Yeah, that stopped me in my tracks as well!! It came across as frankly bizarre!!!

Almost as bizarre as Rick Astley doing an entire set of Smiths covers at this year's Glastonbury, think it was in one of the smaller tented stages, not on the main one.

I had the pleasure of them at Finsbury Park 20 odd years ago seeing I was residing down in Londinium at the time.

Well, it would have been rude not too, wouldnt it?



Mental day.

joy division were a great band,preferred them to new order.sad about ian curtis.

I know this is going off topic but they were a real peoples band. The band hired the City Hall from the council (no agents) and on that tour, they didn't allow any comp tickets all just £5 (rock bottom price), if I remember rightly all the bands on the bill mucked in together in one dressing room (no elitism at all) and I remember having to draw the line when they didn't want to use backstage passes and let the audience back there before the gig. most bizarrely of all they insisted that there were to be no Merchandising sales in the venue. Instead they encouraged the bootleggers outside who followed them from gig to gig and set up a small market in Victoria Square selling T shirts hoodies etc as well as quite amazingly bootleg recordings of the bands previous concerts. I was involved with over 150 gigs at the Hall and I remember that one as one of the strangest. Great show though. Not much happening rugby wise is there



. I'll be getting an off topic reminder from the mods any time

Astley belting out "Girlfriend in a coma"



This country is ruined.

This is turning into an Off Season thread

Ive decided im giving 2024 one last chance as a passholder and if I dont see signs of improvement then im picking and chosing my games from then on.



You get aporox 3 free games on a pass but 2 of those are loop games, we dont turn up in September so chances are theres more dead rubber games than 'free' games and with a ground thats 40% full its not hard getting a ticket.



Smith has my full support for now and I dont expect us to be in the top4 just like that but theres got to be more home games where we are in the game til near the end not dross like Saturday where on a rare sunny day in hindsight id rather have done something else.

Should have played "Panic" instead, maybe omitted due to the lyric about the DJ.

An article has come out ranking SL teams losses for 2022 and we are '3rd best' only Salford and Wakefield made smaller losses.



Know some of it is Covid related but very worrying for RL that everyone posted a significant loss even Wakefield who openly run on a shoesting budget. With SKY money decreasing each renewal im not seeing how the sport is going to survive like this. Theyll probably decide more loop games are the answer.

Something that might have slipped under the radar on a busy news day is Horne and Barmby have joined the clubs centre of excellence board. Good to see two of the Citys best ever sportsman getting involved. Also interestingly James Clark is listed as a board member, does that mean he's staying?

How did the richest club in Super League do?

Lost £1.1m (6th place) but its all been worth it because they romped to the Treble and are so outstanding the NRL have added them as a late entry to their playoffs

Seasons over so not wrong

Well before the investment came and you know this,

The Covid loans have changed everything some can pay some can’t

Rovers total debt/net liabilities now over £5 million isnt it?



whilst we may not be flushed as some and not as skint as some believe, our actual debt came down from the previous year in the article thats behind a paywall

Calm down

We're a way off rock bottom yet folks. Based on our 2024 recruitment ins v outs we're in a Super League death spiral.

I blame Radford.

#backtobacktrophies

Yes, it was awful challenging at least for Grand Finals and winning Wembley finals.

Anyways, Tony Smiths gonna sort it according to most on here so we've got absolutely nothing to worry about.

Feels like the club is on life support at the moment, one more bad move and things could turn really critical. I have never felt so apathetic watching the club as yesterday, even in the 90s when the rugby was poor we had an excuse becuase the team were absolutely broke, as in not paying wages on time broke...6 years now of watching overpaid, overhyped players.



As I said earlier in the thread its one more pass from me, and after that im picking and choosing games if the entertainment level doesnt increase. Waste of time getting 'free' games on a pass if they are dead rubber loop games where the team cant be bothered.

[iI Still Have Faith[/i has just won the 3-00 at Doncaster.

Call it being a sucker for punishment?

Call it misguided loyalty?

Call it insanity?

Hey, we've just gotta keep on keeping on.

It's just the way it is, innit.......

Good post. I think my issues are:

1. The same decision makers at the top of the club appointed Smith. As I've said a few times I've never been enamoured with him; obviously too early to tell what's possible at FC but I'm not as unquestioningly confident in him as many others seem to be and we're definitely stretching credibility that all will magically come good because he is at the club given the hole we're in now Whatever squad he inherited a coach's job is to get the most from available resources and over recent weeks he has comprehensively failed to do so.

2. Based on current recruitment and outs v ins, even with a couple of signings to come the squad has injury prone players at 1, 3, 4, 6,. Talk of Hoy in the halves next year would mean no organising general which we know from pre Sneyd days is a disaster. Certainly feels like a 10th place finish will be backed up with a reduced playing budget.



I have no idea what the extent of our ambitions are right now (survival, play-offs, lucky cup run?) and the looming tenancy renewal is another potential risk. I think we need a some clarity. As an out of towner who's been a passholder for many years including the Agar tenure I've not decided whether to renew. Between Smith's vague and meandering comments and the complete vacuum of comms from the club's leadership it's all a bit "meh"

The start next season will be huge for the club , It will be mostly TS team and pressure will be on him to get the team moving in the right direction .

I beleive we will be bottom half next year but the devil is in the detail, if we are still in the running for 6th with a game or two to go that would be seen as progress. Theres also a big difference in narrowly losing games and conceding 52 points.



While im feeling grumpy...can the club also stop treating the last home game like an episode of 'this is your life' stop the players bringing kids on the pitch before the game, there was 2 points at stake it wasnt a testimonial. Plenty of time after the game for a lap of honour. It feels like every season we just write the last home game off as a sentimental 'freindly'