Oy lad! T'alifax won that cup back in t'nineteen eighty six. That were when Cas played in that there cowshed of a stadium.



Wi' sharnt want rid o' all 'istory lad eh?

Jumped ship did he?
Wimbledon gets more pun=blicity in 2 weeks than RL has received in 100 years......that's not ship jumping....it's a step up!

That's a pretty fair statement, and not just for SL clubs.

Can't say as I'm completely won over by franchising but I can accept that there are some plus points.

The fear non super league clubs like mine have is that if the SL clubs did all they could to improve then at some point there would be no room for a promoted team; the three year promotion door might close, then the lower divisions cut adrift.

There are still clubs spending far more that they are able for the right to feed at the top table and franchising does not seem to have changed that.

There will always be room for good clubs. We don’t even have 14 clubs of the requisite level right now. If we had a club outside SL which was of the requisite level, or even very close to being there they would get in.

If there had been a club in any position to move up they would have done last year, Wakefield were pretty much gone (despite what some Wakefield fans will tell you Blake Solly said, I think the phrase Richard Lewis described it as was ‘Poetic Licence’) If there had been a good club there was space for them.

And even if we had 14 clubs of the requisite standard, those 14 clubs wouldn’t be averse to having 15/16/18/20/30 clubs of the requisite standard in the league with them. If Leeds, Wigan, Hull, St’s, Wire, etc were in the championship right now, don’t you think room would be found for them?

The issue is there are some fans of clubs who would admit themselves that it would take some luck, a kind wind an a few years of SL for them to even reach the levels clubs like Wakefield are at now, the will always struggle to get in SL.

Without someone with the strength of character of Richard Lewis at the helm, I reckon the current non-Superleague clubs would have more to fear of being on the outside of a closed shop. He has faced down Superleague club chairmen on more than one occasion because he could see the bigger picture. Left to their own devices, club chairmen will invariably make decisions that benefit their own clubs before the game as a whole.

Unless the RFL find an equally strong-willed chairman, I predict a schism that would make the 1973 BARLA split look like a playgound fall-out

My thoughts entirely. I fear a person who is already involved in the game will get the job and set the game back to what it was in the 70s and 80s to appease the flatcappers, and from there the game will die in the UK.

But for P and R Huddersfield wouldnt be in the strong position they are in now, top of SL. I rest my case.
Im glad to see the back of Lewis, just hope he take Nigel with him, Im sure they can find some use for him at Wimbledon.

The thing is, Huddersfield would be in SL without P+R, they wouldnt without Ken Davy’s investment but they would without P+R.

Had Hudds been in the championship when franchising was introduced they would have got a franchise anyway.

How on earth can you make such a complete bollox statement like that, without providing any justification and then simply "rest your case"?



Why are the majority of the anti-Lewis brigade from either Leigh or Halifax?

That's also a pretty fair statement. I can't think of one SL club chairman (or any other club chairman) who I would trust with the future of the game.

I don't know enough about Lewis to to say good or bad, but RL seemed to be heading down the pan before he arrived.

It would be nice to get a strong willed individual with contacts (but not George Galloway

)

Is that the same Lewis that sanctioned a release of funds to get Leigh out of a hole a few months ago. How soon you forget!

In the eyes of a fair minded, strong willed man at the top there would be room, but not in the eyes of most SL chairmen.



I think the "14" would be too unhappy about sharing the sky money for this to happen.



Probably true unless they had a very wealthy backer (like some in SL are relying on now). But this is the very argument many lower league clubs put forward - the three year period allows the gap to become too great. I have some sympathy with the two division SL that some propose, but can see that it won't happen without more funding.

I am a Fax fan and I would much rather Lewis was staying and was more involved with the game. The next person needs to wrestle back the power from the clubs for SL to allow the RFL to make independent decisions for the future of the flagship competition.

I do dread to think what will happen if Woods and Rimmer are put in charge.

so your saying thats finishing bottom year on year wasn't having an affect on Hudds then.

Doubt it was him directly , however we were grateful yes.

If we was still playing at Hilton Park though we would have probably not been helped, if you undersatnd what IM saying

Im saying that finishing bottom year after year would obviously have an effect, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that moving down a league will benefit you.

There is nothing Ken Davy and Richard Thewlis have done to Huddersfield which wouldn’t have been possible had they stayed in SL rather than spending a year in the championship embarrassing everyone in that league. Appointing Tony Smith, investing in the playing squad and making a focussed effort on increasing attendances caused the improvement at Hudds, not playing some semi-pro teams for a year.

Sorry but is it being said that Huddersfield are now top of the league just because they were promoted 10 years ago. I'm off to put money on Hull KR being in that position in 2016 then

If we want to get pedantic, Huddersfield didn't get promoted through the true P&R path. Hull FC won the league and promotion that year. Huddersfield only went up because PSG went to the wall and they were needed to make up the numbers.

So he's directly to blame for the RFL doing anything that disadvantages your club but not directly involved when the same RFL are advancing you funds to support your clubs existence.

You can't have it both ways can you?

Didnt they get relegated that year though, when we beat Sheffield at home in the last game of the season. Then the year after they won the league?

No, because the team in the league below didn't meet standards so they stayed up.

Surely it's Widnes' year this year? Check out the odds, we should be throwing everything in them first!

:17p30e93I disagree, i dont think there is a chairman in SL who wouldnt want another Leeds or Wigan in SL.

:17p30e93They would be sharing a larger amount. We are adding clubs in to the league who can add value to it.



The two division thing is a none starter. It may (temporarily) narrow the gap between the top tier and 2nd tier, but it would cut off the 3rd tier and below completely and eventually it will bring more clubs, further away from the top clubs entrenching the three tier SL we have already

And you still don't get it and you seem to be ignoring the fact that franchising and these clubs going bust have coincided with the whole of the UK's financies becoming a mess.
No your right, in the few years just before franchising there wasn't as many 'casualties', but inbetween 2001-2007 rugby clubs weren't operating in a country plunged in a financial hole. For example, just for starters how much will all teams have lost out on in terms of cash the last few years from attendences and shirt sales from people who would of bought these things usually but simply can't afford to or are watching the pennies. And thats before you even start thinking about the bigger things like the changes in relationships between a bank and a sporting business.
How can you properly judge something like the franchise system which is heavily about financies as 'not working' when its trying to work in a country that's been walking on eggshells financially for a few years now? It would be like making a final judgment on a player you've never seen before play but he's playing with an injury, you wouldn't know what he's like when fit and in good shape.
And people saying he's doing a runner before a failed World Cup materalises, no, he just got offered a good job in the sport he grew up playing professionally and will clearly have much more of an affection for than this one. If the roles were reversed you'd expect an ex-rugby league guy to take up a role as the head of RL if given the oppotunity.

Yeah but he'd be a hero, especially if he still kept whippets and pigeons