So i'll be putting my money on Bradford York or Toulouse now you've predicted that.

It's not the top side that gets promoted. There is a top 5 play off system like in SL so anyone in that top 5 can gain promotion.

I think Toronto would naturally be the favourites to finish as league leaders, but it's early days and there is a whole Autumn and Winter of personnel changes that are about to happen.

Widnes are an interesting one. I don't see anything there that would particuarly excite me - morale at the club seems to be rock-bottom and I can see some of their better young players being looked at closely by some Super League clubs.

It will be interesting to see how heavily the likes of Bradford and York back themselves, and Toulouse will be a team worth watching.

But when promotion comes down to an 80 minute play-off, I don't think there's much to choose between the top teams.

Is this "promotion series" going to be shown on Sky ?
There should be some cracking games in there, especially if Leigh and Fev can be competitive.
Unless the wheels come of a Toronto, you would have to expect them to dominate the league but, play offs can certainly produce a few upsets and there is no guarantee that that the club finishing top of the pile will gain promotion.

I would like to think so. The qualifier games were far more entertaining than the majority of the super 8 games this season.

Agreed.
Thankfully, it's all been consigned to the history books and we wont have to try and explain the system to anyone, ever again

yep and by finishing 5th you still have a chance of being promoted into super league

who's going to put his name to this one

Until the next hair brained scheme that is!!

Yup, in the same way that you can finish 5th in SL and win the Grand Final. ATEOTD, every club knows what they're playing/aiming for at the start of the season, however mad it is!

Yes I'm aware of that and I worded my question wrong by saying 1 up and 1 down.(instead of 1 up via a play off series) although the point still remains that only 1 side will be promoted.

IMO 2019 is the best opportunity for certain sides like Widnes to gain promotion as they will find it more difficult the year after funding wise to push again for promotion

This situation is ridiculous. We need both Toronto and Toulouse in Super League. The new system makes that impossible for 2020. Until we go to licensing and a 14 team Super League the game will not reach its potential.

But if they're not good enough to get there on merit, why should they be given the leg up over clubs that are?

They won't have £1.3m less.

They will get their share of the Championship money (i.e. what London would have received) plus the £500k parachute from the SL clubs. All in all they'll be around £600k worse off.

What happened with Championship funding ?
Did they keep the top heavy situation, where the top 4 get a decent share and the rest get diddly squat or was there a change made when the new structure was introduced ?

Supposedly a meeting with The RFL today to confirm funding amounts for 2019. Maybe why there aren't a great deal of movements being announced until firm budgets can be set.

Another bit of great work by the games administrators (and the clubs ?).
All clubs need to know this way before the end of the season

I would guess it is between the three teams mentioned.

It would make little sense for another club to make a push until 2020 when they would hope Toronto will be promoted and Widnes will be back to part time.

So I will guess Toronto 2019, Toulouse 2020. This is assuming the system doesn't change before then.

Toronto

Go on then, I will have a go ....

1. Toronto
2. Widnes
3. Bradford
4. Toulouse
5. York/Halifax

There's your top 5

6. York/Halifax to narrowly miss out
7. Fev

10 to 14 Leigh *dependant on any potential points deduction*

Fair comment, but won't whoever gets relegated from Super League get the parachute payment that Widnes will have next year, meaning there will always be one team with a bit more to spend regardless of who it is? I do think one or two clubs might look at how much Toronto look to be spending before deciding whether to take them on next year or as you say, just leave them to get promotion and keep their own powder dry until Toronto are safely promoted and out the way.

Toronto choked when it mattered. Licensing ain't coming back any time soon (or that's where we'd have gone now) and it's down to the clubs to embrace the new system. There's nothing to stop TWP or TO getting promoted for 2020, so long as they can deliver the goods on the pitch. If they can't, then they don't deserve promotion.

Basic arithmetic means that there'll not be a 14 team SL unless the TV money increases at the same time (turkeys voting for Xmas and all that), and there's no indication of that happening.

SL games are pretty boring affairs in the main for the neutral (I don't watch many games at all nowadays) and we need to address that and get the on-field spectacle sorted so that more folk actually want to watch a game not involving their own team. Great marketing will get folk to one-off games, but what they see has to be good enough to make them want to return (or tune in next time if they're watching on TV).

In short, TWP and/or TO in SL or not has very little to do with the ultimate success or demise of RL.

We can solve the problem by introducing licensing for the 2022 season when the new TV contract will start, and announce it at the beginning of 2021 or late 2020. That way, if the licensing set up involves at least London, Toronto and Toulouse in Super League, and perhaps New York and Montreal (depending on the money backer being available for those clubs), then the RFL and Super League will be in a strong position to get more money from Sky or other channels for the new TV contract.

A Super League that includes the above mentioned clubs will be far more attractive financially -- to both TV channels and corporate sponsors --- than if we persist with the current moribund P & R arrangement. That is central to the success or demise of rugby league.

I can't see Bradford finishing as high as that. I would hope we'll not be part of the relegation fight but I'd be happy with stability and be in the scrap for 5th.

For me, and Toronto, we really need to see more Canadians in that side especially when they have another year in the Championship otherwise its just a big city name only and nothing else. Would be nice to see Bradford back and the travelling fans that goes along with it.