SG will not be sacked. The club don’t have the finances to 1) pay him off 2) employ some one on new contract. We still 6th in the league and the play offs and that sundecks silly competition

Yes, Fax lost over £300k for the year ended 30/11/2022 and are technically insolvent to the tune of £350k. But all RL clubs are struggling, Huddersfield, for example, were £16 million insolvent as at 30/11/21, obviously propped up by Mr Davy.

And worse to come, imo, if SKY reduce their support (they've already farmed some coverage to C4). I reckon SL will ultimately become part time again.

If it did go back to the same system before SL I’d enjoy that. All tens part time sportsmen playing on a Sunday.

1 of 2 things need to happen. Simon does the right thing and steps down as head coach which he is too stubborn to do or the board need to sack him. If he really cares about this club then he needs to put it first and resign the players are clearly not playing for him even the ones that were earlier in the season have gone off the boil. When he keeps saying in his post match interview that it is not a effort issue i can not believe what my ears are hearing did he not watch the second half yesterday the players gave up which is shameful for them and him and more importantly for the fans that have paid to watch that crap. How the board handle this will tell me all i need to know about their ambitions for this club and Richard Durgan going on the clubs facebook page and belittling fans who dare to question the coaches position does not fill me with much hope at all.

Exactly, faxlore. It's all parity. Rugby League hasn't got the infrastructure to support full time without SKY's support. The contract system hasn't helped, of course, but it's employment law! I remember the days when players didn't have a contract as such, they were registered with a club and were subject to a transfer fee when they moved on. It encouraged the smaller clubs to look for talent at a young age as transfer fees were their life blood. Hunslet, in particular, did rather well with the likes of Sonny Nicholl and Mike Jackson.

Ah yes, players only got paid if they played. And if I remember rightly Fax used to have very generous win bonuses (even linked to the margin of victory) but got a pittance if they lost, one such game we thrashed Hull KR by 70 (Preston, Austin and Watson ran riot) they had fat pay packets. And didn't Les Holliday have a deal where he got hundreds of quid if we won but nothing at all if we lost (even if he played)? I stand to be corrected of course, but it's what I remembered.

I just get the feeling RL will implode sooner rather than later. France can't even afford to host the World Cup, for heavens sake, when such a tournament is "supposed" to be a big money earner!

So a man who's got a contract for another year and a half, comes across as a decent bloke trying his hardest to turn things around, with a family to support should chuck in his main source of income, primarily because his players at the moment are letting him down.

Ilkley Fax, you say the players are letting the coach down, to that extent yes you are right, the other side of the coin is the coach letting the team down by not picking the best 17, as widely regarded by most, Maizen, Doro, Inman, should all be starters and would be in most peoples team, that in itself breeds ill feeling and does not take long to spread through the whole group.I don t know if Fax have open trading sessions for fans to watch, could give some insight as to what goes on, plus the assistant coach by every bodies admission is inexperienced, senior players possibly ignore his instructions, as for the head coach having an iron fist, those days are gone, 90% of the team don t respond to that type of coaching as is obvious at present. Sad days from what looked on paper as a promising season.

Haven't seen Fax this season. The rugby you were playing last season under Grix was very easy on the eye and everyone seemed to be on the same page. When did it start to go sour? What happened immediately before? ID the latter and you MIGHT have ID-ed the cause (and see the solution).

On the sub-topic of The Shay, enjoyed my visit last year. Tenner in as the match was on Prem Sports on a pretty cold evening. Non-segregated stand with no trouble - just like the old days. Can't recall the gate though it seemed a decent turnout under the circumstances. Nice ground for its age, though yes the corner needs closing. Not sure that a little man at pitchside 'angin' numbers on 'ooks will pass as a big screen for IMG purposes either but Bongser's mention of it in his after work, melting pot of a railway station pub (Leigh fans, Wigan fans, Salford fans, a KR fan and other occasionals) the following evening was met with incredulity and threats of a visit.

Spot on. The scoreboard is an embarrassment!

The numbers being different sizes doesn't help..


Much bigger issues though now,not been a fan of Grix for a long time but always hoped he could pull it round.If it wasnt for the money issue his role would be untenable after Sunday,which wasnt acceptable on any level..

Good balanced article in the press today from Matthew Shaw, I won't try to paraphrase but well worth a read. Unfortunately my limited IT skills don't allow me to post a link - think it was on Examiner Live.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... x-27296179 This should work. Spoken like a fan. Don't think its a secret he is a fax fan. Its balanced and considered, and leaves enough scope for Grix to bare some responsibility along with the players themselves. The only thing I would push back on is you can't disqualify fans expectations on the basis that we 'overachieved'. Finishing top 4 in 8 of the last 10 seasons, qualifying for the play- offs in all but 2 of the last 8 seasons means expectations need to be maintained, not adjusted.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... x-27296179 This should work. Spoken like a fan. Don't think its a secret he is a fax fan. Its balanced and considered, and leaves enough scope for Grix to bare some responsibility along with the players themselves. The only thing I would push back on is you can't disqualify fans expectations on the basis that we 'overachieved'. Finishing top 4 in 8 of the last 10 seasons, qualifying for the play- offs in all but 2 of the last 8 seasons means expectations need to be maintained, not adjusted.

I agree but he still has some supporters it seems. I wonder if that would be the case if he wasn't a local lad?

Yes Mat is a Fax fan-his parents and brother are regular attendees too..It's a good article and I agree with Singapores appraisal.

It’s a good article.

Whether he is a decent man or not is not the point plenty of decent people lose their jobs and have to find new employment. I would ask you did you go to the match on sunday and if so what would be your answer to what was served up. I do not think anyone could argue that this season in the league that Simon as got the best out of the players and if i am wrong and he as then we are well and truly screwed if that is the best we can come up with. We all know how sportworks it may not be fair and i agree with you the players are letting not just him down but themselves and us as fans too. And unless the club is able to offload a lot of players which is not going to happen then the book stops with the coach fair or not.

I was speaking to his dad during the match on sunday and lets just say he was not a happy bunny. He must be one of the delusional fans he talks about.

Journalists will do anything for clicks these days, what they write is usually completley different to what their actual opinion is.

By all accounts Matthew is pretty close with Simon so this article comes as no surprise to me. And to be honest and it may not come across this way but i have no personal problem with Simon at all. All i want is a coach that the vast majority of the time gets the best out of the players at his disposal. And going on this seasons squad i would be willing to only swap it with Featherstones. They are players in other teams who i would obviously be happy to see playing for us but squad wise we should be right up there and if that makes me delusional then so be it.

I'm surprised Fax are in the bottom half of the table when it comes to player budget, I thought "on paper" we're 2nd only to Fev, like Terry states.

The article also implies that we're a bunch of moaning minnies who should be happy with our lot and lower our expectations. Eh? Tell me of any club's fans who don't moan when they lose and are happy to be also rans. Warrington, for example, are getting boo-ed off even though they're 4 points off the top. Hull got constantly boo-ed at the start. The Whinos constantly complain. Cas and Wakey fans didn't bother turning up for their challenge cup games because of their disappointing league form.

And I've never known such poor turn outs from away fans at the Shay. We don't even open the North Stand for Bradford anymore. Batley used to bring a couple of hundred now they bring about 20.

It's not just Fax fans, all fans are the same. I think the article was over critical.

My. Thoughts are Matthew has read the comments on this forum and made an argument for and against by what we have written.
Why should we not have the expectation to finish 2, 3, 4, Fev do, Leigh do, just because other fans, bulls, Vikingsfor example do not seem to openly criticise they must be disappointed with poor league placing.

No I didn't go to the game although I don't doubt from the score that the performance was dire, or that we've had several below par performances this season - along with some really good ones. Over the time that he's been with us on balance I still feel that he's coached teams that have consistently produced some of the best rugby we've seen for several years, and as such has earned some slack which a lot on here seem unwilling to grant.
Confidence with both players and coach is obviously really fragile at the moment- supporters continually slagging them off is hardly likely to encourage an upturn in form or fortunes.
I understand that professional sport - even at this level is fairly cut throat and that ultimately this may well cost Grix his job - while I can accept we have different views on whether he should stay or go now - my main issue was your completely ludicrous assertion that he should "do the decent thing" and walk away from his contract - it may be sport but it's also his livelihood.

Well said. I’m sure Simon is looking at everything in his quest to turn this around. It’s obviously the hardest spell he’s been through in his short career as a coach. You only have to look to Hill FC and Tony Smith how quickly things can change. We as fans don’t know everything that goes on behind the scenes and just have to trust the people in charge. I still believe losing Finny and Scott has played the biggest part in the issues we see this season.

See Mat's article has found it's way onto the football forum and there's a suggestion from an ITK that's there's an issue with player payments,really hope there's no truth in that.

I'm surprised it's taken so long for the Town fans to be suggesting stuff like that.... Newcastle on Sunday!