The Blues Ox

When I talk about return I mean results on the pitch, I probably should have been clearer about that. As far as I remember DB only spent really big on the most recent promotion season building a team that would have easily survived in SL that year. 3 years is not getting Fax anywhere near promotion under IMG criteria no matter how much money you were able to put in to the club. The 3 year average rule takes care of that. As phiggins alludes to, Im not even sure Fax could score high enough to get in to SL but even if they could you would be looking easily at 5 years. If I had millions to spend and P&R were in place I'd get us there within 2 I reckon.

Won't be helped by Leigh looking like they could be in danger so I guess a number of their players could be quite nervous and looking to get deals tied down.

They do now with the new criteria but going back to one of the original points, this is going to put some investors off having to wait 3-5 years or more to see any sort of return on their money. Leigh are a pretty good example of boom or bust and when boom on the field works you can grow from there off the field. Ironically Leigh seem to be a club potentially at risk with the new system which feels like madness. I wonder what DB would do if Leigh were to drop out of the 12.

I see sport as been decided on the pitch, if Im spending a lot of money that is what I want. I could not care less what our catchment area is or if we have an LED scoreboard. As a Fax fan I have seen numerous people take over our club with the best intentions of growing slowly off the field and yet we are still nowhere near SL but our best times have always been when we have gone boom or bust.

The problem is that once we get past this year it will be very hard for any new team to make that step up in to SL because of how the criteria will favor the holders of the first 12 positions. I'm not even sure Halifax could realistically get in the top 12 throwing a ton of money at them. One thing I could say for certain though is that give me a few million quid under P&R and I would have us in the top 2 in the first year and a very good chance of SL within the 1st 3 years. To go further than that I would also do a deal with Siddal to make sure that Fax get 1st pick of the best talent in the country to make sure we would be more than comfortable in SL. I want to see success on the field and if Im throwing stupid money with no return, I want to see it pretty much straight away. From a fan point of view I would take boom and bust over quietly building for 5 years in the hope that we could make the 12 just because in RL history tends to repeat and I don't think this system will last that long. Imagine pumping 10m in to a club and then the RFL rug pulling you with another system that is totally different to the criteria you have been working to. I know we should probably laugh at the thought of that but this is Rugby League.

I totally agree but most people when putting large amounts of cash in to sport tend to want almost instant results. I think the new criteria just about gets rid of any chance of that and when you have no return on your money how do you persuade someone to work to a 5 year plan? Ive been a Fax fan for around 40 years and if I won 50 million on the lottery there is zero chance I would put any significant amount of money in to the club under the new criteria. Under P & R though I think supporting Fax would be a lot of fun if I won that much money.

Given the large amounts of money that good luck message was worth, I think its safe to say anyone who had that could be classed as a favourite.

Yeah I agree, I was almost tempted to go for a Sheffield win. For Wakefield this is probably 1 of maybe 3 or 4 potential banana skin games in my opinion.

I think that is the point, we will still see all SL finals and mainly all SL semi finals but in my opinion its just more greed from the SL clubs in that the competition has essentially been made a SL competition anyway. If we are still getting the same end result what is so bad about games such as Hunslet V Wigan which might put an extra 1k on their gate, income that will help out massively at that level or say an amateur team earning a huge tie against a SL team making them money that could keep them running for a year or two.

If you are saying 30 years then I guess you should include PSG, I can't remember how they got in but it will have been at the expense of another team I imagine. Although 30 years seems a long time its quite a chunk of time out of that period that expansion teams had some favoritism then isnt it?

I think the difference now is that you need someone with money who is thinking 4 or 5 years in to the future been stuck in the same league. In an ideal world for what is best for the game then that is probably a good thing but the reality is that most people with money to make a difference will be thinking 1-2 years to get in to SL which under the new criteria will be really difficult after the 12 are picked for this year. FWIW I think we will have 12 grade A clubs under this system within 3-4 years but unless there is an increase in TV money, I just don't ever see the top 12 clubs voting for a reduction in their funding leaving us with a status quo and then an ever increasing gap between top tier and 2nd tier. All that is if the system sticks around which I also think is unlikely.

FRIDAY 3rd MAY Sheffield Eagles v Wakefield Trinity Wakey by 10 SATURDAY 4th MAY Dewsbury Rams v Toulouse Olympique Toulouse by 16 SUNDAY 5th MAY Barrow Raiders v Batley Bulldogs Barrow by 8 Featherstone Rovers v Halifax Panthers Fev by 22 Swinton Lions v Bradford Bulls Swinton by 10 Widnes Vikings v Doncaster Widnes by 12 York Knights v Whitehaven York by 18

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=826819789482121&set=a.455688629928574 Full list there. It will rival any team out there and kids from the area are still all told they have to go to Siddal if they want a chance and you will see kids from out of the area going there too such is the reputation of the club. It is a shame that Fax can't tap in to that but the reality is they didn't have the best relationship even when Fax were in SL.

Thats an interesting stat but I find it hard to believe the stat that 13% of tackles were head/neck area for the 5 years prior to this season. Its also interesting that it has been reduced so vastly without any actual change to the rules regarding tackle height more just an increase in punishments. I think we will find that number creep back up though as we are now seeing a lot more leniency as we get further in to the season. Also that near 10% reduction has shown no drop in actual concussions but I think a lot of people imagined that would be the case anyway so that really is no surprise.

We will never really know because of the rule changes. When it became obvious that London were miles off on the gradings it made zero sense for them to invest in on the field matters. For all we know if we were playing under P&R they may have signed well enough to stay up especially with Cas and Hull being so bad. I reckon give it 3 and we will have a change. History suggests this will not last long and its another reason any business person with money and sense should be cautious about putting their money in to the game.