Your point about the quality of SL is well made, which is at least one reason why so many on here are angry/frustrated/disappointed. Can't help feeling Cas are SL's answer to Leicester City

With a new coach & the horrors of early season behind them i can still imagine Saints stealing the show at Old Trafford.

I can see them being the main challengers to cas, if they get 4th and win the semi I could imagine a massive uproar about cas not even making the final. To be honest unless the wheels fall off massively in the next couple of months it would be wrong for anyone but cas to win it this year. Imagine that they finish the super 8's more than 10 points clear of second and then didn't even get to OT! I can see saints (or Wigan) being massive party poopers this autumn.

I disagree completely. If Cas can't beat Saints with home advantage when it really matters they don't deserve to be champions.

The history of RL is built on these end of season play-offs, and in the era before substitutes there will be many a hard luck story that would overshadow Cas's misfortune if it were to come to that.

I don't doubt your points but points difference between 1st and 4th this year could be huge which is why I feel it could be a bit of an injustice if things pan out that way, I am sure there would have been bigger injustices inthe history of rugby league but that doesn't make this potential case less pertinent.

For the record I have no problem with the playoffs, or this format in general, in fact this season would probably be pointless from now on if there weren't playoffs, cas would only need 2 more wins probably. There is a lot of rugby to play yet anyway so it's all ifs and buts at this stage. If cas collapse from now then they don't deserve to win it.

I know what you mean, but the huge unknown is if we weren't in a top 4 play-off system, would Cas be 10 points clear? Have some teams measured their efforts, knowing that 4th is as good as first? You don't win anything in Feb/Mar/Apr, etc, so why peak then?

I'm a strong believer in the original SL top 5 play-off format. Struck the right balance between reward for the season's endeavours, and needing to win when it matters. For me we should have a 12 team league, 25 games (home and away, magic plus a couple extra bases on league position), top 5 play-off, bottom tomplay top of Championship in MPG play-off.

As a cas fan I agree with this, we've already beaten everyone at home so if we dont win our home semi we don't deserve to be in the gf. maybe most of my fellow cas fans are listening to opposing fans who say we're a 1 season wonder, but the way I see it is finishing 4,5,5 and poss 1st isn't something you can fluke over 4 consecutive seasons and as our coaching staff and most of our best players are signed up for the next few years I would be very surprised if we're not challenging for top 4 during the next few years.

Good luck for the 8's although you won't need it you're not a bottom 4 team and I'll be surprised if you don't finish top.

I, for one, will be rooting for you to win the Grand Final, for the way you play the game and to show what can be done with modest resources, when you have the right setup. I think you will be up against Wigan, Saints or Leeds who have the experience though, so it will be tough.

I too hope Cas win the GF. Only they truly deserve it.
I hope Salford win the CC...they truely need it.

wont happen..starting with sundays semi salford will be on the wrong end of some dodgy decisions,,please let me be wrong

No doubt the whispering campaign from the RL accountants has already started re the likely lads for the Wembley day out, bums on seats being the priority.

well that rules out a wakey salord grand final...get your dosh on the thugs tmrw -8 buying money

Let's hope TS is wrong again and we don't do a Leeds. It needs to be much better than that.

I reckon most genuine fans want us to win the gf, fans have been wanting entertaining rugby, obviously there will be fans jealous of the media coverage cas are getting but that coverage is good for rugby league as a whole. Also everyone loves fairytale stories so a club almost going into admin in 2013 looking favourites to win a trophy or poss 2 trophies 4 years later would interest a lot more people than say Wigan who win trophies regular winning 1 or 2. Questions were asked during the last 4 years if we could play entertaining rugby and win, so far the answer is yes as we won 20/23 games during regular season, should we win lls then it will be a bigger yes, the gf would make it a huge yes. Not to mention the ammo it gives those who believe we don't need to raise salary cap to have entertaining rugby in super league. Cas and now wakey play entertaining rugby without a rich backer, neither club tends to spend full cap and neither club has used marquee players and are unlikely to use them in the future yet both are in the battle for top 4. Whoever we play in semi and if we reach it the gf will be tough but in a one-off game anything can happen

We don't deserve to win gf although it would be a nice double lls and gf. We all know how the system works and I'm sure Powell won't blame the system if we lose in the semi or final, he didn't cry about the system last season when we were 7 points behind 4th he just got on with things and unlike some still tried to finish in top 4, he failed but I was still proud he tried and it gives you hope when you know your coach will continue to try no matter how hard the task is and in the end we managed to snatch fifth place so in the end we gained from it.

A measure of a good coach is to make a successful team out of the players available & is true in any team sport. All these football managers with millions to spend should never fail but they buy individuals with egos bigger than their wage packets.
Cas have done brilliantly & Powell has produced the team to do the job without buying star names. I hope you can go all the way.

The table is definitely sad reading for Cheshire Rugby league.
Maybe it's time to think about a Warrington/ Widnes merger again to see if a consistent big team can be established.

We're not biting.

It's an interesting taboo. What would the world look like now, had all the mergers gone ahead?

Warrington wouldn't have a team as Cheshire would have reverted back to the playing venue team... Widnes. Just like Hull/Gateshead Huddersfield/Sheffield.

Maybe you would. Gateshead re-formed eventually becoming Newcastle and Sheffield also re-formed. The net result is playing at a lower level though.

Yes lower tier as reformed is not exactly true.
New teams who have taken the name of a current club who rebranded and dropped the former name.
If you can follow that.

What?? Venues were never discussed. I would imagine the plan (if it had ever gotten to that stage, which was never going to happen), would have been to split venues. In 1995 both Naughton Park and Wilderspool were under-invested stadia, so there was no obvious first choice. Likely it would have come down to whoever could get investment for the ground development first.

It would be interesting to be able to jump to a parallel universe to see what would have happened. I fancy it would have to turned into some disastrous nightmare.

I remember it different. A new stadium to be built over by Curdley Cross.

Even so it was all small speculation. No one kicked up more a fuss about it than us Wire fans.