Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "The Cup is a distraction for Jimmy and the team, the fans care more about this draw than he will. Jimmy's team/squad aren't even on first name terms yet so playing HKR at this stage will tell us nothing about how we would go at the business end of the season. Our problem is that we are going shiitorbust for promotion first time of asking, having no alternative, yet such a brand new squad of players really need two or three seasons continuity before they reach their potential. We don't have that luxury. HKR have new players but a much more settled squad so the result is we are massive underdogs in such a game at such an early stage.
The stuff about 40 point or whatever margin is really totally irrelevant. The way the game is nowadays, any game can be highly competitive, yet end up in a bit of a blowout when one team finally cracks in the later stages. Scorelines rarely tell you the full story. (You need look no further than at our scoreline against Workington)
In the unlikely event we won, it would be a huge upset. You can say that if we managed to make some Cup progress then this would breed confidence, but I would say that in this critical year we need the distraction of a Cup run like we need a hole in the head. This season has a single-item agenda and whatever we do for this game mustn't lose focus from that.'"
All good sense but the single-item agenda has the prerequisite that we beat at least one SL side. By this virtue alone, and considering we are competing against teams who are not full time, I think this is a hugely important test and preparation in achieving what you rightly say is the main goal. My own view is that HKR will likely be in the middle 8. We could possibly play HKR 4 times this year.