Sorry m8. If you were all for Leigh getting the promotion.. You wouldn't have made your last statement.



Do you see yourself being at that the bottom 4 coming the middle 8's?? Is that what worries you?

I think all the Championship clubs need to see this season's Middle 8's as a learning curve and not a disaster if they don't go up at the first attempt. Leigh have made such big strides, relatively speaking in the last two or three years that it's tempting to think promotion will happen. All that has happened, is that we now get a shot at it, which is brilliant, but it's still a long shot and has to be when you consider how many years and how much money all the current SL clubs have had to spend over the last decade. It would be extremely embarrassing to say the least for a current SL side to drop out through the Middle 8's, heads would have to roll.

On the other hand we now have a situation where two Championship clubs can lay claim to bigger support than a number of SL clubs and it's probably been a while since that has happened.

Lol. Do you think everyone who reckons no Championship team will be promoted this year are scared or worried about playing Leigh?

Spot on. Leigh or Bradford or someone else might do really well, or a SL club might implode, and the Championship club is promoted. But I think, because of a couple of good results/performances for Championship clubs in the Cup in recent years, some Championship clubs fans are very much underestimating the size of the challenge.

haha, I think I might of worded it a bit wrong. I'm worried that people will see a none promotion this year as a failure with the system. In my eyes its not a failure, as its a work in progress.

I'm looking forward to it, as the championship clubs will be playing out of their skin to get in to SL and the SL clubs fighting for survival. So on paper it should be some good matches. Nice siege mentality from you though

I'd say yes..

Tbh, the Middle 8 could go to form and the 4 SL clubs finish in the top 4 spots with the Championship clubs filling 5th-8th.

But that still leaves a one off match of 4th vs 5th at the end and in a one off match even when the SL team will be favourites, anything could happen. Won't be no pressure on the Championship club, will be massive pressure on the SL club (who won't have experience of big finals to draw on, at least the likes of Leigh can look back to recents finals at that level)......8 times out of 10 the SL team would win IMO, but as Sheffield Eagles proved in 1998, it doesn't always go according to script.

The Championship sides don't even need to win a game against the SL sides in the 'league' format......all they need to do is be the best of the Championship sides and finish 5th and win that one off "Million Pound" game and they're up.

I think people are forgetting. It ain't the top 4 sides that get 'promoted' to SL. It's the top 3 sides and the winner of a one off game between 4th and 5th.

Indeed.
If one or two clubs finish a long way behind the rest in SL, they will go into the middle 8 with very low confidence compared with the clubs at the top of the Championship who will be fired up and full of confidence.
The big unknown question is, how the Championship clubs will cope with 7 games in a row, with higher intensity, against full time opposition.

I still despise the concept but, the games will be an interesting watch.

Of course, the sting in the tail is that, even if a club wins promotion, they will very likely be back in the middle 8 the following season which isn't much of a reward.

The bit the super league fans are not grasping is it gives a clear passage for any club below super league to progress,its not a boom and bust its a steady growth were you can keep hold of your players,they grow and each year they know what they need to do to compete.the crowds increase bringing more money into the club which in turn means the club can sign up better youngsters thus improving themselves.if you ask any Leigh fan is it much of a reward to only end up in the bottom four of super league next year they would snatch your hand off.....cannot wait for the middle 8 games with Wakefield both hulls and Widnes playing at Leigh

It isn't a clear passage, it's dangling a forlorn hope in the naively grateful faces of Championship sides. The sort of steady progression you advocate would see you stuffed in every game, hell you'd probably struggle to get in the top 4 of the Championship. To have any hope a championship side needs to take a punt at a fair few players who are almost but not quite superleague class. Steady growth of your existing players isn't going to get you remotely competitive in the middle 8s.

And once you've made the decision to have your Lee Gaskell's and Moi Moi, you've probably got two good years at sustaining full time promotion chasing. Thereafter any decent players will leave and, in my opinion, the club falls back from serious contention.

I know everything is rosey in the Leigh garden, but at Bradford we know if we don't get up this time or next, we might never under this faux promotion system.

I haven't done the maths but would 4 wins out of 7 get you in one to third spot in the middle 8's ?

Say Leigh beat (for example) Fev, Bulls and Halifax plus one SL club - would that be enough ?

I don't think so off the top of my head.

8 points would give them a good shot of being 3rd but I think it's possible two teams could finish on 8 pts with points difference pushing one down into 4th.

The plus side is that there is a pathway into SL for Championship clubs into SL, which is good for the game and the possibility of promotion has re-invigorated the Championship.

As I mentioned earlier, the difficulty for any club that gains promotion, will be staying in SL.
Far from allowing steady growth, promoted clubs will have the uncertainty of the following seasons "qualifying league".

As things sand, most fans could predict the top half of SL (although Dr K may want to spoil the party), which leaves the other 6 clubs battling for 2 places.
The uncertainty that this causes has to have an impact on recruitment for next season and the top 6 (Saints, Leeds, Warrington, Wigan, Huddersfield and Catalan) have a massive advantage over the other clubs when it comes to signing players on long term deals.

IF Leigh and/ or Bradford gain promotion, they wont be in a position to entice the quality of player to allow them to finish in the top 8 an therefore they are likely to yo-yo between the divisions, which is one of the main reasons that the sport went for the licensing system in the first place (plus the ability of clubs to develop more home grown youngsters.

The 2 x 12, 3x8 structure will see the return of the merry go round of journeyman pros moving from relegated club to promoted club and back again, just as it was pre licensing and inevitably, some clubs will over stretch themselves financially, either chasing the dream or trying t survive in the top flight (not to mention the dual reg. debacle).

You missed the obvious point "We are able to keep hold of our players"..We are no longer a feeder club for SL..Bradfords scenario is completely different to a Championship sides scenario as your indeed finding out.

I'm sick of saying this,you were relegated from SL..The championship sides have been striving for SL many seasons..It's about time they were given a chance or a path that didn't have a closed gate at the end.

We are no longer a feeder club for SL...We don't need to entice quality players,we make them.

I may well have got an odd one wrong but I make it that Leigh have 8 homegrown players out of a squad of 30.

I'd imagine that's not the worst, but it's hardly amazing. Leigh's strength is from astute signings.

Do you have a reserve side?

Yes, they're called the Hunslet Hawks.

3rd place in super league are on 8 points after 7 games and that's in a league of 12

Yes but that's in a competitive league where everyone is taking points off each other.

For Leigh to get 8 points and finish 3rd in the scenario mentioned you would need another SL club to slip up
somewhere.

No you don't. Leigh along with Bradford are beating everyone in the league (at time of writing this post) because they are both spending more money than everyone else.

You get carried awAy with that if you wish but in the real world the superleague clubs are spending a lot more than us. Like I said you're squad is less than average on paper in comparison to the superleague clubs.

It's possible but difficult and unlikely (as it requires lots of other results to help you out) that 4 wins from 7 would be enough for 3rd place. Using the teams you name Leigh would need two of the SL clubs (for example) Wakefield and Salford to both lose to the other two SL clubs (Hull and Hull KR). Salford then beat Wakefield. Leigh beat Wakefield and the other KPC clubs to get 8 points, the most Wakefield (still to play Fev, Bradford and Halifax) can now get is 6. Salford having beaten Wakefield beat Leigh and have four points with three KPC clubs to play. So for Leigh (8 points) to have a chance of getting 3rd Salford must also lose to Bradford (for example) and finish with at most 8 points if they beat Fev and Halifax and 3rd spot comes down to points difference. If Salford had dropped a further point by drawing with Wakefield (or Fev or Fax) then they finish 4th with 7 points and Leigh get 3rd. In that scenario Leigh would still need to manage to win against the right one of the 4 SL teams and get 2 SL teams and a KPC team to beat the other weak SL team to help them.

The odds do swing a little in Leigh's favour if in an otherwise identical scenario two of their 4 wins are against Wakefield and Salford as both of those will have then lost 3 games just as Leigh would. At that stage a dropped point for either of the two SL clubs in their remaining 4 games (v the other 3 KPC clubs and each other) means that they could not claim 3rd place as they could not reach 8 points. A draw between Salford and Wakefield or the victor of that game failing to beat one of Bradford, Fev or Fax would see Leigh take 3rd spot.

Either scenario rely on a lot of ifs and buts and helpful results elsewhere. Winning 4 of 7 should make you sure of a spot in the 4th v 5th playoff which still allows a chance of promotion but in reality the team that gets 3rd will probably have won 5 out of 7 games (or won 4 and drawn 1).

We, Leigh, are spending less than London and Bradford so far but understand we have 2 imports arriving end of June currently playing first grade NRL to bolster the push in the 8's

I'd love to know how you know thAt but it means shaft all. You're spending more than the part time clubs which is my point.

Who are full time in the Championship?