LOTS of eyes will be on the Championship West season as Warrington Wolves will be making the jump back up to Super League in 2026.
However, they will be in for a tough campaign as they have been drawn against some extremely stern competition and take on 2023 champions North Wales Crusaders, last year’s champions Hereford Harriers, Rochdale Hornets, Widnes Vikings and league newcomers Salford Red Devils.
Hereford will be looking to etch their name on the trophy for a record third time while the Crusaders will hope to bounce back from their play-off defeat at the end of last season to regain their title.
Rochdale Hornets, coming off the back of an impressive pre-season, are hoping to work their way up the table while Widnes Vikings will hope to recapture their form from previous years.
Newcomers Salford Red Devils will look to lean on their head coach, Dave Abel (former Warrington Wolves Super League coach) to give them that experience against the more-established sides.
Meanwhile, there will be a new name on the Championship East trophy as last year’s champions Sheffield Eagles were one of the two teams moved into Super League ahead of the 2025 campaign.
Not only will there be a new team on the trophy but there are also several new teams entering the competition for the first time.
Batley Bulldogs and Castleford Tigers will be joined by last year’s runners-up York, Hull KR, Wakefield Trinity and the well-versed and experienced Bradford Bulls.
York will be hoping to go one better this year and claim the title, despite having lost a few of their players to Castleford, whilst Hull KR and Wakefield will be looking for a strong campaign.
Batley, who have had a strong pre-season, will be looking to lean on their player-coach Paul Horrobin, who is a multi-time Super League and Challenge Cup champion with Leeds Rhinos.
The Tigers will also be looking for a strong campaign after some strong close-season recruitment, securing a number of York players along with the coup of former Super League champion and Exile representative, Luis Domingos.
Similar to Widnes in the West, Bradford will be looking to regain some of their previous success and capture the title.
The top two teams from each of the East and West leagues will enter a four-team play-off, the winners progressing to the grand final.
Championship West
Hereford Harriers: Elizabeth Ashcroft, Alan Caron, Richard Carver, Phil Davies, Sebastian Groves, Andrew Higgins, Andrew Holley, Peter Johnston, Dane Oram, Alex Powell, Gary Preece, Jacob Robinson, Lee Sargent, Libbie Sargent. 2024 finish: 1st.
North Wales Crusaders: Mason Baker, Catherine Bamford, Sophie Bamford, Grace Bendle, John Doyle, Mark Drakeford, Jonathan Gill, Daniel Jones, Harry Jones, Stephen Jones, Wyatt Jones, Neil Kay, Rosalea Kay, Hayley Matthews, Fionn McCabe, Ethan Neilson, Claire Owlett, Lucie Roberts, Martin Turner, Matthew Turner, Jakub Wasieczko, Stuart Williams. 2024 finish: 2nd.
Rochdale Hornets: Marley Bellamy, Stuart Bellamy, Maisie Catt, Callum Crombie, Martin Dougan, Tom Graves, Wes Groot, Angela Groot-Holt, Mike Hart, Finn Hird, Kyran Holt, Paul Holt, Pete Lauder, John Waterworth, Russ Wintour, Callum Young. 2024 finish: 4th.
Salford Red Devils: Dave Abel, Jorge Junior Lucas Abel, Skyava Abel, George Ashton, Jamie Ball, Marissa Chaplin, Brogan Evans, Claire Jackson, Lou Keen, Elle Levorato, Mila Nathaniel, Mark Redfearn, Mark Riley, Dan Robinson, Donna Robinson, Elliott Robinson, Heather Robinson, Oliver Waite. 2024 finish: N/A.
Warrington Wolves: Liam Appleton, Martin Beddis, Mick Brown, Ben Callendar, Luke Edwards, Lewis Groves, Brad Gleave, Luke Winstanley-Harding, Paul Harding, Nash Jennings, Dan Phillips, Paul Prince, Declan Ryan, Ben Stiff, Anton Tomlinson, Emma Williams. 2024 finish: 3rd.
Widnes Vikings: Ian Cunningham, Chris Dignall, Chris Haycock, Andrew Holland, Alex Howe, Tony Johnson, Kieran Lacey, Dixie McClymont, Will McClymont, Lucas Muldoon, Dom Richards, Stephen Roberts, Jack Shaw, Jack Woods. 2024 finish: 5th.
Championship East
Batley Bulldogs: Adam Bingham, Paul Cartwright, Jake Chandler, James Clough, Siobhan Denison, Gavin Dobson, Ben Dunwell, Tommy Hambleton, Paul Horrobin, Jamie Edmondson-Jones, Lewis Marsden, Nathan McAllister-Wood, David Mitchell, Amanda Nixon, Tom Oates, Marc Sykes, Paul Tyrrell, Daniel Winner. 2024 finish: N/A.
Bradford Bulls: Jon Bairstow, Dave Gregson, Nellie-Jo Hegney, Keiron Johnson, Rhett Johnson, Sian Marlow, Dan McGuire, Michael Potter, Stephen Potter, Scott Pyrah, Sam Stebbings, Jacob Stenson, Charlie Wanless, Darren Walker, Ellie Walker, Isabelle Wright, Richard Wright. 2024 finish: 3rd.
Castleford Tigers: Tony Andrews, Gary Atkinson, John Atkinson, Ben Atkinson-Bolton, Ian Cholmondeley, Luis Domingos, Oscar Westerman-Freer, Lee Halliday, Hayden Howard, James Howard, Calum Japes, Ashley Lockwood, Patrick Murphy, Stef Pav Proietti, Steve Spruyt, Charlie Hanson-Sykes, Jack Sykes, Ste Taylor, Harrison Ward, Bev Walker, Jenson Westerman. 2024 finish: N/A.
Hull KR: Simon Bromwich, Matt Felmingham, Aaron Good, Thomas Hannam, Karl Jacob, Ruben Kay, Mia Morfitt, Harry Norton, Alan Sheriff, Mike Sheriff, Gary Sweeney. 2024 finish: 4th
Wakefield Trinity: TBC. 2024 finish: 5th.
York: Andrew Atkinson, Tom Blenkinsop, Jonathan Exley, Jamie Jukes, Peter Kerins, David Mountain, Seb Mountain, Amy Scaife, Dawn Shore, Karl Shepherd, Rylie South, Stewart Walker. 2024 finish: 2nd.
By Harry Jones