Agreed - but we need to be very careful we do finish 7th, 8th or 9th! Because a Championship 1 G/F appearance doesn't count for a franchise application!

The club is clueless from top to bottom. AT has thrown thousands at it then entrusted the wrong people to spend it, and boy have they spent it badly.
We persist with a 21's when one isnt needed, we fail to use the community team to bring players in, we are clueless in marketing and we will be lucky to stay in NL1 this year, ok Championship.
It is beyond belief how far we have fallen since the heady days of 2000-2003.

God I fear for our future.

Well I agree with the original poster.

Re franchising well I,m not an "expansionist" as I have posted on numerous occassions. I think London ,whatever they are called now, started playing when I was a sought after 20 something year old. OK maybe not sought after but I had long hair.

Despite crowds dropping if this ludicrous gamble continus in 2012 we all know it,s Toulouse and Gateshead.



Expansionists get with it. RL is and always will be a regional sport.

Got to agree I would much rather see derbys between two "old foe" rugby sides with grounds close enough to visit myself than entertain a manufactured club anyday.

Result from yesterday... South Dorset Giants 10, Exeter Centurions 28. The local paper phoned me this morning to get the match report. We're playing Exeter University in a SW Cup match on Wednesday (I coach both teams so I'll be busy!). There'll be a full match report, and weekend preview, in Friday's paper.

Meanwhile England Lionhearts have selected East Devon Eagles' Tony Emmis as their captain for the Home internationals. Eagles' Rich Cadywould, the National Conference Player of the Year 2008, is in at scrum half.

So come down here and say that.

Sorry to dissapoint but i think we will be even better next season. Most of the squad already tied up and a couple of big signings, i reckon we will go ok.



On the game today it looked to me like you were missing a blockbusting forward in the Mark Roberts mould to make the defence work.

IMO he was absolute PANTS for us last year.......

For the large part Mark wasn't great last year - particularly defensively when he was all at sea, but I think he's one of those players that goes well at other clubs and he was darned effective running at our line in the second half.

Bloody hell, it doesn't take much to get on to franchising, does it?

I think I said at the start of the season that we'd manage top 6 - just - but that next year would be the vital one. I still think that whoever wins things this year will be in trouble when the franchising decisions are made next time.

How do you come to that conclusion?

I know where you are coming from there. Having a top squad 2 or 3 years running then getting potted for Timbuktoo in the franchise race will have serious effects for that club.

Now before Fax fans slate me, bear with me.

We (Leigh) know from experience that crowds of around 2500 are not enough to fund a decent team without additional funding. Starbug will know better but its no secret that our teams from 2000-2004 were subsidised by the Board.

I've not looked at Fax's overall average this season but I dont think they are hitting 2500 despite the great results and rugby they are playing. If they are, fair enough but even that isnt enough income. An average crowd of 2500 will get you an approximate income from gates alone in the region of £300k. Thats not much to run a squad of their calibre.

The point is, I would be very very suprised if Fax's incomce wasn't being supplimented by significant Director loans and investment. It's not a dig, it's realism.

I'd be delighted if 'one of our lot' was awarded a franchise, it would restore a bit of faith back into the game. But what if they don't? Will the money still be invested in clubs like Leigh, Fax, Widnes, etc?

We are currently running on an overall average of 2229 which is not good enough. We do have some of the bigger teams with better away support still to visit us however.

Who brings more in our league than us or Widnes?

We have £125,000.00 a year from our main sponser also all the other sponsers of the shirt.

Bloody hell.

Depends what day it's played on. Widnes don't travel well on Thursday nights for example (don't blame them) and that is generally the day we have played them on in the past couple years. I thought you brought a decent amount yesterday and was suprised at the 2100 crowd as there looked to be much more than when we played Sheffield and that was a 2200 crowd

Mark Roberts was poor for us the season before he joined you as he played mainly as a centre.

He tries hard, but he'll never be a centre, but put him in his right position in the 2nd row & when he bounces off tackles & goes forward he's a damaging player.

Crowd got very excited when he bounced off 4 or 5 tacklers in the second half, but fact is he actually ended up 2-3 yards behind his starting point. And that's why he flatters to deceive.

Roberts is rubbish, looks good goes nowhere not big enough! Can we have him on loan?

I agree when he crabs sideways it's a waste of an effort, but this season he goes forward more than sideways & creates spaces for other players by attracting defenders

When we went Sheffield we outnumbered their home support.

Leigh, Fax and Widnes seem to have the best away support in the league that is a fact.

No doubt about it. In fact, on virtually any given day, I'd say the support of one of those three outweighs the rest of the league put together.