Won't happen but I'd line up like this:

Pickersgill
DFJ
Oakes
Webster
Ryan
Keyes
Wildie
Crossley
Lilley
Kirk
Storton
Farrell
Michella

Flanagan/Hallas/Doyle
Wood
Peltier
Bustin

Wildie looks a better halfback than Lilley, so I'd keep him there with Keyes. I'm hoping Lilley will make a permanent move to the hooking role at some point in the future so give him a go there now. We seemed to do ok with him at hooker towards the back end of last season. I'd also be tempted to put Doyle on the bench before Flanagan/Hallas as I don't rate either of them.

Flanagan and Hallas certainly were poor versus Leigh. If Doyle is fit I'd have him on the bench.

DFJ had what looked like a bad injury yesterday. Was in a protective boot.

If DFJ is out then Rickett must be in with a chance. 4 tries in the reserves and carried the ball strongly, he can’t do much more than that. Kear surely can’t pick Grant after Sunday so Ryan goes back on the wing and Pickers back at fullback.

Well, I listened to Mick's interview with Kear, and he was talking as if he was going to be giving a few people a week off. Mind you, he said the same after Featherstone and then didn't - but somehow I think he will this time. I just think his patience has run out. It will interesting to see who...

I agree that this week is season defining. Lose, and we will be back level with Halifax, and quite likely 6 points off the Top 5. That would be too much to claw back. Win, and we are still in it, and depending on other results could be 2 points off the Top 5 with most of those teams still to play.

I’d go with:

Pickersgill
Rickett
Oakes
Webster
Ryan
Keyes
Lilley
Kirk
Wildie
Crossley
Farrell
Minchella
Wood

Doyle
Peltier/Roche
Bustin
Storton

The game on Sunday is in must-win or season over territory.

After Halifax at the weekend, we have four of the top seven teams still to play in Toulouse, Toronto, York and Sheffield.

Looking at the remaining fixtures of the other sides chasing the playoff spots - ourselves, Leigh and Toulouse have the easiest runs in.

York are the side most likely to be at risk of missing out on the top five playoffs as they have six of the top seven sides still to play and finish the season with games against Bradford (H), Toronto (A), Featherstone (H), Leigh (A) and Halifax (A).

When you factor in playoff ticket money and the extra increments and columns ticked, John Kear won't be far off with his estimation of £200k less central funding in 2020.

What's concerning with the side at the moment is the lack of a winning culture. Hopefully, John Kear can find that in time for this weekend.

What estimate is this? As the promoted team we only got £100k central funding this season.

I think he means missing out on the top 5 would cost us around £200k in income.

Hopefully we havent budgeted on a Top 5 finish plus if we finish 6th or 7th we will have more central funding than we had for this season.

Wasn't a top 5 nice to have rather than getting into the 'we need to win at Fev or it's Armageddon' scenario of a couple of years ago

I'd hope we'd not budget £200k for 2020 on the off chance a promoted team with known weaknesses walking into the top 5?

Certainly AC wasn't talking up any hopes on top 5 at the beginning of the year? Certainly letting McNally and Chisholm go to close rivals would suggest that wasn't the plan?

I'm hoping the £100k for Wilson, getting Chisholm off the payroll and the decent cup run have probably meant that we're ok if we don't make the top 5.
It would still be nice obviously, but I don't think we'll make the cut.

I was under the impression that the funding for 2020 went something like this:

1st - £550k
2nd - £500k
3rd - £450k
4th - £400k
5th - £350k

6th - £300k
7th - £250k
8th- £230k
9th- £210k
10th - £190k
11th - £170k
12th – £150k
13th - £130k
14th - £110k

I thought it had been evened out as well

Certainly less of a cliff edge. Aren't we on about £100k this year or was it even less?

Huge game, maybe not regarding finishing in the top 5 (which is beyond us) but definitely for trying to get a bit of "feel good factor" back. The Facebook keyboard warriors are stirring everyone up about the coaching situation, the players don't look interested, attendances are dwindling amongst growing rumblings about prices, the ground - well, what can I say? Fax have deservedly beaten us twice in recent weeks, but they've also had some pretty rum results against other clubs, so we have to believe we have a chance here, especially with visits to Toulouse and York on the horizon, where we can expect a Featherstone/Leigh type good hiding.
At least we can't be relegated if the RFL bring in yet another re-structure for 2020, with talk of expanding the Championship to 16 teams. As part of the re-brand we could rename it the Hotel California Championship as it seems that "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave", even if you finish with zero points. There will always be another re-structure on the way.

That's not the case at all.

My post was more of what we would miss out on (including playoff game/ticket money) which could mean £200,000 less depending on where we finish.

On the flip side, we tick all the columns and boxes so we will get the additional 12.5% central funding on the £110,000 baseline.

The Rugby League Premiership sounds good.

I don't know how JK got to his figure of £200k. If we finish fifth then we'll most likely have an away trip to Toulouse, get our bottoms spanked and then that will be it! When was the last time a team travelled to the south of France and made £200k out of it?

The figure quoted was including the playoff ticket money which is shared. You get more central funding the higher you finish.

I'm sure anything JK says about "top 5" is for internal consumption rather than for the fans. Most of us accepted that top five was, at best, always an outside bet, given that we started this season as a promoted club. In the top half for sure, but as high as fifth was always the very top of any possible finishing positions for me.

I cant see Toulouse finishing 4th.
I know the gap has closed a little after this weeks results but i still think they will finish second

Where do you buy Tickets on the day ?

I assumed the playoffs were 2nd v 5th and 3rd v 4th. Is that not the case?

Think its 2nd v 3rd winner plays 1st loser plays winner of 4th v5th