End of Season Run In

[D1041]

Would bring me great joy to see Sheffield go down

Just out of interest why?

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

Just out of interest why?

Well for me it would mean great joy because it means its not us going down.

[moorside roughyed]

I think dgt is probably alluding to the fact that Sheffield are full time.Sorry if I'm wrong. But I agree with the above post,rather them than us.

[The Roughyeds Wispa]

This could be a silly comment but honestly I would rather finish where we are now for the 8s than move up a place looking at them fixtures what Sheffield have

[RoughyedsMad]

I have been thinking exactly the same thing and studied the fixture formula on the RFL website. It is totally bizarre that when finishing 10th we could well play both Cumbrian clubs at home assuming they finish 11th and 12th. These are fixtures I would be reasonably confident of getting 4 points from! However finishing 9th in the table we do not play both Cumbrian clubs at home and in my view a slightly harder schedule. It could only happen in rugby league. It is not a level playing field.

[Dave Naylor]

Just been looking over the remaining fixtures again.  Should Leigh beat Halifax next Sunday, they will take the league leader's shield and will finish top of our league.  They'll then have two fixtures to fulfil, both against teams around us at the lower end of the league: Sheffield away followed by Dewsbury at home.

 

I reckon it's reasonable to argue that Leigh could field weakened sides in those two games opening up the possibility of an upset with Sheffield or Dewsbury picking up some vital points.

[Antisuperleague]

I agree with RougyheadsMad it's never been a level playing field that is why I started a topic on The General Rugby Forum to see how others feel. Some interesting comments have been made. Sadly the RFL don't read the punter's comments and will kill the game in the next few years with their madcap schemes, probably even sooner if Sky pull the plug.

[OutsiderLookingIn]

I agree with RougyheadsMad it's never been a level playing field that is why I started a topic on The General Rugby Forum to see how others feel. Some interesting comments have been made. Sadly the RFL don't read the punter's comments and will kill the game in the next few years with their madcap schemes, probably even sooner if Sky pull the plug.

oh believe me, there are some from the RFL who lurk on these forums.....

[moorside roughyed]

It'd be good if they did,I think they'd get a straight answer out of most of us.But having said that, they'd probably be frightened to death of a bit of honesty.

[Bedford Roughyed]

It'd be good if they did,I think they'd get a straight answer out of most of us.But having said that, they'd probably be frightened to death of a bit of honesty.

 

 

I doubt there is a straight answer or else they would of done it.  

[Dave Naylor]

Cut off date for DR players is the 22nd July,players must have made 8 appearances for the club to qualify to play in the eights, looks like we won't have Leeming,Wood or Dickinson for the eights then, only player I think who qualifies is Johnson so far, be a big ask to not have any extra DR players in that crucial period. I don't know how it works bringing loan players in. We could do with some cover though.

 

Where did you get the info about the qualification games for DR players roughyed34?  Been doing a bit sniffing around for a definitive set of guidelines and I've done nothing but convince myself than every club is currently flaunting the rules.  I suspect that the document I found was a bit out of date.

[Dave Naylor]

Right, through the powers of social media, ChampagneCharlie, journalist Gareth Walker and a bit of reading, this is what I think.  I stand to be corrected if I'm wrong.

 

Dual registered players who have played for us 8 or more times can continue to swap and change between us and Giants after the split on July 22.  So that only applies to Liam Johnson and Tyler Dickinson.

 

All the rest have to make a choice after the split.  If they turn out for us they can then only play for us for the remainder of the season.

 

I think.

 

Link to the relevant RFL document

[Dave Naylor]

Results went according to criteria today apart from Sheffield winning down in London.  I think I'd given Dewsbury 2 more points than they were entitled to so the predicted final bottom-half table looks like this:

                 Pts
7.  Dewsbury     16
8.  Oldham       16
9.  Swinton      15
10. Sheffield    14
11. Whitehaven   13
12. Workington    9

[Dave Naylor]

Championship Shield fixtures only slightly changed due to Sheffield beating London:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LxpWko0vQhgl8ABiBzURgNsuaqDUHkoL80svJGEfPLM/pubhtml

[sheddingswasus]

The answer for Oldham is to ensure we finish above Swinton, and then we would have four home matches. Swinton have two fairly hard games in Dewsbury away and Batley at home. 

[Dave Naylor]

I created a second table on the spreadsheet.  It shows we'd play if the results go according to plan:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LxpWko0vQhgl8ABiBzURgNsuaqDUHkoL80svJGEfPLM/pubhtml

[Dave Naylor]

Again, this week's results went according to prediction.  No change to the predicted final table.

                 Pts
7.  Dewsbury     16
8.  Oldham       16
9.  Swinton      15
10. Sheffield    14
11. Whitehaven   13
12. Workington    9

[Dave Naylor]

With Halifax losing today there's a change to the predicted Championship Shield games.  We'd have to go to Odsal again.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LxpWko0vQhgl8ABiBzURgNsuaqDUHkoL80svJGEfPLM/pubhtml

[ChampagneCharlieReturns]

If they beat fev away sunday then they will be top 4 so we will be at featherstone

[Dave Naylor]

After tonight's win by Sheffield up at Whitehaven, things have changed a bit already.  We can now finish no higher than 9th which will happen if we beat Workington, and Swinton lose to Batley.  It also means we'll have 3 rather than 4 home games in the eights.

 

Should something go against us tomorrow and we finish 10th, things aren't too bad.  We'd have both Cumbrian sides at home for two of our three home games.  

 

Here's the updated projected fixtures.  Based on a top 6 side beating a bottom 6 side home and away, a bottom 6 side beating a bottom 6 side at home.

 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LxpWko0vQhgl8ABiBzURgNsuaqDUHkoL80svJGEfPLM/edit#gid=1511545946

[Dave Naylor]

Final positions.  

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LxpWko0vQhgl8ABiBzURgNsuaqDUHkoL80svJGEfPLM/pubhtml

[Dave Naylor]

I think I shared the edit link rather than view link. I corrected that.

[RoughyedsMad]

Personally as a basic minimum, I think we will have to win three games in the Super Eights. This would mean that Workington and Whitehaven would have to win five out of seven and that's a tall order. The decisive games will of course be the Cumbrian sides at Bower Fold.