It’s brilliant that we’ve made the middle 8s again, full credit to Richard, the squad and the board, but it looks like we’re onto another flogging today and possibly a winless middle 8 campaign. Again.

Quick question. Where do we go from here? Does the money we make just go to keeping the club afloat or can it be used to genuinely improve?

Some commentators are saying that Halifax are just in the 8s for the ride and the cash - which is certainly not true but easy to see why.....

Are they saying that about Widnes too?

Widnes, yes, too many hangers on in 'executive' positions paying themselves and not investing in the team

Things need to improve off the pitch before they can on the pitch.

We're the best part-timers in the country, we're probably the most overachieving club in the country this year in terms of budgets.

We cant expect any more (we should expect a fair bit less!) in terms of results, without some significant investment from somewhere.

As I see it, we NEED atleast 3 good players in key positions. A centre who can draw a player and pass, a stand off who can atleast try to beat a player in front of him and an old fasioned loose who is a "fairly good but fair enforcer" on the field 80 minutes. Can we as a club afford those kind of players or don't we have a board that dare not get rid of the dead wood?

I believe some of it has been down to the coach where he has had chance to bring other players in but chose to stay loyal to what we have. If you don't move forward for too long eventually you will start going backwards.

It was common knowledge before the Middle 8s that Fax (on paper) should never have got in the top 4, finishing above full time Leigh with their SL players should never have happened. It's obvious we need more quality to compete, but now I've gone off the Qualifiers concept. Having the old style top 5 play offs where we'll have more equal championship quality teams aiming for a definite promotion spot is more sensible. Then we wouldn't have teams gambling at the beginning getting full time SL players so they can compete with the SL clubs at the end.

I agree to some extent but that brings about a whole lot of new problems. The relegated team losing 1.8m or whatever it is in funding, the team going up presumably having to build a new team unless they have a wealthy backer and can still spend a chunk in this division with less funding than at the moment. It will lead to yo yo clubs but it will also give us an actual chance of promotion in that we will compete against teams in our own division.

It's why franchising made sense. Three years in the top flight and plenty of notice that you'll be there.

Until we can fund a genuinely competitive under-competition - all the way to the bottom club - franchising is the best route.

The problem with franchising, especially under the current climate, is that is it becomes a cosy club where possession (of a SL place) is nine tenths of the law. When franchising was brought in the RFL executive chairman at the time said: "Licensing will galvanise the sport, stimulating clubs into addressing the issues of facility improvements, spectator comfort and the production of more players". Yet Wakefield are still playing at Belle Vue, Cas at Wheldon Road, and many SL teams have abandoned their reserve teams.

Take your point about Cas Vegas and Wakefield but the reserves thing was nothing to do with franchising.

Cas and Wakefield need to be told "it's nice that you have plans for a nice new stadium - come back when we can sit in it instead of look at a drawing." Having said that, there should be more to franchising than a nice stadium.

A decent stadium should be a prerequisite of a franchise place if we go that way. Folk demand certain standards now before handing over c.£20 to attend a game of RL. That said, Wheldon Road is Ok, but Belle Vue is a dump.