Re: Exodus begins ? : Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:14 am  

Vancouver Leyther wrote:

I do think also that there may be an argument to make it a first season pass for a promoted team if they finish bottom. (ie have the second to bottom be the jeopardy).

That's just silly. So the promoted team could lose every game, be the whipping boys, and the team that finishes many, many games ahead could go down in their place so that promoted team could gain stability. Whereas the team that is so much better loses its stability?

It shows the difficulty of promotion and relegation. One up, one down is still the simplest way. I'd be fine going down if I knew I had an equal chance of coming up again. The current system isn't too bad, because the reality is that the Championship winners will be less battered and more confident. That's how you got up, and how KR got up. The SL teams who ends up in the MPG will be low on confidence or bodies, which probably evens out the advantage of playing four lower league teams.

Your difficulty in coming up was maybe recruitment. Your pack is good but old. Your backs are good but young. Where was the old head to lead the young backs? Where was the young grunt to take some of the work away from the old guys?

Good luck next year anyway. I enjoy coming to the village. A good ground and good fans.

Re: Exodus begins ? : Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:25 am  

What pack would that be?

Re: Exodus begins ? : Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:42 am  

Slugger McBatt wrote:

That's just silly. So the promoted team could lose every game, be the whipping boys, and the team that finishes many, many games ahead could go down in their place so that promoted team could gain stability. Whereas the team that is so much better loses its stability?

It shows the difficulty of promotion and relegation. One up, one down is still the simplest way. I'd be fine going down if I knew I had an equal chance of coming up again. The current system isn't too bad, because the reality is that the Championship winners will be less battered and more confident. That's how you got up, and how KR got up. The SL teams who ends up in the MPG will be low on confidence or bodies, which probably evens out the advantage of playing four lower league teams.

Your difficulty in coming up was maybe recruitment. Your pack is good but old. Your backs are good but young. Where was the old head to lead the young backs? Where was the young grunt to take some of the work away from the old guys?

Good luck next year anyway. I enjoy coming to the village. A good ground and good fans.

Was it silly for Catalans when they first came in?

Agree on your point about old pack and young backline. Sadly the younger forwards (Green and dare I say Hopkins) didn't step up as much as hoped, while Acton got banned for 4 months! The biggest mistakes came in the backs, where there was too much reliance on Tonga, and sending Ridyard out on loan.

[Dick Jones]

Re: Exodus begins ? : Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:01 pm  

Slugger McBatt wrote:

But they did. The season has never been 23 rounds long in its history. It is 30 rounds long. You finished twelfth, in that there were eleven teams above you. What you had was a second chance of saviour.
We've never had relegation determined by who finished bottom seven games before the end.

We did not finish 12th

We

Re: Exodus begins ? : Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:58 pm  

LeythIg wrote:

Was it silly for Catalans when they first came in?

Agree on your point about old pack and young backline. Sadly the younger forwards (Green and dare I say Hopkins) didn't step up as much as hoped, while Acton got banned for 4 months! The biggest mistakes came in the backs, where there was too much reliance on Tonga, and sending Ridyard out on loan.

How old was our pack on Saturday?

Re: Exodus begins ? : Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:54 pm  

kirkhall wrote:

How old was our pack on Saturday?

Only one of our starting pack on Saturday was under 30.

Maria (30), Higham (37), Tickle (34); Paterson (30), Stewart (33), Burr (24)

Which admittedly was also the case for Catalans. But how many of them have been expected to play 80 mins for successive weeks like Tickle, Paterson and Stewart have done at times this year?

Re: Exodus begins ? : Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:09 pm  

LeythIg wrote:

Only one of our starting pack on Saturday was under 30.

Maria (30), Higham (37), Tickle (34); Paterson (30), Stewart (33), Burr (24)

Which admittedly was also the case for Catalans. But how many of them have been expected to play 80 mins for successive weeks like Tickle, Paterson and Stewart have done at times this year?

Which could well account for the number of half time fade outs we have witnessed. All the 30+ brigade are/have been good players at SL, but there have been too many of them to keep up the momentum over the season.