Hopefully the sun will stick around for this weekend game.

York started with a 36 -8 win against London at the weekend with Chris Thorman directing things from half back and Thunder old boy Danny Wilson playing on the wing.

So how do we think we will fair this weekend ???

Ill go 22 - 12 to thunder

I listend to the game on the radio and in parts there was some good press.  This is a new team with new management that will find their way in the league over the next few years. It can be done as everyone knows from the history of the club.  York have new talent and some seasoned players that give the side balance, thunder only have a couple of old heads but remember year 1 of DW's late start to the season and what happend in year 2!

This is the time to start the plans for next year it could have been alot worse as those who witnessed the game at Wakefield on Saturday evening did!!!!!

Rumpole 

Ok, I'll add my twopennies for what it's worth.

Thunder actually did play fairly well and honestly we just need to keep our concentration more, also we're woefully short in the halfs. Ryan Clarke did well at Stand Off, Reece Young came on in the second half and had another great crack at Hooker, our Props looked a bit laboured but Stephen Welton came on and showed some real flashes of inspiration. All in all there were several positives, a few laspes in concentration - heck it was 8- 18 going in to the last 5 minutes of the first half, we just took our foot of the gas a little too much and we're punished by a far better side. However to say that there were no positives is doing the lads an injustice, yes we are a very young squad with a lot to learn. I know we've been here before, but I believe the club has the right structure from top to bottom this time to truly develop the game in the North East and move not only Thunder, but the rest of the North East forward.  

Steve, Rumpole (welcome back by the way), has made a good point. This year is a transitional year and we need to start planning for 2011. I have no doubts that we will pick up 3, maybe 4 wins this year and honestly some of these lads will learn heaps moving forward. We do have some very gifted youngsters who need to be nutured and brought on, Ruby League is a very tough game and not for the faint hearted, but I believe that Chris, Rod, Keith and the rest of the backroom team at Thunder have the good of the club at heart. We will go places but this has be gradual and will happen over a period of time, boom and bust most not be allowed to happen again, remember guy's Rome wasn't built in a day.

Good effort by Thunder. The more games under there belts the better they will become.This will not happen overnight and credit to Chris Hood and staff for there commitment to the club. York are a decent team with some very good old pros and promising young players. People need to be realistic and support the club as much as possible even though there will be not much to shout about. On a less serious note my prediction of 44-14 nearly came off  !!!  

Paul,

Boom and bust should not happen now with the new RFL funding in place.  When I started the monies from the RFL kept clubs under funded.  Now the RFL contribute a greater amount of funds to the clubs and even though some of it is dedicated to development off the field it is there.  The back room team were put in place during the last season and should by now making some in roads to getting the club financed through commercial activities that will enable it to provide the funding to attract the players needed to drive the club through the league.  Couple that with player development then the building blocks will be in place.

Look at the income, look at the expenditure and where it is spent and cut the suit according to the cloth and the bottom line will look after its self.  Thats the simple formula.  Expenditure and investment is linked in total to the income.

Rumpole

Hi All,

Photographs from last weekends Gateshead Thunder v York City Knights are available HERE.

Cheers

Paul