Stand-Offish wrote:
The Dons answered DM's question...
About as good as Oldham and Hunslet, but probably not on their patches....
We will see a big difference against NWC I suspect....
We seem to be existing on individual pride and effort, which is good, but we are not a top team.
Nowhere near enough slickness...
Not enough time spent on good training.
A very, very part time set up...not their fault.
It looks as though the league is split into four groups:
Group 1: Keighley, N Wales, Swinton and Rochdale
Group 2: Dons, Hunslet and Oldham
Group 3: Midlands
Group 4: Cornwall, West Wales and London
The Group 4 teams will probably only get points when they play each other. Cornwall may improve as the season goes on and spring a surprise somewhere.
Midlands aren't a bad side and may win an occasional game against those in the higher groups. Their only two wins to date have been against Cornwall and London.
The challenge for the Group 2 teams, if they want to finish in the top four, is to show they can compete and beat the Group 1 clubs. None of the three have so far taken points off the top four.
The Dons' results suggest we're presently some way below Keighley and Swinton. The N Wales game will tell us where we stand in relation to them. A good result may imply we're improving which could give further hope of a move up the table. A loss will support the view the top four are the main promotion candidates with the rest having work to do to catch them.
After next Sunday, we'll have played 5 homes games and 2 away. I would suggest that if we're going to make the top four, we've got to win at least two of our three home games against Keighley, North Wales and Rochdale.
Our next matches are: N Wales (H); London (A); Rochdale (A) and Hunslet (H).
No disrespect to London but we should win that one. The other three games should be good competitive matches that will tell us a lot.
Following on from that it gets tougher still, we've got N Wales (A) and Swinton (A).
Four out of our next six games are against Group 1 teams, three of which are away. With that in mind, we can't really afford to lose next weekend at home to N Wales.
Interesting...
