I’ve never been a ‘play the youngsters at all cost’ type of fan, but there’s absolutely no argument that the most successful sides on both sides of the world have the most faith and patience with young players.
I think the key is finding the right balance and agree that the most successful clubs manage that balance. For me, we struggle to do that. This year for example we have overexposed a lot of our youngsters but in the past we've done the exact opposite and blocked youngsters pathways. As has been pointed out, two of our ex youngsters are now about to feature in the Grand Final and both left us when they did because they couldn't get game time with us. If you look at someone like Saints for example, they had to make a decision a few seasons back regarding sticking with Coote or backing Welsby. I guarantee FC would have stuck with Coote and Welsby would have ended up moving on.
I like the approach the club seem to be taking now. They recognise that the youngsters are our imminent future but not our immediate present and are bringing in players to help mentor and guide them over that period. Time will tell if the club gets it right but it does feel that they have a balanced plan in place.
Going back to speculation on our IMG grading, HDM have revealed that we have scored 2.8571 points for performance. Didn't realise that we got nearly 3 points for merely being in the top flight.
Going back to speculation on our IMG grading, HDM have revealed that we have scored 2.8571 points for performance. Didn't realise that we got nearly 3 points for merely being in the top flight.
Going back to speculation on our IMG grading, HDM have revealed that we have scored 2.8571 points for performance. Didn't realise that we got nearly 3 points for merely being in the top flight.
If Dan Tomlinson is trailing a Grade B, I think we all know it will be a Grade B, and rightly so.
Going back to speculation on our IMG grading, HDM have revealed that we have scored 2.8571 points for performance. Didn't realise that we got nearly 3 points for merely being in the top flight.
If Dan Tomlinson is trailing a Grade B, I think we all know it will be a Grade B, and rightly so.
If Dan Tomlinson is trailing a Grade B, I think we all know it will be a Grade B, and rightly so.
I think it would be based purely on our drop in performance score, which is the sole focus of the article, however we don't know how w will fare on the other grading categories. We could improve our score on social media stuff, or if any investment is sorted, loans paid off, etc then we may improve on the financial category. Hopefully we do, and that is enough to negate the loss of performance points. Whether Tomlinson (or even the club) know anything or not yet about our overall grade, not a clue!
If Dan Tomlinson is trailing a Grade B, I think we all know it will be a Grade B, and rightly so.
does it really matter IMG have done nothing since being appointed apart from trying to run R/L by speadsheets. Ask yourself what have they done to actually enhance the sport.The answer is a big sweet FA. Getting rid of promotion and relegation is the most stupid move i have ever seen. Whats the point of having a Championship play off
I don't think we deserve to beva grade A club, must improve on.the field, grade A gives us complacency, which we have has too much of recently.
I noticed when looking at the criteria for the grading last week that performance only accounts for 25% of the overall score. Whilst I agree that the other criteria are important, nothing should be more important than performance. Should be 50% of the grading with the other areas making up the other 50% combined in my opinion.
If rovers continue to do well with Injuries then they will be in and around top 2 or 3 again i think but Wigan would be my pick for 1st and Saints will be back next year 100%.
The problem Rovers have is they don't have a plan B... If they pick up 3 or 4 key injuries such as wigan did this year they would be in serious trouble. Rovers are in a real key period IMO, Matt Shaw said as much on the recent HOL podcast, they have players on big contracts who are eventually gonna get too old, peters wont be staying forever as his aim will be to get an NRL job like most Aussie coaches that come over and at some point unless they really ramp up their youth and have a few hull lads coming through they will get found out. They cant keep just replacing one big player with another, no club can sustain that, not to mention its pretty much known across most around Mikey Lewis friends and family that he will go over to the NRL in the next 2 or 3 years so again whose the next on the conveyor belt? We at FC can have a healthy line of players to replace many positions in the coming 5 or 6 seasons, as do Wigan, Saints etc etc, so it might seem a million miles off at the moment but don't be surprised in the next few seasons to see Rovers start to fall down the ladder and us being back up there
I'll help you all out. 2026 recruitment is already well into the final stages, we have back up and good back up in every position with a group of 5 young kids all been nurtured to play 2025/26 and not thrown to the wolves, all part of the progression at Rovers. When we lose a player like Minchella for two games we had Dean Hadley who covered and we won both games against very good opposition. There are no real weaknesses in the Rovers squad and with MM and JWH we have some proven leaders/winners that will take us through 2025 in a better place than this year. Martin in the second row and his goal kicking solves a problem when we lost 3 games to goal kicks, we only lost 6 games in the league all year. Replacing Ryan Hall is a biggie, he has been immense but as Catalan don't really use wingers as wingers, Hall's replacement will be more than adequate. Signing the young forward from Bradford was real coup for the club fending off Warrington, Wakefield, Leeds and the mighty Hull FC? for his signature. Bill Leyland after a year with the Robins will be a shrewd deal given his Matt Parcell similarities. I don't think we have any worries about being in more finals in the coming years. The trophies will come before you lot living in the past join in but the more important thing is the sound financial position Rovers are in, (Cold Play how do we do it) players wanting to sign for top teams as evidenced above will only be enhanced with the signing of the best prop forward in the NRL, JWH. He has already help attract 2 significant signings for 2026 of the caliber you can only dream of. And then there Myler's Misfits, I'll leave the post there for you to drool over