Re: JOC is God! : Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:16 pm  

Except neither Clubb nor Sarginson were actually born in London, let alone the sound of Bow Bells, but don't let facts get in the way of a London love-in.

Re: JOC is God! : Sat Apr 12, 2014 10:29 pm  

Smooth Stu wrote:

Except neither Clubb nor Sarginson were actually born in London, let alone the sound of Bow Bells, but don't let facts get in the way of a London love-in.

Oh yes, they have had M62 fumes in their nostrils since birth

Re: JOC is God! : Sat Apr 12, 2014 10:57 pm  

Paddock Punter wrote:

Oh yes, they have had M62 fumes in their nostrils since birth

...as did Sam Tomkins

Bitter northerners trying to feel better about the demise of London by ignoring the eventual emergence of London/SE trained and developed talent.......London trained players outscored Wigan trained players.....all the pies have ever done is try to BUY success using other teams trained players.

You'll hear the massed chorus of "the Skolars.....the Stags.....Oxford.....they'll do better by building from the bottom up, when the harsh reality is that without a "local" top tier team to aspire to, many will simply drift to the dark side.

Re: JOC is God! : Sun Apr 13, 2014 11:37 am  

They may do Gutters', but I say again, London doesn't need the "fair weather fans", we need to slowly build that loyal hardcore, unfortunately this "SLE experiment" has actually seen a demise in that hardcore, which is the real reason relegation will be such a problem for us!

Re: JOC is God! : Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:17 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

You'll hear the massed chorus of "the Skolars.....the Stags.....Oxford.....they'll do better by building from the bottom up, when the harsh reality is that without a "local" top tier team to aspire to, many will simply drift to the dark side.

Oxford have made it clear they have no interest in playing top tier rugby, believing it isn't viable. I'd also agree the potential loss of Broncos will be a big issue in terms of developing other players of pro or semi pro standard.

Re: JOC is God! : Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:43 pm  

CrusaderPete wrote:

They may do Gutters', but I say again, London doesn't need the "fair weather fans", we need to slowly build that loyal hardcore, unfortunately this "SLE experiment" has actually seen a demise in that hardcore, which is the real reason relegation will be such a problem for us!

The "Experiment" was in fact the most slap-shod attempt to transplant a sport into a new area that I have ever heard of.
As for the hard-core fans you wax lyrical about, if they were true to the game, then they will return when we drop down to the level we were at before SL. I suspect we will get 750-1,000 averages in the Championship with a hard-core of maybe 300 or so supporters.

Here's a thought.
Most of the people I took to games for their first taste of RL wouldn't have known if we were playing Wigan or Workington.....they came for the "event" and that's what the club need to do...get new fans to come to the event and then to try and get these people to identify with the values and entertainment on offer. My first ever "Live" game was a CC Loss to Castleford. At the time, I had no idea where Castleford was, but I enjoyed the game and the "event" and here I am 13 seasons later....

Re: JOC is God! : Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:15 pm  

I hope your right and we simply slip back to were we left off, before the "most slap-shod attempt to transplant a sport into a new area" as you succinctly put it, happened.

A TOP tier two side with, under the right guidance and some decent marketing, a future!!

Re: JOC is God! : Tue Apr 15, 2014 9:24 am  

CrusaderPete wrote:

I hope your right and we simply slip back to were we left off, before the "most slap-shod attempt to transplant a sport into a new area" as you succinctly put it, happened.

A TOP tier two side with, under the right guidance and some decent marketing, a future!!

The first London game I attended was against Keighley at Hendon FC's old ground. At that time London was a "top tier two side" as you put it, playing in front of about 700 people, with no junior development and very little realistic prospect of ever becoming a sustainable top tier club. The advent of SL changed that and gave us a chance, but we blew it.

For 2015, read 1994. You seem to look forward to being in that position, and good luck to you if that's what you want, but the club will never grow in the second tier. Without the publicity of SL, without the prospect of decent wages to keep our own players or attract those from up north, without the half dozen imports, this club will be stuck permanently in the second tier. The only way that could change is if we found someone who was both loaded and capable, and we haven't seen any sign of that coming our way.