Railway End

For the first time this season I have made no trades this week, due to a hectic work schedule rather than a conscious decision. Just checked my team and they are averaging 90+ per player without my interference. *note to self* sit on your hands and stop tinkering could be the best policy.

Sterling effort from my halfbacks and hooker this week. Cleary, Sandon Smith, Metcalfe, Brimson & Grant have clubbed together to score a grand total of 88 points! Where's the delete app button? Injuries to Tommy Turbo, Skelton, Cleary and potentially Brimson to deal with as well.

I'm risking the 2 cheapie option at HKR, Paix & Smith. Both should get good minutes and Smith is expected to be goal kicker as well. Could be a masterstroke or an absolute nightmare.

Only just starting to assemble my team. The first Team List Tuesday is always a scramble to rearrange your lineup to include those cheapies who appear from nowhere and look to be in place for the first few games at least. Time to catch up on a few podcasts and get a feel of what has been going on in the trial games.

I'm back baby!!

Thanks for the kind words Irish Saint, Graham and JimBronco much appreciated. It's tough at the moment watching a loved one struggling, just have to stay strong for them. Happy to contribute to the thread throughout the season and will post my rank if anyones interested (and if I'm doing well ). I'll be joining other leagues and will no doubt be as addicted as ever once the season kicks off. All the best Supercoaches!

Ahh, too late!!! Have a lot of family issues which have been occupying my mind and time at the mo and not been on the forum for a while. Sat down tonight thinking will still be a few places left as 3 weeks to go, how wrong can you be! Anyway good luck to all SC'ers for 2024. I'll continue to lurk around here and contribute if I can come up with anything of value to say.

It's still a nice pub G. The late Graham Murray also lived in the village when he was Leeds coach. Had a few chats with him in the Chequers. A really knowledgeable bloke and a real gentleman.

I believe Mal lives in Ledsham, a little village about 3 miles north of Castleford.

To be fair to Schofield he does not say he was a better player, but insinuates he was more creative than his rival, a fair assessment in my opinion, although not very modest I would agree. In terms of determination, application and maximising his ability, Edwards came out on top, hands down, no argument from me. As regards trophies, some of the games greatest players won little in the way of silverware. Lets remember Wigan during that period were full-time, had the best squad and paid out the highest salaries. There would have been something drastically wrong if they had not cleaned up during that ten year period.

I agree that funding to all Championship clubs needs to be raised. Like you I am opposed to the 12x2, 3x8 proposal even though it may be theoretically the easiest way for my club (Featherstone) to rise to the top league. At the moment we seem to have a situation where certain clubs are in SL solely on the basis of benefiting from £1.2m Sky monies. This can not be right and the disparity in funding needs to be remedied. In your column in League express you refer back to the days when there was just one division. Wouldn't it be interesting to see who would rise and who would fall if this was re-introduced with all clubs receiving the same TV monies!

Would Shaun Edwards' trophy haul have been the same if he had played in the Leeds team of the 80's/90's? Would Schoey have won the same medals as Shaun if he were a Wigan player? Medal count's can not be used as a comparison of a players ability. Rugby League is a team sport. For what it is worth I believe Schofield was a more creative player than Edwards.

Martyn, whilst I agree with the general theory of your proposal, I fear that such an idea could backfire and penalise a potential well-run, progressive club. Lets for arguments sake say Halifax are promoted to SL in 2015. In the first year they are competitive but finish bottom on points difference. In year 2 they increase their average crowd, successfully introduce young lads to the first team through their acadamey and finish in 10th place. In year 3 crowds increase again, commercial revenue increases, players are picked for representative teams, ground improvements are made and the team finishes 7th. Meanwhile a club which has seen crowds fall over the 3 year period, which relies on foreign imports and has finished 11th each season is exempt from relegation. Halifax though, courtesy of finishing bottom in the first year must go into a play-off at the end of the season, when potentially their key players could be out injured. Would this be fair? The main thing SL needs to address is increasing revenue to Championship clubs to close the gap in standards between both leagues. Once this is addressed straightforward P&R (with conditions) could be used.

Get rid of the annoying Rod Studd as well and it would improve even further.

It's taken a while but the Storm seem to get nearly 20,000 to their home games now. Not bad in my opinion!