Rumour Mill

[Blind side johnny]

13 hours ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

It's simply the usual poor standard of journalism we've come to expect.

That's what I thought it must be.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

13 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

That's what I thought it must be.

Luke leaving Fev was announced several weeks ago so the club were hardly likely to repeat it. Very little time and effort would have allowed the author to get the correct information.

PS sorry to impose without bringing a rumour

Edited October 28, 2023 by Les Tonks Sidestep

[The scrim reaper]

Lucas walshaw will be with batley next year apparently bradford where interested but he's staying!! 

[RogerT]

That will be great.

[phildog]

Getting concerned about the growing number of names going all over and anywhere except here....Maher to Keighley eg, still a young enough bloke to bolster our pack,  plus others.

[distantdog]

12 minutes ago, phildog said:

Getting concerned about the growing number of names going all over and anywhere except here....Maher to Keighley eg, still a young enough bloke to bolster our pack,  plus others.

Never impressed by Maher. If he wasn't good enough for Halifax, perhaps not good enough for us.

[Indigogo]

52 minutes ago, distantdog said:

Never impressed by Maher. If he wasn't good enough for Halifax, perhaps not good enough for us.

I'm sure he'll be fine in League one but Fax seem more than happy to have at least part of his wages gone for 2024. I presume that's why it's a season long loan to us rather than a permanent deal. He's 28 this coming Saturday so still a good age for a prop, hopefully we can get him firing on all cylinders.

[coolie]

On 26/10/2023 at 21:20, phildog said:

Just to tot up...                                          Left;                                                                                               Campbell.                Hirst.                         Hodson.                   Lillycrop.                   Milthorpe?               Kibula.                                                       Reilly.                                                         Kaye.                                                         Richardson?             Arrived;                                                    Rourke.                     Cooper.                  Joe Burton.                                               Re-signed;                                              Buchanan.                 Gledhill.                                                    Ollie Burton.                                              Flynn.                      To hear;                                                    White.                        Leak.                      Woods.                      Manning.                Meadows.                 Walshaw.                Kear.                          Brown.                  Senior.                       Ward.                      Morton.                     Blake.                      Johnson.

Assuming the 'to hear's' do re-sign, we're at 20.

As we speak Bletchley Park have been notified, and their best encryption operative is working flat out on a decipher for this post

They cracked the Nazis 

But Phildog might be a little bit harder

[Chris_T]

2 hours ago, phildog said:

Getting concerned about the growing number of names going all over and anywhere except here....Maher to Keighley eg, still a young enough bloke to bolster our pack,  plus others.

If your concerned Will Maher has gone elsewhere then I'm concerned about you. He couldn't break a paperbag, not fit to tie the laces of any of our aging props. 

[Batley Bob]

Squad announced so far 

1 . Josh Rourke
2 .
3 . Buchanan
4 . Burton
5 . 
6 .
7 . 
8 . Gledhill
9 . Burton/leak
10. Cooper
11. Manning
12. Flynn
13.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Batley Bob

[RogerT]

I must have been asleep when was Woods announced.

[phildog]

The one name mentioned doesn't disguise the fact which I was trying to make. Besides which Maher wasn't with us long enough to gel with the team and show what he might do. As I pointed out in my list which people appear determined not to be prepared to decipher, we have replaced only 3 of the 6 leavers (8 if we count Milthorpe and Richardson) and assuming that all unannounced 2023 players were to resign that would give us only a squad of 20 so we're at least 6 short of a 'squad'. What I was pointing out were the number of players going elsewhere and names of players being let go at other teams still unattached plus a full squad of Newcastle players, a couple of whom would have been useful in a better team. Are we in talks with Linners for players? Can he spare 6 players with no recall? Are we back to our old chestnut of pennies? There's IMG on the very near horizon, no certainty on security of divisions, necessitating a strong team to steer clear of going down amongst the dead men. 

[phildog]

No, I've heard nothing on Woods Rog.

[Batley Bob]

23 minutes ago, phildog said:

The one name mentioned doesn't disguise the fact which I was trying to make. Besides which Maher wasn't with us long enough to gel with the team and show what he might do. As I pointed out in my list which people appear determined not to be prepared to decipher, we have replaced only 3 of the 6 leavers (8 if we count Milthorpe and Richardson) and assuming that all unannounced 2023 players were to resign that would give us only a squad of 20 so we're at least 6 short of a 'squad'. What I was pointing out were the number of players going elsewhere and names of players being let go at other teams still unattached plus a full squad of Newcastle players, a couple of whom would have been useful in a better team. Are we in talks with Linners for players? Can he spare 6 players with no recall? Are we back to our old chestnut of pennies? There's IMG on the very near horizon, no certainty on security of divisions, necessitating a strong team to steer clear of going down amongst the dead men. 

Maher was with us a full season ,made 16 appearances , if that's not long enough I don't know what is , and your right wood hasn't been mentioned yet , my mistake

Edited October 31, 2023 by Batley Bob

[distantdog]

18 minutes ago, phildog said:

The one name mentioned doesn't disguise the fact which I was trying to make. Besides which Maher wasn't with us long enough to gel with the team and show what he might do. As I pointed out in my list which people appear determined not to be prepared to decipher, we have replaced only 3 of the 6 leavers (8 if we count Milthorpe and Richardson) and assuming that all unannounced 2023 players were to resign that would give us only a squad of 20 so we're at least 6 short of a 'squad'. What I was pointing out were the number of players going elsewhere and names of players being let go at other teams still unattached plus a full squad of Newcastle players, a couple of whom would have been useful in a better team. Are we in talks with Linners for players? Can he spare 6 players with no recall? Are we back to our old chestnut of pennies? There's IMG on the very near horizon, no certainty on security of divisions, necessitating a strong team to steer clear of going down amongst the dead men. 

Did we ever leave this approach in order to return to it?

 

[Chris_T]

45 minutes ago, phildog said:

The one name mentioned doesn't disguise the fact which I was trying to make. Besides which Maher wasn't with us long enough to gel with the team and show what he might do. As I pointed out in my list which people appear determined not to be prepared to decipher, we have replaced only 3 of the 6 leavers (8 if we count Milthorpe and Richardson) and assuming that all unannounced 2023 players were to resign that would give us only a squad of 20 so we're at least 6 short of a 'squad'. What I was pointing out were the number of players going elsewhere and names of players being let go at other teams still unattached plus a full squad of Newcastle players, a couple of whom would have been useful in a better team. Are we in talks with Linners for players? Can he spare 6 players with no recall? Are we back to our old chestnut of pennies? There's IMG on the very near horizon, no certainty on security of divisions, necessitating a strong team to steer clear of going down amongst the dead men. 

What have Kevin and the board done over the years that makes you think we won't assemble a competitive squad before the season starts?  Pound for Pound we've probably been the most competitive club in the division over a 13 year period, we regularly finish above teams with a squad costing double that of ours, have some faith. I bet you open all your Christmas presents on Christmas eve. 

[Dog forever]

5 hours ago, coolie said:

As we speak Bletchley Park have been notified, and their best encryption operative is working flat out on a decipher for this post

They cracked the Nazis 

But Phildog might be a little bit harder

I thought it was mortons last season. 

[phildog]

No DD you're right, we didn't and won't, even if, well.....even if. I just hope Mokko doesn't get let down. As I said, we're still half a dozen players short and it seems as though we're not at the front of the queue as usual. Might be wrong but it does seem it.

[redditchbulldog]

9 hours ago, phildog said:

No DD you're right, we didn't and won't, even if, well.....even if. I just hope Mokko doesn't get let down. As I said, we're still half a dozen players short and it seems as though we're not at the front of the queue as usual. Might be wrong but it does seem it.

do you just copy and paste your posts from this time every year and change the odd name, have a bit of faith in the BOD that we will have a competitive squad as we have over last 13 seasons 

[phildog]

Whatever....but one time, when we DON'T play 'pound for pound' above teams spending double and find ourselves down among the dead men, what then? You all think I'm the only dissenter out of a regular 800 attendees? We've had a good run, been lucky, but the end of last season showed that you can't run on shoestring budget and squad size even though the coach had asked to bring in dome strength. Why is it so wrong to ask questions without getting the one stock response?

[il cattivo]

41 minutes ago, phildog said:

Whatever....but one time, when we DON'T play 'pound for pound' above teams spending double and find ourselves down among the dead men, what then? You all think I'm the only dissenter out of a regular 800 attendees? We've had a good run, been lucky, but the end of last season showed that you can't run on shoestring budget and squad size even though the coach had asked to bring in dome strength. Why is it so wrong to ask questions without getting the one stock response?

Probably because ts the same stock questions.

and who exactly are the "dead men"?......

 

 

[redditchbulldog]

1 hour ago, phildog said:

Whatever....but one time, when we DON'T play 'pound for pound' above teams spending double and find ourselves down among the dead men, what then? You all think I'm the only dissenter out of a regular 800 attendees? We've had a good run, been lucky, but the end of last season showed that you can't run on shoestring budget and squad size even though the coach had asked to bring in dome strength. Why is it so wrong to ask questions without getting the one stock response?

yes linners did ask for more players but if you look at last update from Kev the coffers were bare due to tenner in not bringing in as many as was needed, yes we took a fantastic following down to Wembley , if we only had half that number turn up to each game i'm sure we would be in a healthier place and signing more players but who is to say we haven't but just not announced them.

[Bill H]

Just try and moderate your criticism Phil. If there is no optimism on the forum what is the point?  

[Kevin Nicholas]

Just to clarify at some point i will be referring to that same old chestnut that finances are extremely difficult. I have just returned from holiday and first job is to pay the players for October then look again at finances where as of today we have had to find £30,000 to get through the season which is the worst we have been for probably 20 years so we are working on a plan but as of today we don’t know the League structure and we don’t know the Rfl financial distribution to Clubs other than it is likely to be significantly less than last year where we were already losing money so whether we like it or not that is challenging to say the least!!

Other Clubs can do what they want regarding signing players with such uncertainty and we ourselves are still doing that to some extent but we have to try to keep finances as level as we can. We have players to announce as signings and we have still some players to sign and it is frustrating I understand that if we see some Clubs strengthening but we will put out a competitive team eventually i am sure. By the way us overachieving against teams with bigger budgets is NOT luck but whether anybody likes it or not it is skill both on and off the field so we don’t seek pats on the back but such a comment is offensive to our players and the Club generally.

i will say it again for probably more times than i care to remember but our supporters are brilliant but we have not got enough of them so that is the single reason why we are held back but  it will not stop us trying and it will not stop me enjoying my rugby league.

Anyway let’s see what we can do to improve going forward and more signings will be confirmed shortly. Whatever new players we would like let’s remember our players in 2023 are decent Championship players who got to Wembley and won a significant amount of League games as well so it’s not that bad at all.

[phildog]

Now, one man extremely important to the club over the last 3 years has Bern poached. Paul Royston has left the club to go to Keighley. Another gap to fill.