And another thing ... why does the BBC find it so difficult to get the stats of the game right ? 3 tries and 2 goals do not equal 20 points ! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-leagu ... EVP4066156

And another thing ... why does the BBC find it so difficult to get the stats of the game right ? 3 tries and 2 goals do not equal 20 points ! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-leagu ... EVP4066156

Gate officially declared as 1,849.

Fair points and it was pretty alarming to watch our drop off in the halves, particularly in the second half. I like Horsman and I think he's a good prospect, but we need a more dominant 7 if we are going to bring the best out of Leyland. We weren't able to hold down a consistent choice at 7 last season and it really told.

I know it's early doors, but we don't appear to have variation in our kicking game, outside of shovel the ball to Leyland on the last and see if he can put a bomb up. It was something we did constantly last season and it doesn't appear to have changed. Having some size in the halves wouldn't go amiss or us either.



I don't mean to dig one person out, but if Raiwalui is fit for Whitehaven we need to be going with him.

Oh oh.

You're going to start NB off - I can feel a lecture coming on about refereeing!

Disappointed about the final result but I didn't think the day was all bad.

Firstly I thought we were in for a pasting when Batley took the lead early on, so credit to the lads for digging in, coming back and taking the lead- although it was disappointing to have let it slip going in at half time.

Second half, despite leading early on we seemed to run out of ideas/ steam going forward.

One thing I noticed was that Batley finished most of their sets on our try line, we were kicking from halfway a lot of the time on our last tackle. Which wasn't always a bad thing as their fella on the left didn't seem too happy under the high ball. But we were having to work a lot harder to clear our lines and not making too much meaningful forward progress.

While Batley are a good side I felt that if we had a bit more about us ( and cut out silly mistakes ) we could , stress COULD , have got a result. Someone else made the point about the difference Meadows made when he came on - he did, perhaps he used to read this forum, and had a point to prove to some?



That said I feel a lot more confident about this season on the pitch - after last season's opener it was pretty clear that a number of players ( not just the ex- Skolars) weren't going to be good enough if they couldn't seriously up their game. Staying injury free ? Grant seemed to have a bad injury first half - was pointing to his chest when the physio came on, and she instantly signalled for him to be replaced. Rib injury?



Off pitch - good crowd, good to see one of our local clubs ( Brixton) involved - hopefully they and other clubs in London and the Southeast will be present at our other home games. Medway Dragons to be invited for the game at Ebbsfleet would be a good fit , no?



If I hadn't been to a gig at Pizza Express on Friday I would have tried the pizza option yesterday.. Hot dog and chips was ok, if the cook was burning the burger buns then it could only add to the flavour - brioche buns are the product of Satan's bakery!

Fanzone could be a winner in warmer times, somewhere to hang out pre match, would be good to have a merch stall out there - I've no idea where the club shop is!

I was not able to go, but all in all, looks much more positive than the start of last season



Yes we lost, but we was competitive, and sounds like off-field great improvement



Now the acid test, can they back this up (off field I mean), and keep over 1500 for next gate

The fact that Meadows made a difference gives an indication of where our side is.





The shop was just opposite the pub (which was nice and lively pre match) but didn't see any customers in it when I went past.



Missed opportunity with a decent crowd to have the new shirts available and on sale.



Even Buck and Dusty were wearng plain shirts and not sure why they weren't pitch side entertaining and geeing

on the crowd.

Did'nt see the match, have not seen the highlights, but I feel we had a very light pre season in terms of competitive games into the campaign this year. One friendly against lower opposition is not good enough to gel a side together.

As we have a quiet preseason schedule, from a ex Rugby Union player, you need at least 2-3 good games to get back into the swing of things. We are missing game toughness which you cannot replicate on the training pitch.



From what I have read, we have potential in our young half backs but need a bit of experience coming in, we have good foundations, but we have clocked off at the start but had enough in ourselves to dig in and get ourselves back, and the fan feedback is positive, apart from an expensive pizza (which would annoy me aswell).

Coffee from the Broncos club sponsor Stubborn Rhino was quality and deserving of the premium tag.



An attendance of 1,849 feels correct to me and is pretty much what I estimated with "My guess is a crowd approaching the 2,000 mark".



Biggest off field improvement is it felt like you were at a big event yesterday which is (one of the) keys to retaining and building a fan base. There were quite a lot of small kids yesterday; the bouncy assault course keeping many entertained. Quite possible that many of those families got in at low cost rate this week. That won't make sense indefinitely, but when you get a child who wants to go because of the off field entertainment, starts to get a small engagement with the on the pitch performance and parents who enjoy a Sunday afternoon with a beer in hand watching a sporting event, then those families will regard it is worth paying for.

Yep they need to back this up next couple of home games, and provide a similar experience (with the caaveat that the team actually wins)