The Phantom Horseman

Yep, can you imagine if as reported Oldham aren't one of the chosen trio and are making the rumoured signings, looking at their likely fixture list.

10 teams would not be ideal in terms of loop fixtures, but a 21-team Championship would just end up with a string of mismatches, especially in the second half of the season when injuries and fatigue take their toll.

Hunslet, who were promoted from League 1 last year have now conceded 200 points in their last 3 home games. Having correctly (in my view) set about reducing the Championship to 12 teams, are we really going to chuck all the League 1 teams in with the Championship teams next year?

Very straightforward for Fev at Hunslet tonight, final score Hunslet 4 Featherstone 70.

I think the point was that we won't be making too many more direct overseas signings where we have to pay for visas, flights etc. I suspect we won't be signing as many from the other side of the pennines as in previous years either.

It was you that said "IMG points are irrelevant now" and if they aren't the basis of any 14-team expansion, you're right. Just not sure how you explain that to a club that may have made a concerted effort to improve its IMG score by financial investment, increasing gates, improving facilities as per the IMG scoring system, manages to finish in the top 14 on IMG points as a result, then find themself excluded from SL because of some kind of mid-season cabal that rides roughshod over the rules that everyone understood were in place at the start of the season.

You may be right, but if that's the case, are we allowed to point out that it's the most RL thing for fans to be chastised for bringing up the current operational system well beyond the mid-season point because there are rumours everything might be thrown out of the window shortly?

You might well be right, and I hope you're right, but predicting which version of bottom-4 teams will turn up is really tough. There's definitely a possibility we could run away with it if they're not at their best.

Morgan has had lots of SL experience at Warrington, London, Hull and Wakefield, he was also a member of Fev's very strong 2022 Championship squad which was unlucky to run into a resurgent Leigh (the year they signed Asiata, Amone, Ipape, Lam, Ferguson, etc), he scored 22 tries that year. His grandfather is former GB international Pete Smith who is a legend in Featherstone. He's a likeable player, always gives his best, has a decent short kicking game and a good step that makes him dangerous close to the tryline. He also tends to tackle well. He's not the most creative of half backs in my view though and to my mind doesn't quite create the shape you want from a SL/top-end Championship half back. Although he fills an immediate need for Oldham, given the money you seem to have to spend I'll be surprised if he isn't your 3rd half back rather than a starter next year. He can also play hooker though has mostly played half back in recent years.

I watched the Bradford v Hunslet game, Hunslet had a proper dig considering they were missing the two half backs who played so well against us (Gaskell is in their squad for today's game, Haneghan isn't). They have some big lads in their pack and they got stuck into the Bulls, they were let down a bit by their discipline though with a heavy penalty count against them. I've seen a few comments-possibly fuelled by the ridiculous histrionics of the Bulls commentator in the closing minutes - that said Hunslet were dirty/thuggish, there was one really bad late tackle that should have been a red, and a player from each team exchanged punches that did lead to red cards, but other than that they were just a bit indiscplined. Again it's so hard to predict which version of Hunslet will turn up so it's hard to predict how hard we will find tonight's game.

You've never heard of Morgan Smith?

I agree and I'm not saying they would only spend that.

In what way? If you can afford to spend say £800k on a Championship team, why not spend the same amount playing in SL, with all the benefits that follow?

You may be right, but either way, it sounds like the drawbridge is coming up.

Depends what you mean by "survive the SL season". There are some Championship teams that are spending between £750k+ on squads this season with less than £100k central funding. If a Championship club came up with a playing budget of £1m or less they will turn out a sub-par team. But that won't necessarily matter to them. The reason these clubs may be offering to enter SL without funding is because they know their gates will go up, their merchandise sales will improve, and they're guaranteed to improve their IMG league placing position even if they finish bottom. In other words, they'll amass IMG points and they know it will get harder with each passing year for Championship teams to bridge the gap, barring a Salford-style financial meltdown for a SL club.