This weeks view from my barrier at Fartown 2017. : Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:35 pm  

Well the site retains it's interest from strange posts in the early hours of the morning to speculation about injuries, team selection, the academy, Huddersfield Town and despite apparent photos to the contrary Lee Gaskell out for the early season cos there's an article in league express tomorrow that could equally refer to Jake Mamo. Oh and the Bradford game saga rolls on.

We also had an argumentative sonso called corky from the Leigh board on, well he could have been Korky the Cat from the Dandy in disguise gosh I'm showing my age again.

News from the club tends to err on the positive side with good news on the Academy with a grade 3 Academy on the horizon.

Despite media speculation that we will go down, be replaced by London and various other predictions, a look at the other super league squads suggests that there are no really outstanding teams/squads this year and certainly on the face of it no outstanding signings from down under to make that 'wow' factor difference.

In fact the better ones on paper Sandow, Pritchard, Taylor, Carney and Segayaro have all departed back to the NRL.

So our policy of signing young British talent, Brierley, Mellor, O'Brien to complement the talent from our Academy Mason and Leeming for example appears a wise strategy.

The acquisition of Symonds is top drawer with the current low availability of high quality NRL players and we hope that Rick Stones skill in finding the right youngsters in Australia extends to Huddersfield and I am hoping to see rave reviews on Mamo and Wakeman during the first half of the season.

The Workington match appears to be a great opportunity to look at a young side followed by a starter super league side against Warrington.

At this stage other than the preseason game against Bradford fiasco I would still say we are in front of where we were last year and have potentially a chance to get off to a half decent start to the season.

Six points from the first ten would be good beyond that I would be happy with a fortress John Smiths this season as 8 home wins from 11 and three away wins (including Newcastle) would be good enough for 6th place based on last years table or at worst 8th.

So i'm still positive about what's going on and whilst I'm sure there will be weeks when we dispair the view from the barrier suggests there's a fair chance they may be less frequent this season and it's not time to be looking on the dark side yet !!

Re: This weeks view from my barrier at Fartown 2017. : Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:42 am  

fartown since 1961 wrote:

Well the site retains it's interest from strange posts in the early hours of the morning to speculation about injuries, team selection, the academy, Huddersfield Town and despite apparent photos to the contrary Lee Gaskell out for the early season cos there's an article in league express tomorrow that could equally refer to Jake Mamo. Oh and the Bradford game saga rolls on.

We also had an argumentative sonso called corky from the Leigh board on, well he could have been Korky the Cat from the Dandy in disguise gosh I'm showing my age again.

News from the club tends to err on the positive side with good news on the Academy with a grade 3 Academy on the horizon.

Despite media speculation that we will go down, be replaced by London and various other predictions, a look at the other super league squads suggests that there are no really outstanding teams/squads this year and certainly on the face of it no outstanding signings from down under to make that 'wow' factor difference.

In fact the better ones on paper Sandow, Pritchard, Taylor, Carney and Segayaro have all departed back to the NRL.

So our policy of signing young British talent, Brierley, Mellor, O'Brien to complement the talent from our Academy Mason and Leeming for example appears a wise strategy.

The acquisition of Symonds is top drawer with the current low availability of high quality NRL players and we hope that Rick Stones skill in finding the right youngsters in Australia extends to Huddersfield and I am hoping to see rave reviews on Mamo and Wakeman during the first half of the season.

The Workington match appears to be a great opportunity to look at a young side followed by a starter super league side against Warrington.

At this stage other than the preseason game against Bradford fiasco I would still say we are in front of where we were last year and have potentially a chance to get off to a half decent start to the season.

Six points from the first ten would be good beyond that I would be happy with a fortress John Smiths this season as 8 home wins from 11 and three away wins (including Newcastle) would be good enough for 6th place based on last years table or at worst 8th.

So i'm still positive about what's going on and whilst I'm sure there will be weeks when we dispair the view from the barrier suggests there's a fair chance they may be less frequent this season and it's not time to be looking on the dark side yet !!

An interesting post again, most of it is how i see things myself. The only thing i feel differently about is, I think It's a mistake to be setting targets , so many wins from these games , so many points at this stage of the season etc, It's quite natural to do it , and most people do but if the team fall short of these targets It's very easy to become despondent.

After the level we had dropped to last season i will be more than happy to scrape into the top 8 or even avoid the MPG. I know that sounds a touch unambitious but i feel it is realistic, we hit bottom last season and we have a lot of new players, all who need to learn to play together, I am really hoping some of the youngsters will get a real chance to show if they have got what it takes.

So much is going to depend on RS and the style of game he wants them to play, Myself I'm hoping it is entirely different to what we have seen the last few seasons which did nothing for our game or crowds, Nothing is guaranteed to do a lot for our crowds, "Not even winning the Hubcap helped " but maybe a style of football that people like to watch may change things.
I just see the coming season as a chance to get our breath back and build from the bottom so to speak, I'm setting no targets other than staying in SL, I'm far more interested in how we play, We play good football, we don't need to worry about setting targets, we will win our share.
We have a young squad by and large, I won't be writing them off if they don't pull any roots up from day one.

Re: This weeks view from my barrier at Fartown 2017. : Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:49 pm  

leeming today saying that they are targeting top 4 and even top of the table but suppose every club will be aiming high

also he says be surprised if theres a fitter or a team thats worked harder than them in pre season.

but you do read/hear this kind of thing every pre season!

this time it seems to be abit more believable though with a new coach and conditioner in place

Re: This weeks view from my barrier at Fartown 2017. : Mon Jan 16, 2017 4:16 pm  

Nice to see Leeming get a contract extention too

Re: This weeks view from my barrier at Fartown 2017. : Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:26 pm  

yes this could be leemings major break through year and make that hooker role his own