Martyn Sadler

I think it should be the RFL that demonstrates how much investment it thinks it needs, where it should be applied and what return the investment might produce. Unfortunately, while V'landys seems perfectly happy to leak to the media, the RFL is reluctant to make any significant statement at all, either on or off the record, much to its own disadvantage. In any negotiation it's unwise to allow the other party to drive the agenda, as we have already seen.

24 clubs!

You've hit the nail on the head. 'Anything can happen' is what we should all want as a descriptor of the competition. Only in Rugby League could that be seen as a negative.

If Newcastle in particular are in a 'false' position, as you put it, then we should discover that in the play-offs. In that sense the play-offs are a crucial element of the structure.

No one is gaming the system. Newcastle had the easiest fixtures because they hadn't won any games for a very long time. The object of the fixture structure was to give them the incentive to improve by not playing all the top teams, which they seem to have done quite successfully. It seems odd to criticise the fixture structure (and I realise you are not one of the critics) for successfully doing something it was designed to do.

And that is precisely the logic underlying the fixture structure this season, with derbies added to the mix. So it seems that someone did know.

I'm just having a bit of fun with the doomsayers on this forum, as should be fairly obvious.

Another disastrous weekend for the Championship. Four of today's eight game decided by margins of four points or less. London Broncos losing their unbeaten record to Oldham. It's obviously not working.

I agree with you. I've suggested to Nigel that the RFL should appoint three commissioners - one of the Super League, one of the Challenge Cup and one for the Championship. Their jobs would be to focus entirely on those competitions and nothing else. It's frustrating to see the Championship as a sort of afterthought.

My proposal is that the RFL should organise it centrally and choose the game of the round with the best possible production values while charging a small fee to watch the game. There would be nothing to stop other clubs also streaming their games.

Then let's look at the declared attendances last weekend. Batley announced 1,237 for their game against Newcastle. Halifax 1,434 for their game against Barrow. Midlands 350 for their game against Workington Oldham 1,125 for their game against Sheffield. Rochdale 1,296 for their game against Whitehaven. Batley and Rochdale were encouraging figures; Halifax and Midlands were probably in accordance with what might be expected, after Halifax's administration problems and Midlands' ground move. The disappointing figure is Oldham, which is no doubt caused by the uncertainty under Bill Quinn earlier in the season. His dispute with Oldham Athletic and the move from Boundary Park had a strongly negative effect on potential support for the club.

So on the one hand you say that crowds have tumbled. Then you say that many crowds are no longer reported. So you claim knowledge that you clearly don't have, unless you possess information that the rest of us don't. And you say it's the most unequal Championship in years. That would be true if you only consider the top and bottom clubs. Obviously London Broncos are too strong for the Championship and North Wales after their trauma earlier in the season are not strong enough. In fact the competition has recovered well from several pre-season shocks of clubs experiencing major financial problems. Newcastle, Midlands and Whitehaven were League 1 clubs last year but have progressed into the top ten as the table currently stands. So to call this a 'disaster' is to do a disservice to the competition and the clubs that compete in it. Next season the new salary cap provisions will hopefully mean that we are less likely to see clubs running into financial crises. The biggest problem facing the Championship is its lack of visibility for anyone who doesn't regularly attend its games. I think the RFL should organised high quality coverage of one key game in every round to be broadcast on YouTube. Whether it will do that is another question.

I haven't got time, but I'm happy to let you do it. The point is, however, that the clubs in the Championship have gradually tended towards a reasonable level of equality as the season has progressed, as you might expect. And that doesn't mean to say that every round of fixtures will have the tight margins that we saw last weekend. But given the problems that some individual clubs have had this year, I think the competition has done remarkably well. And with a salary cap in place next year I hope it will become even stronger.

No problem, Count Binface!

An absolutely dreadful mess, as last weekend's results revealed. Doncaster and London registered crushing victories in a way that unfortunately could have been predicted. And then, to make things even worse, these were the margins in the other games: 1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 8, 14. So seven games had an average winning margin of 5.4 points. What a mess indeed! It's obviously not working.