Possible 17-man line-ups for the promotion challengers

[The Phantom Horseman]

This has been a labour of love to compile so I hope I can be excused starting it on a separate thread. These are the 7 clubs who are still in contention for the SL promotion spot (wasn't sure if Widnes have declared their intention yet?).

FWIW I think each of these 7 would start favourites to be relegated, but some squads are definitely stronger than others.

Disclaimer 1: There may be plenty of signings to come even before the successful club is decided. This is just my VERY rough guess from the current known rosters (eg I doubt Brierley actually is earmarked as Leigh's full back).
Disclaimer 2: I may have missed some important players out, my knowledge of all these clubs isn't 100%.

Leigh

1 Craig Mullen
2 Matty Russell
3 Iain Thornley
4 Junior Sau
5 Ryan Shaw
6 Jamie Ellis
7 Joe Mellor
8 Ben Flower
9 Liam Hood
10 Nate Peteru
11 Jordan Thompson
12 Ben Hellewell
13 James Bell
subs
14 Matty Wildie
15 Nathan Mason
16 Adam Sidlow
17 Matty Gee/Mark Ioane/Tom Spencer/Andy Thornley/Alex Gerrard/Blake Wallace/Ryan Brierley

Fev
1 Craig Hall
2 Ben Blackmore
3 Thomas Minns
4 Kris Welham
5 Gareth Gale
6 Fa’amanu Brown
7 Dane Chisholm
8 Craig Kopczak
9 Dean Parata
10 James Harrison
11 Brett Ferres
12 Brad Day
13 James Lockwood
subs
14 Connor Jones
15 Jack Bussey
16 Dale Ferguson
17 Josh Hardcastle/Luke Cooper/John Davies/Frankie Halton/Callum Field

York
1 Matty Marsh
2 Perry Whiteley
3 Ryan Atkins
4 Tyme Nikau
5 Kieran Dixon
6 Morgan Smith
7 Brendan O’Hagan
8 Jack Teanby
9 Kriss Brining
10 Chris Clarkson
11 Danny Washbrook
12 Danny Kirmond
13 Adam Cuthbertson
subs
14 Will Jubb
15 Jordan Baldwinson
16 Sam Scott
17 Ronan Dixon/Jordan Baldwinson/Tim Spears/Joe Porter/Liam Salter

Toulouse
1 Mark Kheirallah
2 Jy Hitchcox
3 Bastian Ader
4 Junior Vaivai
5 Paul Marcon
6 Jonno Ford
7 Ben Reynolds
8 Mitch Garbutt
9 Anthony Marion
10 Patty Vaivai
11 Joseph Paulo
12 Dom Peyroux
13 Harrison Hansen
subs
14 Eloi Pelissier
15 Ben Evans
16 Joe Bretherton
17 Frank Winterstein/Justin Sangare/Mathieu Jussuame

London
1 Gideon Boafo
2 Jonah Varella
3 Will Lovell
4 Jacob Ogden
5 Tuoyo Egodo
6 Cory Aston
7 James Meadows
8 Eddie Battye
9 Sam Davis
10 Mitch Allgood
11 Josh Walters
12 Rhys Curran
13 Olsi Krasniqi
subs
14 Jordan Williams
15 Dan Hindmarsh
16 Greg Richards
17 Sadiq Adebeyi

Bradford
1 Brandon Pickersgill
2 Matty Dawson-Jones
3 Rhys Evans
4 Ross Oakes
5 Elliot Wallis
6 Jordan Lilley
7 Danny Brough
8 Steve Crossley
9 Sam Hallas
10 Anthony England
11 Adam Rooks
12 Brad Gallagher
13 Aaron Murphy
subs
14 Thomas Doyle
15 Levy Nzongou
16 Ebon Scurr
17 Dan Fleming/Brad England/Sam Barlow/George Flanagan

Widnes
1 Jack Owens
2 Deon Cross
3 Steve Tyrer
4 Joe Edge
5 Jake Spedding
6 Danny Craven
7 Matty Smith
8 Lee Jewitt
9 Logan Tompkins
10 Matt Cook
11 Connor Dwyer
12 Shane Grady
13 Kenny Baker
subs
14 Owen Farnworth
15 Paul Clough
16 Lloyd Roby
17 Joe Lyons/Jayden Hatton

[sweaty craiq]

15 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

This has been a labour of love to compile so I hope I can be excused starting it on a separate thread. These are the 7 clubs who are still in contention for the SL promotion spot (wasn't sure if Widnes have declared their intention yet?).

FWIW I think each of these 7 would start favourites to be relegated, but some squads are defunitely stronger than others.

Disclaimer 1: There may be plenty of signings to come even before the successful club is decided. This is just my VERY rough guess from the current known rosters (eg I doubt Brierley actually is earmarked as Leigh's full back).
Disclaimer 2: I may have missed some important players out, my knowledge of all these clubs isn't 100%.

Leigh

1 Blake Wallace
2 Matty Russell
3 Iain Thornley
4 Junior Sau
5 Ryan Shaw
6 Jamie Ellis
7 Joe Mellor
8 Adam Walker
9 Liam Hood
10 Nate Peteru
11 Jordan Thompson
12 Ben Hellewell
13 James Bell
subs
14 Alex Gerrard
15 Nathan Mason
16 Matty Gee
17 Mark Ioane

 

Good attempt there pal, think Blake Wallace is seen as FB with Ryan covering HB/FB. Will run 1 hooker imo and move Ellis there to rest hood. Next few announcements will be backs plus Ben Flower, Inu is a heavy rumour.

[Davo5]

Pretty sure some of those teams If successful will look a lot different.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 minute ago, Davo5 said:

Pretty sure some of those teams If successful will look a lot different.

I'm pretty sure they all will, but some might be only 3, 4, 5 players from being potentially competitive, whereas at least a couple would almost need a complete squad overhaul.

[Davo5]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I'm pretty sure they all will, but some might be only 3, 4, 5 players from being potentially competitive, whereas at least a couple would almost need a complete squad overhaul.

Looking at those squads,needing a complete overhaul might be an advantage.

[paulwalker71]

17 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Looking at those squads,needing a complete overhaul might be an advantage.

Hardly surprising given that those squads were built for the Championship

[LeytherRob]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

London
1 Gideon Boafo
2 Kieren Dixon
3 Will Lovell
4 Jacob Ogden
5 Tuoyo Egodo
6 Cory Aston
7 James Meadows
8 Eddie Battye
9 Sam Davis
10 Mitch Allgood
11 Josh Walters
12 Rhys Curran
13 Olsi Krasniqi
subs
14 Jordan Williams
15 Dan Hindmarsh
16 Greg Richards

17 Sadiq Adebeyi

I think one is going to change a lot regardless of the division they are. Looking increasingly likely Battye will stay at Wakefield, Kieran Dixon has been posting highlight packages for the past few weeks which is usually a good indicator they are on the move.

[LeytherRob]

1 hour ago, sweaty craiq said:

Good attempt there pal, think Blake Wallace is seen as FB with Ryan covering HB/FB. Will run 1 hooker imo and move Ellis there to rest hood. Next few announcements will be backs plus Ben Flower, Inu is a heavy rumour.

Would be a mistake running with Ellis instead of Wildie IMO. I love Hood, he's the best running 9 outside SL for me but his passing off the deck isn't as crisp as Wildie, our halves always looked better when Wildie came on in 2020 because the ball was getting out the ruck so much quicker. 

[Oldbear]

The big problem will be the depth below the first 17, injuries will happen, can any of these clubs add enough depth in time, plus any necessary strengthening, when they won’t find out their fate till mid December and will need to be ready for a March kickoff? I’m sure there will be a few past their best Aussies licking their lips at one last payday though!

[DEANO]

You can speculate as much as you want. The decision has already been made and the unlucky club informed 

[The Blues Ox]

Looking at those teams it makes me quietly confident that Fax will compete next season. Looking at the teams Bradford and London are clearly the weakest by some distance. Ive seen nowt yet to change my mind that Fev look best placed to top the league if they stay in the championship and all the teams probably need 9-10 better players to have a chance of not finishing bottom of SL given the chance. Realistically those players are not available and the "lucky" team will finish bottom.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

Toulouse 

[DavidM]

I’d be having Blake Wallace in my starting side , I’m a big fan and I think that’s a real coup for Leigh

[Man of Kent]

Leigh looks OK-ish but would still be heavy favourites for relegation with that squad. Good players but a lack of real class.

The Toulouse pack looks quite tasty. If they could get a decent scrum half they should go OK. 

[Tex Evans Thigh]

Whoever goes up will sign obviously. The interesting analysis of this is how can they use a million quid to boost the squad. How many PT players will convert to FT and will they improve as a result? How much will that cost?

They all need improving but with some wise spending could be competitive.

good work listing all the teams.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

Fev, Leigh, Toulouse best squads which is what was panning out this season. Fev relatively easy upgrade to full time with existing players, so I reckon all three would need 7-10 players depending on the quality they can bring in.

whoever goes up I hope they stay up just to stick two fingers up at the corruption

[frank]

They are all going to struggle without their equal share of Sky money.

[The Phantom Horseman]

13 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Looking at those teams it makes me quietly confident that Fax will compete next season. Looking at the teams Bradford and London are clearly the weakest by some distance.

One of the reasons I started this thread with the current squads is that reading different threads here and elsewhere there is so much lack of knowledge about Championship teams both on and off the field (for instance a lot of the positive off-field things about my team Fev have gone completely under the radar it seems.)

I agree about Fax. Robinson, Worthington and Murray are all definite upgrades over what you had in their positions. Whereas most people who don't follow the Championship won't realise, say, just how weak that London team looks at present (especially the backs).

FWIW I'd see Leigh, Fev and Toulouse as clearly the 3 strongest squads there (on paper) imo. York's pack is looking potentially very good but they don't seem to have quite the same quality in the backs.

[The Blues Ox]

Whats the deal at Fev Phantom? I mean how many of your players are part time? I see a lot of people say how it should be easy to get the part time players to go full time but again people seem to ignore the logistics. For Fax if they were still in theres not a chance that even half of our squad would go full time and gone are the days of players playing in this league just because they are not good enough. As we have seen recently theres plenty that are good enough but because of money decide to play in the championship. For the part time teams still in the running it probably means finding 3/4 of a squad at short notice but not only that finding players that are full time and better than what they already have. Its nearly an impossible ask.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, The Blues Ox said:

Whats the deal at Fev Phantom? I mean how many of your players are part time? I see a lot of people say how it should be easy to get the part time players to go full time but again people seem to ignore the logistics. For Fax if they were still in theres not a chance that even half of our squad would go full time and gone are the days of players playing in this league just because they are not good enough. As we have seen recently theres plenty that are good enough but because of money decide to play in the championship. For the part time teams still in the running it probably means finding 3/4 of a squad at short notice but not only that finding players that are full time and better than what they already have. Its nearly an impossible ask.

I don't think the club have ever released details but as you know sometimes players are described as "full time" when what is meant by that is "don't have another job outside rugby." We have had a few like that for a while though plenty have worked for the Foundation and that has been written into their contracts I think.

I'm only guessing but I suspect we have a handful of players who don't have a job outside rugby - I'd guess Craig Hall, Ferres, Chisholm, and maybe one or two others. There are plenty who have full time jobs too such as John Davies, Josh Hardcastle etc, and recent recruit Kris Welham will be joining the family pest control business.

Prior to the final against Toronto last year it was stated that if we won, one of the options (for our first year, at any rate!) was a hybrid squad, some full time, some part time. I think people make too much of the full-time/part time comparison, Fev and others have played loads of Championship games against full-time teams and you'd struggle to tell the difference - it's the overall class of opposition that tended to tell in the Middle 8s etc.

You are dead right about money rather than ability being the key factor in a lot of players choosing to play in the Championship. Sheffield's fall from grace in recent years can be traced directly back to when they went full time and lost half their team to us and Batley at one stroke (Davies, Briggs, Turner, Taulapapa, Walker, Brambani and Davey).

It's no great secret that some fringe FT players even at SL level are on surprisingly low contracts; if you're getting an offer of 20k to play SL or the same to play Championship and you can keep your job it's a no-brainer if you have a young family.

I know some people would get agitated if Fev (or Leigh, or someone else) were to get into SL and went with a hybrid team in the first year but with the fitness and conditioning of modern players I'd defy anyone to watch a game featuring a hybrid team and guess who the full-time players are.

 

 

[sweaty craiq]

The middle eights showed who the FT and PT teams were from the championship. Fax and Fev hardly won a game, Bradford Leigh TW and London competed 

[Scubby]

5 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

The middle eights showed who the FT and PT teams were from the championship. Fax and Fev hardly won a game, Bradford Leigh TW and London competed 

....and Toulouse?? (Freudian slip I suspect)

[The Blues Ox]

4 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

The middle eights showed who the FT and PT teams were from the championship. Fax and Fev hardly won a game, Bradford Leigh TW and London competed 

Would competing count as been a 30-24 loss away from making the million pound game? I seem to remember us putting 50 on Bradford the year they competed as well.

[The Phantom Horseman]

21 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

The middle eights showed who the FT and PT teams were from the championship. Fax and Fev hardly won a game, Bradford Leigh TW and London competed 

I seem to remember a massive fanfare prior to the 2015 middle 8s as full-time Leigh prepared to conquer all in their path. Can't remember how it ended but for some reason a wooden spoon comes to mind?

Again - how those teams went was down to talent, not whether or not they were full time.

[paulwalker71]

59 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

 I seem to remember us putting 50 on Bradford the year they competed as well.

As I'm sure you know, it was a 'dead rubber' as the Bulls had already qualified for the MPG the following weekend.