Official West Hartlepool RFC

Arriving 20 mins before KO if what I'm told is true. An old adage" failing to prepare is preparing to fail" comes to mind.

Good point plus we look like we are rebuilding the side with so many new faces from the Stags etc.

Some big games coming up so we had better turn up in
every sense.
Hopefully some of the more experienced players will back?

We had over 30 min to prepare and if not for the bus going on a magical mystery tour would have been there with plenty of time. Not sure how we are supposed to prepare for that maybe go down th night before ? i take offence at the comment failure to prepare as there are several people involved putting time and effort preparing for the games on a Saturday making sure there is no delays or issues for the players and for games to go ahead as you should well know.

No offence meant. I do appreciate the hard work put in by many. But forgive me if I'm wrong but I was informed that the meet time was put back. If that is the case then it is a bit of a fail. I appreciate that the driver wanted to see the countryside. Maybes we are at fault for not giving directions

It is true. The meet was put back. It's all about getting the best out of the players and finding out what would work for them. A performance review was conducted at the end of last season. One of the biggest issues for the players was that we would often arrive at games very early, sometimes before the home side. The sitting about and waiting had a negative effect. And it didn't work for getting the best out of the current bunch. Each squad being different. Leaving too early and arriving too early also caused players to travel down In Their own cars and leave in their own cars, resulting in empty buses and a poor squad ethos.

It was agreed that we would leave at 1230. Which means a 2pm arrival giving an hour to prepare. We actually left before 1230. The warm up the senior team carry out only takes thirty minutes and is short and intense. So we even had room for small delays should they occur. The route was checked at meet time and was perfectly clear with no delays. The issue wasn't so much the meet time, but more the management of the bus. The route should have been cleared with the driver before departure and the driver should have also told us that he didn't know where he was heading before he got stuck on country roads in a bus doing 20 mph. The bus company should also have this matter in Hand as avmatter of professionalism. Unfortunately for us our team manager who generally looks after this area had heroically went to the aid of the stags.

I think the bus journey is an easy out but unfortunately it is not not the reason for defeat. The performance simply wasn't good enough. We weren't at the races and this is one that the players and coaches must shoulder the responsibility for. And one we'll endeavour to rectify this week.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2017 08:17 by cmiller.

As Beefy Burgon stated on the day let's take the positives from the day and move on. I enjoyed my day watching the lads - hopefully the first of many for me this season.

And no - I did not get a free meal or drink - unless you count my spraffing some chips and gravy! The last time I was at Malton, 30 years of age, I had just started playing again, weight had dropped to just over 15 stones, our thirds played their firsts (allegedly) and I was head-butted and abused by their loosehead prop for 80 minutes. This is why we will never have a Yorkshire ale in the club on draught :-)

Looking forward to the return game.

I bet you deserved that head butt Elmo

Carl. Thankyou for clarification.

That's an excellent response from Carl which provides us keyboard warriors with a coach's view and underlines how much effort goes into games before they even kick off.
On the face of it, the delay does look like a cock-up, but Carl's detailed and thoughtful response provides clarity ... great that he has gone to the trouble of doing so.

Their team sheet carries a lot of traditional Yorkshire names in there I have noticed

Isaac Robinsons comment "where did they get all these South Africans from?"

Erm New Zealand I think Isaac

Isaac was right. Zweli Sodladla and Vus Dyantjies are here under a special scheme for players from South African townships.
John Vasconcelo was born and bred in Malton. Luke Raduva is an Aussie .
Dont think they have any Kiwis.

Some good, classy players but some very bad sledging/language and dark tactics too - head shots, abuse of our kicker and illegal scrummaging too - seems to be a common virus in all Southern Hemisphere Sports Teams now - needs strong leadership to control it

The Theakstons BB was lovely too; thought the Bus seemed a bit "Tropical" too mind; I am sure there was a bearing breaking up under were Fouldes Snr and I were sitting !

I was the counter-balance to you 2 fatties Les ... hang on ... that does not read quite how I meant it!