Well gutters best mate Mr Hughes has laid his cards on the table with his stated aim being for us to get straight back to super league. In reality not really a lot else he could have said as the target for the season just have to hope that we get to the back end of the season with the squad intact and see what happens. In reality I can see us Bradford or Leigh finishing top 3 of super 8 and going up plus one of the others playing in the 4-5 game.
If I was a betting man I reckon their will be one up one down next year, despite the salary cap difference.

Things look promising for next season but lets not forget DH was the one who was ultimately responsible for the assembly of such a diabolical squad last season. Surely it would have been better to not be in this position in the first place.

He really doesn't get it...........his decision making sin e 2008 has cost him £15,000,000 and the club its super league status. No doubt his post match fan club make him feel better about it all.

But the fact is we are where we are, nowt can be done about that now.
Cant forget about it because anytime anyone mentions looking forward on here we are reminded that we have to look back and blame Mr Hughes.
So its cost HIM 15mil its his money!!! don't forget without that 15 Mil we would not exist!
where is this post match fan club you talk about anyhow gutters?

I still reckon one of the 3 will go up next year, like I say I think it hinges on injuries and keeping a strong squad for the back end of the season. I think one thing that will come out of the new structure will be a bit of competition, I don't think Leigh will do what they did last year. Just hope when we get a run of wins together a few fans start coming back despite the fact its not big name opposition.

The only way anyone is going up is if a sl side have a season like we did last year. As for Hughes........he should be reminded every day what he has dome to the club. We are more reliant on him than ever.....all he has done is cut his costs and get us relegated.

We will have to wait and see then won't we, I stuck by my words.
So no Mr Hughes again I ask the question where would we be now, as much as you want to knock him until one of us wins the lottery he is all we have.

He might be all we have but face facts he has made some terrible decisions.

Given the indecent speed at which Blake Solly bribed ak to take us in, only so we could fulfil the fixture list for 2014, I'd have preferred it if Hughes had made good on his threat to walk in 2008/9. The rfl would have stepped in and it is very likely we would now be owned by the other sl clubs.......as it is, we are a walking corpse 100% reliant on one man with a terrible track record to date. Its not just his terrible decision making but his refusal to accept he's wrong......Blanchard was an error, Powell was an error, rea was an error and mackay.......well, he was the ultimate clusterfeck.......he's still unemployed even though he claimed his tenure was a success......if he ever works in sports admin again it'll be a miracle (or london welsh)

We look in better shape on the pitch, in the context of promotion-chasing, than we have done for a number of years.

Off the pitch is a different matter, as our track record has been so poor and the decision-making so daft. I'm cautiously optimistic but I think there is still a great deal of work to be done and the gap between us the established super league sides is a very large one to close up between now and next year.

You seriously think the rfl would have stepped in to take over running of the club. Sorry mate you are in dream land.
The word bribe is slanderous.
So the club have made errors in the past, the point is its in the past not a single thing you can do about it so what's the point in bleating on.

It's highly unlikely that any champs club will be promoted any year under this system, Wakey may be the weakest squad in SL but they're probably still better on paper than all 3 fully pro Champs squads AND will have been competing against fully pro SL opposition (including some very good sides) all season before playing Champs teams.

The new system's a con and everyone will see through it within 2-3 seasons and the RFL will have to find a new way to re-invent the wheel....again.

Yup and, as has been said before, the only realistic hope for promotion could come from a financial meltdown at a SL club.

Even if a champ club is promoted, they'll be faced with the problem that clubs promoted under the pre-licensing system had, which is that all the decent players will already be on contract at existing SL clubs, and they'll have a desperate scramble to build a SL squad in next to no time at the end of the play-offs.

So the licencing system really worked did it? Really made clubs more financially stable and made it a competitive competition, nope I think not. The top 8 play off became a shambles so summat had to be done, it may work it may not, but at least it's gonna make every game worth something. As for the promotion and relegation issue, every sport has the same problem but let's not forget widnes seem to be doing ok so do KR it was not that many years ago when Wigan were promoted as runners up to York in the old 2 league system. The game has to change, franchise did not work.

Arguably, the RFL should have thrown London out of SL once it became clear DH had no intention to meet the commitments of the licence.

Much as I'd love to disagree, I'm afraid I think you're spot on

I think that licensing was a great concept that didn't work. The financial guarantees that clubs put into their bids were clearly not subject to sufficient scrutiny. That said, the recession that the country has been through would always have put the skids under things, and I'm not sure that too many other clubs would have been able to step in.
I'm glad that Widnes seem to have done OK, but that was under licensing.

I think there will be at least 1 promotion this season, we'll see come the "Super 8 stage"...

1. SL clubs buying bradford was an option 2 years back and look at the help they got anyway. It's not too far fetched to believe that the clubs could have bought us.
2. Then let someone sue me! AK was given a marketing budget to market games that if he had been successful, HE would have received the additional gate money. That is a bribe.......if you cant see it then you are more niave than I thought.....i repeat, he was given money so he could try and get more money.......what would you call it? it was the tipping point at the meeting in december 2013 that saw us saved........blake solly to the rescue with the SLE cheque Book.
3. I have little confidence in Hughes and as long as he remains at the head of the club, that lack of confidence shall prevail. He has destroyed what was a club on the cusp of a potentially secure era and no amount of lip service and unsubstantiated claims will change that. He destroyed the relationship with Quins which was our true chance to build a home and a supporter base.....now we are 100% reliant on him and in an area with little interest in live sports.


Bradford are the strongest side in our division and it is they who will lose to the SL also rans in the million quid game.

I'm not sure we can blame David for the demise of the Quins relationship. It's fair to say he was less enthusiastic than Ian but I'd suggest the main reason it began breaking down were changes at Quins end. In particular the resignation of key mover Tony Copsey not long after it was sealed. Admittedly the copious amounts of red ink on our accounts made the end pretty inevitable even if Tony and Mark Evans were still at Quins.

Halfdan stop it now you are doubting gotnofax sorry I meant gutter fax.

Franchise was never going to work we ended up again with a competition where games at end of the season meant diddly squat, fans lose interest and walk at least with promotion and relegation the way it's been introduced with super 8 will at least keep interest in the end of season. It may work it may not, but how it can be seen as any worse than franchise I don't understand.

For someone who has got no facts I do seem to get it right more than not
By the way, any news on ticketing prices for 2015 yet?

I think you can blame David Hughes in part for the way the relationship fell apart. You can also blame him for some very atrocious decisions that have led the club to yet another reboot. We are dependent on him and regardless if our crowds were 5,000 or as now we have always been reliant on a benefactor. We are probably further away from a sustainable model than in the past 18 years.

On that basis people have two choices learn from the past and move on, or just continue to rake over the past. It looks like the club are starting to reconnect and resolve long standing issues. The ambition has been stated whether we have the wherewithal to deliver it will be seen over the season. Only 6 weeks to the first game.

Completely correct, but sadly some just can't move on, they seem to get more joy out of living in the past, all that is important now is The Future, and no one can forecast that!

We won't even make the million quid game and some on here will be thankful for wins against Dewsbury and Sheffield. There's a forecast for you.