Sat 23rd-Sun 24th Jul: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[doc]

Just now, JonM said:

Can't see it - aren't Batley on an 8-match winning streak now? Last time we won there was 2010 I think.

John Kear against his former assistant. I suppose Widnes are on a bit of a roll, having won 4 on the trot, but all against clubs below us in the table.

I know, but can't go against my team!

[Neutralfan7]

23 hours ago, John Drake said:

Discuss this weekend's Betfred Championship games here.

SATURDAY 23rd JULY
Newcastle Thunder v Dewsbury Rams KO 15:00

SUNDAY 24th JULY
Barrow Raiders v Bradford Bulls KO 15:00
Batley Bulldogs v Widnes Vikings KO 15;00
Featherstone Rovers v York City Knights KO 15:00
London Broncos v Halifax Panthers KO 15:00
Sheffield Eagles v Workington Town KO 15:00
Whitehaven v Leigh Centurions KO 15:00
 

Thunder

Barrow

Batley

Fev

Fax

Sheffield

Leigh

[Ragingbull]

5 hours ago, Gav Wilson said:

Free hit for York at Fev. Still a fair few key players out, but hopefully we can start to play ourselves back into a bit of form.

Id imagine Fev will get 50

[Ragingbull]

5 hours ago, Gav Wilson said:

Free hit for York at Fev. Still a fair few key players out, but hopefully we can start to play ourselves back into a bit of form.

Id imagine Fev will get 50

[Ragingbull]

5 hours ago, Gav Wilson said:

 

Sorry for the duplicate post! I dont know how to delete it!

Edited July 21, 2022 by Ragingbull

[The Phantom Horseman]

15 hours ago, Gav Wilson said:

Free hit for York at Fev. Still a fair few key players out, but hopefully we can start to play ourselves back into a bit of form.

Must admit as a Fev fan I was hoping the same ie that we can start to play ourselves back into form in this game. Although we have scored plenty of points lately, we haven't been at all convincing and Whitehaven could have scored six or seven tries against us last week, which is a bit scary with the thought of Leigh coming up next weekend.

[Fevrover]

18 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Must admit as a Fev fan I was hoping the same ie that we can start to play ourselves back into form in this game. Although we have scored plenty of points lately, we haven't been at all convincing and Whitehaven could have scored six or seven tries against us last week, which is a bit scary with the thought of Leigh coming up next weekend.

York won't be easy.

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Must admit as a Fev fan I was hoping the same ie that we can start to play ourselves back into form in this game. Although we have scored plenty of points lately, we haven't been at all convincing and Whitehaven could have scored six or seven tries against us last week, which is a bit scary with the thought of Leigh coming up next weekend.

Then this week will be an opportunity to try different defensive combinations and patterns, but with one eye on the scoreboard ensuring there is no loss to safeguard 2nd spot, whatever happens at the Bash I can't see Leigh losing any other of their remaining fixtures before the GF which I believe is nailed on to be at the LSV, albeit I am still of the same frame of mind that I expressed very early in the season and indeed when Toronto (twice) and Toulose hosted the final at their place, in my opinion the league leaders get just award for finishing top, so the final should be at a neutral venue, it is the same format as the SL play off comp with the exception that SL is at a neutral ground as it should be for games of this magnitude, and I would say the Championship final is worth far more to the competing teams than the SL final especially in monetary terms.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Harry Stottle

[Dave W]

3 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

...the final should be at a neutral venue, it is the same format as the SL play off comp with the exception that SL is at a neutral ground as it should be for games of this magnitude, and I would say the Championship final is worth far more to the competing teams than the SL final especially in monetary terms.

Couldn't agree more with this. Championship Grand Final day was always a good day out at the Halliwell Jones.

I can't help but suspect that its abandonment was more about the RFL saving money on organising a final at a neutral ground than anything else.

[GUBRATS]

11 minutes ago, Dave W said:

Couldn't agree more with this. Championship Grand Final day was always a good day out at the Halliwell Jones.

I can't help but suspect that its abandonment was more about the RFL saving money on organising a final at a neutral ground than anything else.

It was partly because of the middle 8s wanting to give advantage to the team finishing 4th , then the assumption that teams from outside the UK making the finals , as they did 

IMO it should be at a neutral venue , partly because not every club has a suitable venue , and I include Fev in that , yes PO rd is partly modernised ( Fev deserve praise for what they've done ) but it is still ' messy ' to segregate and not really big enough 

[Harry Stottle]

40 minutes ago, Dave W said:

Couldn't agree more with this. Championship Grand Final day was always a good day out at the Halliwell Jones.

I can't help but suspect that its abandonment was more about the RFL saving money on organising a final at a neutral ground than anything else.

No it wasn't a cost saving excersize David, it came the season after the Catalan v Wire Wembley final which lost money due to the poor attendance, the following season the two expected clubs to contest the Championship final was Toronto and Toulouse, the 'Neutral' venue was dropped and deemed to be played at the home of the highest finishing club to safeguard another poor attended final involving 'overseas' clubs, with Toronto and Toulouse this season out of the way it could have been reverted back to the Championship final at a neutral venue which incidentally the last one was Leigh v Fev in '14 at Headingley with a 9,500 crowd.

[David Shepherd]

13 hours ago, Ragingbull said:

Id imagine Fev will get 50

Doubt it. We're dreadful.

[David Shepherd]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Then this week will be an opportunity to try different defensive combinations and patterns, but with one eye on the scoreboard ensuring there is no loss to safeguard 2nd spot, whatever happens at the Bash I can't see Leigh losing any other of their remaining fixtures before the GF which I believe is nailed on to be at the LSV, albeit I am still of the same frame of mind that I expressed very early in the season and indeed when Toronto (twice) and Toulose hosted the final at their place, in my opinion the league leaders get just award for finishing top, so the final should be at a neutral venue, it is the same format as the SL play off comp with the exception that SL is at a neutral ground as it should be for games of this magnitude, and I would say the Championship final is worth far more to the competing teams than the SL final especially in monetary terms.

Agreed Harry. But we are where we are, I'm happy to travel to LSV to see us have a go. I've heard these new fangled "trains" are quite a nice day out and a pleasant way to travel. 

I'd hope that either at POR or LSV it would be a total sell out.  Better to have it at somewhere like Headingley, St Helens or Warrington that can accommodate more than either of our two stadiums.

[David Shepherd]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

It was partly because of the middle 8s wanting to give advantage to the team finishing 4th , then the assumption that teams from outside the UK making the finals , as they did 

IMO it should be at a neutral venue , partly because not every club has a suitable venue , and I include Fev in that , yes PO rd is partly modernised ( Fev deserve praise for what they've done ) but it is still ' messy ' to segregate and not really big enough 

Agreed, segregation is an issue at Fev. OK for a league game but would be totally incapable if half the crowd were away fans.

[Scubby]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

It was partly because of the middle 8s wanting to give advantage to the team finishing 4th , then the assumption that teams from outside the UK making the finals , as they did 

IMO it should be at a neutral venue , partly because not every club has a suitable venue , and I include Fev in that , yes PO rd is partly modernised ( Fev deserve praise for what they've done ) but it is still ' messy ' to segregate and not really big enough 

I agree about the neutral venue in a sense, but we've also seen crowd trouble at neutral Championship finals in the past like Cas v Widnes at Headingley. 

If Leigh finish top, they earn the right to play the final at home. It would also be a record crowd for Leigh since the move I would imagine. I think the crowd will be easier to manage at LSV too. 

[LeytherRob]

6 minutes ago, Scubby said:

I agree about the neutral venue in a sense, but we've also seen crowd trouble at neutral Championship finals in the past like Cas v Widnes at Headingley. 

If Leigh finish top, they earn the right to play the final at home. It would also be a record crowd for Leigh since the move I would imagine. I think the crowd will be easier to manage at LSV too. 

The record is 10,556 for the Batley game in the 2016 middle 8's after promotion had been confirmed and DB made it free entry to celebrate, i don't there's any danger of breaking that record. The highest paying crowd is 9,012 against St Helens in 2017. Realistically i think anything above 6.5/7k would be a very good result and a very good atmosphere with the acoustics at LSV being as good as they are.

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, LeytherRob said:

The record is 10,556 for the Batley game in the 2016 middle 8's after promotion had been confirmed and DB made it free entry to celebrate, i don't there's any danger of breaking that record. The highest paying crowd is 9,012 against St Helens in 2017. Realistically i think anything above 6.5/7k would be a very good result and a very good atmosphere with the acoustics at LSV being as good as they are.

I think you would have at least 2000-2500 Featherstone fans there so if Leigh could not muster 7-8k locals for their home Grand Final then it would be poor show IMO. I would expect minimum 10k and that's not a windup. Some neutrals may also want to go.

[Scubby]

2 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Don´t know whether you would have that many fev fans if it feels like a foregone conclusion maybe 1-1.5 more realistic. So crowd between 8-9k would be very good. 

Fev have been underdogs all my life. Being outsiders in a one-off game is not going to stop a huge following coming from West Yorkshire for this game. Anything can happen in a final.

[Fevrover]

4 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Fev have been underdogs all my life. Being outsiders in a one-off game is not going to stop a huge following coming from West Yorkshire for this game. Anything can happen in a final.

And as!

[GUBRATS]

4 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

No it wasn't a cost saving excersize David, it came the season after the Catalan v Wire Wembley final which lost money due to the poor attendance, the following season the two expected clubs to contest the Championship final was Toronto and Toulouse, the 'Neutral' venue was dropped and deemed to be played at the home of the highest finishing club to safeguard another poor attended final involving 'overseas' clubs, with Toronto and Toulouse this season out of the way it could have been reverted back to the Championship final at a neutral venue which incidentally the last one was Leigh v Fev in '14 at Headingley with a 9,500 crowd.

Where has the time gone Harry ? , I remember standing on the terrace of the east stand at Headingley with our then MP Andy Burnham watching us beat Fev  

[GUBRATS]

4 hours ago, David Shepherd said:

Agreed, segregation is an issue at Fev. OK for a league game but would be totally incapable if half the crowd were away fans.

As I said David , your club deserves great praise for what they've done and continue to do , but it isn't really suitable for a final 

[Scubby]

9 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

As I said David , your club deserves great praise for what they've done and continue to do , but it isn't really suitable for a final 

The Buddies Cup final at Fev in 2002 was a huge success

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/2009594.stm

[The Blues Ox]

Fax sending a depleted squad to London due to injuries and suspension. Scott Grix registered out of retirement and great to see Brad Knowles named in the squad after his horrific injury against Batley in the first game of the season which included a disclocated hip and tearing his hamstring off the bone. That is some recovery but looks like its going to be a tough ask for us in the capital.

[Harry Stottle]

21 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Fax sending a depleted squad to London due to injuries and suspension. Scott Grix registered out of retirement and great to see Brad Knowles named in the squad after his horrific injury against Batley in the first game of the season which included a disclocated hip and tearing his hamstring off the bone. That is some recovery but looks like its going to be a tough ask for us in the capital.

Really! You can't afford to lose this game, not if you want some meaning in the fixture against Fev at the end of the season.

[The Blues Ox]

24 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Really! You can't afford to lose this game, not if you want some meaning in the fixture against Fev at the end of the season.

Can probably only afford to lose the Fev game if we want 3rd. Hopefully our form counts for something been 13/14 might carry the lads through.