Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:35 pm  

Faxhali wrote:

I think everyone is severly underestimating what this will do to twinned clubs figures, I know myself and many many others will not travel away to any twinned clubs grounds, will not put a penny towards them, then there are the loyal fans who have had enough who will also walk away from it, Maybe not all at once but wait for next years season ticket numbers, Without being rude or coming accross as arrogant, i would have thought that every penny would count and every single fan that comes through that turnstile would matter, then there is the beer sales etc which would also take a hit. Personally i think this is a Knee jerk reaction at Keighley only 2 games into a 26 game league.

Good luck but i already see the curtain coming down on a disillusioned cougar park.

Dont worry. Some of us can see the bigger picture and the damage this is going to do to the game.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:16 pm  

I think everyone is severly underestimating what this will do to twinned clubs figures, I know myself and many many others will not travel away to any twinned clubs grounds, will not put a penny towards them, then there are the loyal fans who have had enough who will also walk away from it, Maybe not all at once but wait for next years season ticket numbers, Without being rude or coming accross as arrogant, i would have thought that every penny would count and every single fan that comes through that turnstile would matter, then there is the beer sales etc which would also take a hit. Personally i think this is a Knee jerk reaction at Keighley only 2 games into a 26 game league.

I know I've said this before but I think they've been left with no option, obviously every fan through the turnstyle is important. So the options Cougars have are lose a few away fans who boycott twinned clubs over the next few years, or lose all away fans by playing in a division with very little away support next year. Fax are in a situation where crowd numbers are relativley healthy and squad is in no danger of being in the bottom 2 at the end of the season. Cougars on the other hand have a squad that could well end up in a relagation battle.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:46 pm  

4 months ago when championship clubs said they were linking with sl clubs, i made the decision not to buy a season ticket, or any merchandise, or give any other contributions to the leigh club until i could see properly were this was going.Well, the last couple of weeks has proved me right and this league is now a reserve league for sl clubs,not that they are super.

As far as i'm concerned the championship clubs have drawn a line in the sand and they are saying to the fans,if you cross it you are happy to pay your hard earned money to finance reserve grade rugby.It was an easy decision for me to make, and i will now be picking and choosing my games both home and away and i will just keep my fingers crossed that the clubs see sense.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:50 pm  

Panth wrote:

I know I've said this before but I think they've been left with no option, obviously every fan through the turnstyle is important. So the options Cougars have are lose a few away fans who boycott twinned clubs over the next few years, or lose all away fans by playing in a division with very little away support next year. Fax are in a situation where crowd numbers are relativley healthy and squad is in no danger of being in the bottom 2 at the end of the season. Cougars on the other hand have a squad that could well end up in a relagation battle.

I think cougars need some inspiration on the field and someone who can lead them, Unfortunatly i dont think March is it, Dont like his tacktics or his attitude on the pitch and cant see how he could lead a decent bunch of lads, Team Spirit can over come a hell of a lot, Once that has gone, It doesn't matter what skill is there its too late, this is where i fear the twinning will cost the teams the most, No team spirit and fans turning on themselves and their club.

It is early days and it may pan out ok, I doubt it but it might, I hope the likes of swinton who are clearly abusing this do get relegated to the league of death, it would serve them right, Once one starts the registering of whole teams and taking 6 season long loanees as well as 3 DR players then everyone will be keeping up with the jones's and kill the game more.

Anyway good luck cougars, I'va always had a soft spot for you and hope you can get through the difficult times ahead.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:21 pm  

As an ignoramus, tell me isn't this system supposed to work both ways. Your players gain experience with a higher grade of training/game exposure? As I say don't really understand the ins and outs of this system. But on the face of it can't really see any benefits to non sl clubs. According to posts I have read seems to be one way traffic.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:02 am  

The idea of twinning was also for the championship clubs to gain something too. Example is Batley and huddersfield, The Batley players get covered under Huddersfield Medical plan and any injuries and Operations needed will be done straight away as opposed to waiting times and NHS. This is indeed a benefit to their squad. However what has happened and i suppose Swinton started it off is getting around things, Swinton have signed 6 players who were on one year contracts with warrington, Warrington clearly telling these lads that they are being loaned out for a year, this then allows swinton to have a further 5 Dual registered players, this means Swinton could field 11 warrington players. After this everyone else immediatly started registering whole Parent clubs teams, hence the statement from Hunslet and now the mass scramble to link up.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:30 pm  

goosey wrote:

Hasn`t done Hunslet any good has it??

Yet.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:11 pm  

From Salfordlad :- "With respect you will end up as a feeder club where Cas will decide who out of their squad they think would benefit from a game at Keighley rather than doing nothing".

Agree with this.

Keighley might be seeing Kirk Dixon and Keith Mason in the red & green soon. Jake Emmitt is back in the Tigers squad for Bulls this weekend.

Re: Keighley Cougars teaming up with Castleford Tigers : Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:53 pm  

nullius in verba wrote:

As an ignoramus, tell me isn't this system supposed to work both ways. Your players gain experience with a higher grade of training/game exposure? As I say don't really understand the ins and outs of this system. But on the face of it can't really see any benefits to non sl clubs. According to posts I have read seems to be one way traffic.

This has been done to save SL clubs 100k a year.

How many times will the Keighley squad go and train with the Cas team?

On Tue Cas will tell us whcih players we can use. How many times will those players train with Keighley?