I'll leave it alone , most of the meat has gone now anyway

I must admit that on travelling across to wrexham yesterday i wasn't bothered about the crusaders one bit, my thoughts were just on hull getting the 2 points, however as the game went on and the points were in the bag well before the end i did start to feel for the crusaders supporters and players (well most of them!!) and the scenes after the game were special. Not sure the hull fans would have been so charitable had we lost mind but that could be just me being a bad losing get!!. Haven't got a clue what the future holds for the game in wales but if it does somehow carry on there are obviously issues that need sorting next time round.

To be fair to your fans they were superb and full of good wishes and interest in what happens next to Cru before the game and good on them for that.

Yesterdays events just sums up what a fantastic sport Rugby League is. I've heard so many different clubs giving you supporters and your club flack, but as far as I'm concerned, thats nonsense! We've always been made welcome up at the KC and your fans yesterday were just tremendous. Easily the best supporters in Super League, with Huddersfield and Quins shortly behind.

Although it was a very sad and emotional day, it showed me, as it has all season, that Rugby League is wanted in North Wales and we're all up for the task ahead.

So much has gone on at grassroots level and in development, Rugby League has a strong future in North Wales.

I'll happily come and watch you guys in the play-offs, either at the KC or an away fixture, I'll be there!

Thanks guys, you made the day one to remember.

He stunk the bus out on the way home though!!!!

Thank you for sharing that, what a special moment for RL community spirit

I'd just like to say that I started this thread to say how great day it was yesterday. Once in a lifetime moment for all there, as it won't happen again (with Crusaders). Fc won't have the chance to be at a last home game for a club for a long time I would think. This was about everyone "enjoying" the occasion and it being something very very special. Anyone there would echo it. Everything else was irrelevant. It was about yesterday.
For the first time in a while, I was utterly proud to be a part, and fan of FC.
All the best to those loyal crusaders fans.

It was a very special end to a sad day. The Hull fans were amazing . I thought I was handling it very well til you starting singing Cru Cru Crusaders, then it got to me. It was something I'll never forget. And all the players came back to the pub after the game and it was just a special night. Singing and trying to enjoy what we have had. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. What your fans did was just brilliant.

Felt really sorry for them, but at the end of the day it takes more than 2000 people to keep a SL club going.

That's not the fault of those passionate fans, but perhaps of the RL for selling them an impossible dream. They deserved much better than this.

At the end of the day, the RL has got to stop ploughing money into doomed expansion projects. NOT ONE of them has worked.

Catalans?

All fans were a credit to our Club



..... except one pi$$ed up tool who was flicking the Vs to the Cru fans every opportunity he got! Fans like him we do not need!

He sounds like a complete and utter prick.

I may of not seen your post but did you get chance to speak to AP with regards to RA and have the opportunity to express your frustrations?

Ha! No, he came in, waved and said hello and went back to the 'staff area'. I was sat next to Sir Jonny who, when asked about RA, said he had to go asap for the good of the club. The vibe i got from him was that he'd told AP the same too!

Good old Sir Jonny

They were already in existence.

How about these other great ideas ?? :

Paris St Germain
Gateshead
Mansfield/Nottingham
Carlisle
Cardiff (1950s)
Cardiff/Bridgend (1980s)
South Wales (1996)
Scarborough Pirates
Liverpool/Huyton/Highfield/Runcorn etc
Kent Invicta/Southend
Chorley/Lancashire Lynx

If you wanted to be really subjective you could possibly say that the post-war expansion into Cumbria(Whitehaven and Workington), Doncaster and Blackpool (already gone) hasn't produced top clubs longer term. Neither have Sheffield Eagles or the perennial London experiments (currently 2 struggling clubs)

Expansion doesn't work, yet it seems to be able to attract ridiculous amounts of money into the bottomless pit !

nice touch www.hullfc.com/newsarticle.aspx?n=18389

nice touch www.hullfc.com/newsarticle.aspx?n=18389

Quote ="wolfie"nice touch www.hullfc.com/newsarticle.aspx?n=18389'" Do you think it was Tansey who contacted Agar about our supporters? Whoever it was, may be they're after a contract?

Quote ="wolfie"nice touch www.hullfc.com/newsarticle.aspx?n=18389'" Do you think it was Tansey who contacted Agar about our supporters? Whoever it was, may be they're after a contract?

[url=http://www.crusadersrfl.com/article.php?id=5709Press release for Cru future plans[/url

lets just hope an uppety chairman with small club syndrome doesn't block you.

all the best, be good to have a strong Crusaders in the championship, especially when you're getting bigger crowds than Wakey!

Great news and really hope the Wrexham public come out and support them

So apart from Crusaders what bottomless pits of money are being flung about by the RFL? Care to produce some facts?

The problem is trying to expand/promote too quickly which is the fault of the RFL rather than a club or the area it is in.
How long did it take for some clubs to become properly established in the past, there was little else in some cases for people to do or watch. Now in times when there is much more competition for people's money and other things for people to do it is harder and harder to get that slice to get up the rung.
However you seem to ignore the fact that rugby league is alive & kicking in all 4 corners of the UK, teams & leagues that have been on a summer season for years! We have a National Conference going from strength to strength with teams from Hertfordshire, Wales and Coventry doing just fine, below that the conference Premier that reaches from Scotland to West of England & to Suffolk & Essex and Regional teams that stretch all the way to Devon.
It's narrow mindedness that will just want the game to stay in the North, then it will stay just as a minority sport & be viewed upon as quaint & insignificant. We would never get national recognition and you'll be happy with that I'm sure.
I was volunteering at a RL festival at my club in St.Albans recently and to see hundreds of little kids as young as 7 from London & the South travelling nearly 100 miles to play TGG just brings home how important expansion is.
RL IS a great sport and has something about it that most sports cannot reproduce. To want to curb that to the traditonal heartlands in just utterly ridiculous.
I actually feel sorry for you.

No need to feel sorry for me.
I actually coach at amateur level so am well aware of the health of the game at grassroots level thanks.

The efforts to establish new clubs at professional level have been a total failure and I stick by that claim. Sorry that you weren't able to spot that from the list of clubs I gave !

Would you include Melbourne Storm in that? Whilst it is true that expansion hasn't worked over here, there are examples of modest success. The very fact that Crusaders actually have a fan base after 2 years shows the potential there, it's just a matter of setting it up properly.

I my opinion, for expansion to be considered successful, it has to attract new fans, sponsors and players to the game. I don't think it should be judged purely on the results of the franchise. If London and Wales continue to produce top level players, then it is lunacy not to support these projects.

No I wouldn't include Melbourne Storm, as i was really on about UK expansion

However, alongside Melbourne Storm were Adelaide Rams and Perth Western Reds (you can't count Hunter Mariners and South Queensland Crushers because they were set up in established areas as "rivals" to existing teams in the ARL/SL war)

Didn't go to the game...but I feel Crusaders do have a future in the game in some form.

In Wrexham they quickly built up a 'hardcore' support, who's numbers were not that much lower than some of the other SL teams like Salford and Wakefield. The baffling decision to play games on a Friday night (when they had the potential to attract a lot of away fans being near Wire, Wigan, Saints etc) can't have helped their crowds, nor can the constant bad publicity.

overall I hope they do get a Championship spot, and 'earn' their right to return by meeting the criteria.

artificially placing a team in SL doesn't work though, and it must stop. Teams should be made to work their way up from Championship1 IMO.