DOGFATHER

Not to mention the missed conversion that was given in the first half.

Roll on the restructure. I'm not sure what the best structure will be moving forward, but this is certainly not working for anyone except maybe the top 4 and SL. Despite what the Fev fans would have you believe about massive revenue streams away from attendances, I won't be too surprised if they find themselves in the mire should one of the full time teams shoe horn them out of the top 4. Even for us, we have a fairly good side at our level, but we all knew we were playing for 6th or 7th at best, that was even before a ball was kicked. Just like everyone knew who the top 5 would be, how exciting is that? Personally, I'd go for a 16 team all full time SL and ditch the playoffs structure and magic weekend, but then again, I'm not paying umpteen Million pounds to the RFL for the privilege of televising it.

In fairness Granny Smith would be a better bet than Rowley. I cannot help that his "rough 'em up and disrupt the flow of the game" style of football is probably nothing new to the ice hockey supporters. Afterall, until recently, most teams had employed an enforcer to do what Rowley's teams tend to do.

It was nice to see Thaler not take the easy way out. I wouldn't have argued with either sin binning nor the sending off. Toronto played in just the same way as Leigh did under Rowley. If they are not winning, they start disrupting the game by niggling and brawling. It is like watching a team from the 70s.

Or Manning?

Yes, and with lots of injuries lost by 2 points to a Barrow side who took 3 points from 2 home games against Leigh and Toronto earlier this season.

I realise my viewpoint may be difficult for you to understand, given that it has paid off for you. However, for the other two out of the 3 clubs who took the same gamble that season, it did not pay off and it has left both of them facing ruin. Maybe you would have done better than them if the boot had been on the other foot. Same goes for us on that score, but maybe we wouldn't have too. The bit I do not get is, how you could have found yourself in that situation, if you had played by the rules and stuck to the salary cap. Surely, you would not have found yourself unable to pay the wages or face ruin? Maybe I am incorrect, but that is the reason the SC was introduced wasn't it? It is one of life;s great mysteries, like how have Wakefield survived in SL at Belle View despite several threats that they would be relegated unless ground improvements were made. I guess we will never know the real reason. Personally, I would rather guarantee having a team to watch in the future, rather than risking everything, as many others have done in the past and never really recovered. Look at what has happened to Oldham, Bramley, Sheffield, Swinton, Gateshead, Blackpool, Keighley, Workington, Barrow and Doncaster, as well as the more recent examples of Bradford and Halifax. All of these clubs took the same gamble and it didn't pay off. Leigh were also on the brink of going under, until Beaumont bought in, remember if it wasn't for Gateshead's capitulation they would have been in the bottom division with a mountain of debt. Salford were almost bust, until Koukash got involved and they might not be as solvent or viable as they might seem currently, at least according to several press reports. The gamble your chairman took, looks more like a disaster waiting to happen, rather than a shrewd business move to me. All power to him though, it is working for you, at least for the time being and long may it continue. As I say, I thought it was wrong you were removed from SL in the first place, unless I am mistaken you were 4th from bottom the season you were replaced by Huddersfield, who had not earned the right to be there. So good on you, I genuinely hope it comes off and Lenagan et al do not block your path with the restructure. But having seen us on the receiving end of it once, I will not hold my breath though. On your final point, maybe I am wrong and if we had gambled and it had paid off, our gates would have increased. Again, I guess we will never know. The fact is, we used the money to guarantee our survival for a few more years and invested in the ground and a bit on players. Had we worked the same miracle 2 years running, everyone would be praising the club, as it is, I am still praising the club we are still here, financially sustainable and still able to shock a few teams who think they are coming for an easy day.

Not really, no. I genuinely hope I'm wrong in thinking this, but, I'm not convinced Fev could have afforded to finish outside of the top 4 for the last few seasons. It was widely rumoured that you could not pay the players towards the end of the season when we finished 3rd. Had you not finished in 4th, you would have found yourselves where Bradford and Halifax were/are now. It may be rumour and conjecture however, but it doesn't sound too far fetched. So it is not/was not a sustainable business model. You have continued to do the same since and it has paid off so far, but if you find yourselves outside of the top 4 this season will you still be in business next year? As I say, I really hope Fev make it get back in to SL. I think it would do the game good, to have Fev in the top flight. Not least of all because, you should never have been relegated in the first place. It might even wake a few greedy SL chairmen up to the fact, that we should never have a closed shop elitist mentality in the game. Credit to you, your gates have increased substantially in recent years, along with your success. I'm not convinced ours would have done, had we taken the same approach and experienced the on field successes you have had. We have been much more successful, relatively speaking, than Dewsbury over the last 10 years or so, but our gates have not increased proportionally to reflect that. They are still very similar to one another.

The gulf in spending is just far too great now. A good coach can overcome many things, but this is a bit like winning the Grand National on a shire horse, possible, but highly improbable. There will be shock results, I guess there will be a few more twists and turns before the season is out. However, the shocks might happen once in ten attempts and not something that is going to enable an outsider to reach the top 4.

That's the problem, we are kind of in limbo, we have a pretty good squad but I cannot see us, or any of the teams outside of the top 5 improving until we either; get a sugar daddy/massive influx of extra cash from somewhere, or the funding is more evenly distributed. Sadly, the teams at the top with the majority of the voting power, will only allow certain clubs in to there little clique. Unfortunately we are not one of those, as much as Featherstone have achieved over recent years, I'm not convinced they will be allowed in to the clique either.

rowe harrison galbraith

I'd heard the same Graham, he's having a pin in his thumb or something. Nobody seems to know how long Ward will be, but he looked to take a really heavy knock in about the first tackle he was involved in, but managed to carry on. Some reports say Gledhill may be back for Sunday, but nothing official yet, and it will be his first game back after months out. Lillicrop is still not ready. Rettie could be out for a long while too.

At the moment, it is a little different to the signings for next season, as we have an injury crisis at prop and on the wing so we need bodies quickly. The squad was really well balanced at the start of the season, but losing 4 props to injury and two wingers has left a chasm, nothing Diskin or the club could really do about it or set contingency plan for. Going a stage further, if you could pick a squad from all of the teams outside of the top 5 in the Championship, do you think you could create a top 4 side?

The big question is where will we find players within our budget who will significantly improve the squad. It is all very well saying get rid of X, Y and Z, but where will we sign players better than them who will improve the squad and would be prepared to be part time on money we could afford? We are probably able to pay more than Dewsbury, Rochdale etc.therefore we have generally better players than them, Featherstone pay more than us and Halifax, so in turn can afford better players than we can and so on. I believe our closest rivals, in terms of budget and quality are Halifax, Dewsbury and Sheffield. Just who out of those clubs would you sign, to significantly improve our team? Alternatively, who do you think we could lure away from Featherstone, Leigh, London, Toronto, Toulouse or a SL club? The only Dewsbury player I would possibly want is Guzdek and we have a better player than him IMO, in Scott as a fullback so where would we play him, on the wing, where he hasn't played much, if at all? Would he be happy signing knowing he was 2nd choice and would only play once Scott was carrying a knock? I cannot think of anyone from Sheffield except for the loanees that would improve the squad. Halifax have a few players I'd sign, but I'm not convinced if you picked a select side from both Batley and Halifax you'd end up with a side anywhere near good enough to compete with the top 5 clubs. SO again not a vast improvement there. The top, middle and bottom of it is, we are competing with 4 full time teams with SL budgets and Featherstone, who are prepared to offer far more than the rest of the part time clubs for the best part time players. The best junior talent available costs less than the top 25 wage earners at the SL and full time clubs. They can therefore sign every decent prospect available, without even bothering the salary cap and then farm them out DR or loan, whilst only paying a proportion of the wages, until they either want them because they are proven and good enough for there own first team, or they have an injury crisis and need them to fill in leaving CH clubs high and dry.

No complaints about today's ref (as PM stated earlier, he missed some stuff but he was fair at least). We lost two props due to injury early doors which was unfortunate and certainly had an impact on the final score. Credit to Fev, I cannot take anything away from them, totally out played and out classed us today, Mitch Clarke was immense, how he is not a regular for Cas is bewildering.