Thrilling Draw in PL

[Jeffles]

24-24 on Good Friday for Saints vs Tigers. And Saints had 2 sent off.

Is Balmain's honeymoon over? They had a great start to the year. Then again, Saints are looking good in PL.

Was anyone there? Can we get a match report?

 

[brook]

Balmain looked terrible in the first half but finally got it together in the second

we battled a very lopsided penalty count but that was no excuse and certainly doesn't take away from Saints effort - they shut down our forward pack which noone has been able to do all year and had us on the back foot for much of the game.

Goal Kicking let us down again - I don't know what we're going to do there but yesterdays effort had me cursing the fact that we let luke milton go (and I HATED luke milton)

I didn't see the incident that led to the second saints player getting sent off but the first was long overdue - he was marched after his third VERY high tackle and to be honest had been lucky to stay on the field after the first

It was a pretty disgraceful effort from Balmain, even more so because we had a pretty much full strength side on the field - the only excuse I can give is that we were coming off a bye but with two more to come - one next week - they had better learn to deal with that and quickly!

The good news is that we have leigh Bowman due back from France very shortly, now that Farah has been stolen by the wests tigers we are missing a quality hooker (I'm a huge fan of Brett Kelly but he proved yesterday he's no hooker) and Luland will be back then as well - If we can find a space for him...he's not a top quality kicker either but he's gotta be a better option than Carney!

 

[Tigerpete]

OH so Bowman and Luland are both in france are they?? i was wondering where bowman has been? Kelly yesterday was quiet? I was Glad to see Samia get through the game unscathed too, big relief, lets hope he can keep himself on the field and get that match fitness back so that injury wont be a problem anymore.

ON Carney and the kicking i think he'll get better , he did prove he can kick them from the sideline at least once.

Oh and Balmain "honeymoon" period........this aint no honeymoon, we'll be up there when it counts.....touch wood.

 

[Jeffles]

Not a bad centre pair for the Tigers. Products of a good previous club ;-)

Thanks for the match report Brook. I saw Luke Milton last year and thought he was a great goal kicker. Saw him boot some beauthies against the Bears early in 2003.

Balmain are the big improvers in PL this year. The assistance from the Hawks is paying dividends.

 

[metroman]

Luke Milton is playing rugby for Randwick this year.

 

[brook]

The alliance with the Hawkes is helping although thats not the whole story - most of the players that have really shined for us this year were with either balmain PL or Flegg last year. (although I'm pretty certain the extra money the hawkes are providing have helped us keep them and pick up a few more good signings)

The biggest difference though is, for the first time since we lost james webster and sacked ben black we actually have a decent halfback - we had solid players last year but no direction and its wonderful to have someone who actually knows what he's doing directing our play.

And we owe Newtown many thanks for Frank Samia - if he can get himself back at full fitness soon he would have to be a good chance of forcing his way into first grade with our current injury problems

on Milton don't get me wrong - I'm glad he's gone (just miss having a reliable goal kicker), He looked fantastic on occasion but tended to go missing in the games we really needed him and for a big man his defence was awful - I'm happy with our current wingers

 

[Henson Park Hornets]

It was great to see the REAL Tigers get up on Friday for the draw. A fair result, I reckon and not a bad crowd too, a perfect day of footy!

One thing that does bug the sh*t out of me is that the Balmain club does NO promotion for the stand alone games, that I can see living in Petersham. I'm sure if they told people that they can see the third best comp in the world for $5, with no hassles of the NRL (see Parra & Souths!). I'm sure there are many Balmain supporters out there who, like me have nothing to do with the merger, and would love to see the Tigers run around.

Anyone know why Balmain doesn't promote these games? It's almost like they dont't want to or just don't care?

 

[brook]

It was great to see the REAL Tigers get up on Friday for the draw. A fair result, I reckon and not a bad crowd too, a perfect day of footy!

One thing that does bug the sh*t out of me is that the Balmain club does NO promotion for the stand alone games, that I can see living in Petersham. I'm sure if they told people that they can see the third best comp in the world for $5, with no hassles of the NRL (see Parra & Souths!). I'm sure there are many Balmain supporters out there who, like me have nothing to do with the merger, and would love to see the Tigers run around.

Anyone know why Balmain doesn't promote these games? It's almost like they dont't want to or just don't care?

I've wondered the same thing myself on several occasions

a few weeks ago when Balmain were playing on the friday night just in walking down darling street to the ground wearing our jerseys we were stopped about 6 times by groups of people wanting to know if the tigers were playing..when told it was PL most of them looked interested (including a group of about 10 very bored looking teenagers who lived 2 streets away from the den)

surely it couldn't be that hard to at least make sure the locals know the games are on - even just starting with some signs around the local schools or something - when I was 16/17 we used to go anywhere that was a) cheap and b) allowed us to hang out away from our parents...I remember going to several baseball games at parra stadium for those two reasons and I've always considered baseball the single most boring spectator sport in the world for gods sakes

the crowds for the premier league games are never going to be great but I think we could do a lot better than we do with a tiny bit of promotion

 

[Once Dead]

It was great to see the REAL Tigers get up on Friday for the draw. A fair result, I reckon and not a bad crowd too, a perfect day of footy!

One thing that does bug the sh*t out of me is that the Balmain club does NO promotion for the stand alone games, that I can see living in Petersham. I'm sure if they told people that they can see the third best comp in the world for $5, with no hassles of the NRL (see Parra & Souths!). I'm sure there are many Balmain supporters out there who, like me have nothing to do with the merger, and would love to see the Tigers run around.

Anyone know why Balmain doesn't promote these games? It's almost like they dont't want to or just don't care?

I've wondered the same thing myself on several occasions

a few weeks ago when Balmain were playing on the friday night just in walking down darling street to the ground wearing our jerseys we were stopped about 6 times by groups of people wanting to know if the tigers were playing..when told it was PL most of them looked interested (including a group of about 10 very bored looking teenagers who lived 2 streets away from the den)

surely it couldn't be that hard to at least make sure the locals know the games are on - even just starting with some signs around the local schools or something - when I was 16/17 we used to go anywhere that was a) cheap and b) allowed us to hang out away from our parents...I remember going to several baseball games at parra stadium for those two reasons and I've always considered baseball the single most boring spectator sport in the world for gods sakes

the crowds for the premier league games are never going to be great but I think we could do a lot better than we do with a tiny bit of promotion

How about Tigers, Balmain Leagues use that damn billboard with the interchangeable letters to advertise it? It surely wouldn't hurt and they don't need to pay anything to do so.....maybe even some fliers? I'm sure even they'd do the trick - just put them in at the local newsagents and pubs and get some posters going etc

 

[Jeffles]

I think they advertise in one of the local papers (Weekly Times?) but I agree it is not enough. Still, it was a great crowd considering the lack of promotion, the day and the time.

 

[Henson Park Hornets]

I think they advertise in one of the local papers (Weekly Times?) but I agree it is not enough. Still, it was a great crowd considering the lack of promotion, the day and the time.

But that just shows what potential there is for the Balmain Tigers in getting a decent crowd.
Agree that the Balmain club should print some posters and put them into the shop windows in the Balmain/Rozelle/L'ardt/Drummoyne/Glebe areas, and I know it's going to cost money, but some ad's in the local rags other than the Weekly Times.

 

[Once Dead]

I think they advertise in one of the local papers (Weekly Times?) but I agree it is not enough. Still, it was a great crowd considering the lack of promotion, the day and the time.

But that just shows what potential there is for the Balmain Tigers in getting a decent crowd.
Agree that the Balmain club should print some posters and put them into the shop windows in the Balmain/Rozelle/L'ardt/Drummoyne/Glebe areas, and I know it's going to cost money, but some ad's in the local rags other than the Weekly Times.

Exactly, why not actually spend some money and see what happens? If it doesn't work, i doubt that the costs would run into the thousands so what problem would they have?

 

[Alan Shore]

Doesn't Golden Point apply in PL? At first I hoped they scrapped it for the NRL but it does set for more exciting footy.

 

[Once Dead]

Doesn't Golden Point apply in PL? At first I hoped they scrapped it for the NRL but it does set for more exciting footy.

Nope. NRL alone.

 

[Jeffles]

Balmain aren't made of money, but I am sure that they could find some efficient ways to promote games.

Newtown's pub runs are quite successful.

The crowd at Leichhardt was bigger than any JBC crowd I've seen. And even then I thought it was tiny. There is potential in PL.