44 replies to this topic

[mick wilson]

Fully deserved, will shall polish it up for you.

[Terry Mullaney]

Not only Mr Laughton: the Batley player knocked on before gathering the ball - 1st offence was by Fev, hence head and feed to Batley.

Absolutely right LTS. Two knock ons.

[Terry Mullaney]

I believe the Northen Rail winners "tick" was added to keep the sponsers happy. Most Championship clubs were starting to use the competition as a glorified pre-season warm up (which is what is still is in my eyes).


IMO any Championship club who finish in the top six every year for each 3-year period, should be allowed to apply for a franchise. The bonus point system makes a mockery of league placings anyway!

I'd agree with all of that Cruncher

[Bulletproof]

Have they proved they can be competitive? Most certainly, I would say winning the league is harder than winning the play offs and it goes without saying the northern rail cup so they have proved to be most competitive. That is surely the spirit of the ruling and so yes it should have been box ticked, but there you go.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

hardly matters really. if we have 3 criteria though it should be 3 winners - league, gf and nrc. end of day though winning dont count for too much.

[Bomb Jack]

hardly matters really. if we have 3 criteria though it should be 3 winners - league, gf and nrc. end of day though winning dont count for too much.

It allows you to actually apply for Super League.
Win nothing, or don't appear in the Grand Final and you can't apply, end of.

Although i do agree, as with our case, it takes the importance off winning once you qualify to apply. You then must devote most of your time,effort and cash into bringing everything else up to scratch.

Blame the RFL, not Widnes.

Edited by Bomb Jack, 09 August 2010 - 07:41 AM.

[RP London]

It allows you to actually apply for Super League.
Win nothing, or don't appear in the Grand Final and you can't apply, end of.

Although i do agree, as with our case, it takes the importance off winning once you qualify to apply. You then must devote most of your time,effort and cash into bringing everything else up to scratch.

Blame the RFL, not Widnes.

whos blaming Widnes??

to be fair it always matters even if you have already qualified..

2 years of GF finaists and NRC winners.. if you win the NRC twice and get to the grand final twice you only have 2 other clubs that can go against you... its worth winning as much as possible to stop others being able to apply.

Obvioulsy a club may just tick the box the once and thing.. right thats us in then.. but thats their call and a very risky one as someone may make the GF who is more "strategic" or tick more of the other boxes etc..

[West Country Eagle]

Great result for Fev and fully deserved. Daryl Powell has done a good job - he probably would have done a similar job at Leeds if he'd been given the time, but was given the boot early.

Incidentally, did anyone see the RL Forum thing on the BBC red button after the game yesterday? There was a question from a Championship club fan, asking the RFL why they won't allow his club to run a scholarship scheme, and will only allow Widnes to run one?

My guess was he was a Fev supporter. There's a big row brewing between the RFL's 'performance department' and a gaggle of Championship clubs who want to run scholarship programmes (or already do), but the RFL don't want to include them in their scheme alongside SL clubs.

Suspect that will become more public soon. Fev are definitely one of the disgruntled clubs, but they're not alone.

[The Parksider]

Congratulations to my team Featherstone Rovers on winning the Championship Minor Premiership. Just two defeats both by two points and a 100% away record in a season's work is pretty remarkable. In your opinion does such a feat deserve a tick in a SL box

Under current rules of course yes. The rule should be scrapped anyway as playing results were never part of the actual franchise criteria. As for not letting you in does your ground get a tick?? If so and two other clubs can't get a ground, and two or three others lose sugar daddy, you may be "invited"....

[Bomb Jack]

whos blaming Widnes??

to be fair it always matters even if you have already qualified..

2 years of GF finaists and NRC winners.. if you win the NRC twice and get to the grand final twice you only have 2 other clubs that can go against you... its worth winning as much as possible to stop others being able to apply.

Obvioulsy a club may just tick the box the once and thing.. right thats us in then.. but thats their call and a very risky one as someone may make the GF who is more "strategic" or tick more of the other boxes etc..

I don't think we have just sat back, but other Clubs fans do.
We have had a horrendous injury crisis virtually all season, but other people just see that as an excuse for poor form.

At the end of the day, Licencing is all about strong Clubs, not strong Teams.
Our current form / League placing annoys people who think the best Teams in our League should be promoted over us, even with smaller crowds, no proper Academy structure, and a poor Ground.

That is why a Club from maybe 8th or 9th place in Super League may get kicked out for a CC Club who sits in 6th place in the lower League.

[Viking Warrior]

Congratulations to my team Featherstone Rovers on winning the Championship Minor Premiership. Just two defeats both by two points and a 100% away record in a season's work is pretty remarkable.

In your opinion does such a feat deserve a tick in a SL box or is winning the Northern Rail Cup Final a bigger and better achievement? And yes I know what the rules were at the start of the season, but do they need amending to include the minor premiership.

well done fev the best team in our division by a mile this season, perhaps 1 tick in the license box is ok but what about an academy set up from under 16's onwards, a stadium, an average attendance over 2500, a £1million pond turnover......quite a way to go yet mate!!

[thirteenthman]

Great result for Fev and fully deserved. Daryl Powell has done a good job - he probably would have done a similar job at Leeds if he'd been given the time, but was given the boot early.

Incidentally, did anyone see the RL Forum thing on the BBC red button after the game yesterday? There was a question from a Championship club fan, asking the RFL why they won't allow his club to run a scholarship scheme, and will only allow Widnes to run one?

My guess was he was a Fev supporter. There's a big row brewing between the RFL's 'performance department' and a gaggle of Championship clubs who want to run scholarship programmes (or already do), but the RFL don't want to include them in their scheme alongside SL clubs.

Suspect that will become more public soon. Fev are definitely one of the disgruntled clubs, but they're not alone.

Considering player development is the most important aspect of any RL club, it's quite bizarre that the RFL should want to stop any club at any level from running a scholarship scheme. Mind you, if the CC clubs just sat on their arses and did nothing about player development, the RFL would probably turn round and blast them for not running scholarships. The muddled thinking at all levels of the sport is at times unbelievable.

[NEIL FOX IS GOD]

At the end of the day if there was any justice Fev would be playing at the top table next season with the team who finishers bottom of SL going the other way

[Bomb Jack]

At the end of the day if there was any justice Fev would be playing at the top table next season with the team who finishers bottom of SL going the other way

Agreed, but whether or not you agree, Licencing was brought in for 2009 onwards.

You have to play / abide by the current rules, not old ones.

[Maximus Decimus]

At the end of the day if there was any justice Fev would be playing at the top table next season with the team who finishers bottom of SL going the other way

Simplistic.

Not to take anything away from Featherstone's achievement but if we didn't have licensing we probably wouldn't have a 300k cap and would see very different squads as clubs would prioritise differently.

[Viking Warrior]

Great result for Fev and fully deserved. Daryl Powell has done a good job - he probably would have done a similar job at Leeds if he'd been given the time, but was given the boot early.

Incidentally, did anyone see the RL Forum thing on the BBC red button after the game yesterday? There was a question from a Championship club fan, asking the RFL why they won't allow his club to run a scholarship scheme, and will only allow Widnes to run one?

My guess was he was a Fev supporter. There's a big row brewing between the RFL's 'performance department' and a gaggle of Championship clubs who want to run scholarship programmes (or already do), but the RFL don't want to include them in their scheme alongside SL clubs.

Suspect that will become more public soon. Fev are definitely one of the disgruntled clubs, but they're not alone.

our scholarship and academy has been going for years,and during the aftermath of the vaughan fiasco the supporters themselves kept the set up going. i think it is an historical thing rather than favouritism. let's face it there are some super league clubs who only play lip service to the academy license criteria.............

[Matt J]

Great result for Fev and fully deserved. Daryl Powell has done a good job - he probably would have done a similar job at Leeds if he'd been given the time, but was given the boot early.

Incidentally, did anyone see the RL Forum thing on the BBC red button after the game yesterday? There was a question from a Championship club fan, asking the RFL why they won't allow his club to run a scholarship scheme, and will only allow Widnes to run one?

My guess was he was a Fev supporter. There's a big row brewing between the RFL's 'performance department' and a gaggle of Championship clubs who want to run scholarship programmes (or already do), but the RFL don't want to include them in their scheme alongside SL clubs.

Suspect that will become more public soon. Fev are definitely one of the disgruntled clubs, but they're not alone.

Featherstone have a scholarship program, have done for a while I think.

http://www.featherst...age.php?id=1195

[RP London]

I don't think we have just sat back, but other Clubs fans do.
We have had a horrendous injury crisis virtually all season, but other people just see that as an excuse for poor form.

At the end of the day, Licencing is all about strong Clubs, not strong Teams.
Our current form / League placing annoys people who think the best Teams in our League should be promoted over us, even with smaller crowds, no proper Academy structure, and a poor Ground.

That is why a Club from maybe 8th or 9th place in Super League may get kicked out for a CC Club who sits in 6th place in the lower League.

again who said anything about widnes. Barrow have already ticked the box as have Halifax.. any club can think "right thats us done then box ticked now lets work on the rest" but yet if they win everything infront of them then it will help.. thats the point.. no names mentioned at all.

its not all about widnes

[West Country Eagle]

our scholarship and academy has been going for years,and during the aftermath of the vaughan fiasco the supporters themselves kept the set up going. i think it is an historical thing rather than favouritism. let's face it there are some super league clubs who only play lip service to the academy license criteria.............

I didn't mean there's favouritizm - I don't think there is particulalry - just that's what the emailer said.

As far as I know, several Championship clubs have set up scholarship schemes and want to join the academy set-up, but the RFL are insisting that champ clubs abide by the same financial rules for their academies etc as the Super League clubs - which is near impossible since they have a fraction of the SL clubs income.

If the RFL's performance department continue in their thinking - which seems, to an outsider, aimed on ringfencing youth development to the existing SL clubs and Widnes (who are, let's face it, nailed on for 2012) - then there will be an almighty row.

I mean, what's the point of saying you want clubs to better themselves and concentrate more on developing players when you won't let them?

It's a lot more complicated than I've made out, but from what I've heard, it's a concern. Then again, I've also heard whispers of how many SL and Championship clubs are teetering on the brink of financial collapse, and who knows how true those rumours are. You know what the game's like - full of gossips with agendas.

[RP London]

At the end of the day if there was any justice Fev would be playing at the top table next season with the team who finishers bottom of SL going the other way

err no... if there was still P&R then it would be the grand final winners anyway..