The Blues Ox

No team in the Championship would turn it down. It's free money. Give their current players a slight wage rise and lose every game till the end of the season but not by as much as a cobbled together Salford team will do.

I think the easiest thing would be just to promote the top team in the championship with immediate effect.

Doncaster v Toulouse Olympique Toulouse by 8 London Broncos v Hunslet London by 24 Barrow Raiders v York Knights Barrow by 10 Featherstone Rovers v Bradford Bulls Bradford by 10 Halifax Panthers v Batley Bulldogs Fax by 14 Sheffield Eagles v Oldham Sheffield by 2

I think Tally is a decent player but I don't think she is anywhere near a top 4 club half back. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Lil Seal has overtook her in the pecking order before the end of the season.

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/rugby-league-lawsuit-update-concerning-brain-disease-data-revealed-102857/ Interesting that they are now starting to give clues about some of the people who are involved in the claim. I wonder if it could potentially change what at the moment seems to be a really negative view on this subject.

Couldn't the Bulls just say its a certain size to meet criteria? I mean that is what they did with the crowds a couple of seasons back.

Wrong group?

I wonder if that is where the confusion has come from then. I guess we didn't learn much from the London V Cardiff match apart from those 2 teams look evenly matched. Fev travel to London next week after than dominating win against Hull so we should learn more then. Good win for Salford against Sheffield, slightly surprised by the Salford win but does look like it were a tight game. A couple of shocks in League 1, not overly shocked by the results but more the scorelines. Illingworth beaten for the first time at home in over a year and pretty convincingly. By the sounds of it Stanningley played some really good rugby despite having 2 players sin binned. For Illingworth they had 7 players either playing their first competitive game of RL or first game of open age so it may be a year of consolidation for them. For Halifax I never saw that scoreline coming, it had been mentioned that Wakey have benefitted from Dewsbury folding and I think that is their first win in 2 years, Illingworth travel to Wakey next week where we should learn more but for the moment you have to think there could be a new top 2 emerging in League 1 this season. For Halifax they must be wondering if they made the right choice asking to jump up a division.

Good luck to all teams starting their league campaigns today. London V Cardiff to kick it off is a big game right at the start. Fev start their attempt to get back in to SL at home to Hull, and to answer a question I asked on another thread, Evie Sexton is apparently named in the Hull squad rather than been sent on DR to Sheffield although I can't find confirmation of this on the web. Oulten V Cas could turn out to be a battle of 2 of the 3 teams that are expected to be near the lower end of the table, Oulton have apparently lost a few players over the off season and Cas have found it hard to compete for players with teams around them. Salford and Sheffield I feel like they are two clubs that could be on a par with each other but I had heard Salford lost players to Swinton and don't know how true that is so this game may give us a better idea. Swinton V Bradford is the final game and I would expect a comfortable win for Swinton in this one. In league 1 Fryston V Widnes looks to be the pick of the ties, I saw Widnes only named a 22 player squad this season and after last season I expected them to build and be one of the teams capable of winning this league but if that is correct then they may have lost some players. Fryston are always a tough team but won't be allowed to DR with Fev this season which will be a blow to them. Halifax V Wakey could see Wakey pick up their first win in around 2 years, its a big step up for Fax who did not win promotion last year and I don't see any big improvements in their squad where as Wakey have benefitted from Dewsbury folding and also from the Giants U19's coach going there. From what I hear Wakeys games could be played in the stadium this year which is great news for them especially if they are competitive. Illingworth V Stanningly is an interesting one with Illingworth traditionally one of the strongest teams in this league and Stanningley dropping down a division. Illingworth have apparently lost some players to SL teams and have some new names in their squad, one name coming back for another season is Debbie Smith who will get to play another season with her daughter who is herself playing on DR from York. Workington V Leigh I have no idea how this game will go, Leigh looked to be improving rapidly at the back end of last season but they got hammered a week or so ago by a Bradford team that is not that impressive and you wonder if players have moved on. Their junior set up is very impressive and they look like they will be a force if they can hang on to some of the talent. Workington won League 2 last season but I really don't know too much about them to be honest but like every team in Cumbria, I expect them to play pretty tough and be no easy beats.

It's very rugby League.

Like I said, top of the league isn't for everyone.

Not at all, top of the league isn't for everyone.

Bradford 10 behind with 10 to go and really not living up to the hype that some of us have given them. Long way back for them in this game.

Bradford Bulls v Barrow Raiders Bradford by 18 Toulouse Olympique v Hunslet Toulouse by 38 Batley Bulldogs v York Knights Batley by 2 Doncaster v Widnes Vikings Widnes by 10 Halifax Panthers v Featherstone Rovers Fax by 12 Oldham v London Broncos Oldham by 14

He probably had something like "Thoughts are my own" in his bio. That's always a dead give away.

Will be a few nervous players around after seeing this.

Id say from what I have seen all over social media, in general most Town fans seem to be happy with the news but there are a really small minority who are kicking off about it. In my opinion its more to do with the ground been owned by a rugby man rather than the ins and outs of the deal.

Just further on that if it is true that they scored 1.5 points for facilities already then when you take in to consideration they will lose points due to a shared catchment area then it looks like business suicide as it will almost certainly relegate them. I feel like Davy is smarter than that.

Just going on what Ken Davy had said previously in one of his interviews(I will try and find it), I have a funny feeling it was to do with the TV gantry and all it takes is to fail on one of the criteria and you end up with minimum points.

Yeah work to be done but Davy has promised that it will be. An extra grading point that is enough to guarentee them SL status.......I don't think its unreasonable to think that if they stayed at the JSS that they could lose their status in the next year or two as it is pretty hard for them to get to 15 points without that extra point for facilities.

At the moment the Giants only score the minimum 0.5 points on the facilities score. If Davy does the work that he has promised this goes up to 1.5.

Even so they would gain some points on the % of capacity used which would make up a little bit and then a full point for the stadium which would still take them over 15 points wouldn't it?

I'd be amazed if they dropped below the >3000 level.

Giants moving to the Shay gets them through the 15 point mark for IMG and guarentees their SL status. If they don't move they are at risk. The irony if a year in IMG disappear in to the distance in typical RFl style.

Personally I would like both Town and Fax to do well although I am finding the bleating of about 5 of their fans rather satisfying.