enough come the end of the season

[POR]

18 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

Fewer injuries for Toulouse as well.  They wont have many excuses if they dont go up. 

 

26 minutes ago, kiggy said:

less games mean they might not even have played enough come the end of the season

But don't forget SB  and K fewer games means when SL comes  a calling they may be lacking in something often referred to as match fitness

"His lack of match fitness became apparent by the second half."

[kiggy]

30 minutes ago, POR said:

 

But don't forget SB  and K fewer games means when SL comes  a calling they may be lacking in something often referred to as match fitness

"His lack of match fitness became apparent by the second half."

Yes, it's an issue i've raised before. It is all very well have very experienced players, but generally they are getting long in the tooth and need more recovery time between games and fitness needs to be managed. Missing weeks helps this, but as we've seen with other teams that have been getting better, the more they play together the stronger they become as a team. 

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, kiggy said:

less games mean they might not even have played enough come the end of the season

As LTS mentions above it might not even be a factor but either way their points gain will still stand come the end of the season so presuming they only lose 1 game maximum they should still finish pretty comfortable in 2nd.

[POR]

3 hours ago, kiggy said:

less games mean they might not even have played enough come the end of the season

And another one bites the dust  K oldham game postponed