Sun 29 Sept: Championship Preliminary Final: Toulouse Olympique v Featherstone Rovers KO 6.30pm (TV)

[Smudger06]

17 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Leutele, on £400k a year should rip us to pieces!

True that......By himself aswell. 

[TIWIT]

6 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

So incredibly odd that the final isnt at a neutral venue.

Who pays for Fev to travel?

And their accommodation. I assume they'll be coming over ASAP and spending several days here. Since these are the playoffs surely TWP aren't responsible for this as well as they are during the regular season.

[Smudger06]

13 minutes ago, Lamport Life said:

They would not have had the home final if Toronto won the week after in your scenario.

Still would have been the better option. 

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

But not the team that has only lost once all season and has been far and away the most consistent?

Next week has nothing at all to do with what has gone past, Fev very nearly upset your favourites with a weakend team a few weeks ago, then after winning in Toronto last season and still having a lot of those players I should imagine that another trip to Canada will not phase them that much, it is down to 80 mins and the best performers on the night will take the spoils, if TWP bottle it tough, one thing is for certain though Fev have shown that Tolouse are nowhere near ready for SL has you and many others have been clamouring for a 14 team SL including both TO and TWP, now I only hope Fev complete the job and win next week.

[RayCee]

1 minute ago, Harry Stottle said:

Next week has nothing at all to do with what has gone past, Fev very nearly upset your favourites with a weakend team a few weeks ago, then after winning in Toronto last season and still having a lot of those players I should imagine that another trip to Canada will not phase them that much, it is down to 80 mins and the best performers on the night will take the spoils, if TWP bottle it tough, one thing is for certain though Fev have shown that Tolouse are nowhere near ready for SL has you and many others have been clamouring for a 14 team SL including both TO and TWP, now I only hope Fev complete the job and win next week.

The SL bosses are sticking pins in your effigy at this very moment.

[paulwalker71]

2 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Next week has nothing at all to do with what has gone past,

I agree with that Harry. And yet we’ve had the 1983 Challenge Cup Final brought up already on this thread! 

[Gooleboy]

Just now, RayCee said:

The SL bosses are sticking pins in your effigy at this very moment.

I am sure those greedy men are!

[Harry Stottle]

40 minutes ago, TIWIT said:

Looks like the makings of a good game then eh?

Personally I'd rather play Featherstone than Toulouse. Beating the same team twice in 3 weeks is hard to do.

You are learning but you don't know to much about this game yet.

[Bleep1673]

Shame if Featherstone win, if I get my new job I would love to go to Featherstone and sample a long weekend in the area, sampling the local food and wines, and the local bistro's, and cultures, now it looks like I will have to make do with Haute-Garonne cuisine instead. Such a shame.

Fev WMC or La Bonita on Grande Rue Saint Michel?

[Damien]

9 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Next week has nothing at all to do with what has gone past, Fev very nearly upset your favourites with a weakend team a few weeks ago, then after winning in Toronto last season and still having a lot of those players I should imagine that another trip to Canada will not phase them that much, it is down to 80 mins and the best performers on the night will take the spoils, if TWP bottle it tough, one thing is for certain though Fev have shown that Tolouse are nowhere near ready for SL has you and many others have been clamouring for a 14 team SL including both TO and TWP, now I only hope Fev complete the job and win next week.

I have no favourites Harry. If Fev win next week then so be it.

I'm not quite sure how Fev have shown anything when they have several players on DR and Toulouse finished 2nd but there you go. I think Toulouse were poor, and have been very critical of them on this thread, but it's incredibly naive to think that Toulouse wouldn't have had a drastically different team should they have got into Super League. I am sure the same will apply to whoever gets promoted in Fev or Toronto.

[Bleep1673]

La Bonita for all of you is just south of Domino's Pizza, if you got that far

[Smudger06]

3 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

You are learning but you don't know to much about this game yet.

You only have to look at the head to head results over the two seasons Fev and Toronto have played in the same league to know the teams are more closely matched than many TWP fans think. Fev were always going to be more of a threat to TWP than Toulouse. 

[TIWIT]

5 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

You are learning but you don't know to much about this game yet.

I freely admit that but beating the same team twice in 3 weeks is hard in any sport. Or 4 times out of 5, as TWP would have had to do if TO had made the Final.

[Smudger06]

4 minutes ago, Damien said:

I have no favourites Harry. If Fev win next week then so be it.

I'm not quite sure how Fev have shown anything when they have several players on DR and Toulouse finished 2nd but there you go. I think Toulouse were poor, and have been very critical of them on this thread, but it's incredibly naive to think that Toulouse wouldn't have had a drastically different team should they have got into Super League. I am sure the same will apply to whoever gets promoted in Fev or Toronto.

That's natural with the extra money available to sign players. 

[Damien]

1 minute ago, Smudger06 said:

That's natural with the extra money available to sign players. 

Exactly and it's only natural that you need better players to compete at a higher level. As well as the money it's also much easier to attract better players who wouldn't contemplate playing in a 2nd tier competition.

[Cardypaul]

If you get 17 lads who all want to play for each other and are willing to put their bodies on the line they become a very difficult team to beat.

Then throw in a few individuals with real quality into the mix it makes you even harder to beat.

The final piece is a quality coach and that makes a very dangerous outfit and that is what you have got with Fev. 

Throw in the last ingredient of a little bit of luck and you may just find out that dreams come true.

[DoubleD]

The biggest challenge for Featherstone is that they have to become a full time club. Rumour is Carr is joining Leeds, they won’t have the services of their hooker, possibly both, Ormondroyd, Golding, McLelland, Sutcliffe. So they have to start from scratch putting a full time operation in place. Going to be hard 

[Gooleboy]

Just now, Bleep1673 said:

Shame if Featherstone win, if I get my new job I would love to go to Featherstone and sample a long weekend in the area, sampling the local food and wines, and the local bistro's, and cultures, now it looks like I will have to make do with Haute-Garonne cuisine instead. Such a shame.

Fev WMC or La Bonita on Grande Rue Saint Michel?

Get thee sen to St Helen's, Wigan and Warrington  if tha wants a bit a culture lad, pies are second to none!

[Bleep1673]

2 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Get thee sen to St Helen's, Wigan and Warrington  if tha wants a bit a culture lad, pies are second to none!

In English?

[Bleep1673]

3 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Get thee sen to St Helen's, Wigan and Warrington  if tha wants a bit a culture lad, pies are second to none!

Such a shame Swinton will not be thrashing the living daylights out of the said clubs, otherwise I would frequent the said clubs local hostelries, (Or as they are known now, as McDonalds and Kentucky, and Nando's), and partake of their local pies (Made in Thailand, China & Chile).

[Blind side johnny]

Great win for Fev. It must be galling to read in LE on the same day that they are recruiting a new coach for 2020 when they are facing their biggest game for years. I hope that the players can put this out of their minds and just focus on the match.

Looking forward to watching it, as an independent, and feel that Toronto might have too much this year, what with having a proper coach, but would cheer Fev from the rafters if they can pull it off.

[sentoffagain2]

1 hour ago, Blind side johnny said:

Great win for Fev. It must be galling to read in LE on the same day that they are recruiting a new coach for 2020 when they are facing their biggest game for years. I hope that the players can put this out of their minds and just focus on the match.

Looking forward to watching it, as an independent, and feel that Toronto might have too much this year, what with having a proper coach, but would cheer Fev from the rafters if they can pull it off.

To be fair our coach Ryan Carr came in at the last minute with no pre season.I think he was on a years contract with the option of a second year if both parties agreed.Three hard away matches will have taken some juice out of the lads but i wouldn't swap their forwards or half backs for ours if fully fit.As a coffin dodger i am enjoying the ride.

[Harry Stottle]

8 hours ago, Damien said:

Exactly and it's only natural that you need better players to compete at a higher level. As well as the money it's also much easier to attract better players who wouldn't contemplate playing in a 2nd tier competition.

Nope Damien it's the money, just ask Ricky Leutele.

Money is the main success factor in all team sports, very occasionally some team will break that mould like Leicester did, and for me hopefully Salford and Fev can do this season, but for clubs like these being at the top is a fleeting visit, without the steady investment that keeps pouring in they slide back to their natural place in the order of merit, I love an underdog story, most probably because that is what the team I have followed for a very long time are just that.

Money really does buy success, if West Wales Crusaders or Workington or Coventry Bears had a David Argyle who joined the club 3 years ago they would very most likely be playing in the Championship Final next week. 

It really is a fan's postcode lottery for those who support the team of the place they were born, it really is a luck thing, for nothing more than an accident of birth one is fortunate or otherwise, and this is what really gnarls me when those who are from the big house at the top of the hill, people like Scotchy and Padge who look down on those clubs who will never be as well off and take exception that they have the impertinence to knock on their door and ask to join the party, it is the easiest thing in the world to support a successful (rich) club.

Sport is buisness and buisness is money, success comes of the back of it, end off.

[Damien]

36 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Nope Damien it's the money, just ask Ricky Leutele.

Money is the main success factor in all team sports, very occasionally some team will break that mould like Leicester did, and for me hopefully Salford and Fev can do this season, but for clubs like these being at the top is a fleeting visit, without the steady investment that keeps pouring in they slide back to their natural place in the order of merit, I love an underdog story, most probably because that is what the team I have followed for a very long time are just that.

Money really does buy success, if West Wales Crusaders or Workington or Coventry Bears had a David Argyle who joined the club 3 years ago they would very most likely be playing in the Championship Final next week. 

It really is a fan's postcode lottery for those who support the team of the place they were born, it really is a luck thing, for nothing more than an accident of birth one is fortunate or otherwise, and this is what really gnarls me when those who are from the big house at the top of the hill, people like Scotchy and Padge who look down on those clubs who will never be as well off and take exception that they have the impertinence to knock on their door and ask to join the party, it is the easiest thing in the world to support a successful (rich) club.

Sport is buisness and buisness is money, success comes of the back of it, end off.

I'm not sure why you quoted me as you seem to have gone off on a completely different argument which is nothing to do with what was being debated in the posts prior. I actually agree with what you are saying here but like I said it's a different discussion to what we were having with Smudger06.

[fairfolly]

Gooleboy,

            Read my posts on page 15 which you have replied to.