2024 thread on other Championship teams

[RobLambert]

4 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

This would have been SO much better if you had got Mr O'Neill senior to do his own voice-over on the clip in the style of Mick Morgan's famous one for Cas v Wigan..."ooh, what about that, send him off, send the dirty get off!"

I can't spake

[J Phil Loxton]

Some nice empty seats at Hull yesterday in their meaningless fixture with Huddersfield. IMGs master plan looks like it might be starting to kick in.

[The Phantom Horseman]

17 minutes ago, J Phil Loxton said:

Some nice empty seats at Hull yesterday in their meaningless fixture with Huddersfield. IMGs master plan looks like it might be starting to kick in.

Imagine what it's going to be like in August and September when they've got home games against Cas and Catalans.

[lingaro]

6 games in and already half the league has nothing to play for  

[J Phil Loxton]

14 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Imagine what it's going to be like in August and September when they've got home games against Cas and Catalans.

Tell you what though. There plan is actually working because without any people in it, you can tell what a nice stadium that Hull have got and that's what it's all about.

[haskey]

It now seems , as everyone I talk to agrees , that the RFL have a death wish. IMG have been a total expensive disaster.

The life blood of sport . at all levels, needs competition, and competition means promotion and relegation no matter how painful if can be , as each team is in a circle , top one minute , bottom next. It may take years but have faith and it will happen success , or failure will come

I have watched the game since 1960 , no floodlights, all sort of weather conditions, changing rules monthly,and c--p leadership at both Rovers level and at the top, and I wonder if it will ever truly improve before I am looking at the daisies from below.

 

Rant over.

 

 

[lingaro]

3 hours ago, J Phil Loxton said:

Some nice empty seats at Hull yesterday in their meaningless fixture with Huddersfield. IMGs master plan looks like it might be starting to kick in.

The electronic advertising hordings made the game for me. 

[TheYoungBaron]

4 hours ago, lingaro said:

The electronic advertising hordings made the game for me. 

Bring back the proper score board at the railway end. My only wish in life was to put up the tins with the numbers on. Sadly it ain't going to happen.  Look on the bright side; rovers aren't bottom unlike another team I support!  ( Big clue, it's not Batley - I like Batley tho , especially the corned beef hash) 

[Fevrover]

1 minute ago, TheYoungBaron said:

Bring back the proper score board at the railway end. My only wish in life was to put up the tins with the numbers on. Sadly it ain't going to happen.  Look on the bright side; rovers aren't bottom unlike another team I support!  ( Big clue, it's not Batley - I like Batley tho , especially the corned beef hash) 

Many many moons ago I was putting the scores up at the PO Rd end ( you went inside that one) at an A team game and put the wrong score up ,the sparse crowd could be heard from the main stand - i soon changed it ☺. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

So we're five games into the Championship season, some eyecatching scores at the weekend and perhaps a picture starting to emerge.

Wakefield are perhaps about what was expected - they are steamrollering most teams like we did last year, which is what you'd expect given their reported spend is close to £1.5 million, but they don't look anywhere near as good at this stage as the 2022 Leigh team. To be honest they're almost an irrelevance to the Championship this year - they'll walk the league leadership title, may or may not win the Grand Final (they probably will but as we well know, one-off play-off games at the end of the year can be unpredictable), but either way, they'll be back in SL next year.

Bradford were just staking a claim to be in pole position for second spot when they did the most Bradford thing and lost to an 0-4 team in York. I think that showed again that 2 or 3 tough, close games in a row against strong opposition can have a knock-on effect - just as we played poorly against Bradford having been in 3 brutal games with Wakefield (twice) and Leigh, Bradford had a number of very tough games, especially the last two, and presumably that told at York (not taking anything away from York who yet again have had a long injury list).

Sheffield have made an impressive start to the season and will probably rack up another big score against Barrow this week, we'll know a lot more about just how good they are when they face Wakefield the week after.

Halifax have a lot of injuries to key players but losing 46-0 at home is still an eyepopping scoreline. Hard to see them being a top 6 team this year unless there's a huge turnaround.

Widnes competed very well against us and their improvement looks genuine at this stage. Interesting to see if they can maintain that form as they have tended to drop away after a prominsing start in previous years.

Toulouse have taken a while to find their form as they sometimes do and clearly aren't the force of 2019 or 2021 but I think they'll still be a top 6 team and probably top 4 as the season progresses.

With some teams (us, Halifax, Toulouse, maybe York and Batley to an extent) not looking as strong as in previous years, it's certainly a harder league to predict from week to week than in previous years, barring Wakefield.

 

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

Not posted on this thread for a while but one thing strikes me about this season, is that more than ever teams are looking different from week to week and there's a lot of luck involved as to what the make-up of your opponents is on the weeks you play them.

Some but not all of that is DR and loan-influenced. Halifax called in four Leeds players (3 DR, one on loan) into their 21-man squad for their game against Doncaster, 3 of them played and whether by coincidence or not they produced what sounds like a much-improved performance and ran out dominant winners (looking at the highlights it seemed like 2 of their Leeds contingent had a major impact on the game).

Similarly Batley who like Halifax haven't used DR much this season brought in Hooley, Kibula and Putt from Cas and shocked Bradford, though again I'm sure there was far more to it than that.

Obviously I'm not being in any way critical of either team for using DR, obviously we do it too and in Batley's case 2 of the players used to be their players. Moreover, injuries, suspensions and other factors are also having a huge impact this season.

For instance, Barrow are by no means the first club that fielded a much-weakened squad at Toulouse 2 weeks ago and their pack that played us (and beat us thoroughly on merit by the way) had five players who didn't play against Toulouse.

I think that's why we're getting a lot of "strange" results, we are all well aware of how strong or weak our own team is from week to week but other teams have had huge variations in the strength of line-up they have been able to put out from game to game.

[J Phil Loxton]

59 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Not posted on this thread for a while but one thing strikes me about this season, is that more than ever teams are looking different from week to week and there's a lot of luck involved as to what the make-up of your opponents is on the weeks you play them.

Some but not all of that is DR and loan-influenced. Halifax called in four Leeds players (3 DR, one on loan) into their 21-man squad for their game against Doncaster, 3 of them played and whether by coincidence or not they produced what sounds like a much-improved performance and ran out dominant winners (looking at the highlights it seemed like 2 of their Leeds contingent had a major impact on the game).

Similarly Batley who like Halifax haven't used DR much this season brought in Hooley, Kibula and Putt from Cas and shocked Bradford, though again I'm sure there was far more to it than that.

Obviously I'm not being in any way critical of either team for using DR, obviously we do it too and in Batley's case 2 of the players used to be their players. Moreover, injuries, suspensions and other factors are also having a huge impact this season.

For instance, Barrow are by no means the first club that fielded a much-weakened squad at Toulouse 2 weeks ago and their pack that played us (and beat us thoroughly on merit by the way) had five players who didn't play against Toulouse.

I think that's why we're getting a lot of "strange" results, we are all well aware of how strong or weak our own team is from week to week but other teams have had huge variations in the strength of line-up they have been able to put out from game to game.

What I have noticed too is that teams are still looking at Fev as a benchmark in their performances which is far from the reality. When Bradford beat Fev at home, all that I saw were two very average teams on the day. RESULT Bradford go to lose to York away who they expected to beat easily they lost to Widnes then ultimately at Batley.  Batley were unlucky to lose their home match with Fev but until last week have shown little in their true form. Whitehaven looked promising too again against Fev and we're shouting from their rooftops and why not? So if I was Barrow I would wait to see how they perform at Bradford on Sunday as to whether they have turned a corner. Wakefield aside I wouldn't class any other result as a shock though even then we are the only team to beat them and then run them close a few weeks later. It's a wide open league. But if Dewsbury beat Wakey at the weekend then I will well and truly be gobsmacked.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Yeah, there are quite a few teams whose fans seemed to think they had produced one of their best games of the season against us, maybe only Doncaster and Dewsbury (who played well for 20 minutes) were the exception.

As for Dewsbury v Wakefield, I reckon a last-minute Paul Sykes drop goal to seal it

[Fevrover]

HT Fev 18 Swinton 22 and fully deserved.

[J Phil Loxton]

2000+ At Salford 4000 at Huddersfield Yet Wakey attract nearly 6000 for a match against lowly Dewsbury in the championship, an attendance they rarely reached in super league. The question is- Is Super League the promised land? Winning and derby matches is what the game is about isn't it????

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, J Phil Loxton said:

2000+ At Salford 4000 at Huddersfield Yet Wakey attract nearly 6000 for a match against lowly Dewsbury in the championship, an attendance they rarely reached in super league. The question is- Is Super League the promised land? Winning and derby matches is what the game is about isn't it????

They say it's the hope that kills you, but in RL it's the hope that fills your stadium. Wakefield have gone from perennial basement-dwellers in SL to a team that, with the simple application of one sugar daddy (plus the completion of their new stand), now have plenty to be optimistic about for the future. Having something realistic to hope for is key imo.

[gazza77]

5 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

They say it's the hope that kills you, but in RL it's the hope that fills your stadium. Wakefield have gone from perennial basement-dwellers in SL to a team that, with the simple application of one sugar daddy (plus the completion of their new stand), now have plenty to be optimistic about for the future. Having something realistic to hope for is key imo.

Agreed. On time I think things will settle down again, but for now the disappointment of last season, along with uncertainty around where our place in the pecking order is likely to be in the longer term is impacting. The lack of clarity on the leadership of the club probably doesn't help either, with radio silence since Mark's notice of stepping down a couple of months ago.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Although it was disappointing that we made an early exit from the 1895 Cup this year, I must admit I'm not sorry that we avoided being the sacrificial lambs against the full time £1.5 million squad at Wembley yesterday. It's no fun being a mere speedbump watching fans of another club revel in their upward march, and I wasn't thrilled reading some Wakefield fans hoping for Fev to go into liquidation earlier this week so they could get an extra 0.5 IMG point for catchment area.

Talking of the 1895 Cup, is it really only two years since we played Leigh at Tottenham? Seems like a lifetime ago, and amazing now to think we were favourites going into that game.

[sentoffagain2]

          We have been a bit unlucky(not last season) coming up against a strong Leigh side.Beaumont had the extra cash for better players.Toulouse were a strong side too i don't know much about their budget.And Toronto a full time team packed with SL players who we put up a magnificent performance against.

[haskey]

Aye we can but dream ?

[sentoffagain2]

         I had us down to get beat at Sheffield next Sunday.But with a week off and Sheffield getting a towelling against SL bound Wakey i have changed my mind.Not for the fist time i may add but if we don't beat Sheffield next Sunday we are not the Rovers we need to be going forward.My fathers day present will be our young un paying me in and a pint if i am lucky.

[Gooleboy]

27 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

         I had us down to get beat at Sheffield next Sunday.But with a week off and Sheffield getting a towelling against SL bound Wakey i have changed my mind.Not for the fist time i may add but if we don't beat Sheffield next Sunday we are not the Rovers we need to be going forward.My fathers day present will be our young un paying me in and a pint if i am lucky.

We will win at Sheffield.

[HAVERCROFT10]

Hope so, it will be tough without haifbacks.

Come on Rovers 

[The Phantom Horseman]

Looking around the league, there's some shocking accusations come out of the Widnes v Swinton game today from Widnes (and ex Swinton) player Nick Gregson......
 

 

[Fevrover]

15 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Looking around the league, there's some shocking accusations come out of the Widnes v Swinton game today from Widnes (and ex Swinton) player Nick Gregson......
 

 

Glad it isn't Rovers involved- some other fans would love it.