Just sick of people suggesting teams for promotion when they don't know the reality, it was widely suggested for Coventry even after they'd had to drop out of NL3.

But yes NCL would be more realistic

Apparently Leigh East are doing up their ground, but they'd presumably have to relax Championship 1 criteria a bit to expand the league to a manageable number (at that level many RU clubs have grounds like good NCL ones, so as long as there's criteria for the Championship itself that is better than that then it wouldn't be an issue).

But between the 5 NCL Hull clubs and Orchard Park there could easily be made a team of Championship 1 standard, or even two, just not sure where they'd be based

Ah that would explain why Gateshead have been totally unbeatable the last couple of months, but struggled at the start of the season.

Toulouse seem to have had a very bad start and end to the season, but a very good middle, not sure whether the heat in France in the summer helped them there

Depending on who finishes just above Donny I reckon we may see 1 down 2 up to balance things up.

I doubt it mate.
Although I dont follow the issue too closely I've heard a few times that Ch1 clubs are really struggling financially with the lack of fixtures, especially if im not wrong having no fixtures on NRC days, CC days and of course 2 less fixtures than the Ch.
Its probably short notice but imo I wouldnt be suprised if an announcement came to the effect that the Championships became one division again next year.
At the time the split into 2 was the right one, now i'm not too sure.

That would explain why Skolars are possibly getting dropped I imagine, although they'd probably have to drop a couple more to make it truly viable.

But yes they'd need to get a couple more Championship 1 sides to justify expanding the Championship to 12. Having said that I think the Championship could support 14 if they dropped Doncaster and added Dewsbury, Oldham, Keighley and York, but they'd have to find somewhere for the other teams to play

Although having said that the lower salary cap might make a 20 team Championship workable

hmm Whatever happened to the talk of an Irish team joining Ch1 in 2010?
Obviously not going to happen now.
The Ch could go to 20 NRL fixture style, Skolars being dropped for anything other than financial reasons would be a blow imo

Yeah though putting them in against teams like Widnes would be a bad idea also

The Irish team idea won't be happening I imagine, unless the RFL want to throw money at it for the geographical location, they also announced a 2nd division last year which never existed, so hard to believe anything from there

Although think the divisions won't merge next year, unless they can't get enough teams to run it, as they wouldn't be asking clubs like Leigh East to move up to a merged league, but they would to keep 2 divisions afloat

I think if we had one Championship then it would be incredibly difficult to get new sides to join the pro ranks. The gap between new semi-pro club and nearly fully-pro is immense.

Again, if it comes down to the Championship 1 sides not having enough fixtures, then why can't they play each other three times like they used to in SL? If you promoted one team to Championship to make it 12, that leaves you with nine Championship 1 sides. 9 x 3 = 24 games.

I've read that Championship sides need to make some kind of down-payment to the RFL. Is this like a deposit sort of thing in case they go bust? Or is it an entrance fee or what?

With the amount of games that would be involved, would a single Championship mean the end of the Northern Rail Cup?

No they are having a small stand placed next to the pitch , nothing more

I know you meant 8 x 3 = 24, and you got the total number of games right, but someone had to correct your equation.

I would disagree Starbug. I think the quota system is relevant whether those places are filled or not, and that is from someone whose team benefits from it. It is a contensious issue and I sympathise with teams that suffer because of it. One of the perceptions of Thunder is that we are "full" of Aussies, however the likes of Nash, McAlpine, Branighan etc have British/European passports and qualify to play for anyone and McBride has both a British passport and family in Gateshead which is why he came over.
I would love to see a team of North Easterners take to the field but as a region we have played professional rugby league for 10 years and are still building the infrastructure in the region. Much like Durham CCC it may be years before we are in a position where we can compete with the heartlands but we'll give it a damn good try.

Best of luck to all the teams in the relegation fight this year. It will be a nervous Sunday all round

Looks like Leigh East is a malicious rumour, but this seems to say Bramley, Warrington Wizards and Carcassonne were being lined up although since Bramley haven't applied and don't have a suitable ground and since it would be reckless to A. have a French team in Championship 1 , B. it would be reckless to take another French team out of the French Elite at this stage, C. Championship 1 and French Elite are a similar standard and D. taking Bramley and Warrington Wizards out of RLCN would kill the league stone dead, without taking any expansion clubs up, so I hope the rumour is untrue viewtopic.php? ... 1&start=15

Looks like Leigh East is a malicious rumour, but this seems to say Bramley, Warrington Wizards and Carcassonne were being lined up although since Bramley haven't applied and don't have a suitable ground and since it would be reckless to A. have a French team in Championship 1 , B. it would be reckless to take another French team out of the French Elite at this stage, C. Championship 1 and French Elite are a similar standard and D. taking Bramley and Warrington Wizards out of RLCN would kill the league stone dead, without taking any expansion clubs up, so I hope the rumour is untrue viewtopic.php? ... 1&start=15

And let's not forget 9 of the Thunder squad are from Newcastle/Gateshead, plus one southerner from County Durham. In terms of giving opportunities to genuinely local players I'd bet Thunder do as well as most clubs and better than a fair few. Isolated clubs like Thunder need a (very) few extra non-quota players simply because they have no surrounding established rugby league areas to draw from. If heartland clubs don't like it, they should have tried a bit harder in the intervening century or so to spread the greatest game past York.

aha.....a sensible post.

www.overstream.net/view.php?oid= ... ch&skip=12 When all else fails To all Gateshead fans please be aware that the above may contain strong language , therefore you view at your own peril This is a ' Popman ' production as I would not want to claim credit for his work

www.overstream.net/view.php?oid= ... ch&skip=12 When all else fails To all Gateshead fans please be aware that the above may contain strong language , therefore you view at your own peril This is a ' Popman ' production as I would not want to claim credit for his work

Quality

Probably the funniest RL-related video (well, sort of!) I have ever seen. The guy deserves a medal for that brilliance!

Sir I take my hat off to you, sheer brilliance

Quote ="bowes"Looks like Leigh East is a malicious rumour, but this seems to say Bramley, Warrington Wizards and Carcassonne were being lined up although since Bramley haven't applied and don't have a suitable ground and since it would be reckless to A. have a French team in Championship 1 , B. it would be reckless to take another French team out of the French Elite at this stage, C. Championship 1 and French Elite are a similar standard and D. taking Bramley and Warrington Wizards out of RLCN would kill the league stone dead, without taking any expansion clubs up, so I hope the rumour is untrue viewtopic.php? ... 1&start=15'" isnt there to be a scottish or irish team supposed to be joining the semi-pro ranks next year?

Quote ="bowes"Looks like Leigh East is a malicious rumour, but this seems to say Bramley, Warrington Wizards and Carcassonne were being lined up although since Bramley haven't applied and don't have a suitable ground and since it would be reckless to A. have a French team in Championship 1 , B. it would be reckless to take another French team out of the French Elite at this stage, C. Championship 1 and French Elite are a similar standard and D. taking Bramley and Warrington Wizards out of RLCN would kill the league stone dead, without taking any expansion clubs up, so I hope the rumour is untrue viewtopic.php? ... 1&start=15'" isnt there to be a scottish or irish team supposed to be joining the semi-pro ranks next year?

Actually with the closeness of the league this year, I almost said standard then.. I'd be tempted to only go one down this year. Draw up potential Ch1 candidates and offer funding for expansion areas, good funding, the RFL will make some money this year in the 4N, see what interest you can drum up. Just my 2c

Pure Genius!

Ironically (or may be not so) the footage is from a film called Downfall.
Sounds about right for Leigh.

Like a cable cart, gone right over your head...