Don't think there's any benefit rescheduling and having to play a mid-week fixture. Our play-off spot is all but secured.

Playing a mid-week game would just increase our chances of getting injuries and with our luck, to our most important players.

While it be nice to finish in the top 4, in all honesty there's more advantage to be gained by having all our best players fit, fresh and healthy.

No one actually thought this game was going to go ahead did they?

Under Covid protocols, no but both clubs were still flogging tickets up to the announcement this morning

I knew on Monday that this game wasn’t happening, and yet it wasn’t announced till today, tut tut tut

Looks like we're putting pressure on the RFL and Sheffield to get the game rearranged. York are doing the same by the sounds. Can understand it as that missed fixture could stop us getting 3rd and York an outside chance of sneaking into the play-offs

You throw Batley'x statement last week regarding postponements (maybe I'm putting 2+2 and getting 5 here) but I just get the feeling some clubs aren't impressed here. Batley statement regarding where players sat on a coach contributing to whether their a close contact was interesting reading.

In all honesty I'd be surprised if this gets rearranged. Don't think the RFL can force Sheffield to do it (great management and leadership as always) and as we've seen before, Sheffield are not usually ones to do something if it doesn't benefit them.

Is it 16 games that have to be completed to count for playoffs? I mean, that won't bother Sheffield but other teams may be short. I think Toulouse have an exemption for this rule.

AFAIK the 16 game thing doesn't apply when a team has a game cancelled as opposed to postponed. Every games that gets cancelled reduces the number of games need to qualify y one. So we only need to complete 15 games to qualify as our game v toulouse was cancelled. Toulouse are biggest beneficiaries of this as most of there games have been cancelled due to travel restrictions, whereas most of games involving two uk teams affected by covid have been postponed.

Unsurprisingly Sheffield not wanting to play. https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... eld-update

Unsurprisingly Sheffield not wanting to play. https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... eld-update

Ashton doesn't want a midweek game as that would mean his squad would potentially have 3 games in a week. It's understandable that he is against this idea as a part time team. Unless this game is tagged on at the end of the year, I can't see where we are going to squeeze it in as we don't have any free weekends between now and the end of the season.

Time for the RFL to step in and make a decision. If they refuse to play midweek then give us the 24-0 win.

I'm sure part time teams have played midweek games before. IIRC we played a cup game midweek season before last. It's not fair on season ticket holders who have paid for this game. Seems like a bit of a soft option for Aston as they have nothing to gain from this game as they are mid table. Grow a pair Eagles.

That would require actual leadership. At the moment it's optional for the clubs to decide whether they want to rearrange or not. Farce.

Agree with the above comment. Player welfare didn't come in to it when the Eagles played mid-week games to lift the 1895 cup. It's basically more beneficial for the Eagles to not play these games so why would they.

a quick gander at the run in ... fax do appear to have the hardest so 3rd is still not beyond us (without the eagles rearranged game). yeah we've still got toulouse at home but our other games are winnable, fax still have tricky away games and one against fev

Somebody once told me that there is quite a bit of animosity from Aston to Kear over the Shuddersfield merger (takeover).

Ah. Well that makes two people in the history of the world to fall out with JK. Aston and Chisholm. If the rules permit sides to dodge rearranged fixtures then there's nothing we can do. I personally think that's a daft state of affairs but pointless debating it if Sheffield can swerve us under the rules.

Sheffield didn’t want to play York or Bradford.
But they chose to play Oldham who can’t buy a win.

It seems like some choosing their games and based on comments by numerous clubs maybe bending rules to get games called off.

Every league position this year attracts higher funding for the following year.

The sport needed some strong leadership on Covid and yet they’ve let far too many clubs get away with cancelling fixtures like Sheffield.

.

It was done forever and a day in the old days, every Easter and Xmas being the obvious examples.

It isn't 'good practice' though and with player protection in mind the modern thinking is to not do it - it isn't a good look to be only thinking of your own circumstances though, whether it's us or them.

'Farce' is putting it mildly. Pathetic dereliction of duty by the RFL

The losers here are fans. I don't have a ST anymore, but I'd be livid if I'd paid for a full season of games, then find that a game would be lost off that ticket by a team who just don't want to play a match!

The RFL should insist that Sheffield play - or reimburse every season ticket holder for the admission cost. I really think it's that clear cut - the RFL need to grow a pair

The issue is whether the RFL have already got rules in place which allow Sheffield to elect to swerve the fixture, which is what people are saying. That means Sheffield are morally dubious doing so but are within the rules. That being the case, the feeble RFL could only ask not tell them to play us.

It will be quite annoying if not been able to play the sheffield game (and hopefully winning it) is difference between us coming 3rd and 4th, which given fax's loss yesterday is quite likely. Think next years central distributions are decided on this years league position so club has double whammy financially of missing match day revenue plus reduced central funding.

This years table is decided on points per game so playing the game is technically pointless in this situation.

I don't think it's pointless, as it's technically better to play and win that to not play at all. We are 11 wins from 16 games (68.75%). Were we to play Sheffield and win we'd be 12 wins from 17 (70.59%), the same as Fax.

Exactly. Doesn't make a massive difference to the percentage but it does affect it nevertheless. Guessing if percentages are identical then it would be decided on points difference which I'd expect Fax to have a higher figure than us without checking tables. But it would also give us a bigger cushion over Batley who are breathing down our necks, so percentage difference could decide who gets home advantage in playoff game.

Doesn't look like Aston is THAT concerned about player welfare as they're going to play thier game against York. Absolute farce clubs can decide who they're playing. Imagine if us and York were fighting it out for that last play-off spot!

In fairness to Sheffield, the operational rules state that games must be rearranged in the order they were postponed ie Sheffield’s game with York was called off before ours so they have to rearrange and play York before they can look at playing us.