Potential of Catalan

[JasonE]

For the Dragons to be performing so well without their 2 biggest names Jones and Fakir is one of the highlights of the season so far plus they beat Leeds without the inform Wilson.

So when the season moves into summer the Dragons, assuming Fakir and Jones return fully fit should be able to win the majority of the home games as the heat in France will be a major factor for them.

If they can do that and pick up the odd away win that would put them in with a chance of the top 6, how good would that be ?

 

[langpark]

That'd be great. And it'd be even better if they can get an increase on last year's average crowd, despite the move to the smaller venue.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

If they can start filling the stadium each week (the photos from the Leeds game shows most of the seats behind the posts empty) they will have a strong case to the mayor of Perpignan for a massive rebuilding of the Guasch stand, perhaps even having it circling round behind the posts (like at Aime Giral) and a capacity of 12,000-13,000 seated.

Remember that for their first home game last year, against Wigan, Les Catalans got 11,000.

 

[jed]

1st games always have a "novelty" value, it's once you get into the nitty-gritty of the season that you'll discover what sort of a crowd you'll pull week after week.

Wigan also have a good following who travel (it seemed like there were more Wigan fans here for Tri-Nations at the end of the season than all the Yorkshire teams' fans combined), that could also affect numbers

 

[Luke O'Keefe]

They are missing Jones but I think they will still do well without him.

 

[Evil Homer]

How are they missing Jones at all? :|

 

[bartman]

Playing well, in form and currently achieving 50% of possible points. That could get them a 6th spot if they can maintain it through the season.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

One factor that has been critical is the quality of some of the new recruits.

Consider the foreign recruits and those they have replaced:

Casey McGuire vs Sean Rudder
Adam Mogg vs Mark Hughes
Jason Croker vs Ian Hindmarsh
Clint Greenshields vs Renaud Guige
Aaron Gorrell vs Rinaldi and Berthezene

Also the French recruits:

Dmitri Pelo vs Bruno Verges
Sebastian Raguin vs Aurelian Cologni
David Ferriol vs Chris Beattie


Also the club has a CEO, Nicolas Rayer, who is French but has business experience in Australia. He can talk to the French players as well as to the Aussie and Kiwi players, and to the French sponsors and the French and English media, directly without going through an interpreter.


Another factor that must have affected the on field performance has been the departure of two non-tackling backs, Frayssinous and Verges, who had been favoured by David Waite.

Come to think of it, David Waite isn't there either!