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March 29, 2024, 12:48:15 AM

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Rugby League 2022

Started by dr beat, January 31, 2022, 09:31:05 PM

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dr beat

Time for a new thread, Championship has just started.  Watched the Fev v York game on Premier, cracking match and good to see plenty there.  And then there's the SL games on C4 to look forward to.

Can't see past either Saints or Catalans again for the Grand Final.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: dr beat on January 31, 2022, 09:31:05 PMTime for a new thread, Championship has just started.  Watched the Fev v York game on Premier, cracking match and good to see plenty there.  And then there's the SL games on C4 to look forward to.

Can't see past either Saints or Catalans again for the Grand Final.

No enthusiasm for the season at all yet from my perspective as a Hull fan. Half the team are either recovering from injuries sustained last year or they've picked up new injuries in training/friendlies. And there doesn't look to be a lot of depth after the first 20 or so players.

I think Castleford look sneakily good this year.

Schrodingers Cat

Quote from: Old Thrashbarg on February 01, 2022, 08:28:09 AMI think Castleford look sneakily good this year.

Our squad looks the strongest it has looked for a fair few years. On paper at least. My biggest reservation is the coach. Don't want to write him off before a ball has even been kicked, but based I his times at Hull I am cautious. I do find it odd how so many neutrals have us down to struggle though. I've seen some put us down to be in the relegation scrap, which I don't see personally. I have a feeling we are going to start like a house on fire, then fade drastically as the season goes on. Maybe a cup run too?

As I have it Saints and Catalans top 2, Wire 3rd, Toulouse bottom, Wakey and Salford just above them. Then the other 6 in almost any order - injuries and well timed runs of form could make the difference.

Old Thrashbarg

Quote from: Schrodingers Cat on February 01, 2022, 10:12:05 AMOur squad looks the strongest it has looked for a fair few years. On paper at least. My biggest reservation is the coach. Don't want to write him off before a ball has even been kicked, but based I his times at Hull I am cautious. I do find it odd how so many neutrals have us down to struggle though. I've seen some put us down to be in the relegation scrap, which I don't see personally. I have a feeling we are going to start like a house on fire, then fade drastically as the season goes on. Maybe a cup run too?

As I have it Saints and Catalans top 2, Wire 3rd, Toulouse bottom, Wakey and Salford just above them. Then the other 6 in almost any order - injuries and well timed runs of form could make the difference.

There were worrying things about Radford's coaching/management at Hull, but those years when he had a good squad of players who stayed healthy we did perform pretty well. Two Challenge Cup wins and a couple of top three finishes. It just felt like there was no ability to recover from any sort of adversity. If a game started to go badly, we'd lose by 50+. If a couple of key injuries happened, we'd lose 5 games in a row. Which I can only put down to his style of coaching/management, because it happened with multiple different sets of players. And he did give the impression that he'd feel pretty sorry for himself when something didn't go his way, which I'm guessing rubbed off on the players.

Schrodingers Cat

Quote from: Old Thrashbarg on February 01, 2022, 10:59:39 AMThere were worrying things about Radford's coaching/management at Hull, but those years when he had a good squad of players who stayed healthy we did perform pretty well. Two Challenge Cup wins and a couple of top three finishes. It just felt like there was no ability to recover from any sort of adversity. If a game started to go badly, we'd lose by 50+. If a couple of key injuries happened, we'd lose 5 games in a row. Which I can only put down to his style of coaching/management, because it happened with multiple different sets of players. And he did give the impression that he'd feel pretty sorry for himself when something didn't go his way, which I'm guessing rubbed off on the players.

Yeah, that's pretty much my worry. Well, that and style of play. Cas fans have liked to point out his two cup wins as representative of his time at Hull, but I think something like 3 of Hull's 5 heaviest defeats in SL came about under his tenure? As well as the worrying runs of poor form where one loss becomes five almost by default.

I mean, to be honest, I think Cas (and Powell) were in need of a change and I like what we've done with the squad. A few more good signings for next year and we could probably compete. I'm happy to give Radford time - he has spent a bit of time away from coaching so it will be interesting to see how his coaching style may have developed in that time. Just so long as we don't play one-up rugby and finish around mid table it will give us a decent base to build on for the next few years.

Mr Eggs


dr beat

Watching Fev v Leigh.  Leigh look like they wouldn't score if they played all week.  Fev 16-0 up at half time despite having barely had a touch in the last 15 minutes of the first half.

Old Thrashbarg

I think St Helens might be quite good again this year.

Schrodingers Cat

Well that was worrying. Looked very much like two bottom of the table sides tonight. I've said before I will give Radford a few games first, but does not bode well - a big defeat away to Warrington next week and the knives will be well any truely out before the season has even started properly. Hard to really take any positives from a game like that. You could just feel all the optimism and positivity just evaporate as the first half dragged on with us looking more and more clueless. Fortunately for us I think there is at least one worse team in the competition (though I'm not sure there will be many others).

Mr Eggs

Quote from: Schrodingers Cat on February 11, 2022, 10:41:39 PMa big defeat away to Warrington next week and the knives will be well any truely out

Imagine Chris Chester.

Cos that's all you'll get.

dr beat

After a slow start Leeds v Wire is looking tasty.  Wire up against the run of play, Rhinos with a man sent off.

Gulftastic

Kendall, you blind motherfucker.

dr beat


Gulftastic

Sorry.

Kendall, you motherfucker with impaired vision.

dr beat

No worries, was referring to Leon Pryce saying 'bollocking' in the C4 half time chat.

mikeyg27

Quote from: dr beat on February 12, 2022, 01:36:30 PMNo worries, was referring to Leon Pryce saying 'bollocking' in the C4 half time chat.

Leon realising what he'd said and the drawn out "errrrrrrrrr" afterwards was the highlight of the broadcast.

Great game though, can't really ask for a better first impression on your Channel 4 debut (other than maybe a last-minute winner). Based on early impressions I'd think that Leeds and Wire should be playoff teams this year.

Old Thrashbarg

I understand the difficulty of the position that the RFL are in and the need to change player behaviour to make any contact with the head a rarity, but if things like this end up as a red card every week the game will very quickly become farcical.


Mr Eggs

Quote from: Schrodingers Cat on February 11, 2022, 10:41:39 PMa big defeat away to Warrington next week and the knives will be well any truely out

Thas fucked, cock. Thas geein tut chompionship, mon (Written in a Leigh accent for added Championship vibes)

Schrodingers Cat

Quote from: Mr Eggs on February 17, 2022, 09:55:57 PMThas fucked, cock. Thas geein tut chompionship, mon (Written in a Leigh accent for added Championship vibes)

Radford gone by Easter? Cas fans seem to have given up already (from what I can see online at least). The last few years haven't been great to watch for the most part, but this is something else. Can't see where our first win is coming from. Even Millward won a couple of games early on.

Can't see how it can get worse

Quote from: Mr Eggs on February 12, 2022, 04:52:43 AMImagine Chris Chester.

Cos that's all you'll get.

...so long as this doesn't happen.

Mr Eggs

I'm sure Chris Chester is absolutely loving it at his backroom job at Leigh as Head of Rugby (If he's still there).

HEAD OF RUGBY.

Mr Eggs


dr beat

Bradford v Leigh a cracker so far, proper blood and thunder cup tie.  Bulls just gone 14-8 up.

PowerButchi

As someone returning to Rugby Eague viewing after a fair few years, who's worth following now? I used to love Warrington in the early 90s being Welsh, and then watched Crusaders in Wrexham and knocked about with Jarrod Sammut, Vince Mellors and the fantastic Tony Martin and gentlemanly Clinton Schifcokske but went off it after having a fight with Lee Briers in a nightclub in Wrexham after a Wales game bout 10 or so years ago (Jordan James was a gent BTW. And Mark Lennon was even cooler).

Lee Briers is a fucking cunt. So not Warrington.

mikeyg27

Quote from: PowerButchi on March 15, 2022, 02:13:34 AMLee Briers is a fucking cunt. So not Warrington.

Good news! Briers moved on to a coaching job at Wigan.

Honestly, sticking with Wire is probably a good shout. A theoretical big club with big names, seem to be playing fun stuff this year, but still somehow haven't won a Grand Final so any glory-hunting element to it would be misplaced, and you can still wallow in the misery of so-near-yet-so-far at the end of the year.

If you want an up-and-coming team then Huddersfield would be the team to look at this year. Ian Watson took a similarly underpowered club at Salford to a Grand Final and a Challenge Cup final and it seems that he's got the Giants trending in the right direction at last.

Really though, at this juncture it looks like the Grand Final will be Saints beating Catalans or Wigan.

Of course, the Championship and League One are where the real cool kids hang out.

dr beat

Quote from: PowerButchi on March 15, 2022, 02:13:34 AMAs someone returning to Rugby Eague viewing after a fair few years, who's worth following now? I used to love Warrington in the early 90s being Welsh, and then watched Crusaders in Wrexham and knocked about with Jarrod Sammut, Vince Mellors and the fantastic Tony Martin and gentlemanly Clinton Schifcokske but went off it after having a fight with Lee Briers in a nightclub in Wrexham after a Wales game bout 10 or so years ago (Jordan James was a gent BTW. And Mark Lennon was even cooler).

Lee Briers is a fucking cunt. So not Warrington.

Really sorry to hear about that, but sadly all too consistent with what I've heard elsewhere about Briers.

Jarrod Sammut is still one of the trickiest players in the Championship.  He's at Barrow who are the surprise package at the moment, promoted this year but unbeaten and look the real deal.

Crusaders have now moved to Erias Park in Colwyn Bay.  They seem to have a smallish but dedicated following in League 1.

And there's always Widnes!?

dr beat

As a neutral I enjoyed Wigan v Cas tonight.  But Cas needed to vary it up in attack.  The kick to the corner became very predictable very quickly.  Wigan scored essentially on counterattacks, which must be a killer.  Fair play to Cas coming back in 2nd half though.

Gulftastic

Whilst I'm not jumping on the 'they're killing Rugby League' bandwagon, that sin binning was ridiculously soft.

Mr Eggs

Who gives a shit anymore.

Quote from: PowerButchi on March 15, 2022, 02:13:34 AMLee Briers is a fucking cunt. So not Warrington.

And he's St Helens mon.

I was born in Leigh and lived in Warrington from age 1 to 34. I enjoy the nonsense of having Simon Moran pissing money away on his wank fantasy shite and get the absolute glorious misery of Leigh with Derek Beaumont, a madman.

Quote from: dr beat on March 15, 2022, 11:16:00 PMAnd there's always Widnes!?

The world leader in dead animal reprocessing. SecAnim not Widnes RLFC.

Schrodingers Cat

Quote from: Gulftastic on March 18, 2022, 08:23:37 AMWhilst I'm not jumping on the 'they're killing Rugby League' bandwagon, that sin binning was ridiculously soft.

Agreed. I've generally been fine with the head contact ones so far - we really are only just realising the impact successive concussions have on people and the game does have a responsibility for player welfare, and besides, the game simply cannot afford to have a court case like American Football has. Rugby union already has theirs lined up. However, that one last night and the McGillvery sin bin last week were just ridiculous. I don't think it was even a penalty. If Fonua was able to get his hand to the ball, he couldn't have been that late.

As for Cas, we are in big trouble. The next 2 games are crucial to how this season pans out. Lose to both Wakefield and Toulouse and we are getting relegated. 2 big wins and it could kickstart our season. At this moment though, I think Wakefield will beat us but we'll limp to a win against Toulouse. Which means Radford will keep staggering us on for a couple more months at least.

Gulftastic

If we lose to Salford tonight, then Cas v Leeds is being touted as the losing coach gets fired.