It never ceases to amaze me when Good Friday and other Bank Holiday games are arranged with a 3.00 p.m. Kick Off only to be re-arranged (on some occasions) later when the Club realises that the vast majority of supporters actually work on Good Friday in West Yorkshire, unlike Lancashire and other places. How many of the players will also be working on Good Friday?

So, with the excellent crowds which we have had to date this Season there is no wonder that this game will be starting at 3.00 p.m. Obviously the Club doesn't need to attract all of the support that it can glean from anywhere otherwise the game would Kick Off at the usual Good Friday time of 19.30.

Some of the decisions which are made by the Club completely mystify me, or do they also mystify others?

Perhaps the Club will see sense and confirm that the game will be played on the evening of Good Friday, or will they?

I can only speak from personal experience, but in my entire 41 years working life spanning 6 jobs I have never worked on Good Friday, maybe I have been lucky, who knows.

For once, I wont be this year. Might even trek across from here, given its a Saturday service on buses, not the awful Sunday one

Your lucky 30 years in engineering and I have never had good Friday off, unless I have taken it as leave, Luckily I finish at lunch time, most engineering companies in Yorkshire I deal with also work Good Friday, and have Easter Monday off plus Tuesday.

Bradford City are a 7:45 KO on Good Friday. Won't be happening.

Yep, never had good Friday off, always Mon/Tues.

I personally think this is a bad move by the club but it will be interesting to see what sort of crowd we get.

Is that your personal opinion or an official club statement?

If an official statement is it out of consideration for our fans that support City too, or out of convenience to the directors?

It so Bradford City Council can yield bin emptying... Cut backs..

Forgetting Superleague, there are 13 Good Friday fixtures, only Batley, Fev & Bulls have evening kick offs.

A quick glance shows the only Yorkshire side to play fri afternoon are Hunslet and that's to maximise the massive following from Leigh.

Personal opinion. But I also know Gary tries his best to avoid clashing with the football when he can because he knows that Bradford City, Burnley and Leeds home games kill our attendances when our games clash with them.

So will a Friday afternoon ................ also, to get the attendances up perhaps win some games .... just an idea now!

If we have a far superior product to Mo & Ron Ball's game and we have, then it shows how much hard work needs to be done to show how and why Rugby League is "The Greatest Game"!
But if you hold your hands up and say we can't compete, then you never will.

How many people REALLY knew that Exeter had a , by RU poor standards, a team at all?

They do now due to tremendous efforts by lots of people.

RL sits and waits for things to happen and wonders why it never does.

This is not a dig at the Cougars but the game in this country as a whole. In Aus, they fight back against AFL etc but here we just don't even make the effort

Lucky me, Good Friday off as well as Monday and Tuesday. I just hope we play better and get a win, otherwise it will be a long painful season.

Don't every team in our division ko at 3pm on Good Friday

Most do Mr Hicks, but (and this is a BIG BUT) just check the geographical location of the teams who will kick-off at 15.00 on Good Friday and then think laterally and 'TRADITIONALLY'.

In the West Riding/West Yorkshire, it was TRADITIONAL for the TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES (by which I mean light and heavy engineering and textiles) to work on Good Friday but have both Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday as holiday.

OK, that was on the 60's and 70's but less-so since. But if you believe that the original West Riding Clubs are all playing at 3.00 on Good Friday then check the actual fixtures:

3.00 Kick-Offs:

Coventry
Newcastle
London
Rochdale (Good Friday is a TRADITIONAL holiday in Lancashire)
Swinton (As above)
Gloucester

CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES-ALL 19.30 or later

Batley
Northern
Featherstone
Workington

The only Club which has an earlier KO is Hunslet at 2.00

The attendance will be interesting when compared with that of 5,250 on Good Friday 1995 (apologies if I am a year out but I still use my Division 3 Chamions Mug every day. MEMORIES ....

1962 and especially 1976 before the Old Trafford games.

If I say I'm turning up, that might (and I do mean might) put a few on the crowd!

I'm lucky enough not to work bank holidays so I will be at Lawkholme to cheer on the lads. Hoping for an improvement in performance and obviously that win which we so need.

As I commented earlier, the only reason they are doing this is to cash in on the resurgent Leigh support. I'll bet there are more Leigh fans there than Hunslet.

It'll be interesting to see if Barry has half the Leeds squad to pick from

Think you'll have noticed that Barry is nicely in Brian's pocket. Hunslet play the Leeds players McDermott decrees. Dual Reg is farce. OK, seems they can't afford to put the floodlights on on Friday night, but if Cougars can afford to run a reserve side, surely Leeds and the rest of the SL clubs can.

Yes Barry is always sat next to Brian at Super League games with his Leeds Rhinos jacket on. Hunslet doesn't exist anymore they are Leeds reserves.

DR is a super league "self serving monster" aimed at pushing the championship toward feeder status. Public enemy number 1 is Garry Heatherington.

Championship clubs are looking at cheap quick fixes and beggar the consequences, coaches are looking at furthering their careers with little thought to the real effect on the game.

If RL is to survive we need [imore[/i players in the game not the selfish cost saving SL changes that have reduced their A team/academies and brought about the need to keep their fringe/returning from injury players match fit by foisting them on us.

The original Trojan horse was the concept that DR was to keep their "young" inexperienced players in the game but they have shown their true colours by regularly using first team players. Warrington took the pee last year and Adrian Morely turning out for Swinton was the icing on the cake.

A complete and utter SL self serving farce.

Is it my imagination, or was there a post here from Rach that has now been removed?

Yep I posted but then realized on reading it back that it didn't really make sense



It was just in relation to the DR fiasco and not just its impact on clubs like ours to develop their own players but to the future of the entire sport.

Out of a squad of 22 for last Thursdays Reserve Fixture to my knowledge only three of our squad were not developed by the Keighley club - Scott Lee , Liam Darville and Luke Haigh , (by that I mean a product of the Cubs / Albion set up , Cougar Scholarship or National Youth league U18s or were scouted from their Amateur Teams to join Cougars as their first Pro Club ) .

I doubt very much if there are few clubs at our level could match that (Fev / Leigh / Fax possibly) but if all our league is going to become is a practice match for SL stars needing to stay match fit we might as well give up on youth development all together at our level ..

Decrease the opportunity for young players to play professionally and you see a decrease in youngsters taking up the sport from junior rugby upwards .The RFL has seen Sport England in the last few days reduce its funding because of participation numbers , less funding = less development work=less participation=less funding and the cycle continues .
Allied to that the cuts to other budgets that will surely come with a new Govt , things like sport facility management , school sport and funding to non sports specific trainng and development bodies like West Yorkshire Sport are all likely to take hits as Councils concentrate on keeping statutory services afloat and then suddenly the future looks tougher for much amateur / grassroots sport.

A smaller player pool to choose from means a drop in quality and so a downward spiral continues , an inferior product brings smaller crowds , smaller crowds bring less revenue , less revenue brings an even worse product which brings less publicity / coverage and smaller crowds = less revenue etc etc etc

So Adrian Morely turning out for Swinton Lions right now might seem like small fry to the SL Clubs but the potential damage caused by DR in the long term to the sport could feasibly become terminal . A short term fix would be to fill our teams with foreign imports like the Premier League but with neither the finance or commercial draw of the round ball game this would only be the pallative care before its demise ..([isee the Broncos for details [/i)

Though knowing the ineptitude at the top, in a few years as the sport is in its final death throes you can bet your house on the fact that someone at the RFL actually might suddenly have this bright idea ' mmmm well maybe what might just work and would make it all better would be if ALL clubs looked to develop their own players ??? ' ......

I can't believe that from you Rach





Yep! That pretty much sums it up.

The RFL complain about lack of player pool then put in place systems that reduce it further.



If you read the Virtual Terrace there are still a significant number of SL posters who think they are doing us a favour!!The premis seems to be "If it benefits them it must be good for the game" (after all there is no "real" rugby outside SL

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