I know this has been slightly covered in a different thread but beat Saints and 5th is ares the one position every one wants to finish in Leeds exploits in recent. Thinking about ordering my tickets for old Trafford already!

Not really too bothered if we finish 5th or 6th as long as we get a home tie, (preferably against Catalan or saints) want to avoid rovers at all costs, they'll have players returning for the playoffs and having home advantage wouldn't count for a lot if they had 5000-6000 fans in the stadium. That's out of our hands though really, all we can do is concentrate on beating saints, lose next week and we'll likely finish 8th.

Why book tickets?
Do you support Hudds , Wire , Wigan or Leeds ?

quite.

IMO we have very little chance over beating any of those teams away from home.

But you never know

Coveted

We will not make the GF, simply not good enough. If we can beat Saints and finish 5th that will be what most people would have accepted as progress at the start of the season, coupled with a CC Final appearance and on the face of it that would be a very good season.

Yet the manner of the Wembley defeat and the inconsistency of performances has left everyone deflated. We could actually finish 5th whilst posting less comp points than we did in 2012. At present I have little optimism for improvement next season.

Think we might just scrape home against Saints and maybe follow it up with a home win, can't see us going any further than that, but hope to be proved wrong. If it goes t!ts up aginst Saints we could still finish 8th.

Agree. A win against an in form Saints and 5th are far from certain.

If we finish 5th we wont be able to play on the saturday as the 5th v 8th and 6th v 7th are scheduled too as city are at home

Agree completely with this, 5th and a cup final is progress on paper, but in reality the manner of how we played at Wembley, how inconsistent we've been all season and how we are now limping over the finishing line tells a different story.

5th and a cup final is progress. Period. All this 'on paper' nonsense is just an excuse for people who are fed up to have a moan.

We're a work in progress. Some people seem to have lost sight of that.

I realise this is slightly togue in cheek, but coming from 5th is certainly not an easy route. Do you think you could beat 2 of wigan/leeds/wire/hudds........away from home........back to back? This after a bruising encounter with saints/cats/hull kr? Be honest.

People may look at leeds and think ''oh, that seemed easy'' but when it's the reality of your team having to get through and win these games, it has a whole different complexion.

I would happily take 5th and a CC final appearance this year. It's an improvement on last year.
The fact that we could finish in a higher position than last year but with less points to me shows that more teams are beating each other than last year.

I don't think you can measure progress until the playoffs are done. Last season hull got to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

I don't think you can use the CC as a barometer because the draw can vary so much from year to year. Were hull considered to have made progress in 2008 under agar when they made the CC final? The season was indifferent, but the draw favourable.

The playoffs should be used as the barometer, that's the pork in the pie. That's how the RFL decide the final finishing positions.

Now last year, as i mentioned at the start, hull made the 2nd round of the playoffs. So unless hull actually get to the last round, technically they have made no progress from last year. If they lose the first playoff game they've gone backwards. If they get to the second they've stayed the same.

Alot of hull fans will rubbish this because the liklehood is they won't go past round 2 which means they've at best made no progress. Hull would have a much better chance of improving on last years finshing position if they'd not been so inconsistent and finished higher in the table...but I guess that ''on paper'' stuff means nothing right?

[uIF[/u we get a home tie IIRC FC have priority from end of footie season to end of RL season incl playoffs (Mid may - Sept) also IIRC a precedent was set several years back when this happened and City had to move their game.

Hopefully SKY will use common sense and give us a Thurs or Fri slot to avoid any conflict, but if we are told to play Sat what are the options?

City now in Premiership and bad blood with Allam, would he / they agree? Is it written into the lease arrangements?
Would Premier League allow City a fixture change at short notice?
Could we be forced to play at a neutral venue?
If above not an option could we be forced to pay our home tie away?

Only 1st round of playoffs has Sat fixture apart from final

Play Offs - Week 1

Thu 12 Sept 8:00pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 8:00pm -
Fri 13 Sept 7:30pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 8:00pm -
Sat 14 Sep 2:30pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 2:45pm -
Sat 14 Sep " Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 5:00pm -

Play Offs - Week 2

Thu 19 Sept 8:00pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 8:00pm -
Fri 20 Sept 7:30pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 8:00pm -

Play Offs - Semi Finals

Thu 26 Sept 8:00pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 8:00pm -
Fri 27 Sep 7:30pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 8:00pm -

Grand Final

Sat 5 Oct 5:00pm Super League Play Off Match TBC LIVE Kick Off 6:00pm

I don't think anyone is totally sure whether this priority clause is real or merely an urban myth. City may argue that at the point the PL fixtures were published we had no game scheduled for the 14th, therefore they now have first dabs on the afternoon.

The occasion you allude to above (2006/07 ?) certainly happened, but I have a feeling that a compromise was reached by mutual agreement between the two clubs. The relationship between ourselves and tigers was certainly more harmonious back then, than the rather fractious atmosphere of 2013.

Also City were still a FL club at that point as opposed to their current lofty status mixing it with the big boys. As such their hand may be forced by the great god Premier League which tends to be somewhat reluctant to move games at short notice (unless told to by their paymeisters at Sky). I believe any change would also require the consent of Cardiff City as well.

If City do dig their heels in it may lead to an interesting scenario for all parties involved. If Fc/SL try to take on the PL there will only be one winner, and it won't be us.
Of course, we still have to win on Friday before we even get to this situation, so we may be getting slightly ahead of ourselves here.

Well, we've beaten 2 out of those 4 away from home, so who knows??

Plus this season has been one of the most competitive leagues on record. You only have to look at the table to realize that we have less points than last season but could finish higher. Some people on here just think we have a god given right to win every game and when we lose or perform poorly, they have to have a good moan about it.

I think city moving their game is highly unlikely because even though citys game may not be on sky it will probably be on tv somewhere in the world so the premier league would be very unwilling to move it.

I seem to remember awhile back that we both playedo the same day, that could be a option although if our opponents are rovers tgat could prove quite difficult policing wise.

Welcome to our world!

In consecutive weeks, in a playoff situation, after a bruising encounter with saints/hull kr/catalans.

City moved their kick-off earlier last time we did a 'double header' and I think we kicked off at tea-time? but as you've mentioned the Premier league will insist on a 3pm start due to the game being shown on TV worldwide. No reason why we can't ask SKY for an 8pm or even a 9pm kickoff though.

Because it may impact the scheduled episode of WWF and we can't have that, can we

.

What are pandas doing on Sky Sports?

He'll no , hulk hogan v the ultimate warrior for the belt is gonna be a belter .