The Blues Ox

Again, because the bar was set incredibly low. An A grade club should be an elite organisation.

I don't have a clue which position either team finished in apart from knowing they didn't make the top 6. Im just judging them on my opinion that they are both a mess of a club at the moment and London having much more potential than either at this current time.

Yeah it looks like the journos got it wrong. I imagine Caitlin will be her assistant again, I imagine it will be a logistical nightmare for Bradford training.

I would not be surprised if both Salford and Leigh did not exist next season. Although if that were the case they would end up with a 12 team league again if they were to keep both Cas and Bradford in which has to be unlikely if they want to stick to the plan to see all 8 team divisions in 2028.

Just an example of how low the bar was set. Both teams have been dumpster fires for at least a couple of seasons now.

We would be naïve to think that some clubs are not schooling the system. We only have to look how he IMG criteria was worked over and that was just what we saw in the public domain.

To answer this question, Amy has today been announced as Bradford Women's head coach. One article suggesting she is retiring from playing and although we saw the international retirement, I don't think a retirement from playing full stop was mentioned. I reckon this could further complicate the structures below Super League with Bradford due to be relegated to League 1 next season, it's hard to see her taking the job if that was the case with her last involvement in coaching back in 2025 where she coached Halifax to relegation from League 1. Also the Cas situation with the Giants 19's coach going there, it is hard to see the RFL relegating teams who are appointing these higher profile signings.

Well this is all a bit of a mess isn't it. Hard to see the council going for the Charnock Bates bid when it means the council having to put their hand in their pocket initially and then lets call it the Fax bid, you just can't see the council wanting to go down that route. You just get the feeling the Davy bid is going to turn out to be the best of a bad bunch.

I'd lean towards Cas, Hull, and Hudds to at least give York and Bradford another year to see what they can do.

The RFL put 2 extra teams in to SL which diluted the quality of the competition and now has a genuine chance to include a club that at the moment has a realistic chance of raising the standards. Just get rid of one of the teams who is currently adding nothing to the competition, Hull, Cas, Bradford, York, Hudds, take your pick.

London - You can't get in Super League just because you have mates in high places. Bradford - Hold my beer.

Hilarious that just days away from the Grand Final and we still don't know what the format will be in either of the top 2 tiers next season.

I can't remember saying anywhere that it did justify abusing the match officials, you have gone off on a tangent here.

I’m not sure what point you’re making, Phil. With around five minutes left it was 12–28. Given the 18-point cushion, in terms of finishing top the home team were effectively 30–28 ahead when the incident happened. So yes, I’d say a controversial decision at that point had quite a significant bearing on the outcome. For somebody so keen to remind everyone they haven’t passed an officials’ exam, I’d have thought basic arithmetic might have been safer ground.

You don’t need to pass an officials exam to understand the ball-steal rule Phil. I’m perfectly aware of what the rule is and, having watched the incident, my opinion is that the decision was wrong. I fully accept that you won’t get every decision right, nobody expects officials to and, as I said I thought you all handled the game well up until that point. It was just unfortunate that this particular decision had such a big bearing on the game. The good thing is that, unlike most incidents where it simply comes down to differing opinions afterwards, this one was filmed. I’m sure you have access to the footage, so you can watch it back and decide for yourself whether being a few yards closer and having passed an officials’ exam necessarily made the view any clearer.