Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:29 pm  

Budgiezilla wrote:

Catalan are definitely capable of winning next week, and also we have lost our last 3 home games to 'full time' opposition. Dragons looked pretty good 1st half, but it was only 4-4 at HT. Hardly a demise for either team after next week's game, it might only be championship rugby for one season, whoever loses.

Nah, you're home and dry, Catalan don't have a chance with the way they've been playing, they are dreadful. McNamara must surely be a contender for the worst coach in SL history.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:37 pm  

Charlie Sheen wrote:

It'll be a sad day for the game I'd Catalans are relegated.

You're right in my view, but unsurprisingly that sentiment isn't going to be universally shared.

If the Dragons go down next week, they will on merit, but let's not kid ourselves over what the league will lose. We'll be losing a club that over its short lifespan has brought a portfolio of sponsors that most clubs haven't been able to in more than 120 - brands like Renault, and subsideries of Air France KLM come to mind.

We potentially lose TV exposure, a club with a strong home support and the only club that challenges this perception that we're a parochial sport played in destitute pit-towns.

And what do Leigh bring to the league that any other club can't? I'm struggling. Yes, I know "away fans". Big wow. What that argument is saying is that having a club that is worth a couple of hundred extra fans who are worth at most £20-odd a year to each club (and allows clubs to continue to get away with lazy marketing) is more valuable than the sport's most successful "expansion" (sic) club offers. I don't think that's right.

As I say, it will be decided on the field next week and the team that wins will deserve to stay up. I just think that the right for the league. in the position the league is currently in, is a win for the Dragons.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:41 pm  

bramleyrhino wrote:

You're right in my view, but unsurprisingly that sentiment isn't going to be universally shared.

If the Dragons go down next week, they will on merit, but let's not kid ourselves over what the league will lose. We'll be losing a club that over its short lifespan has brought a portfolio of sponsors that most clubs haven't been able to in more than 120 - brands like Renault, and subsideries of Air France KLM come to mind.

We potentially lose TV exposure, a club with a strong home support and the only club that challenges this perception that we're a parochial sport played in destitute pit-towns.

And what do Leigh bring to the league that any other club can't? I'm struggling. Yes, I know "away fans". Big wow. What that argument is saying is that having a club that is worth a couple of hundred extra fans who are worth at most £20-odd a year to each club (and allows clubs to continue to get away with lazy marketing) is more valuable than the sport's most successful "expansion" (sic) club offers. I don't think that's right.

As I say, it will be decided on the field next week and the team that wins will deserve to stay up. I just think that the right for the league. in the position the league is currently in, is a win for the Dragons.

F@@@ @@@ D@@@ H@@@ You know F@@@ ALL

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:46 pm  

It'll do Catalans some good going down so long as they come straight back up like us. Get rid of all the overpaid deadwood and put some pride back in to the shirt. Get some new players coming in who buy in to the culture of the club, because at the minute, I don't see many players who play with pride as far as they go.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:48 pm  

Cokey wrote:

F@@@ @@@ D@@@ H@@@ You know F@@@ ALL

Well, that's my arguments intelligently refuted.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:50 pm  

I'd feel more strongly about Catalans going down if they'd have been competitive all season. The truth is they've looked like a team made up of players who have all signed elsewhere for next season and just couldn't give a toss. Not one player has put his hand up and led from the front.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:50 pm  

You know what Bramleyrhino, after your post, I feel so sorry for Catalans now. I hope we lose next week and parity is restored. Sooper Dooper league would be a disaster without them in it, infact I've just shed a little tear at the sheer thought of it.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:56 pm  

moxi1 wrote:

It'll do Catalans some good going down so long as they come straight back up like us. Get rid of all the overpaid deadwood and put some pride back in to the shirt. Get some new players coming in who buy in to the culture of the club, because at the minute, I don't see many players who play with pride as far as they go.

I agree, there is an evident lack of pride and commitment from a lot of their players, some of whom will be on high salaries.

I recall Richie Myler's wife saying that she didn't like it down there because there was no family culture, it was just a bunch of lads going on the drink. A friend of mine knows Luke Burgess pretty well and from what he has heard it would seem like there is a lack of professionalism running through the team.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:13 pm  

Budgiezilla wrote:

You know what Bramleyrhino, after your post, I feel so sorry for Catalans now. I hope we lose next week and parity is restored. Sooper Dooper league would be a disaster without them in it, infact I've just shed a little tear at the sheer thought of it.

I don't care if you feel sorry for everyone. But as a betting man I'm pretty sure that next season we'll have threads next year asking why this sport still isn't growing, why crowds still aren't growing and why we still can't attract or retain quality players, and some of that will be attributed to a club that, this year aside, has largely been one of Super League's success stories.

I want to see the premier competition in this sport as strong as it can, attracting the best people that it can, and I think that's better achieved with a well-run Catalans club than a Leigh club. I don't think that's an unfair or unreasonable opinion to have and the fact that the responses against that have been, shall we say, rather infantile at best, suggests there isn't much to refute that over and above the pathetic "away fans" argument that usually comes up.

If I felt that Leigh brought something unique to the league, if they brought something to the league that no other club does, I'd perhaps have a different view, but I don't think that they do.

Re: Catalan Dragons v Widnes Vikings : Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:28 pm  

If I felt that Leigh brought something unique to the league, if they brought something to the league that no other club does, I'd perhaps have a different view, but I don't think that they do.[/quote]

so who does, Bramleysnob ?