All Golds v Newcastle Thunder KPL1 2017
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Paul Franze left Gateshead<br />
<strong>Thunder</strong> at the end of the 2009<br />
Season following the club<br />
entering administration<br />
resulted in the release of Kelly<br />
and fifteen Yorkshire- based<br />
players.<br />
The club later went into<br />
administration with the now<br />
young and inexperienced side<br />
finishing bottom of the league.<br />
Despite these problems and<br />
with the help of a supporters’<br />
committee things were slowly<br />
turned round. Now in Rugby<br />
League’s third tier, <strong>Thunder</strong><br />
reached the play offs in 2005<br />
and 2006 and after<br />
the arrival in 2007 of Australian<br />
coach Dave Woods, <strong>Thunder</strong><br />
won their first honour – the 2008<br />
National League Championship<br />
- and won promotion back to<br />
the Championship (second tier).<br />
They finished a creditable<br />
seventh in the Championship in<br />
2009 but once again financial<br />
problems were about to kick<br />
them in the teeth.<br />
The 2010/11 and 12 seasons<br />
were lean years for Gateshead<br />
who finished bottom of the<br />
league each season with a slight<br />
improvement to third bottom<br />
in 2013. This was, of course, the<br />
year the <strong>All</strong> <strong>Golds</strong>, Hemel and<br />
Oxford joined the league and<br />
Gateshead provided the <strong>All</strong><br />
<strong>Golds</strong> with their first win against<br />
professional opposition when<br />
the Golden Fern enjoyed an<br />
18-16 victory in the North East<br />
- Matt Bradley’s goalkicking<br />
proving decisive that day as<br />
he converted tries scored by<br />
former Telford Raider, Mike<br />
Venn, Jordan Rice and Tyla Hepi<br />
(son of coach Brad Hepi), who<br />
was to become the <strong>All</strong> <strong>Golds</strong>’<br />
top scorer that season with 11<br />
touchdowns.<br />
The promise of a brighter future<br />
arose in 2014 when <strong>Thunder</strong><br />
were taken over by the company<br />
running <strong>Newcastle</strong> Falcons. A<br />
move to their Kingston Park<br />
ground and a change of name<br />
to <strong>Newcastle</strong> <strong>Thunder</strong> followed<br />
with Papua New Guinea legend<br />
Stanley Gene installed as Head<br />
Coach, although his tenure was<br />
to be relatively short.<br />
Last season, the club added a<br />
second honour when they beat<br />
North Wales Crusaders 31-26 in<br />
the inaugural League 1 Shield<br />
Joe Brown in action<br />
Final for the clubs finishing in<br />
the bottom seven of the league.<br />
Pre-season optimism this year<br />
has not yet been matched by<br />
results so head Coach Mike<br />
Mantelli was “shown the door”<br />
and club stalwart Jason Payne<br />
has taken over on an, at least,<br />
temporary basis with a view to<br />
improving matters.<br />
Hopefully, <strong>Thunder</strong> can take<br />
advantage of the increasing<br />
interest in Rugby League<br />
in the North East shown by<br />
the successful Super League<br />
“Magic Weekend” at St James<br />
Park <strong>Newcastle</strong> a fortnight<br />
ago. The evening before this<br />
event, <strong>Thunder</strong> played what is<br />
probably their ‘derby’ fixture<br />
against York and drew a crowd<br />
of 2,111 but went down 18-22.<br />
On the ground, the excellent<br />
work by community clubs such<br />
as Cramlington Rockets has not<br />
gone unnoticed and <strong>Thunder</strong>,<br />
to their credit, run an Academy<br />
team.<br />
Just as here at the <strong>All</strong> <strong>Golds</strong>,<br />
<strong>Thunder</strong>’s aim is for a team of<br />
locally based players and, in<br />
future, a team full of Geordies<br />
would be great for <strong>Newcastle</strong><br />
<strong>Thunder</strong> and great for Rugby<br />
League.<br />
7<br />
The limited company that ran<br />
the club was wound up and<br />
<strong>Thunder</strong> were found to be in<br />
breach of the Rugby League’s<br />
insolvency rules.<br />
Once again, a new club was<br />
formed and agreed to a<br />
voluntary relegation to League 2<br />
with a six point penalty to boot.<br />
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