Rumours about the Manchester Tyrants football club pulling out of their first varsity game started on Wednesday on the unofficial forum. Immediately news spread like wildfire and another rumour sprung up, would the Tyrants play again this season?
Many people thought that the Tyrants had pulled out for fear of being beaten by their Poly rivals, while some theorised that their lack of players had forced them to pull out.
One unnamed Manchester player said "We have training camp this weekend if we don't get 25 [players] then coach says we arent playing any more games "
We contacted Manchester for comment and their chairman, Chris Payne, responded "We have had to reschedule the game due unforeseen circumstances. Also we are in no danger of dropping out of the league."
MMU coach Jim Blinkhorn also made this statement:
"I understand the University of Manchester Tyrants are unable to play what should have been a great game of football. I’m sure they will have valid reasons for defending their decision to withdraw from the game whatever they are, and hope they can return to play at a later date in the year or if not, next season.
Our guys will be bitterly disappointed because they have worked so hard to get to this point, being competitive in every game in their first year and losing two nail-biters in overtime or double overtime. We will continue and look towards our next opponent so I wish all the best to the Tyrants and hope they can come back stronger and represent their university at some future point."
It is a shame to see such a young promising team apparently struggling to put numbers out for a game, however if they are getting over 17 most teams will look with little pity on Manchester's plight (17 being the minimum number needed to play a game).
We will keep you up to date with the Tyrants situation as the news breaks.
17 may be the minimum number for the league but I don't know any good coaches who would enter game with 17 player. Coaches must always have safety of their players as their top priority.
ReplyDeleteNTU played and won against Derby last year in the Challenge Cup Quarter Finals with 20 kitted players.
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I remember playing Liverpool one year and they ended up with 13 guys at the end of the game having only started with 17 I think.
ReplyDeleteThey never gave up, got my respect for that.
Quitting is for bitches.
American Football is not a game for bitches.
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Deleteis it sign of things to come with multiple new teams each year has the explosion of buafl team spread players to thin???
ReplyDeleteI hope tyrants are able to fulfil fixtures
I believe MMU played with around 20 players against the Tyrants for their innagural reception to obtain access into the league for this year.
ReplyDeleteI remember the days when the Oxford Cavaliers would show up with 12 or 13 players..
ReplyDeleteSOrry to poop all over this parade. But Surrey turned up at BNU with only 14 guys last year.
ReplyDeleteBoth teams wanted to play. BNU fielded a rookie team and Surrey finished the match. It was the most enjoyable game of the season for me and both sides had fun. BNU won 34-0 and there was never any safety issues.
This was a good match, and Surrey did very well considering how few numbers they had.
DeleteThe tyrants may just have an image problem. If i wanted to play at my uni (they dont have a team yet and dont think we ever will) would i want to play for a team whose name means despotic oppressive leaders and have a logo that looks like a turkey dinosaur? mmmmmmmmm would probably give that a miss!
DeleteBack when the limit was 14, Glasgow played Teesside with only 15 players. 2 of those players never saw the field as they were total rookies and had only been to a few training sessions. The change from O to D was 1 substitution. There were no injuries, no issues with player safety and that was with 15 minute quarters. Glasgow nearly won that game as well!
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