Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 10:29 am  

Don 76 wrote:

20 minute walk to ground from either....add to that the train / tube journey times and waiting for the bloody things to arrive / be delayed

I'm forever astonished that Londoners like to espouse how great public transport is.....it's a cr ap experience when compared to the convenience of getting in your own car and driving

Plough Lane is doomed as a venue for RL

RL in London should always be a north London project ....not least as it's vastly more accessible to where the game is played / away fans

20 minute walk to PL from Haydons Road?
Apologies in advance if you have mobility issues but I can do it in 10 - and I've got arthritic knees!

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 10:34 am  

Don 76 wrote:

20 minute walk to ground from either....add to that the train / tube journey times and waiting for the bloody things to arrive / be delayed

I'm forever astonished that Londoners like to espouse how great public transport is.....it's a cr ap experience when compared to the convenience of getting in your own car and driving

Plough Lane is doomed as a venue for RL

RL in London should always be a north London project ....not least as it's vastly more accessible to where the game is played / away fans

Wealdstone, Hendon, Barnet Copthall, the Hive which of our previous magnificent grounds do you prefer?

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:58 pm  

Deadcowboys1 wrote:

Wealdstone, Hendon, Barnet Copthall, the Hive which of our previous magnificent grounds do you prefer?

I'd take the Hive and play in the Championship

I really enjoyed the main stand at PL when we could all sit in it.....and the games were close. Now we are on those sheds and the games are landslides the journey does not feel worth it

Seeing a competitive game against a Championship club would have been much more enjoyable than yesterday

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 4:21 pm  

Don 76 wrote:

I'd take the Hive and play in the Championship

I really enjoyed the main stand at PL when we could all sit in it.....and the games were close. Now we are on those sheds and the games are landslides the journey does not feel worth it

Seeing a competitive game against a Championship club would have been much more enjoyable than yesterday

There really isn't a future for RL in London outside SL. Given what you want to do, how are a part time Broncos club going to keep good young players out of the hands of full time teams? You would never build a team or do you just want Broncos to play in the Championship & never developing? Clubs up north have loads of good community clubs that they can get players from, we don't have that luxury.

We have always been a South West/West London club & I don't care how hard it is for fans of Northern teams to get to wherever we are. Let's not forget, a large number of our fans travel further to a home game than most northern fans do to an away game. While PL is the closest to me since we left Crraven Cottage, I'm not that keen on it for location reasons. Frankly, given that David Ellis is no longer the CEO AT Harlequins, I'd see if a deal could be done with them despite us burning our own armada thanks to Hughes & Gus. Laurie Dalrymple has none of Ellis' arrogance & they are still recovering from covid loans & stadium upgrades. They can only say no.

Barnet are desperate to leave the Hive to return to the Borough so who knows what would happen to the ground.

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 5:28 pm  

Smithers99 wrote:

Three of the six starting forwards were short term loans. Announced as initial, but taken at face value, Jones and Butterworth's expire mid week and Rogers the week after. Even if we extend are their Challenge Cup Tie rules and if so would the loaning clubs let them play against Warrington next week?

And if we extend next league match is Huddersfield. Presumably Rogers couldn't play.

Week after Hull KR. Presumably Butterworth couldn't play.

So what exactly is the strategy? The fact we are relying on loanees from our competitors (by definition meaning they aren't currently good enough for those clubs) suggests the strategy is slightly flawed. I'll caveat that as an AFC Wimbledon supporter who's best loans this season have come from the same division, whilst those from the Premier League are a mixed bag.

I was working on the assumption neither Butterworth or Rogers would play for us in the cup. Jones I suspect might be with us for the season one way or another. For those two we swap in Davis and Stock with perhaps Davies and Hughes on the bench. I think Butler needs and perhaps Lovell too, a rest, both important players and it’s pretty obvious we have kissed off the cup so that would bring in Williams and ? Perhaps one of the young kids.Then there is Boafo I think he could add something. Perhaps best to give Kershaw a rest as he’s also an important player for us. Basically our squad’s too small- which we all knew before season started. Not at all clear what our aim is. We need to improve our home form or bleed support and to do that we need new players. I can see why they weren’t keen to do it but losing by 40 every week will negatively impact on any fixing up we’ve done with respect to our off field activities and we’ll never get out of the Championship and I agree with others that being inSL is a draw for occasional supporters where the Championship seems to eb of no interest at all.

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 7:20 pm  

For the work he gets through, I think Butterworth would be the biggest loss of the three. Although I guess with the challenges we are having physically, being the smallest of the three loanees is his downside.

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 7:34 pm  

BigTime wrote:

I was working on the assumption neither Butterworth or Rogers would play for us in the cup. Jones I suspect might be with us for the season one way or another. For those two we swap in Davis and Stock with perhaps Davies and Hughes on the bench. I think Butler needs and perhaps Lovell too, a rest, both important players and it’s pretty obvious we have kissed off the cup so that would bring in Williams and ? Perhaps one of the young kids.Then there is Boafo I think he could add something. Perhaps best to give Kershaw a rest as he’s also an important player for us. Basically our squad’s too small- which we all knew before season started. Not at all clear what our aim is. We need to improve our home form or bleed support and to do that we need new players. I can see why they weren’t keen to do it but losing by 40 every week will negatively impact on any fixing up we’ve done with respect to our off field activities and we’ll never get out of the Championship and I agree with others that being inSL is a draw for occasional supporters where the Championship seems to eb of no interest at all.

Couldn’t agree more. I heard that Lovell apparently has a 10% ACL tear and apparently Butler didn’t train all week due to the back injury he picked up making that try saving tackle against Wigan, not to mention he’s also had is knee heavily strapped for however many weeks now, no idea what he’s done there.

On the whole, I think we will improve when players are back, it’s just a shame that I think it will be too late by then. We seem too soft defensively on the left especially, don’t run the ball in and play with the intensity required at this level (highlighted massively on Sunday when compared to Warrington)and I don’t feel like we are getting the best out of our better players due the lack of quality else where. Take Butler for example, we know he can be good, he was brilliant for us in 2019, made England knights squad etc etc, but we don’t get the best out of him because he’s having to make up defensively for others and constantly playing when he could do with a week off because we are so thin. He’s in almost every bloody tackle when he’s on the pitch, and then when it comes to go forward, he’s too bloody knackered to do what we need from a middle of his size. Compare his tackle count to the likes of Paul Vaughan and he’s making over double the tackles Vaughan is almost every week…. We get back Bienik, Waine, Sid, etc and I think we will start to come good and get the best out of our better players, But it’ll be round 15 + by then and the season could well be over for us at that point. I do genuinely believe we have a good squad, good enough to be competitive in this league, but just that quality is not deep enough and a couple of injuries ruin us.

One thing I can’t fault is effort. I genuinely believe those lads give it 100% every week.

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 7:43 pm  

SMB93 wrote:

Couldn’t agree more. I heard that Lovell apparently has a 10% ACL tear and apparently Butler didn’t train all week due to the back injury he picked up making that try saving tackle against Wigan, not to mention he’s also had is knee heavily strapped for however many weeks now, no idea what he’s done there.

On the whole, I think we will improve when players are back, it’s just a shame that I think it will be too late by then. We seem too soft defensively on the left especially, don’t run the ball in and play with the intensity required at this level (highlighted massively on Sunday when compared to Warrington)and I don’t feel like we are getting the best out of our better players due the lack of quality else where. Take Butler for example, we know he can be good, he was brilliant for us in 2019, made England knights squad etc etc, but we don’t get the best out of him because he’s having to make up defensively for others and constantly playing when he could do with a week off because we are so thin. He’s in almost every bloody tackle when he’s on the pitch, and then when it comes to go forward, he’s too bloody knackered to do what we need from a middle of his size. Compare his tackle count to the likes of Paul Vaughan and he’s making over double the tackles Vaughan is almost every week…. We get back Bienik, Waine, Sid, etc and I think we will start to come good and get the best out of our better players, But it’ll be round 15 + by then and the season could well be over for us at that point. I do genuinely believe we have a good squad, good enough to be competitive in this league, but just that quality is not deep enough and a couple of injuries ruin us.

One thing I can’t fault is effort. I genuinely believe those lads give it 100% every week.

Yup agreed they are definitely trying and get through a lot of work but they are struggling to make metres.

With with the workload Butler is getting through it’s really difficult. If he breaks down we are in strife. Real shame Bienek has not been fit to take some of the load. Together they are two strong SL standard players. I thought young Rogers did well for us against Wigan but was quieter against Wire. He runs in really hard and makes a real impact but if you watch him just in general play he walks like a 60 year old man. Their bodies really do take punishment which is why they need to be rested now and again.

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 7:48 pm  

Smithers99 wrote:

For the work he gets through, I think Butterworth would be the biggest loss of the three. Although I guess with the challenges we are having physically, being the smallest of the three loanees is his downside.

Thought he played well in both games. Not really sure though how much we can expect from players on two week loans. Feels a bit desperate we are in that position so early in the year. Appreciate it’s really difficult to know whether to stick or twist this season but it’s now three seasons on the spin we have started with a squad which most could see before a ball was played was short in quality and numbers. It really is odd because apart from anything else you only get one chance to make a good first impression and getting decent crowds in to see sub optimal squad is a mistake in my view.

Re: Wire at home. : Mon Mar 18, 2024 8:11 pm  

BigTime wrote:

Yup agreed they are definitely trying and get through a lot of work but they are struggling to make metres.

With with the workload Butler is getting through it’s really difficult. If he breaks down we are in strife. Real shame Bienek has not been fit to take some of the load. Together they are two strong SL standard players. I thought young Rogers did well for us against Wigan but was quieter against Wire. He runs in really hard and makes a real impact but if you watch him just in general play he walks like a 60 year old man. Their bodies really do take punishment which is why they need to be rested now and again.

There does seem to be a fitness question mark around Rogers. I believe he is averaging just a third of a match, the lowest of every London player. Arguably the most effective of the Props going forward, but just isn't around to do it often enough.

From what I could tell yesterday he started and went off inside 20 minutes (not unreasonable for a Prop). But I don't believe he returned until less than 10 minutes of the match remaining.