Fri 22nd Mar-Sun 24th Mar: The Betfred Challenge Cup Sixth Round Match Thread

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 hours ago, George Watt said:

Loved Ice Hockey as a kid in Hull but back then in the forties and fifties there was no team. Our school in Hull every year organised a day excursion by train to the CC final and after the match a visit to  the Wembley ice rink to watch the Wembley Lions play. Usually the opponents were the Brighton Tigers.

Ha....it's so good you are here referencing the 1940s George!...extraordinary we have that era in living memory. My wife's grandad is 100 in September (hopefully!) and he even makes you young!

I wish schools still did CC final excursions....can't say I've noticed many school trips at them over the years (and I've been to many of them over my 40 something years)

[Barley Mow]

BBC Radio Leeds commentary for the Halifax v Catalans game saying that Louis Jouffret and Arthur Mourgue are cousins. I hadn't realised that.

Halifax 0-6 Catalans - 3 minutes in.

Edited March 24 by Barley Mow

[JohnM]

Referencing soccer, Sheffield and Burnley's season is over almost before the season has started, yet they drive onwards, not giving up. Re: cups. The FA Cup is going strong : the atmosphere in Coventry is electric, as it was until recently at Maidstone. Sure , soccer is different: more money, more fans, but just as many fans resenting the "money men" and the " prawn sandwich brigade" and harking back to the days of jumpers for goalposts. The plain fact is, there are just not enough Dansons etc in our sport.

[Barley Mow]

Halifax 0-24 Catalans - HT

Edited March 24 by Barley Mow

[Just Browny]

It took Halifax 15-20 minutes to get to the pace of the game, after which it was largely over as a contest. Still, at 12-0 Eden was pulled up for offside when he took an interception and looked sure to score, with Catalans scoring off the resulting penalty. Bit of a shame as it is a decent-ish attendance on a warm sunny afternoon.

[Padge]

20 hours ago, Barry Badrinath said:

And all sl sides should automatically be the away team.

 

Let's go to some new grounds and give some clubs a decent payday.

Gate money for cup games is split 1/3 Home Team, 1/3 Away Team, 1/3 RFL, the better pay day may be the SL club at home for lower teams.

[Griff]

3 minutes ago, Padge said:

Gate money for cup games is split 1/3 Home Team, 1/3 Away Team, 1/3 RFL ......

Are you sure about that ?

[Spidey]

4 minutes ago, Padge said:

Gate money for cup games is split 1/3 Home Team, 1/3 Away Team, 1/3 RFL, the better pay day may be the SL club at home for lower teams.

Isn’t that the playoffs?  I thought cup was 50/50 after costs

[Griff]

20 hours ago, Barry Badrinath said:

And all sl sides should automatically be the away team.

Let's go to some new grounds and give some clubs a decent payday.

No thanks.

First, it wouldn't be a bigger pay day.

Second, a trip to a Superleague ground is a highlight for both players and fans.

[Griff]

1 minute ago, Spidey said:

Isn’t that the playoffs?  I thought cup was 50/50 after costs

So did I.   Though a lot of the financial gubbins in the RFL Operational Rules is hidden from public gaze.

[Barley Mow]

Halifax 4-40 Catalans FT

[Barry Badrinath]

41 minutes ago, Padge said:

Gate money for cup games is split 1/3 Home Team, 1/3 Away Team, 1/3 RFL, the better pay day may be the SL club at home for lower teams.

Do the opposition and rfl get a split of a much increased away support putting money behind the bar and food counters?

[bamfordsbeans]

Crowd at The Shay announced at 1800+.Thought there a few more in that although it was a younger audience than usual.

Think Fax must have been in the schools this week dishing out a few free tickets.If that is the case don,t know if they are counted.

Not a great weekend with all 8 results going to form and a lot of one sided scorelines although the 4 Championship clubs did better than 3 SL teams.

[Padge]

22 minutes ago, Barry Badrinath said:

Do the opposition and rfl get a split of a much increased away support putting money behind the bar and food counters?

No, but will it be all that much compared to a split of a much bigger attendance at the home of the SL team. Not everyone who attends from an SL club will spend money in the ground.

[Just Browny]

6 minutes ago, bamfordsbeans said:

Crowd at The Shay announced at 1800+.Thought there a few more in that although it was a younger audience than usual.

Think Fax must have been in the schools this week dishing out a few free tickets.If that is the case don,t know if they are counted.

Not a great weekend with all 8 results going to form and a lot of one sided scorelines although the 4 Championship clubs did better than 3 SL teams.

Yes, had the same impression - think they had made an effort to get kids in from the local amateur teams: my lad got some promotion through his club and was able to get in with his junior season ticket.

Positives for Halifax were that they genuinely gave it their all for 80 minutes, and their pack (especially Lannon, Fairbanks and Tangata) really got stuck into their opponents - and McMeeken, Satae, Bousquet will hurt many SL teams this year. On the downside, thought Fax were really poorly organised in their own sets and came up with some dreadful last tackle plays.

[meast]

6 hours ago, MZH said:

A part of the problem is that because the communication is so poor you get all these rumours circulating about what may or may not be going on behind the scenes. The way we have conducted our business recently certainly suggests money concerns, but to what extent who knows. It often seems like the only times the club speaks to fans is when they want money for something. There used to be fans forums at least a couple of times a year but they have died a death. It's just silence from the club on all the big issues and that just adds to the concern.

Is there not a supporters association or fans group at Hull that could ask questions of the club?

That's something we like to think we are good at here, our supporters association act as a conduit between the supporters and the club and seek answers, which we usually get but the club won't always tell us everything obviously but at least there's that relationship there.

[redjonn]

On 23/03/2024 at 13:39, JohnM said:

But he did blame the ref, indirectly, by implication and interpretation if not directly. It's a shame too many of our coaches haven't had media training so that they can respond somewhat more eloquently than they do. It's not compulsory to answer every question asked by reporters, nor is needed, either. The adult thing to have done would have been to respond in the immediate post- match press conference by saying something like, for example, "I'd rather talk about how we played and leave these broader issues for later. Suffice to say, overall, we work with the match officials on a two way basis , seeking to understand how we can work together to ensure we meet their expectations." 

Maybe, but he did say as you say we worked together with match officials prior and during early season ... but then commented in my words as I can't remember his exact words... that what was agreed has not been followed through in last few rounds and the PTB, etc etc is not being adhered to as agreed... that being said after he talked about the teams poor performance and Saints being the better team.

We disagree in our views... 

[meast]

4 hours ago, Griff said:

Things must be bad if they turn to soccer.

Not necessarily, there's more to football than the vastly over rated Premier League.

Football at grassroots level, like most other sports is a different beast to its professional cousin, it's generally more sociable, generally less anti social, generally more entertaining and certainly less stressful, it's not all about winning at all costs and sacking managers if they don't, it's about standing shoulder to shoulder with and having a pint, having a chat with opposition and your own fans in a generally friendly environment.

Certainly beats sat in a half empty John Smith's or MKM stadiums watching dross and not feeling excited or entertained.

[meast]

2 hours ago, JohnM said:

Referencing soccer, Sheffield and Burnley's season is over almost before the season has started, yet they drive onwards, not giving up. Re: cups. The FA Cup is going strong : the atmosphere in Coventry is electric, as it was until recently at Maidstone. Sure , soccer is different: more money, more fans, but just as many fans resenting the "money men" and the " prawn sandwich brigade" and harking back to the days of jumpers for goalposts. The plain fact is, there are just not enough Dansons etc in our sport.

I presume you mean Sheffield United and not Sheffield as they are quite comfortably mid table in the Northern Premier League Div 1 East, easy mistake to make when there's only 5 clubs (pro and semi pro) in the city* .

*= the irony being that Sheffield FC, the worlds oldest football club don't play in the city, or even in Yorkshire at all but in Dronfield, Derbyshire  

Edited March 24 by meast

[redjonn]

On 23/03/2024 at 12:59, Tommygilf said:

He said that 2 deflections and a missed barge, which was more what I was personally getting at.

As much as it was a specific bait question, he did bite. I always think as well that whilst Smith makes a lot of (sometimes good) points about the refereeing, he seems to never say "it was the same for both sides". 

Its worrying how poor the attack was. "Actually our defence of our tryline was good" (paraphrasing) was a silly comment to make after that result. Equally, in a Competition where just 3 wins gets you to the final, for Leeds to be out in our first game for is it the 4th time in a row (certainly the 2nd time with Smith as head coach), is poor. This is "his team" now, there can't be any excuses.

yep, but then again Saints are a good side... so I wasn't surprised about them winning.   Having said that I was surprised how much better saints were - even more surprised they chose to take the early penalties. 

Leeds line defence was relatively good, their outer field defence is extremely poor.  Any team to-date is easily crossing into 40/30 yard area enabling good attacking kicks.   Whereas Leeds are as it seems to me struggling to get across the half way line and more often than not kicking from around the 40 yard line or even further back. Thus every opposition set they are on the back foot.   Are they being too cautious with the off side line resulting in not having an "aggressive line" rather than a "passive" line.

[Griff]

16 minutes ago, meast said:

 the irony being that Sheffield FC, the worlds oldest football club don't play in the city, or even in Yorkshire at all but in Dronfield, Derbyshire  

Not for much longer.........

[Superb Chops]

59 minutes ago, meast said:

Not necessarily, there's more to football than the vastly over rated Premier League.

Football at grassroots level, like most other sports is a different beast to its professional cousin, it's generally more sociable, generally less anti social, generally more entertaining and certainly less stressful, it's not all about winning at all costs and sacking managers if they don't, it's about standing shoulder to shoulder with and having a pint, having a chat with opposition and your own fans in a generally friendly environment.

Certainly beats sat in a half empty John Smith's or MKM stadiums watching dross and not feeling excited or entertained.

I enjoy watching semi-pro, non-league football for many of the reasons stated by Meast.

But also due to the regular chats about diets between home supporters and (oft-chunky) away team 'keepers. Despite the barbs, most end with each wishing the other good luck for the rest of the season. 

[Blind side johnny]

Some folk still like it:

Bulldogs’ spirit reminds us why rugby league heartlands must be cherished | Challenge Cup | The Guardian

[meast]

1 hour ago, Griff said:

Not for much longer.........

True, the new ground would be 600 yards away from Derbyshire, but still nearer to Dronfield than Sheffield  

[LeeF]

This article explains the split in the challenge cup

 

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/exclusive-the-stark-financial-reality-of-the-challenge-cup-revealed-as-future-investigated