Newcastle Thunder

[glossop saint]

38 minutes ago, DEANO said:

Glad I never pre booked train fare and hotel to Newcastle 

Given your attitude towards expansion clubs in general I suspect they probably are as well.

[Anita Bath]

7 hours ago, Griff said:

In this instance, exactly what advantage are they giving up?

I might be a bit peeved if I was a Newcastle supporter but I'd cut them a bit of slack after their experience in the last few months.

Having lost most of their playing staff it was always going to be a desperate season. Begins to make a mockery of competitions when home advantage is given up in return for greater crowd numbers.

Were there no grounds available closer to Newcastle. South Shields, Gateshead etc.

Bottom line is Newcastle could not be expected to put a competitive team on the field at such short notice starting from scratch. Woulddnt it have made more sense to pause Newcastles participation for one season while they strived to put together a team that could compete.

What good is being hammered every week doing for expansion in NE?

[DEANO]

Think it was to create 2 extra fixtures in league 1

[Damien]

18 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

Having lost most of their playing staff it was always going to be a desperate season. Begins to make a mockery of competitions when home advantage is given up in return for greater crowd numbers.

Were there no grounds available closer to Newcastle. South Shields, Gateshead etc.

Bottom line is Newcastle could not be expected to put a competitive team on the field at such short notice starting from scratch. Woulddnt it have made more sense to pause Newcastles participation for one season while they strived to put together a team that could compete.

What good is being hammered every week doing for expansion in NE?

They are giving a pathway for young players to progress to the professional ranks in RL. 15 academy players played on Saturday against Sheffield and the team had an average age of 21 and that should be applauded. It is certainly preferable to no Newcastle team.

As history has shown bussing in a load of mercenaries still means you are going to get hammered but gets you no where as a club.

[Griff]

57 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

Having lost most of their playing staff it was always going to be a desperate season. Begins to make a mockery of competitions when home advantage is given up in return for greater crowd numbers.

Were there no grounds available closer to Newcastle. South Shields, Gateshead etc.

Bottom line is Newcastle could not be expected to put a competitive team on the field at such short notice starting from scratch. Woulddnt it have made more sense to pause Newcastles participation for one season while they strived to put together a team that could compete.

What good is being hammered every week doing for expansion in NE?

They had a year off in 2000. Lost a lot of momentum.