Leigh

[Harry Stottle]

2 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Survival by austerity. 

Good phrase, but isn't that always the case for a promoted club? 

[Scubby]

Just now, Harry Stottle said:

Good phrase, but isn't that always the case for a promoted club? 

A club like Leigh may well have spent that extra money on 2-3 star players to give them a fighting chance. Clubs like Wakefield and Salford are not only pocketing the handout but aren't even spending anywhere near the cap. They are surviving on bare bones and want a competitive advantage over any promoted club. 

[Harry Stottle]

4 minutes ago, Scubby said:

A club like Leigh may well have spent that extra money on 2-3 star players to give them a fighting chance. Clubs like Wakefield and Salford are not only pocketing the handout but aren't even spending anywhere near the cap. They are surviving on bare bones and want a competitive advantage over any promoted club. 

Can't blame any club for living within their means, trouble is more than one club is defaulting on spending to the limit, effectively making their seasons priority of finishing higher than the other club, but the promoted club then comes into the equation having to wait until the penultimate weekend of the season before they can speculate on their SL squad, by that time?

[paulwalker71]

9 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Can't blame any club for living within their means, trouble is more than one club is defaulting on spending to the limit, effectively making their seasons priority of finishing higher than the other club, but the promoted club then comes into the equation having to wait until the penultimate weekend of the season before they can speculate on their SL squad, by that time?

That's the problem with promotion and relegation Harry, but we've been round the houses on that one more than a few times!

I was hoping Leigh would finish above 12th and relegate one of the self-appointed 'top table', but it doesn't look promising

[redjonn]

Problem for Leigh (besides the other comments) is that without a win the other lower clubs play without the pressure or jitters. Last time Bronco's got a couple of wins that meant the other lower clubs played with those jitters affecting their play.

To say the obvious they need a win to get those clubs worrying...

[Eddie]

46 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

That's the problem with promotion and relegation Harry, but we've been round the houses on that one more than a few times!

I was hoping Leigh would finish above 12th and relegate one of the self-appointed 'top table', but it doesn't look promising

Agreed, I was hoping that Wakey specifically would go down, nowt against their fans but as a club they offer very little to the competition, less than any of the others and less than various Championship clubs would. 

[JohnM]

Any "promoted" club should in my opinion be protected from relegation fof three seasons. In my view, it's about more than spending to the cap. Teams have to get used to playing against faster, fitter and unarguably better teams and that does not happen overnight.

[RoyBoy295]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

Leigh fans - were you pleased that the Centurians were chosen for the 12th SL spot, and if so with hindsight would you have preferred that they hadn’t been? I was hoping you’d stay up but it’s not looking good. 

No Eddie, we wasnt ready on the pitch for it. Stadium wise and all the background stuff yes we was, but playerwise no.

All the fanfare of the brochure, the confidence of Eddie Hemmings speech of "Leigh, are super league ready" got the fans in an upbeat mood about it, only for it to come horribly crashing at their feet. 

Should have stayed in the championship and earned promotion.

[Eddie]

43 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Any "promoted" club should in my opinion be protected from relegation fof three seasons. In my view, it's about more than spending to the cap. Teams have to get used to playing against faster, fitter and unarguably better teams and that does not happen overnight.

You could have a situation where a team finishing 9th goes down though, which doesn’t seem reasonable to me. 

[yipyee]

25 minutes ago, Eddie said:

You could have a situation where a team finishing 9th goes down though, which doesn’t seem reasonable to me. 

Not really, only if the teams finish bottom

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, JohnM said:

Any "promoted" club should in my opinion be protected from relegation fof three seasons. In my view, it's about more than spending to the cap. Teams have to get used to playing against faster, fitter and unarguably better teams and that does not happen overnight.

Would you only then have promotion and relegation once every 3 years, otherwise you are swoping 3 championship teams for 3 SL teams by the time the first promoted club is then available to be relegated.

[GUBRATS]

We took the bait like all the others were willing to do , no matter who picked up the challice  it would have been the same result 

Odds on to go back down but with the hope that Covid would either cripple one of the strugglers or decimate the Championship season 

We might win a game or two when it's already too late , but it's unlikely , as I've put on the other threads , squad is already down to the bare bones and looking like an end of season casualty ward 

But you're damned if you do and damned if you don't , just got to suck it up and get to the end 

In response to Harry's wish to beat Leeds , it was CAS for me 

[Spidey]

It seem like a poisoned chalice, but they had to take it really, so did the other clubs who applied. It may have been the last chance for a go at SL for all of those clubs 

[Tommygilf]

Said it at the time but I thought it was a ridiculously unfair scenario handled terribly.

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

It wasn't that time Jimmy Saville attended a game was it? 

I recall the " J S , he might be your dad " chant

Only funny once mind , I definitely don't want it repeating , I've had plenty of heated discussions with some of our fans for continuing to use the scumbags name 

[sweaty craiq]

The one unknown was recruitment, we needed 6/7 quality players and couldnt find them. We made 2 stupid decisions to play 'Friendlies' v Saints and Wire, and our already limited squad was depleted further. Season low points are Salford away and Yesterday second half, other than that its been far better than watching us paste a PT championship club in an empty ground.

 

[gittinsfan]

You can't just blame SL and lack of funding though.Derek was determined to take that 12th spot no matter what the cost.Did'nt he offer at one time to move up without any funding.

His biggest mistake,and I mentioned it at the time,was keeping Duffy as coach.

I thought if they were in serious trouble he would splash the cash and buy his way to safety.He still may and I sincerely hope he does.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, gittinsfan said:

You can't just blame SL and lack of funding though.Derek was determined to take that 12th spot no matter what the cost.Did'nt he offer at one time to move up without any funding.

His biggest mistake,and I mentioned it at the time,was keeping Duffy as coach.

I thought if they were in serious trouble he would splash the cash and buy his way to safety.He still may and I sincerely hope he does.

Replace John with who ? 

Buy who ? 

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, yipyee said:

Not really, only if the teams finish bottom

Well yes, three protected teams finish in 10th, 11th and 12th, so 9th goes down. Not an unlikely scenario actually. 

[Harry Stottle]

7 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Replace John with who ? 

Buy who ? 

Someone who may get them playing as a team.

When we got the nod on the 14th December, there were a lot of players of contract better than McCarthy and Tierney of which Gelling was one, but you are correct we have waited to long.

[gittinsfan]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

Replace John with who ? 

Buy who ? 

 

3 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Replace John with who ? 

Buy who ? 

How the hell should I know,Ask Derek,you seem to think hes the best thing since sliced bread.I would have thought he'd learnt his lesson after Cunningham and Jukes.

[Harry Stottle]

2 minutes ago, gittinsfan said:

 

How the hell should I know,Ask Derek,you seem to think hes the best thing since sliced bread.I would have thought he'd learnt his lesson after Cunningham and Jukes.

Totally correct.

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Someone who may get them playing as a team.

When we got the nod on the 14th December, there were a lot of players of contract of which Gelling was one, but you are correct we have waited to long.

While I do agree to a degree , look at our HB combinations so far Harry ? , Let alone the rest of the squad 

[GUBRATS]

4 minutes ago, gittinsfan said:

 

How the hell should I know,Ask Derek,you seem to think hes the best thing since sliced bread.I would have thought he'd learnt his lesson after Cunningham and Jukes.

I didn't realise we have the cream of the NRL waiting for Derecks call 

[The Phantom Horseman]

2 hours ago, JohnM said:

Any "promoted" club should in my opinion be protected from relegation fof three seasons. In my view, it's about more than spending to the cap. Teams have to get used to playing against faster, fitter and unarguably better teams and that does not happen overnight.

I don't agree with 3 years, but there's a case for one year. Most SL teams started approaching their prospective signings for 2022 from May 1st, but not only can promotion-seeking Championship clubs not do that because they don't know if they're getting the big-money SL funding yet, they also are prone to losing their more talented younger players, the type they'd want to build their SL team around - for instance Fev have already lost James Harrison for next year and will probably lose Frankie Halton and maybe one or two others too.

Although London put up a very brave fight in 2019 they were still relegated, Toronto hadn't won a game when their season ended and would almost certainly have been relegated, and Leigh look strong favourites to go down this year. It's such a tough task for the promoted team to have to start finding a SL-competitive squad when they don't know if they're in there until October.