toulouse and the newly formed Dublin diabolicals in with Wire and Leeds demoted?

Sounds good but ultimately meaningless.

Widnes' crowds have always been good for this division but the longer you are in it the worse they will get. You don't build crowds in this division, you lose them.

The youth system is significantly more difficult to build in this vision too, it requires a lot of cash and there is always the threat that your players will e poached by a SL side which happened to us when Richie Myler left for Salford. We've had interest from several SL clubs on some of our youth, were I no for the strong probability of promotion we'd have lost a lot of them.

What you can do in the championship is prepare your finances, spend less on the squad and more on other areas. You're not constantly over reaching to stay competitive. You're youth will be less of a burden when you give them a try but then they won't get SL experience from the offset so won't get the opportunities some do and the championship players are not lacking experience so there is still that issue for them to tackle.

Make no mistake, a demotion is not going to make things necessarily easier for wakey, they are going to face a lot of new challenges and will find that they are really in no way superior to the other teams in there, their SL status has been about being in the right place at the right time and put in the championship long term they'll be in the same mix as Fax and Leigh. If it is them going down.

Dublin Diabolicals? Now that's an expansion team I can get behind!

to be fair they already have an excellent youth set up, a quick glance at your first team should tell you this. and as for crowds if we were having the season that hudds are, i think we would probably be posting better crowds than the giants.

however three years in which to get the stadium built would probably be about right.

Leigh will be the next team promoted IF any.

The day RL gains another nail in it's coffin in this country.

Yep.

Byebye Wakey and Quins.

Bonjour Halifax.

If it's that good, your lot can go instead.

...we've been there, done that, won every game and bought the NFP grand final t-shirt, albeit not 3 years.

I'm sure you'd be welcome again

...I think we're in Super League for the good of the game

Yes you certainly bought it

, different scenario for Wakey though

Let's ask Jonny what it was like for Leigh to lose 5 (?) consecutive Grand Finals...

Jonny...

Go on , give us a clue then ?

It was actually 3 in 4 years

Well at least we won't be going down because of how bad we are at rugby, unlike the times we relegated Cas



Although people will remember this last season of Wakey in SL, I will remember us finishing 5th a couple of seasons ago. Last season we had a great side that would have pushed on even further IMO, we played Leeds off the park last season with the best squad I've seen from Trinity in Super League, unfortunately our best players (Brough, Tronc and Newton) left for different reasons shortly after and our season pretty much ended there. There's a lot of things that just didn't go our way in the past year or so, but it could have been so different, which is quite sad for us fans to see.

However...

I will embrace the Championship happily, I expect Trinity to be challenging for trophies every year which will be nice to see. Hopefully the RFL don't sling us into the graveyard of 'could have beens' though, although I feel the exclusion of WTW from SL for 3 years is an injustice, the possibility of never getting back in would make me feel very bitter. This is my fear rather than our impending relegation, with the RFL's unfair expansion policies however, it is certainly a possibility.

Oddly enough, that wouldn't suprise me.

There's more chance of seeing Lord Lucan riding Shergar down Chiswick High St than of Quins getting the boot next week.

Quote ="who needs flankers?"Will be at 11am on the 26th of July (confirmed today) www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/22 ... nouncement'" welcome to SL widnes... well done u deserve it.

Quote ="who needs flankers?"Will be at 11am on the 26th of July (confirmed today) www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/22 ... nouncement'" welcome to SL widnes... well done u deserve it.

Anyone who thinks Fulham will get the chop is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Is it really that clear cut? I'd certainly be very worried if I was a supporter or official of Cas or Salford.

1. Ground - clearly Salford ahead with their new ground under construction, Wake next with a potential B grade after proposed improvements to BV with Cas a distant 3rd (the rules had to be relaxed to allow them promotion in 200icon_cool.gif. Both Cas and Wake in the same boat with regards a new ground. Wake do have an idea when a final decision will be made whereas with Cas it really is all smoke and mirrors so far as funding is concerned.

2. Crowds - clearly Salford last (av 4350 over franchise period) with not much to choose between Cas (av 7080) and Wake (av 6210). BUT Wake have much greater potential being a city as opposed to a town and the fact that Cas' crowds are approx 20% of the town's population means they've got a pretty saturated market.

3. Junior development - Wake should be miles in front since the RFL recently announced that their programme was one others should be emulating

4. Finance - OK Wake went bust but thanks to Crusaders this doesn't automatically exclude you anymore. Cas have no wealthy backer, Salford have Mr Wilkinson and Wakey Mr Glover. Of the 3 only Wake have stated that they can afford to spend up to the cap maximum over the next 3 years

5. On field - over the 3 years of the current franchise Salford haven't made the playoffs (yet) finishing 13th and 12th in 2009 and 2010, both Wake (5th) and Cas (7th) made them in 2009, neither made them in 2010 (Wake 11th, Cas 9th). Cas look most likely to make them this year.

And but wasn't it that nice chap Mr Caisley who at the onset of SL said something along the lines of 'if small town clubs such as Castleford are still in SL in 10-15 years time we will have failed'? Maybe the decision won't be what everyone expects.

You'd be surprised. FWIW, I'd put a fiver E/W on Shergar if I were you...

Don't like Cas much do you Mr Dog?

Who says manipulation of statistics can't give you the answer you want?


800 more on average at the gate is well over 10% more or at £20 a head £16,000 a home game more! With additional food and drink revenue that equals a salary of a youngster for an entire season for every home game!

cas are most likely to make the play offs this year? No S%@$t! What you mean is, they have almost made it and Wakefield have no chance. Look at the average finishing position over the 3 years. Cas will be an average of 8th, Salford and wakefield will be on a par with Bradford if they are lucky.

Regeneration of BV? As the old saying goes, you can't polish poo. If the Fev plan of buying a stand from Scarborough FC goes ahead you may as well move in with them.

As for the city vs town argument

Tell it to Aston Villa!

Anyway, less than a week to go and this will all be over.

Don't like Wake either

(or Salford) Just seems everyone thinks it's a done deal when it might not be.

If the rumours about Peter Box turning up to Wake's meeting with Savilles is true I suspect the people over at Cas aren't as confident as their fans on here.

Whatever happens I hope the club given the heave force the RFL to publish the full reasoning behind the decision.

Are we all ready to hear the RFL try and justify their annoucement, and then change the rules for the next lot of franchises, just so that the teams they want only can apply