Most of us just say it as it is, i rated Divorty and didnt want him to leave and he ripped us to bits yesterday, running some great angles and i must take my cap off to Worrincy we gave him some stick yesterday, he took it, then went the length of the field so you cant begrudge him his bit of showboating. Im hoping Rovers are mentally and physically exhausted from the cup run surely they cant go from beating Cas to running Wigan close to utter shiiiiiite in the space of 3 weeks. What i do know is the next game between the 2 teams will be very interesting

hope so, got a bit boring running all those tries in with total ease..



Batley (a) for you boys is a big one.

I would make the most of it because i would be very surprised if it happens again this season.
Batley is a big, big game now, no cup fatigue excuses for them this week

One of the best performances ive seen in the last few years, played the conditions perfectly, and even when we went one score down you could see the players had a steel about them and it wasnt going to knock them off a game plan.
Every one of them put in a shift and deserved a post match pint or two



p.s. did anyone else hear the 'Its Ashall, t*at him' comment, then duly missed him.. made me chuckle.

Didn't you all say that after the Sheffield game?

We should have won that Dare - regardless of how the soreline looks - we should have won!!!!
Yesterday we were totally and utterly outplayed across the field. I know that sounds daft - but it's reight! I came away from the sheffield game feeling "that's 3 points blown". I came away yesterday feeling "we've been hammered"!! Massive difference. Yesterday we were all on completing a set!! Unchartered territory these last two seasons!!

Fev've been the best team in 2010 (ok there was a hiccup in the final but we were still the best team over all) and 2011. Has the bubble burst? The problem with no automatic promotion is that teams are bound to have difficulty keeping up standards for three years. Will Fev's performances in 2010 and 2011 and in the cup count towards serious consideration for SL? Had there been promotion, we'd have strengthened and perhaps survived in SL. But there wasn't. Look at Barrow, in 2009 they looked all over SL material now they're in Championship 1. Are 'Fax the coming team? I suppose 'Fax fans hope so, but how long can they keep it up for? The whole system stinks.

Fax the coming team? we've been to 2 GFs in 3 yrs plus a NRC final. We are already here!

One thing that struck me yesterday at POR was how poor the ground is. How on earth you hope to attain SL status with your ground really puzzles me.

If all goes to plan it won't look like that next year

There is more chance of me ing on the moon than Fev being in SL

Its better than Cas's ramshackle ground.

Cas worst ground in SL closely followed by Wakeys.

Bradford & Leeds pretty naff too.

Surely the past 10 years has proved although it is talked about it is not just about your ground standard.

There is more chance of me ing on the moon than Fev being in SL


You could of done us a favour beating us yesterday were now mid table so more chance of S/L Ha Ha

What has league position got to do with getting in SL?

The RFL might get that soon but will turkeys vote for Christmas ?

Don't forget the only two places on earth where sports franchising works is on two continents where teams are invariably hundreds of miles apart.

Course nobody who watches our game thinks the excitement for the games fans has anything to do with promotion and relegation. All we are interested in now is the second phaze the second stanza and the momemtum rule.

I love powerpoint presentations and CGI fly-throughs of pretend stadiums. That part of the game has really developed well.

I see Widnes have imploded again - the Pete Docherty of Rugby League. Another 30 points shipped in they've lost another player to that awful epidemic today - "personal reasons". It's a coach killer. Bye bye Anthony Watts, wheel in the next misfit Denis . . .

They really are just a shambles, so not prepared for Super League. They'll still be struggling after year three at this rate, nicely done RFL...

What makes me laugh is Eddie and his ilk's oft repeated "this is only the first year, they have 3 years to get up to speed."

Wrong! They have as many years as they like. Has any SL club been denied a franchise renewal for being poor on the field? Are they likely to be? No, of course not. When it comes around to franchise time, on-field performance is not even mentioned.

I would be amazed if Fev were ever considered for SL as they simply do not fit the SL Vision Template of "Big City Teams". It's totally wrong but there it is.

On the plus side, criticism for the present system is gathering momentum so let's wait and see.

Possible restructure?? SL 1 & 2?? It's been mooted several times and that concept seems to have a hell of a lot of backing within the game and is gathering quite a bit of momentum. Both Fev n Fax would sit comfortably within SL 2 and with P&R to shoot for it would make the season have some real meaning!

It won't happen - well, not the way you want it to anyway. Basically, you've got to spread the paltry amount of Sky money across a selected few clubs. The current selected few clubs will choose to cut off its wobbly legs and keep it all thank you very much. The legs will join the head of The Championship and we'll play for free through Premier TV and doff our caps and be thankful for the TV exposure. As Nigel says (with his expert sponsorship deals) "You can't buy advertising like that". No Nigel, you fat twerp - you sell it!!!

I kind of anticipated that Rich, and I can kind of live with that if there is genuine P&R twixt SL1-2! But I would like to see the promoted club given a 'lift' with a bigger pot for winning SL2 to improve their chances of competing in SL1.
It might mean Cas share the yo yo duties with Wakey for the first 5 seasons or so but would in my opinion be a step nearer the egalitarian/utopian ideal I have in my mind for RL- but sadly my mind is the nearest it is likely to get to reality.

I agree. Decent concept. Say two divs of 10. All clubs would have to meet certain core, long term criteria. Such as stadia and infrastructures. Other variables would be driven by p&r (as should be the case in competition based sport). This would alleviate the jump up to superleague, and make sl a better spectacle in two ways:
- reduce number of teams... there are not enough good players to support 12 teams, let alone 14. Superleague is getting worse as a spectacle
- (re)introduce something to play for to 16 teams. At the moment there are about 6 teams who have anything to play for. The RFL believe a franchise system will help us beat the aussies. No it will not - intense rugby will. And who says beating the aussies has to be the core principle of rfl governance? I would say the health of our game is of more importance (and seemingly licensing is doing nothing to this end either!)

A strong argument for franchising was to help blood young talent. I believed this. Though it is all relative - exposing them to mediocrity will help them to achieve mediocre greatness.

Super League
Championship Division
Championship Division 1
Championship Division 2

- All ten teams.
- All PR.
- Real transparency from all clubs and keep fans involved.
- Reformed RFL who regulate but also guide clubs to avoid financial incidents.
- Entrenched 'constitution'.

I can dream...

After the Cas game we lost to Sheff 40-26 then won 3
After the Bradford we lost to Fev 30-18 then won 4

Yes you can, and it's not a bad one, 10 per division would mean games between well known teams in SL2 or whatever it's called for TV but do you go 1 up 1 down? Or go back to 1 up and a play off to play against the 2nd bottom team. I thought that this kept interest going but usually means the SL 1 team wins, but that would change I reckon after a few seasons.