As I suspect you know, it's nothing to do with ambition and more to do with financial realism. Our ill-advised dalliance with Nahaboo left us in a fairly precarious position in money terms and it would have been reckless to have attempted to go full time. That's why Leigh now have Greg Worthington



Most Fev fans are overall relieved though that we are getting back to basics in terms of how the club is being run. Overstretching financially can be disastrous and indeed it's less than 18 months since Leigh's most recent financial crisis, which was by no means thier first in recent years, so I'm not sure being smug about "ambition" is a sensible approach in modern rugby league.

Well said Phantom, some common sense instead of yet another club hitting the buffers.

I think long term you dodged a bullet when he cleared off.

The saga with Probiz at Fev was predictable, given the run-in Castleford Tigers had previously with the company.....and West Brom too.
It would appear that those clubs that realise their place in the pecking order and who then cut their cloth accordingly are more "content" with their lot and have happier fans as a result. This motley crew would now seem to include London Broncos to a certain extent, although the number of happy fans is far outweighed by the sheer volume of those that have left.

You won't find many Fev fans who would disagree with that. Still lingering after-effects for us as a club though, I've already mentioned we've lost Worthington and it sounds like we have one or two other contracts from the frivolous-spending days that are not helping our cause. Still, it feels like we have got our club back, and we should be reasonably competitive next season even if our dominant days at this level are gone, at least for now.

At least it sounds like you have a long term plan. Trust me, there's no such thing at the Broncos.

my vote for the bigf bash should be our huge southern rivals and closect Sheffield!!!! However I put my actual money on us being top bill againast Bradfurt

It will be Sheffield, from a very reliable source.

As long as it's not the same reliable source other posters use.
Do they try and do the derby thing

you mean the one who said we would be homeless in 2015.

.....that's the fella. Same one who announced we wee safe in dec 13th 2013 and who announced that gus was leaving a month before he announced it. Same bloke who also confirmed that th RFL had provided the landlord with a marketing budget for 2014 thus easing their conscience about the level of assistance offered Bradford whilst ensuring their nice symmetric league if 14 ran its course.
Plum. Problem with pointing out the times I am wrong I'll counter with those when I was right......The thread will drift and more 40+year old posters will leave these boards.

Yawn

Well Michael,
I am happy to debate the accuracy of my posts when they are questioned. If such debates "bore you" can I suggest that either the idiot stays in his box or that you stick me on ignore, because you are starting to look and feel like the Cranewife, who added absolutely nothing to any debate on these forums.
In regard to the accuracy of my thread, entitled "Homeless in 2015", whilst the title was ambiguous, the actual thread was correct. London Broncos RL and the Hive have renegotiated the 2015 T's&C's, with a temporary solution in place for the year should nothing come of the more "long term" negotiations going on. The feeling from those at the RFL who are party to these discussions is that The Hive are keen to lock us down for a considerable time, but the "value" of this deal is up in the air, because nobody knows if the chances of promotion are in fact, real. The RFL say they are, the club believe that they are, but the landlord is yet to be convinced. There is also the question of a discount should David Hughes pay for the duration of the lease "UP FRONT", which he is keen to do, as it will enable him to pare back his investment whilst enabling the club to survive.
The biggest difference for 2015 in the temporary solution and the one agreed back in 2013 is that Hughes is bankrolling the "Marketing Budget" that Blake Solly gave the Hive previously.....so the comment that the Hive were unhappy with the 2015 agreement was in fact accurate. The lack of a question mark in the thread title in fact resulted in 300+ posts with at least 50% of them you and a few others attacking me with no basis and the rest me responding.

Not content with that, PC Plum has now dragged it into a different and unrelated thread......congratulations.

If you don't like my responses to your dull drone feel free to put me on ignore.
Inter sing that it's not the rfl now it's Blake Solly! Is their anyone you like?
so the important question, who we getting for the summer bash, this thread is about fixtures.

By the way pc plum wrote 1 line 10 words if you include 2015 as one word so not really drift.
back on thread, do they try and do derby type fixtures at the bash?

There hasn't been one at Champ level before, but, if they did, the lopsided geography of the clubs makes it problematic. Workington v. Whitehaven would be a given and so would Batley v Dewsbury, leaving 1 club from Lancs, 1 from London and 6 more from Yorkshire. Given that Fulham were treated as a Lancs club historically, we'd probably be paired with Leigh.

A bullet is a Bullet, no matter what size Michael....the number of words used is irrelevant....as is your question
.....we won't get a derby fixture until either we drop down or Skolars step up.....and even the Skolars don't see us as local or box office enough to ask us back to the HAC anymore.

As I understand it, there are 3 full time professional teams in the Championship. This means that either 1 or 3 semi-professional teams will be looking at an unbalanced extra fixture in which they will stand far less chance of getting a win than if they were playing a fellow semi-professional outfit.
Also, if the RFL pit 2 of the professional clubs against each other, then the third pro outfit will gain a massive advantage in the race for the top spot and the added advantage that gives in the following middle 8 competition.

You can expect a backlash regardless of whom gets whom at the bash......unless the RFL decide to leave the announcement of the fixtures until the middle of the season (May 3rd) and then pit 1 v 12, 2 v 11, 3 v 10 etc etc....

Would it make any difference to fans making plans to go up if they didn't know the exact fixtures until 3 weeks before hand? I accept that it would mean anyone planning 1 nights stay in Blackpool may miss out, but surely most London fans who make the effort will got for the entire weekend?

When we started in 1980 our 'derby' game was with Doncaster.

If it hasn't already been decided they could just do it as a draw as they did in super league before. No club can argue if they make a little YouTube video of them drawing rugby shaped balls out of some kind of big cider barrel, whether they get attractive fixtures then or not is a debate but doesn't seem like it's going to be televised anyway so just a chance for a decent weekend for championship fans

Developing this theme still further how about numbered apples instead of rugby shaped balls !

Obvious choices for me would be:
Workington v Whitehaven (Cumbrian Derby)
Sheffield v Doncaster (South Yorkshire Derby)
Batley v Dewsbury (Heavy Woollen Derby)

This would leave London, Leigh, Featherstone, Hunslet, Bradford and Halifax
If you assume that the RFL want two games with large crowds one to end each day that would give you
Halifax v Bradford (West Yorkshire Derby with a lot of history/rivalry)
Leigh v Featherstone (arguably the best teams from last year’s comp)
or some other combination of the same four clubs

That would mean
London v Hunslet as the remaining game

Maybe no club would argue but their fans might, just as fans do after every draw

as I said, either 1 or 3 semi-professional clubs fans will have plenty to whine about when they are drawn against a 100% full-time outfit. Given they "bottom" 8 Keep their points from the regular season before they enter their "avoid relegation" play-offs, being drawn against Bradford, London or Leigh could be the difference between finishing in a relegation spot or not.
Yes, all 12 teams have the opportunity to be full-time, but the reality is there isn't the money available for 24 pro teams in the UK........It's a skewed system that rewards teams with benefactors prepared to prop them up.

It's not down to the RFL to consider who is F/t and who is P/t in my eyes. The set of fixtures by FevGrinder make sense