The Phantom Horseman

No, but I completely got why we did it in 2023. It wasn't "sensible", but it was a clear risk/reward strategy that, unfortunately for Fev, didn't pay off.

Absolutely, and Wakefield's recruitment for their Championship year was pretty exceptional too, not quite at the Leigh level but they nailed all their overseas signings. Those 2 years were the exception not the norm.

Like the guy who's already ploughed all this month and next month's rent into a fruit machine - "one more go, it's going to pay out the jackpot, I know it". ??? Leigh had been relegated the previous year not promoted.

Been a while since I've been referred to as a "lad" Yes, Harry seemed to think that Fev should have just plunged themselves further and further into debt, despite being told repeatedly that the club was already over-stretching itself. He was totally wrong then and of course he's totally wrong now, it was in a way understandable that the club went so hard after promotion because the introduction of the IMG scoring system meant an end to any chance Fev had of promotion, at least under that system. The club will be in debt for a long time after the ill-fated spending spree to try and get into SL on what seemed at the time to be the final opportunity. If Fev had spent even more they could still have lost a one-off game in the play-off, sometimes no matter how much you spend the seemingly unthinkable can happen, you'd think Harry would have learned this from Leigh in 2018.

I don't know the answer to that specific question (maybe it will be shown in the clubhouse, not sure), but Toulouse have streamed all their home games this season either on their YouTube channel or on viaoccitane.tv and are already advertising it on the latter (see link below) On some occasions you have neded to use a VPN to view it in this country (the viaoccitane broadcasts I think). https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1342985257826978&id=100063465496698&set=a.736765041782339

Get with the programme Gav, it's now 8 minutes since Aaron Bower provided his take on things...

Looks like this thread might not last quite as long as the IMG one(s) then...though who knows https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/super-league-14-team-decision-1266321 "after strong opposition to plans for a 14-team league next year, a 12-team competition in 2026 now appears to be the direction of travel"

When I made a few posts earlier on this thread, I was assuming that the new 14-team league would then proceed with a similar IMG scoring system to the current one in terms of deciding future occupants of SL, but as others pointed out, that might not be the case any more. Apologies if this has already been discussed (I haven't read the whole thread) but I'm starting to think there might be some sort of return to promotion and relegation in the proposals, partly because there appears to have been very little public kickback so far from those Championship clubs who are not amongst the supposed "chosen three". For the likes of Toulouse, Oldham, Featherstone, Doncaster, Widnes, Halifax etc you would have expected fervent opposition to the plans - ie cherry-picking London, Bradford & York to go into SL and chucking the remainder of the Championship teams into one big league with the League 1 teams - but there doesn't seem to have been any of that, and indeed representatives of one of those clubs (Fev) in an interview last week which was fairly positive about the recent discussions suggested that some form of P & R underpinned by minimum standards might be back on the table. Am only guessing but that might have been the carrot needed to bring Championship clubs round to the idea of merging the 2 lower leagues, because in previous years most of them would have been strongly opposed to that.

I think in that tweet he was referring to an old "Framing the future" document he found, and it's referring to pich dimensions However, I suspect most of them actually do meet current minimum standards (which is 88m x 55m). I suspect those minimum standards may have been only added in relatively recent years (ie 21st century), but I'm not sure. Does anyone know when? I presume it was as an acknowldgement that certain grounds were never going to be full size. Obviously, Odsal is another pitch that only narrowly meets the current, very low minimum standards, never mind maximum ones, and indeed had to have special dispensation a few years ago when the width briefly dipped well below the 55m minimum.

Good game, that. 16-14 to York FT.

For anyone who hasn't been paying attention (or been keeping up with the prolific thread on the General forum), action appears to be afoot amongst the movers and shakers of the RL chairmen to have (yet) another shake-up in terms of who is in what league and how it's decided. There's apparently a meeting of all the clubs in Wakefield this week, but by common consent it seems that a switch to a 14-team SL is likely to be approved for next year, with Salford probably dropping out and, according to most reports, York, London and Bradford joining them. There are also proposals to effectively merge the Championship & League 1, perhaps with some sort of east/west "divisions" to provide more local derbies There are all sorts of cans of worms to be opened in my view if that takes place - it would presumably mean that the massively-detailed, much-publicised IMG scoring system designed (at no little expense) to provide a transparent method of deciding who gets into SL is ditched mid-season in favour of seemingly a cherry-picking exercise. I feel pretty uncomfortable about that for lots of reasons, but wanted to look at it from our own point of view. We have all known since day 1 that there was no prospect of us going up to SL next year as the IMG system probably hits us harder than most, especially in our current financial situation having poured so much into trying to go up in 2023 in what we thought was the last year for traditional P & R. It's interesting that Paddy Handley and Martin Vickers in the video this week didn't seem necessarily to be against the latest proposed restructure. There seems to be a sense that P & R might be brought back into play in the near future, perhaps underpinned by minimum standards (though we've heard that before!). Martin Vickers said in the video that he felt the club had been more listened to in the last 3 months than the last 3 years. Being honest I don't like the opaque nature of these new developments where it appears that chairmen/CEOs are deciding which teams they want in SL rather than a transparent system, but purely from our own point of view if P & R ends up back on the table it would clearly be a positive thing as the IMG scoring system definitely did us no favours.

Full time London 18 Doncaster 36. Clear-cut win for Doncaster in the end, Gebbie with a second-half hat-trick the clear standout performer. I see Toulouse are losing 16-4 at Halifax nearing the end of the first half, like a lot of teams they are Jeckyll and Hyde this season and especially inconsistent away from home.

Off topic to a degree but am watching the London v Doncaster game as it's relevant to us in terms of top 6 and we play them both soon. 12-12 at half time, we could do with London winning really as Doncaster are a a more immediate threat to us as top 6 contenders. Not much between the teams so far.

Not much between the two teams as the 12-12 score at HT suggests. Not the prettiest of games - I'm not sure there has actually been a clean break from either team - but it is painfully hot today. I thought London's decision to tap from 10m out was foolhardy as I think they might have just had that one play, but Stock broke a weak tackle and scrambled over so it paid off. Personally I'm happy to hear the communication between ref and TJs as it is so much more informative than any commentator could ever be, but I appreciate not everyone will feel that way. Tara Jones again looking very comfortable as a referee despite her inexperience. I do think Boas knocked on for the first Doncaster try, but it happened very quickly and on one viewing I wouldn't have liked to have made that call.

That's a complete non-starter, it would be a massive advantage to be 11th/12th/13th rather than 8th/9th/10th after that first stage.

Yep, can you imagine if as reported Oldham aren't one of the chosen trio and are making the rumoured signings, looking at their likely fixture list.

10 teams would not be ideal in terms of loop fixtures, but a 21-team Championship would just end up with a string of mismatches, especially in the second half of the season when injuries and fatigue take their toll.

Hunslet, who were promoted from League 1 last year have now conceded 200 points in their last 3 home games. Having correctly (in my view) set about reducing the Championship to 12 teams, are we really going to chuck all the League 1 teams in with the Championship teams next year?

Very straightforward for Fev at Hunslet tonight, final score Hunslet 4 Featherstone 70.

I think the point was that we won't be making too many more direct overseas signings where we have to pay for visas, flights etc. I suspect we won't be signing as many from the other side of the pennines as in previous years either.

It was you that said "IMG points are irrelevant now" and if they aren't the basis of any 14-team expansion, you're right. Just not sure how you explain that to a club that may have made a concerted effort to improve its IMG score by financial investment, increasing gates, improving facilities as per the IMG scoring system, manages to finish in the top 14 on IMG points as a result, then find themself excluded from SL because of some kind of mid-season cabal that rides roughshod over the rules that everyone understood were in place at the start of the season.

You may be right, but if that's the case, are we allowed to point out that it's the most RL thing for fans to be chastised for bringing up the current operational system well beyond the mid-season point because there are rumours everything might be thrown out of the window shortly?

You might well be right, and I hope you're right, but predicting which version of bottom-4 teams will turn up is really tough. There's definitely a possibility we could run away with it if they're not at their best.

Morgan has had lots of SL experience at Warrington, London, Hull and Wakefield, he was also a member of Fev's very strong 2022 Championship squad which was unlucky to run into a resurgent Leigh (the year they signed Asiata, Amone, Ipape, Lam, Ferguson, etc), he scored 22 tries that year. His grandfather is former GB international Pete Smith who is a legend in Featherstone. He's a likeable player, always gives his best, has a decent short kicking game and a good step that makes him dangerous close to the tryline. He also tends to tackle well. He's not the most creative of half backs in my view though and to my mind doesn't quite create the shape you want from a SL/top-end Championship half back. Although he fills an immediate need for Oldham, given the money you seem to have to spend I'll be surprised if he isn't your 3rd half back rather than a starter next year. He can also play hooker though has mostly played half back in recent years.

I watched the Bradford v Hunslet game, Hunslet had a proper dig considering they were missing the two half backs who played so well against us (Gaskell is in their squad for today's game, Haneghan isn't). They have some big lads in their pack and they got stuck into the Bulls, they were let down a bit by their discipline though with a heavy penalty count against them. I've seen a few comments-possibly fuelled by the ridiculous histrionics of the Bulls commentator in the closing minutes - that said Hunslet were dirty/thuggish, there was one really bad late tackle that should have been a red, and a player from each team exchanged punches that did lead to red cards, but other than that they were just a bit indiscplined. Again it's so hard to predict which version of Hunslet will turn up so it's hard to predict how hard we will find tonight's game.