Aye it would be preferable to have our home game on the Sunday.

We will have to hope that they pick the other game for the tv. And the semis the following week are both on sunday so why not both first round games.

Honestly my head says that if we end up with Batley V Barrow then they will put that game on TV as we have already been on against York and with 2 easy victories they may feel the other game should be more competitive.

If Barrow win in London it would be at Barrow though.

I am watching the Widnes game as I write this, not sure how competent Mr J Smith is a referee?, there does seem some odd decisions, however it seems as well as Fax play going forward , and some great defending , silly errors and soft penalties are causing frustration not only on the field, I am sure SG at a loss for words at some of the things he is watching.
If they do this against Fev they will get punished unmercilessly , and the following week (play off) will not be easy.
We all like to see fast flowing running rugby, and must be acknowledged this is probably the best team since Pendlebury was in charge ( imho) and credit to the coaching team , but do the simple things , stay onside, play the ball properly, keep hands down.
Finally these guys are well capable of beating Fev and maybe even Leigh on their day.
up the fax

Edited to grammatical errors.

The team was pretty good under Matt Calland, though defence definately wasn't the strongest point but we did win the Chapionship in 2010

Based on today’s performance and no more injuries my starting 17 is has follows .

1 woody
2 walmsey
3 arundal ( if arundal injured id play barber)
4 McComb
5 salty
6 jouffret
7 Keyes
8 calcott
9 Moore
10 Murray
11 gee
12 Kavanagh
13 tangata
14 wood
15 gwaze
16 fairbank
17 barber

Does anyone know why Walmsley wasn't played?

According to the post match interview walmseys shoulder still not 100 % and had a very physical game against Widnes and knee fev would be extremely physical so rested him , also said McComb wouldn’t get battered and got that right , personally think McComb deserves his shot in the playoffs, worthington looked off to me yesterday and carries no threat with ball in hand , McComb broke the line in the 1st five mins and put hall on his in the last two .

Playing a winger against somebody the quality of joey at centre would be madness. I think McComb deserves a spot after yesterday but he would be in for Salty for me. Walmsley has to play, he has that xfactor so it comes down to Salty and McComb for the other wing spot. Having a top defender outside of Keyes makes perfect sense and if that were to change then it would be an obvious place for teams to attack us. Its going to be interesting to see who Grix brings in to replace Worthington assuming that he would have been on decent money.

Agree walmsey must play then it’s a casing point for the rest.

Let’s say for hypothetical reasons we get to the semi final everyone is fit bar tibbs . I would play walmsey, arundal , McComb, salty . I would play McComb against the other centre. Barber on the bench . Missed him yesterday has he can play second row and centre , it meant gee playing centre for most of the game . Whilst worthington is great defensively and has good distribution and quick play the ball he offers no threat offensively. Arundal has improved has the season has progressed where I don’t feel worthington has .

Yes it’ll be interesting to see who replaces worthington as it’ll be probably arundal - tibbs starting centres .

Looks like the fax vs York game has been chosen for the televised broadcast for premier sports . With the queen’s funeral being on the Monday the game will kick off at 5:30pm on the Sunday.

I could make an argument that his winger has scored 20 odd tries this season. I don't see that happening if McComb plays as his centre.

McComb is very dangerous in open field with his quick feet and speed. I think though he is too lightweight to defend as a centre. There is a reason top sides have big centres that can nullify the opposition and hopefully put a winger into a little space.

Arundel has been Lachlan's centre most of the season due to Worthington been injured from beginning of season, then his suspension

What is the try split for Walmsley for when Arundel was his centre to when Worthington was his centre?

Roughly

Arundel 17
Worthington 6
Others 2

Is Joe enjoying his time at Fax? Hopefully he is good to go next week.

Brilliant by batley showing us the way forward yet again . Manning was one we should have never released the guy just tackled for ever .

Agree on the Batley performance but it's how they have played for most of the season so no real shock in the result.
Agree also about Manning being a top Championship player throughout his career.
However you are incorrect in stating that we released him, Fax wanted him to stay.
Manning left when the club asked all the playing staff at that time to take a pay cut, he refused and went to Batley.

Brilliant by Batley. Great club. I’m delighted for them (also cos they beat Fev too…)

But. Now the final two are decided, serious thought needs to be put into the sport. Will Batley take their place in super league if, by some miracle, they beat Leigh? With the greatest respect to Batley, super league would be the death of the club (and every other club in the championship..). Serious thought needs to be put into the future of the sport, the disparity between super league and championship is staggering. The very existence of a club shouldn’t be threatened by being successful and getting promoted. Some hard work ahead for the RFL and IGM.

That's a good post and very thought provoking.

I think leigh will determine the answer , they are just too strong for batley and will rightly in my view be promoted again . Also agree I dont think it would be good for batley to be in SL . The infrastructure or the stadium just isnt there. They are an extremely well run and managed championship club fullstop

On the same question and a bit closer to home SG was asked that by the tv pundits after the win at Widnes.

Are Fax ready for Super League? His reply, "absolutely not" but would be take it "absolutely yes".

In part he did mention that the infra structure wasn't in place at the moment, the funding required, uncertainties on the proposed changes to the league structure and that maybe going full time would be one of the steps for us to aim for would be in the right direction.

For us the best I can see is a few changes in the playing staff with hopefully 2 or 3 quality players coming in to lift the level of play.

Same old problem, even with a big financial backer nothing is guaranteed but without one it's hard to see any club not only being able to get there but sustaining it afterwards.

Spot on

what sort of sport are we supporting when getting promoted to the top league of the sport can mean the down fall of that club.