I’m sure you never read posts properly. Almost every poster has state Smith is an excellent coach. So please feel free to apologies.

I think he is saying Tony Smith is a good coach and there position in the league is not down to games they've missed.

It is though as Cas would have been 6th with 11 wins.

I get that but it was exactly what many had already stated so why his sardonic tone.

Also number of games played made a big difference, it’s unprecedented in a league system like ours that all teams don’t play the same number of games.

It’s a bit sad for teams like Saints and maybe HKR but the truth is anything won in this season or last is devalued. Its not worthless but by no stretch is it normal.

As a Trin fan I’ve no axe to grind as we seem to be reliably unsuccessful no matter what the situation is



I believe you can tell that fans can’t be fooled by the attendance figures for the play off games. I’m not sure all fans will come back but I think more will return next season if it looks like being the real deal again.

The way SL has handled the situation has been a disaster and robbed the game of all credibility. Yet it could have been so simple, you can’t fulfill a fixture whatever the reason then the points go to the others team, it was that simple and most fans knew that.

Going back to the idea of franchise, I do like the idea of franchising in the whole. But unfortunately this is the RFL and super league we are talking about and after the last fiasco trying it would you want them to over see it’s adoption again? We have two governing bodies at loggerheads still fighting for power and neither one of them really interested in the good of them game as a whole. To say that franchising would be help to blood young players is wishful thinking as I can’t remember that happening last time and do believe if looking back that we probably had as many if not more old and overseas players than we do now. It definitely felt like it. I also remember that on here there were a lot of people calling for p&r to be reinstated as the competition was boring with not much to play for.
Until we have one governing body again with the interest of the game and transparency with decision making and stop changing the goal lists to suit agenda’s(ie. why the goal posts were changed to allow Toulouse into the championship play offs after not meeting the required played games) for one. Then I see it as we will stay on this downward spiral.
How this is going to change I do not know but for the sake of RL it is going to have.
I believe a good franchise system could work well but it would have be from a strong RL body with a genuine interest in making it worth while and financially beneficial to the clubs not in the top tier to survive and for real pathways for amateur clubs who want to be more than that to be able to do this or what’s the point. Wouldn’t a Hemel Hempstead for arguments sake be better gaining professional status after years of working hard to build in a non RL area than the RFL imposing a new club on a large non RL city just to show they want expansion?
Would take a strong person to get us back to one sport again and not this fragmented mess.
Wow now I’ve said all I think about this now. Sorry lol

In "normal" times, KR wouldn't have been relegated, as the season finished without Toronto who were effectively the relegated side.
The real difference with KR is their coach who is probably the best coach in the SL era.
Every club that Smith has been at have improved massively, Huddersfield, Leeds, Wire and now KR, the guy clearly knows what he is doing.
He gambled heavily a couple of seasons back and brought in lots of young players, many of whom have developed into quality SL players.
Watching them get just one game away from the GF is just frustrating as we have beaten them twice but, it does show that with some luck, any side can do it.
Salford in 2019 and now KR in 2021 should be used for us to believe that Trinity can have a good go.

As for licensing, be careful what you wish for, Trinity may not make the final cut, especially without some significant work on the ground.

Hull KR played St Helens earlier in the season in a loop match none of the other matches were cancelled by them Saints, Warrington and Hull FC were unable to rearrange the fixtures and KR played Catalan 3 times. The aggregate scores for all three matches were 10 points in favour of Catalan

All if's, buts and maybe's now.
They certainly made Warrington look ordinary, although much of their poor performance was of their own doing.

Good luck to them but, I think they will be out next week. Mind you, if they can get a result in France, they will deserve their spot in the final.
Catalan and Saints have been head and shoulders above the rest this season and it would be a fitting final.
Mind you, if Catalan make the GF, I hope their is a plan to sell big numbers of tickets to the neutrals as it's literally impossible to get big numbers from Perpignan to Manchester at short notice.

I read the full thread to call out this disaster of a post, but nobody did so I will settle it.

Same track as Salford? We are about to buy our own ground, average just short of 8k and had the lowest % of dropped attendance post covid in SL. Adding facilities at one end of the ground to generate income and provide a full match day experience. All whilst not spending cap.

Bastion left because of travel from Leeds, where he lives, to join Leeds. No great conspiracy. Ben cockayne left the club about 3 months ago. Keep up old chap.

Commercially we are a million miles away from Salford. The recent re-brand exercise and money spent on it will pay its own way in due course I’ve no doubt.

Im going Catalans Thursday more in hope then expectation, but wouldn’t it be great for the game if a new team ended the monopoly and gave clubs like ours and wakey real confidence it can be done. Investing in youth means giving opportunity to players like abdull, litten, Lewis, Ethan Ryan, matty storton, Lewis Johnson,
Will Dagger and having them as a backbone of your team for a generation similar to what Leeds did.

One day you may see a 6/7/9 from Wakefield represent your club and move forward. But for now, leave it to the entertainers!

You haven’t sorted it though, dboy is still correct IMO.

Fluke a play off place with 10 wins and all of a sudden your the future of super league.

MInor point. Will Dagger was in the Wakefield Academy and left for the bright lights and green grass of Warrington.

HKR do spend to the cap - mostly on pension building Aussies. Lewis the only home grown player in your team.

Yes, way better numbers than Salford.

Abdull & Litten from HFC. Ryan & Storton from Bradford. Johnson & Dagger from Wire.

I thought HKR gave clubs like mine hope in the modern era when you got to the Wembley final - then you lost by a record margin.

We all live in hope I guess, but HKR do not represent the path to RL enlightenment.

I remember him playing for us and it was years back. This poster has no clue.

Tell you what, if HKR owes this to their new youth formula of letting other teams do all the developing first, then our decision to promote Fifita to our first team from Cronulla at aged 28 looks a masterstroke of planning on our part

Sometimes though, you do need to move away from so called brighter lights to get noticed. Several players carved out decent careers from the Leeds academy, that couldn't break into the Leeds first team on a regular basis. Just because they may not be your own, if your bringing in somebody young from elsewhere,and giving them a chance, and sticking by them, is that not investing in youth. I think the last 6/7 at Hull KR were Kelly and Campese.

Also, we have been guilty in the past ourselves in bringing in old, past it players from the NRL for one final payday. Recently Anthony Tupou, comes to mind.

At the end of the day, they've brought both youth and older heads, and it's worked. As for playing less games, the system is poor and this was always going to happen at some point.

Has it? For one season! They have bought in no more young players than anyone else and certainly not from the Academy they don't have, let's see three years down the line,

Let's be truthful, they failed to beat us twice and are only there by a mathematical anomaly and a canny coach, they have not been building for this, if you read the HKR fans forum nobody was seeing this coming just like we didn't in 2004.

As I said no axe to grind and I genuinely hope they do a Leicester but so far this is no more than we've managed to do a few times or would have done with a kind bounce or two.

Only Belly would try and make this out to be more than it is.

No, it's bloody not!

It is in a way, see Reece Lyne but it's nothing like bringing a Crowther or a Johnstone through from 16-year-olds.

Nice sidestep

That's just utilising someone else's investment in youth.

IF those young players have been "released" by other clubs then ANY club giving them a contract is allowing them to have a career in RL.
I agree that it's a long way from taking a youngster on at 16 and spending time and money to develop them but at least Smith has given some younger players a shot.
I know he's not "their" player but Abdul is quality. Litten and Lewis look pretty good too, although Lewis is still a youngster, he looks to be a player on the up.

All this is true but that’s not the point, they are hardly a beacon of youth even by RL standards. We currently have more young players directly from our Academy. Some will drop out this year but more will come into the first team to replace them.

Our youth development has yet to spark a real golden age but I feel we are getting there and eventually it will click. We are imho far more down the line in youth development than HKR.

Absolutely not in the context of what the poster put - HKR have NOT "invested in youth".

I know thats what I said



They have invested in youth, it’s just other people’s youth

Rovers are certainly using Hull FCs investment in youth to pad out their squad. I wonder how Hull FC might have performed had they kept hold of Litten, Crooks, Hadley and Abdull ?

Absolutely agree.

KR have brought in some youngsters with a view to developing them further.
Trinity have a number of youngsters who have come through our own system.

Ultimately, all that most fans want is a winning side to support.
To have a winning side AND have it stacked with club trained players would be the icing on the cake and the cherry on top.

The fundamental here is that ALL SL clubs need to be contributing to the player pool and Trinity are doing exceptionally well in this department - the best it's been in all the years that you or I have watched Trinity - let's hope that it continues for years to come.