Agree that we looked as if we were still on the coach for the first 15 minutes, but credit to Swinton, I feel sure AH will see things from the first real competitive game to work on this coming week. At least we did not fold and came back late in the second half.

No change from GS with his comments, yes seeing us reach a top placing, but does not want to see us promoted to Super League I don't see Gary ever moving on from being a dinosaur with regards expansion of the sport, but hopefully ones like him will become a minority, it has to happen if the game is going to survive and remain a top professional sport.

Swinton played a good game, worked hard and defended really well.
We started slowly, the pitch was heavy and a couple of our attacks broken down because our players slipped. As the game progressed we improved, although the score did not reflect this. We made several great breaks yet failed to score on each occasion. we were held up over the line probably four times and our wingers had three tries disallowed for going into touch.
Swinton will quite likely feel hard done by, carry on like that and they should finish quite high up the league.
We need to put this game behind us , we have two points in the bag. Now on to next week.

The team have often travelled and played on the same day. It is due to finances and unlike northern teams who come down here it is not one trip per season. I have said for a long time that for expansion to happen the RFL need to help finance the travel to the outside the M62 corridor games for all teams. I believe at one time the team let the train take the strain, maybe it would be better to prebook a couple of 1st class carriages for every game (this way they would get privacy and able to genuflect in peace)and the club should organise a discount for the amount of travel they would do in a season. This way the team would be able to get up and walk around and not have to sit in cramped conditions for hours before a game.

Since we entered the Championship the team have travelled up on the day. Even for the Cumbrian games. We had their food at Whitehaven because the team left the game having been called off. We were still in the clubhouse.
Brian Mac was the one who took the team by train, certainly to the Hulll game because we were on the same train.

totally agree

Dixon will always be a bit of a problem defensively, but he adds a lot going forward so its about trying to make sure he doesnt get isolated and working on high balls etc in training

did we pick up any injuroes?

Nothing obvious, Junior's second spell was very late on but that may be tactical to get him against a tiring defence rather than a niggle. William Barthau took a knock but seemed to shake it off.

A few other thoughts, Swinton were very impressive and are on the way up both on and off the pitch. It's a good job their kicker was kicking from his 'wrong' side most times.
A few of their players seem worth a look for next season if we stay down. 2 and 7 for starters.

London deserve credit for hanging on in their and finding a way to win the game. This would have been a defeat a couple of years ago. The players certainly weren't shirking.

When it did click London looked decent going forward, especially when moving the ball across and stretching Swinton, something I thought they should have done more. The defence certainly wasn't up to scratch at points.

Keiran needs a good game or two to get his confidence levels up. Playing his ex employers who know his game well next up may not be ideal. I'm confident he'll come good at this level.

Another northern friendly or two may be a plan in future to help the new signings settle in to the challenges the match day routine imposes. Financially it's difficult to argue with travelling on the day sadly.

The problem with that is Dixon is flawless under the high ball in training and the warm up, I think the best thing to do is give him more support from the centre and fullback where possible.

I for one like Dixon and was in the minority that wanted to keep him at rovers (although he was on a massive wage apparently) if he's used correctly the amount of tries he'll score will far outweigh the ones he gives away, sometimes you just have to shrug and say ah well that's Dixon and get on with it, something a lot of our supporters just couldn't accept

Maybe he is like a lot of the northern lads and misses his mummy and had to come home to be close to the apron strings

I think it is something like that.

Bit of both I think. KR released him but once released he was keen to head south. From memory he openly stated he wanted to be nearer his young child, based down south. Totally understandable.

We've got a few decent backs now, it shouldn't be too difficult to give him the required cover. If he gets his confidence up to a reasonable level he'll be an asset at this level. He's seemingly mentally strong, fighting back from being released at 16, a potential career ending injury and Wembley already. I'll be surprised if he isn't in the running for player of the year.....

Kear is excellent under the high ball and Williams not bad either and this is the problem...teams will always avoid kicking to Kear if they can and target Dixon. A lot of games this season will be close affairs and defence can be the difference between wining and losing. Dixon has improved and needs to continue this improvement. Hendo will have no mercy picking somebody else if not.

Dixon's tryscoring will far outweigh anything he gives away.

Exactly my point

Over a season that is likely. The concern is the tight games against the better teams when he will be the go to player, that could cost us the crucial 2 points or MPG.......

How did our former player Purtell, Pitts and Sammut play for you? In my opinion you have got a couple of cracking players in Pitts and Sammut! Purtell is a bit slow though now a days.

Purtell was pretty quiet but decent in defence.
Sammut was Sammut, brilliant one minute then hitting the post from practically in front.
Pitts is the one that impressed me the most.
Made numerous breaks/half breaks and was difficult to put down.
According to our coach himself, he's a Super League player.

I think the Bulls have got the rough end of the stick with what we've sent them!

As the season goes on you may find yourself becoming frustrated with Purtell! Yeah Pitts is one that we are devastated to have gone. His awareness is class and his ball running speaks for itself. I think in his two seasons at this level he scored 11 and 14 tries.



I dunno. Impressed with Magrin's go forward! And Macani has a bit of pace! Yet to see him properley so will reserve judgement. Oh and we love Keyes haha!

Pitts has been a 'beast' the two times I've seen him - brilliant signing. Purtell, because of his experience, will be used more-and-more for coaching, so far very solid on the field, but no fireworks. Sammut has fitted into the squad really well, certainly better than the Soward of last season, and he could take a bit of a ribbing about that last missed conversion after the Swinton game. All-in-all 3 excellent signings but are they enough to help get us back to SL level?

As far as I can see our squad is good enough to finish in the top two.
The middle 8s is where it is all at and could be very interesting, we have space to recruit an overseas player in the way Soward came to us. so we could add a new dynamic to the squad. then we need to go hunting the weak Super League teams.
To progress we must at least make the MPG.

Middle 8s simple formulae win all yr games against the other championship clubs and beat one super league club then let someone else fight out 4/5. But yep this year I think we need to be aiming for one of those mil pound game slots, that's where it gets hard tho with 2 strong teams vying for top 2 in championship it means we need one of the SL teams to have a mare.
I do think this is where a flaw in the super 8s comes up though, getting in players like Soward for example just for that part of the season to strengthen the squad, everyone does it, I can see the introduction of transfer deadlines coming in like football if we stick with the system.