Who said at the begining of the season that they'd be happy IF we made the top 6?

well i'm not trawling through the posts but i can say that a large % did.

So where are we now?

In the top 6 or Just outside just got beaten in the QF of the NRC by the best side in the league FACT!

Lets not throw the baby out with the bath water (again)

So have Halifax gone sh*t or bust this season?
I say YES and so have Barrow BUT only one side can win things so what happens to them next season?.

Next season we will have a better side and probably expect to be challenging at the top of the league whether we will who knows but under "current" rfl criteria this season isn'rt the be all and end all even TREVOR HUNT said this and he calls Leigh more than anyone!!

this season we are not up to it but whats the point in going over old ground slagging of the coach the directors the playes each other? NONE but Leythers do the same every year.

We have players who are not good enough we have players who don't try ! Get rid of the non triers you can't blame someone for not being good enough if they try!

Rose Tinted? Maybe I am !! its a damn site easier being possitive than not.

wow someone with a sensible post on here ??? Never


what you have to remember is a lot of us leythers have short memories

I said that I would be happy with 5/6th because this team lacks attacking ideas.

Watto really does need a foil. He was by far the most influential player today and deserved credit for the way he continually got us into good positions only for his backline to not be up with him.

There are a clutch of young players though that I think the club should be proud of and I think Macgraff and Andy Ainscough went well today.

I'm not going to pick through that game today - defensively there were some shocking lapses but Fax played some great high tempo stuff that took it out of us and look by far the most capable team at this level, and pretty similar in the multi threats they possess to our team between 2000-2004.

I'd love to know how we have gone sh*t or bust. The rest of your post makes perfect sense and I agree with most of it, but we a far from sh*t or bust.
We are not full time, we have kept the bulk of last years squad, we are finishing the stadium and entering an U20's side next year. The coach has signed a 2 year extension and the players are now starting to do the same.
Any team that doesn't tick the GF/NRC winners box for SL this season will be very nervous next season.

To be honest all the clubs are playing for nothing.Ok we are in all the competitions but to be honest with the franchise farce do the club need to break themselves to get in.

When the franchise nonsense starts again next year will the current clubs who are in ,be any better than last time? will any be playing in a new ground? no

So I suppose showing you are a company that runs itself within its means and not boom and busting it would pay better in the long run.

Remember this is rugby league and whenever have they followed through with any new gimmick they have brought in?

Sit tight and slowly grow we will get there

I'm optimistic every season, but unortunately the one that really matters, is the curent one isn't it. Top 6 finish look very unlikely, and if we did reach the play-offs, so what. could we go any further. The league table doesn't lie, we've not got a very good side this season have we ?
Roll on 2010

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.