The Blues Ox

Again not entirely true. Wakefield may not have built such a strong squad with the uncertainty of needing to win promotion and other Championship teams may have been willing to spend more later in the season to build a team for the playoffs. There is little point trying to make comparisons around the 2 systems in what teams have done this season and last because its chalk and cheese. Wakey are nowhere near as strong as the Leigh team that gained promotion recently, its just that the rest of the Championship has gone backwards as most teams have cut spending.

I think there is certainly a need to mention it. Yes someone at Warrington has made an admin error but if what Sam says is true and the squads were announced with the player in question listed then it is clearly not an attempt by Warrington to pull a fast one and it all could have been sorted pre match without anyone knowing. I think Hull/Myler showed a lack of class in their actions if it is true that they had a choice and Burgess showed a lack of class in the tunnel incident but i have no problem with his rant. Saying all that I bet he would not have walked in to Simon Grix like that.

I think we understimate just how much the Championship as a whole has moved backwards this past couple of seasons. Sheffield do look a best of the rest team but 3-5 years ago its probably a team scraping in the playoffs. Wakefield have the weakest Championship in years and a team that would likely finish bottom 2 in SL and isn't really a patch on the Leigh promotion team. A very similar situation to Fev last season but Wakey have the added bonus that they will be back in SL next season. London coming down should make the Championship a really good contest from next year though presuming they are the only team that does come down.

Both systems have their flaws but some people are just too stubborn to admit it. London - Them getting replaced in the top flight next season does not show that P&R is a failure. They would no doubt have done things differently if they did not already know they would not make the cut. Wakefield - This is clearly a positive. A team is able to make signings knowing that they are pretty much nailed on to make the top 12 in the gradings. Leigh - This is a flaw in the new system. They are one of the teams under threat and if they were to miss out on the top 12 its a huge reduction in money and at this point they have to be careful who they sign and what they spend leading to uncertainty in their players minds. Hull - A success of the system. A basket case of a club but know that at best they will be an A grade or at very worst they will be comfortable in the 12 giving them free license to spend stupid money on players. Yes signings like Asiata happened under previous systems but a lot of the time they were for the same reasons, anyone saying otherwise is kidding themselves.

Thank you for that. The question about local open age community questions would have been my next one so it sounds like its moving in the right direction and makes sense for the RFL to allow the Barrow fringe players to play for the District team. I know the DR rules are a bit of a touchy subject as a couple of League 1 sides have already had warnings about playing more than 3 SL players in their team at any one time but those are established teams and I think in Barrow's case it is the sensible thing to do.

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?