There's a line in a song that goes"pick yourself up,dust yourself down and start all over again" This is what the Cougars have to do now after last nights game.
We have Batley a week Sunday and this will not be a push over.

Pretty much sums it up. I'll put the cut-throat down now........ or do you want it



As Stealth has said, perhaps we should have seen this coming, especially against a side like Featherstone.

We played well against most sides in wetter conditions but I do think we need a change in tactics as the grounds dry out.

The KN has the attendance at 828, a sizeable number of whom came from Featherstone so how many Cougars fans were there? 400? 500? Fax outnumbered us quite easily too. Where is everyone? Blimey we had more turning up last season in Championship One. Despite the two most recent set-backs we are not a bad team. We are doing OK in the league - why are our attendances so poor? It does my head in.

It is frustrating, obviously we have a better team than we did last season and are in a higher division so you'd expect more to be coming.

However times are hard, and the turn up ticket price is 27% more expensive than last season.

It's a quandary for the club. They've a business model based on sustainability and yet still want to provide a quality squad.

DO NOT FEAR .... Gary is issuing thousands of cougar pounds so kids can get into the Batley game free


Why not stop messing with gimmicky cougar pounds and let kids in free ... end of. Look at the season tickets not being transferrable fiasco. Look at the reserves admission fees. Look at your merchandising shirts, hoodies etc its rubbish. Its ok telling the few who bothered to turn up to the Q&A session that we were the most watched championship team on sky last year ...WOW. who cares ?? will that bring extra revenue to the club ?
Super League franchise blah blah blah ... I think Featherstone proved on the pitch last night where we need to be .
My opinion is that the current hierachy at Cougar Park are doing very little to address these issues. The club has let go some very passionate good people who were making a difference and who could attract new sponsors.
When Mary Calvert returned to CP it was a welcome face from the past bringing a wealth of experience. JD will have been promised the world to choose us over York City Knights ... I bet Mary and JD go home on a night and wonder what the hell they've done.
Since the very early 80s ive seen a lot of people come and go at the club, Ive lived and breathed the club, and now I have that horrible gut feeling that this club is ready to implode .. rant over ..
PS THIS IS NOT A KNEE JERK REACTION TO LAST NIGHTS PERFORMANCE

Bradford Bulls are ready to implode. Keighley Cougars are in a far better state than they have been in a long time. Just a lot of effort needs to be done to get people down.

Yes Garry was talking the club up in the Q and A evening but tbh if he didn’t and if he didn’t believe he was going somewhere with this and wasn’t positive I would think why have we got this man in charge. He clearly has a vision, but he can not make that happen by himself. The quality people i know who were let go were all getting paid by the club. I'd rather let them go than have us in financial trouble again to be honest.

Rather than leaving extremely negative messages on a public forum that may even put people off coming down, why not think of some ideas and get involved in turning this club round.

Negativity breeds negativity.

Rather than leaving extremely negative messages on a public forum that may even put people off coming down, why not think of some ideas and get involved in turning this club round.

Negativity breeds negativity.'"

:3muf96zl

I would rather concentrate on running my own business, roof over my head, bread on the table at the moment ... for the record I have financially supported the Cougars in the past through sponsorship and offered other services to the club only to be crapped on from a very great height. So while this regime is in place NO THANKS.
Unfortunately a few people on this forum dont see the bigger picture with what is happening at the club, and should you post anything remotely negative

..... As someone at the club said to me last week "I dont bother with the forum anymore cos youre damned if you do and damned if you dont"




And my spin on the bigger picture is just that The merch, The season tickets, The kids THE FUTURE and I dont believe its being addressed fully. These are all things that will attract and just as quickly lose fans.
I dont envy anyone taking on the role at the top of the tree at our club, and although Ive no massive axe to grind with Gary, Hes a very approachable bloke. I just voice my concerns about the club.
Its a catch 22 situation. Gary stated this month was going to be good money wise with 3 big games at home (We all did), with 2 already under our belts and 2 poor attendancies you cant help but worry about our financies.
This is where the imploding comment comes in , we cannot sustain high players wages on very little money coming in, I believe the Bulls are just a tip of the iceberg.
If ive come across as a bitchy, back stabbing , negative , axe to grinding keyboard warrior ... I apologise. Im just a fan who cares about the club whose pressure valve can blow now and again

That was constructive

And i completely agree.

This month has to be a bit of a blow for us after what i heard in the Q and A evening about forecasting. We need more investment and more fans turning out. These things go hand in hand. The more people are down there, the more people will want to invest.

Question is how can we gain that? I think the club does need more help and good people have been laid off by the club. Unfortunately its going to have to be more voluntary help but at least we aren’t in the game of employing people we cant afford.

One obvious way to help is to talk the club up and let people know what they are missing out on. I found what JD had to say at the Q and A evening inspirational, the way he was talking about having an idea, planting it in peoples minds and it growing. If everyone just keeps believing and pushing then it will happen. We just need to have faith.

Every game (barring the last one) for the cougars this season has been exciting and epic. The championship is currently the closest and most exciting competition rugby league has had for some time.

If we get the match day experience right we can get other supporters from near by clubs like above who would make the trip over.

Like i said skindred, i wasn’t singling you out. I was singling 'Old boy cougar' out though. His previous posts on this forum are the reason i finally lost my rag in this thread lol.

Pretty good post IMO. I think most people will relate to that.

This months wage bill will be eased by not having winning pay.

This is the very reason that people don't take you seriously. You make general broad statements without backing it up with specifics. Either you're not sure of the facts, are scared of libel or you are talking bollox. How is anyone to know the difference? When you hide behind an internet name you could be just another internet troll causing mischief.

If you know something come out and say it, and saying "open your eyes" does not qualify.

Did you go to the question and answer session and pose your questions to Gary? Don't say "you couldn't make it" because you could have asked your question by proxy or by posting it on here.

I would challenge your assertion that Gary has been portrayed as an "angel" on here, in fact quite a lot of flak has been aimed at him, but at least he is prepared to stand up in front of fans and answer their questions. I have always had doubts about him, but that's just personal opinion. If he can keep the club running, he will have done a better job than the bloke before him.

I am not having a go at you personally, just the way you produce nebulous statements of impending doom without actually giving any detail.

I'm sure if the club went to the wall you'd be the first on here saying "I told you so" when in fact you haven't actually told us anything.

PS if you don't answer the questions I have posed I can only assume that you cannot back up the accusations you have made.

I am not on here to argue or make enemies amongst you, yes dreamer I totally agree I am bursting to tell all and say I told you so. A lot of people will think I am a trouble causer and I am just out for mr Fawcett but I too love this club very much but I have to stress I can't come on here and start disclosing things and this isn't due to not having facts or evidence. Please believe me when I say all will be revealed soon.

I am fully aware of what was said in the q&a and apart from our coach and players said everything else was mr fawcetts usual tactics.

I only hope the club can be saved when this regime has finished with it, yes this is another pointless post but i promise to the good people on here I won't say anything else on this matter but please do remember all my posts when the time comes.

I think we need to be a bit more realistic about crowds. How is 1,723 a poor crowd. It is the highest for three years and one of the highest league crowds in the last six. The Featherstone game was poor, but this is what all clubs are finding when it comes to cup games. A lot of people are not willing to pay for matches other than league games, as shown by the Challenge Cup games and even in Super League for the play-Off games.

At least it was over twice the 286 that turned up at Sheffield last night!!

I just read about that Sheffield attendance; couldn't believe I'd read it right. Of course I'm well aware that Sheffield has two round ball teams but I would have thought a city of that size could provide a slightly bigger attendance than that for a NRC quarter final game. The Eagles are a good team and are doing well - where are the fans? How can clubs continue to operate on this basis? The Sheffield and Hunslet players must have been so disillusioned when they ran out onto the field and saw the stands practically empty. I feel for them, going out and giving their all on the pitch, 80 minutes of effort and passion, all in addition to their normal jobs - yet for what? Rugby League is an absolutely fantastic game, as we all know, but how long can it go on at this rate? It seems that the RFL care only about Super League; if they're not careful that's all they'll be left with.

What do Sheffield expect playing during and England Football international? Even non-football fans will tend to watch England internationals. I was invited to a couple of different parties going on in Sheffield to watch the Football (I'm often in Sheffield to visit my girlfriend). I think they also played at the Don Valley which might not be the fans preferred stadium that the Eagles use?

Surprised and disappointed at the lowering interest of all cup games... the Super league attendances might be improving but at the expense of every other Rugby League competition? I felt the Fev game attendance should have been bigger, I wonder if evening traffic puts off other west yorkshire supporters given the slow moving M62... that wouldn't have made it easy for as many Fev supporters..... I thought there would have been more Keighley supporters there on thursday... I did a 200 mile round trip to support our cup run, why couldn't more local supporters turn up? Was it a time factor or was it because cup games aren't included on a season ticket?

So did I and it really bugs me that people who actually live in Keighley and the surrounding areas don't make the effort to support the lads. I overheard quite a few Fev supporters moaning about their journey which probably did involve a stretch of the M62, then a drive through the evil city before they emerged into the civilisation of the Aire Valley. No doubt a few of them will have been put off but they were still well-supported. I'm really at a loss to think what will get more folk down to Cougar Park.

Indeed, a lot of credit to Fev for their strong away support turning up in good numbers on a weekday evening.

I think the one thing that everyone shares on here is a love for the club. That is borne out in different ways by fans but that's the one thing we all probably agree on (probably not much more, lol!) Some fans may know more about the club than others due to associations etc. At times I maybe a little green as I may not know what someone else does. Since Gary has been the Chairman I have tried to support him. I'll be honest an say I haven't agreed with some things he's come out with or done, but I have tried to get behind his ideas etc and supported him on here. I will never make any apology for this, because I think this was the right thing to do. I maybe don't know what you know, but I love the club and will do all I can to support it.