Bulletproof

As good a team as Wigan are, I've noted a lot of playing the referee which is nothing short of cheating. If you are tackled and hold the tackler on top of you to try and give the impression of holding down, or hold the players tackling arm with your ball carrying arm and then drop it when he removes it, it's cheating. We surely need to get a grip on this. Hemmings is right, Tomkins is cheating this season, he initiates a ball strip simply by dropping the ball whenever a player tries to remove his arm from the tackle. It appears its being coached into players. What can be done?

Who are you even talking about?

You're showing your ignorance here. We regularly took 2000 to super league games. We're the best supported club in this division, and have a very healthy away following. If we had an away following of 1000 in a super league play offs, people would be asking what went wrong. You may not have mentioned wakey, but I used that as an example of the rugby league family atmosphere, or what used to be of it. Now we have too many fans who seem to be nasty all the time. You know absolutely nothing. You've proved it. The precedents have been set in almost all of what you've said, you've been proved wrong by history.

Oh and whilst we are at it, Saints may be many things, but let's not group them in with that lot. They're a league team, so they're a class above other clubs in the country who aren't for that reason at least. Same with Wire, Quins or whoever.

This post made no sense whatsoever. Try again. Please note: What some of "our lot" (whomever you mean) come out with is completely irrelevant in terms of how accurate your guess is. Calm down and like I've said, stop being arrogant. Jesus. This game used to have a good spirit about it. Wakefield might be potential rivals down the road - but I wouldn't wish them financial problems, as is the nature of our game compared with some others. You seem to be forgetting this.

For the first ever super league playoff game? Bit of an arrogant assumption to suggest they'd only take 150 for that don't you think? Don't start looking down on teams just because you've made the playoffs.

I can't imagine it was anything other than a sarcastic swipe at the union game for it's obsession with kicking even when tries are begging.

For me, Castleford's is perhaps the most surprising. They've not had a bad season, they missed out on the play offs by a gnats wing yet their crowds have dropped alarmingly. Perhaps there is a good explanation I am missing. Bradford's crowds are well documented but Castleford have lost almost as many in terms of percentage. Salford's crowds once again woeful, but perhaps there will be a decent increase next year because their squad looks decent. Next year is going to be interesting, to say the least. One club is going to spend some of the year facing three years of demotion, minimum. In order to prevent that certain clubs are going to go all out to make sure its not them.

As people have been fondly throwing around in every conversation except ones like these, if we had failed in our first attempt we would have had a different squad for the play offs last year and the league this year. We have had a plan to get to super league. Our youth was apparently an issue last time. This time, we're the only club really giving youth a go in our division. We have blooded a number of youngsters this season, it's not easy to get the balance right. Other teams have brought in journeymen instead. They already have the experience to win matches. All our first win has done is made sure we could concentrate on the strength of our bid and address the issues we have been given. Other teams have not been addressing youth.

People putting Barrow forward for candidacy, have any of them ever actually been there? It's one of the worst stadiums I've ever been to in either of the top two divisions. Under the old system, they'd probably, and rightfully be knocked back. You cannot hold super league there. It's a toilet. They got the better of us today, not going to deny that. But under the system we have, over three years, one year single results don't cut it. It's about the total package, and Barrow are really, really far behind in that respect. Behind us, Halifax, Leigh and even Fev. If you've been there, supporting their super league application is a joke. It really is.

Almost nothing is a given in this world and this certainly isn't. We're the right decision to my mind, but we've been passed over in the past and I'm not counting any unhatched chickens any time soon.

I think the fact that there was something to play for was a big factor. Something which a good old fashioned relegation battle would also bring to the table.

From a personal perspective, sure it will be sad for anyone to drop down, but let's be honest, its no worse than consigning everyone else to the championship for three years minimum. I don't mind who it is as long as they make what I feel is the right choice to step up.

Really enjoyed every game I've seen this weekend. Just hoping Widnes don't disappoint tomorrow.

I'm not sure how to reply to this. Really leaves a horrible taste in the mouth and I'm not entirely sure I can or should have to justify the words of others just because they support the same club. For my part I have done nothing but wish Quins the best of health in recent years and see the logic of funding the youth in the capital outside of their club. But then, all this sounds like I'm justifying myself to you and distancing myself from fellow widnes supporters who are to my mind not the people you take them for. Your post was in appalling taste.

It's because.

Nick Leeson was criminal deception. The Iraq war was criminal deception. This is a ticket offer on a website that people are reading too much in to, because of their agendas.

Its merely an attempt by the club to drum up season ticket purchases and nothing more than that.

No, I'm not. I've already said elsewhere we should have put the word "if" in there, if only to placate people like you who love to sling mud at us for every percieved slight.

I think its a badly worded press release that needed to have an "if" in there. It doesn't actually make sense for the RFL to make promises at this stage and I don't believe they have. But we're absolutely being over scrutinised in certain circles. It's a ticket offer and a good idea at that.

I think we'd have been fine coming up with Steve O Connor on board. As it stands, our crowds are stagnating because there is little excitement in the rugby. I'm not particularly sold on franchising. We could come out of it smelling of roses but the clubs who lose out will lose far too much in my opinion. We're selling them out. The decision to leave us out was based on a number of clubs getting new stadiums and being supposedly stronger than we are. One of those has had to move to a completely different part of the country and of those getting stadia none have actually started building, and crowds wise we could have done better. So I still think it was the wrong decision. We could come out of this strong but it will remain to be seen whether the championship will be treated fairly in years to come. I do worry for certain teams. Whoever we replace wont be primed for coming back up, I think they will soon find it hard from the championship to justify replacing anyone in super league or going straight to the front of the queue. Thats the problem. A number of teams currently in super league would be only as strong as the better teams in the championship if they dropped down. So what justification is there of giving them 6 years and counting in the top flight? One measly team gets replaced? A number of average teams get 6 then 9 years in the top flight unhindered at the expense of clubs just as viable? On what basis is this fair?

The trouble is, you don't want to believe everything is okay at Widnes. You were vocal in questioning the success of our academy and accused us of not really producing the players we've been bringing through even though we have been. You're naturally sceptical of us, that is your default position. We have a very small cap this year, and a very good business minded owner. I don't know the ins and outs of this financial report of the club - no one spouting the usual nonsense does - but I do know the health of the club is much better than it was. It is fine to question things, but people are merely being sceptical for the sake of it. They accepted everything at face value when we posted a loss and yet over scrutinise when we post a profit. That's not mere questioning, it's attempting to douse significant positivity in the club repeatedly.

Funny old world. Last year, Widnes post a loss. People are more than happy to accept the figure and despite excuses of mass expenditure on stadium facilities these goes unnoticed as people pour the usual scorn. This season, we post a profit, and people wont actually accept the figure and accuse us of "fudging" them. People will believe what they want to believe and most of the time they don't want to believe Widnes are a capable, well run club. We're debt free and operating well, we all have the same information on this at this stage, so speculation is largely pointless, but you'd think people would leave it at that.

There are good points and bad points to licensing. In my opinion, the cost of the bad points outnumbers the good but it has paid off for my club at least up till now.