You know it makes sense jonny

Good to see former Sharkies legend Mat Rogers popping the winning field goal over against St Choke Illawarra....in golden point extra time.

its the future for SL

The emphasis on virtually anything other than what's on the pitch.

Apart from on the pitch of course

True, but in particularly. If Wakefield and Salford both get their respective stadiums and Cas don't, but yet Cas (could) finish in the top eight twice over the licence period and could still get chucked out is abysmal for me.

Aye, but Widnes beat them on the pitch last season by winning a trophy. What did 'Fax win, exactly?

Halifax finished higher than Widnes in the League Table - remember those? Widnes won a cup comp. Let's see what happens this season too. Widnes currently sat in seventh !!!

As it happens - Widnes for me should be in SL - no question - simply because they are the best club outside SL ready to deal with what's required to maintain a club in SL. Their Championship performances on the pitch though have not matched their status.

Probably making efficiency savings like every other business. They've done what they needed to do to satisfy the criteria. No need to spend more than necessary to try and push for glory - might as well start developing SL quality youth.

i take it your happy for your club to be replaced with another club that has met all the right criteria?

Absolutely. I've said as much on many other threads.

Eddie Hemmings.

Potentially having to wake up on a random Tuesday morning (if not already awake

) at 10.15am one day in April every 3 years to find out if your team has been promoted or relegated and not having to experience the excitment and atmosphere of how big games to decide these things should be. Such a non-event/anti-climax, the opposite of what sport should be about basically.

I'm not overly against franchising. I think it gives the teams the chance to play young English players and we will see this in 2013 when we win the WC. Also as a Leigh fan in my opinion the standards in the Championship are far far higher than 3 years ago. We used to get games against teams where it was an easy 70-0 win for some sides. Now I don't know who's going to win week by week. I agree maybe more emphasis should go into what you do on the pitch, but maybe if Super League rewarded teams a lot finiancially, for example Cas should have got a huge reward for making the eight and maybe they could have put that money into 'ticking a box'. What happens is, they get nothing and a team like Widnes (nothing personal) get a backer but have no real team playing and are in a stronger position. Wierdly Leigh have been awful for years now, but because we have a nice stadium all we have to do is get to the GF or win the NRC and we are probably ahead of far superior SL sides who have been playing at the top level and providing England with players over that period.

Where's the option for touch judges? ie why do we need them they do nothing.

I'd just add that to referees!

Definatly lack of media coverage,,,,,,,Especially now the "Soccer" Season starting up here in a couple of weeks,,,,,

Absolutely. Widnes should have been in last round over us, although Wakefield and Salford would have been below us in the pecking order.

if the RFL deem castleford to be the weakest club in SLE do you think widnes will bring more to SLE than cas?

Youth academy -> Widnes's is better
Money -> Widnes could probably spend more
Stadium -> Better stadium
Attendances -> Fairly equal in the attendance stakes
Competitivity -> Who knows?

I think Widnes have the potential to be as good as Hull KR, if not better.

Phil Clarke.

I also wonder - really - how many of those fans expressing a desire for their club to be promoted to SL would actually enjoy the experience? In their current state Halifax would get mullered, seriously mullered. Until we get the finance in place we need to stay where we are. I'd say the same to Leigh fans and Fev fans alike. What i find distasteful is the sheer contempt the RFL have for The Championship competition. The seemingly ad-hoc nature of the fixture lists, the last minute re-arrangements of matches, the massive gaps between home matches and the stop start nature of the whole season highlights the lack of any real pre-season forethought to the season ahead. In reality, It's nothing more than a prep school for wannabe Super league clubs. Only the clubs and their Chairmen can put a stop to that but they're just not strong enough. That said, i still enjoy my weekly fix of Rugby League. I still get a buzz watching Fax so i'm happy enough.

I think the RFL need to start focusing more on the lower leagues and strengthening them. It will be interesting to see whether there is an upsurge in ticket sales at Batley following their success at Blackpool.

It has to be a two-way process too. I don't think there's the will amongst Chairmen to get together to thrash out a 5 year plan to benefit all clubs. It has the potential to be a much better competition.

Where is the option for narrow minded, chip on shoulder fans?

Warrington

Well they have to do that!

The players are too thick to it right otherwise and would be constantly penalised for offside