Last season, at the same point of the season that the Middle gets underway this year Wakefield went on a run of games which saw them win 7 from 8, beating Leeds, Wigan, Warrington and St Helens during that period, hardly demoralised and injury ridden despite fighting bottom spot for large parts of the year.

It's the intensity and speed which will make the difference.

And that will depend, in part at least, on which refs are assigned to the Middle 8. Will it be SL refs, Championship refs or a mixture as the difference in the way the PTB is policed in the two leagues is noticeably different

I think both Leigh and Bradford could get promoted this year. But easily neither could. If neither do, I think it could be curtains for both as their best players get picked off. And no club will get promoted after that.

Injuries will play a huge part for all the teams involved. Even though we've a big squad, keeping Gaskell and Adam O'brien fit for the super 8 is huge.

Stick to your frogs legs buddy..We'll repay the compliment next season..

Just to refresh your memory..Leigh were down 20-6 at h/t..

Wasn't that 3 years ago?

Last season, just after Webster took over

There is your key reason for the upturn in form from Wakefield at the end of last season. Getting rid of one failing coach and bringing in Webster boosted the poor morale and led to your players pulling away from the relegation fight. Many teams pick up after sacking a coach when the new man comes in. Without even thinking too hard two good examples spring to mind. London Broncos had a good end to the season a couple of years ago when Tony Rae replaced their sacked coach. About ten years ago Hull won something like 13 in a row and reached the GF after sacking the coach. There are other examples in RL and other sports. Hadn't you also got Tim Smith back (who works very well at your club) not long before as well.

You all seem to be a little edgy,with the middle 8's.....

Just remind us all where the ref came from ........you can't beat a good half time ' team talk'.

seeing as there are only 5 full time referees, you would assume they will be given the 4 top 8 games, with one of them dropping down into the middle 8's as required each week

When all else fails..Lets go back to the old chestnut, the ref..

Leigh prepped to be firing on all cylinders from the first match which is why everyone in Leigh is getting excited but will ultimately be dissapointed.

I've not seen anything that suggests to me anyone will get promoted yet.

Leigh's squad is pretty average looking tbh. Look past Hock and Moi Moi and there's nothing that will compete in superleague over the course of more than a one off game. An injury in the backs and they're down to picking players like Michael Platt. Half of the first 13 nobody following a superleague club will have heard of.

You don't win anything in march.

I'd prefer to see factual evidence to support your assumption. We must be doing something right to have you reply without even a word about the Bulls.
Shows to me your more concentrated on us than your own team.

There...

1 Gregg McNally
2 Adam Higson
3 Greg Worthington
4 Tom Armstrong
5 Liam Kay
6 Martyn Ridyard
7 Ryan Brierley
8 Fuifui Moimoi
9 Bob Beswick
10 Oliver Wilkes
11 Matthew Sarsfield
12 Tommy Goulden
13 Sam Barlow
14 Sean Penkywicz
15 Jonny Pownell
16 Michael Platt
17 Ben Reynolds
18 Tom Spencer
19 Kurt Haggerty
20 Sam Hopkins
21 Jamie Acton
22 Andrew Dixon
23 Martin Aspinwall
24 Jonny Walker
25 Cameron Pitman
26 Gareth Hock
27 Lewis Foster
28 Steve Maden
29 Jacob Emmitt
30 Jamie Tracey

Saints beat Wakefield twice last season,40 -16 at saints in August and 24 - 16 at Belle Vue in March.

I think you've got 2012 and 2014 mixed up.

You must mean 2012 because it wasn't last year or the year before.
Wakey results
2014:
Rd 24 - St Helens 40-16 Wakefield
Rd 25 - Wakefield 42-6 Salford
Rd 26 - Castleford 26-22 Wakefield
Rd 27 - Wakefield 18-42 Hull KR

2013:
Rd 24 - Warrington 26-14 Wakefield
Rd 25 - Wakefield 12-26 St Helens
Rd 26 - Huddersfield 40-0 Wakefield
Rd 27 - Wakefield 36-32 Castleford

2012:
Rd 24 - Wakefield 33-32 St Helens
Rd 25 - Hull KR 30-31 Wakefield
Rd 26 - Wakefield 22-18 Widnes
Rd 27 - Salford 34-42 Wakefield
PO - Leeds 42-20 Wakefield

Ah the mind does play good tricks.

I beg my pardon re Sts being part of the run last year

Round: 22
27th Jul Warrington Wolves 33503 26 40 Wakefield Wildcats
Round: 21
19th Jul Catalans Dragons 49006 40 6 Wakefield Wildcats
Round: 20
10th Jul Wakefield Wildcats 33502 12 10 Widnes Vikings
Round: 19
4th Jul Wakefield Wildcats 33502 16 14 Leeds Rhinos
Round: 11 (Deferred fro earlier in the season)
29th Jun Wakefield Wildcats 33502 20 20 Hull FC
Round: 17
22nd Jun Wakefield Wildcats 33502 36 28 Wigan
Round: 16
13th Jun Wakefield Wildcats 33502 18 10 London

Well done, thats the first team.. The team that beat you! Do you have any other physical evidence to prove your assumption?

It's a debate about the strength of the Leigh squad and he posted the Leigh squad. Considering Leigh haven't played SL opposition several times in a season since 2005 then what factual evidence are you after?

There is no more factual evidence. The rest is opinion.


I think Leigh will finish top of the Championship and may run an SL club close but still won't get promoted and neither will any other Championship side. I may be wrong. But until the actual games have been played there is no factual evidence either way.

So what do we call demoted Superleague teams? As in the Bulls and Broncos..Evidence shows they are X Superleague teams.What you are saying is they are no good for Superleague.Yet Leigh have beat them both up to now..

Its not a debate about the strength of a Leigh squad..Its quite clear everything being said is pointing to weakness in everyone elses team.

Championship teams. Until they're promoted or relegated again. Then we call them either Super League or Championship 1 teams.



No what I (and others) are opining is that no current Championship team, be that Leigh, Bradford, whoever, is good enough to get promoted under the current system. Hardly earth shattering to suggest a team in a lower division with a significantly lower salary cap and, in some cases, part time players would struggle to beat teams in a higher division.
Not to mention that Leigh are an ex-Super League team too.



Very nice. Leigh could beat every Championship club, including ex-Super League clubs, by 60 points this season and still not get promoted. It's the current Super League clubs Leigh (or any Championship club) have to beat. They might well beat them and get promoted. Good luck to them. However it's hardly a strange or outrageous opinion to think they won't.


It's clear that people are suggesting that clubs in a lower division might have a not so good team as those in a higher division.
You can take it as some kind of bizarre slight against your club or the Championship if you like but it'll just look a bit paranoid.

I'm all for Leigh getting promoted in to SL.

BUT, just because they are dominating the championship and beating ex-SL teams doesn't mean anything. Even if they beat Salford in a one off game it still doesn't mean anything. The 8's league will be totally different from the championship and Challenge cup games. On paper 2 championship teams probably have a chance at coming up and that's Leigh and Bradford. Picking the 4 bottom teams in SL at the moment, they all have players who have performed at a higher standard. Even if Wakefield go the season with only two wins they still have players that can put in a "final" winning performances. So on the day Leigh might have to play 4 big matches against SL players that don't want to lose their jobs.

Personally I see this as the first year in a several year development, which might not see a promotion for a few years. Unfortunately I think a lot of people expect instant promotion and relegation otherwise it's going to be a failure.