Colin James

SURPRISE!

Interested to see how the fixtures will fall, the release makes it sound like there's a chance the third bottom Championship team will be waiting around for a few weeks between finishing the season and playing the play off game which isn't ideal. Inviting applications for a new side and only announcing them in September doesn't seem a great idea. I fully expect us to get to August with no obvious candidate and they'll end up either going with nobody or putting in someone who clearly isn't ready and it being a disaster. I may be wrong but that's what history tells us to expect.

I think it could be a good experience for Oldham. Reading their message board and from what Long said afterwards, it sounds like they rather arrogantly thought they just had to turn up last night. I expected a much tougher game for the Lions. Anyone who thinks this Oldham team would be top end of the Championship have had a rude awakening. There's a lot of teams in the Championship who aren't as flashy or who don't look as impressive on paper but are well drilled and do the simple things right and you have to earn the right to play against them. Batley have been the embodiment of that for years. Keighley similar to Oldham spent a load of money on names, walked L1 and then couldn't do it against better opposition. From a Swinton point of view, it's another solid performance, if we keep it up some people might even be forced to predict we won't finish bottom which is where most pundits put us every season without fail. Patton is a quality and experienced half and has started well. I know Bradford fans said he was a bit hot and cold for them so we will wait and see how he goes but so far looks a very good piece of recruitment.

The statement specifies it was League One clubs who objected to Cornwall being in the 1895 Cup.

Can London only stay up if they improve their grading to the extent that they either get an A or a higher score than all but 11 other sides?

If we trust the scores have been done fairly then they can't lie. If Keighley aren't doing as well as they'd have us believe then it gives light to that. If you take the approach that bad scores damage the sport they may as well have given everyone an A and told the world that the sport is flying high.

Biggest surprise for me is how low Keighley are. I know they've been vocal critics of the system but from the outside they looked to be doing ok over the last couple of years it's only a year since they were talking of SL on the back of a strong promotion from L1.

I don't fully understand the calculations but it would seem to me that if your team is playing away against a side with a similar score, it's beneficial for your club if you don't attend as taking away fans boosts your opponent's score. Could we see a situation where the gradings leads to boycotting of away games?

Is the owner still listed as a director?

That doesn't seem a huge amount required. Makes it strange they went so quickly on the withdrawal. I hope they can get what they need and that figure isn't an underestimation of what is really needed.

They want a merger. How the fixtures are worked out isn't decided. Would you have preferred me to say 'they want the sporting merit aspect of the divisional split to be replaced by a geographical split'? I'm not totally against the conferences idea though how the lines are drawn is a massive can of worms. My issue is very clear, Championship clubs have earned the right to play in that division as is in 2024. They've recruited and budgeted for it. They've sold season tickets for it. They've sold sponsorship for it. To paint them as the bad guys for not wanting to put those plans in the shredder is more than a little unfair and the adversarial nature of comments coming from some clubs in that direction is bang out of order. And to repeat yet again, this shouldn't have ever come to this as the RFL should have taken charge from the off and made clear that it wasn't up to the clubs to decide. Instead they were quiet and allowed this Us v Them thing to kick off.

To be clear I have no issue with a merging of the divisions and think it is one of two options we have, the other being we rebalance the divisions by relegating more teams/promoting fewer in 2024 to lead to a more even split in 2025. My issue is the painting of Championship clubs as the bad guys for looking after their own interests when some clubs may not be in a brilliant position and have earned the right to play in the division as is.

Hunslet: "It’s little secret that Hunslet has consistently pushed for a merged Championship and League 1 division, split into two conferences, for a number of years. Unfortunately, at last week’s Championship and League 1 Forum, a number of Championship Clubs made it clear that they had no interest in that option." Rochdale: “For avoidance of doubt Rochdale Hornets absolutely support immediate change for the good of the whole sport. Further more myself and others would be excited by this and will invest more in our club to be competitive and add value to an expanded Championship and or a conferenced type structure"

I haven't once said L1 clubs want money. What they want, and at least a couple have explicitly asked for is an immediate merger of the divisions. That merger would benefit those clubs in terms of 2024 and only those clubs. Championship clubs would get nothing from it and if anything are likely to lose out. Perhaps charity is the wrong word. A gesture of goodwill, a leg up, a lifeline call it what you want. My point is, it's easy to have a pop at Championship clubs for not wanting to do that when they probably aren't in a great position themselves. If you are charged with custody of a club you have to make decisions in that club's interest and unfortunately the sport is in a place where long term thinking isn't always possible when you have bills to pay tomorrow. I've said from the off the RFL should make the call and not the clubs and clearly what I feared namely putting clubs/divisions against each other has come to pass to the extent that people are rolling out capital letters and different colours.

It's correct the RFL make the decision but the way they've allowed the debate to become L1 v Championship clubs is poor. They should have stated as soon as Newcastle went that it would be their decision and not the clubs.

They need to decide 2025 now also. Clubs need to start the season knowing what they are playing for. If finishing places in 2024 will have no relevance to what happens in 2025 clubs may as well slash their playing budgets now.

Looking at that squad I could play 9 and you'd still dominate the competition. If it stays as two up it is hard to see past Oldham and Keighley who on paper have much stronger squads than anyone else and in Oldham's case would appear to have finances to strengthen later in the season if needed.

Most Championship clubs have no money. It's easy to sit saying 'do what is best for the game' but if you're running a club on extremely tight margins there's not much room for charity. If you're in a boardroom having planned, budgeted and recruited for the Championship in 2024 and you're being asked to throw all that in the bin to do something that will help L1 clubs but potentially damage your own what will you do? It's extremely unfair to paint Championship clubs unwilling to scrap their plans for 2024 as unreasonable or selfish.

In fairness to Oldham they look likely to win promotion so any kind of merger of the divisions may work against them. In response to comments by one poster in the locked thread who was saying nobody in League One was demanding a merged league, two clubs in Hunslet and Rochdale explicitly said in their statements that that is what they wanted.

Have you been following the sport long? We'll probably get a decision after the season has started.

If all they want is games then why do they need anything from the Championship clubs? There's nobody stopping them playing each other six times a season if that's what they want. Newcastle and London going will have been celebrated in certain L1 boardrooms, two long trips gone (long trips being referenced by one of the club statements as a problem with L1), and it opens a door to say L1 isn't sustainable we must be put into the Championship. That's what they're angling for. They're putting out statements having a dig at Championship clubs for not giving them what they want. An eight team league is no good. I think we all agree that but as a short term measure I think it would be grossly unfair to penalise Championship teams by changing the landscape at this stage. If we need to rebalance the leagues it should be after next season and be set out and known before the season kicks off.

There will be some chairmen desperately hoping that doesn't happen.

If that's all they want then I wonder if a possible solution could be one division with home and away fixtures but at the end of the season the two lowest placed of the current Championship sides go down and form League One with the existing League One teams. That's the trade off, they relinquish the chance of promotion in return for the games and a 10 team league in 2025.

I suspect some players would seek release from their contract if the club suddenly isn't offering the same level of rugby. Not only would you be penalising the club financially, they'd probably lose their better players and have little chance of promotion back to the second tier.

That interest/exposure/rivalry/depth won't magically appear 'one day'. It needs to be built through consistency. People love a story and those are built over time. Maybe it is one sided but there's a massive punch up, next time those two face off there's something to build a narrative around. You can't get that by not playing and crossing your fingers that one day Wales, France and somewhere else will suddenly be worthy opponents. If we have to start small in small stadiums then sobeit. I'm not expecting us pulling Six Nations level crowds and coverage from day one. If we can have that and a series against NZ/Australia in non- World Cup years that has to be better the current situation. The SL Grand Final has overtaken the Challenge Cup final which has suffered from moving in the calendar and moving venue. 20 years ago the Challenge Cup was the big event but has been shunted around the fixture list and venues to the point that for a lot of people it ceased to be a habit to attend.