Fri 17th-Sun 19th Feb: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[dkw]

10 hours ago, Ragingbull said:

Sadly its not confidence, its showing no class even in victory. The rep of a lot of your fans sadly runs through you entire club. 

From a Bradford fan no less, Workington got much worse from your mob when we had the audacity to not lie down and fet battered by your super duper team with its amazing coach a few years ago, so you can climb down from that moral high ground.

[Davo5]

20 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Those comments seem more in hope than expectation.

Just wait until the inevitable injuries start at Toulouse as they surely will and they are reliant on the equivalent of NCL player's will you then come back with injuries robbed us of victory.

Also I see you have lost your self appointed  No1 fan status at Newcastle and York this year in having them fast tracked into SL but don't despair they will both be playing Toulouse next season.

Plenty of NCL players could & have made the transition to Championship rugby.

[Harry Stottle]

4 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Plenty of NCL players could & have made the transition to Championship rugby.

Agreed Dav, but individually to be brought on in the team not a number of them in one team at the same time which could well happen at Toulouse, lots of good seasoned professionals at some of the better Championship club's who could well exploit that if it should happen.

[binosh]

56 minutes ago, dkw said:

From a Bradford fan no less, Workington got much worse from your mob when we had the audacity to not lie down and fet battered by your super duper team with its amazing coach a few years ago, so you can climb down from that moral high ground.

But in fairness Workington are used to conceding 70 points a week and being put in the bin.

[POR]

It makes me laugh at fans of other clubs banging on what FEV post on THEIR  social media they don't put it on you tube for the whole wide world to see or on the opposition social media but on THEIR own which is there to inform fans and amuse the younger ones but I want to thank Ragingbull and his cohorts for taking the time to go on the site keep up the good work boys because the more clicks we get the better it will look in the eyes of the Men in Black at IMG 

[The Phantom Horseman]

15 hours ago, Ragingbull said:

Fev #### bag social media at it again.  An absolute classless disgrace. Way way way 2 far.  

looks like some local chav running the accout

I didn't see the post but by the sound of it it was out of order and rightly deleted.

Judging by your righteous indignation, you must have been posting incessantly about the relentless passive-aggressive in-game tweets from the Bradford Twitter account in recent years. Right?

[The Phantom Horseman]

13 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Im currently at the thinking that Fev probably deserve to go up this year and a lot of fans will say the same but this air of cockiness about them is certainly making it difficult to continue to think that and can see that swaying to a thought of wouldn't it be funny if they lost in the playoffs again.

It's a Twitter account run by a youngish lad. He needs reining in a bit, but it's not like Sean Long has come out and said we're going to wipe the floor with our rivals is it?

Most Fev fans are quite enjoying the start to the season and there's a bit of a feelgood factor about under the new coaching team. It might not last and we all remember Batley doing us not once but twice at our place last year. And most of the big predictions about Fev have come from fans of other clubs (unlike you I'm not assuming we've even made the play-offs yet!).

 

[georgeb1]

7 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Can we not have fev turn into this years Leigh where every thread gets hijacked by them? Big wins for Swinton and Sheffield. 

We just need SL to go to a 13-14 team league so we can have a competitive league from top to bottom 

superleague are not going to help the rest of the championship getting to the standards being set at fev and toulouse

[The Phantom Horseman]

33 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Can we not have fev turn into this years Leigh where every thread gets hijacked by them? Big wins for Swinton and Sheffield. 

 

Agree wholeheartedly, but worth pointing out that both this week and in previous weeks the discussion turning to Fev has been prompted by fans of other teams.

So as for the season so far...in terms of expectations I'd say the teams that are going better than forecast/expected are Sheffield and Swinton...the teams perhaps going worse than expected are Barrow and Batley...most of the remainder roughly within the range anticipated (other than perhaps Toulouse where some thought they might really struggle). Still early days though.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Out of interest, does anyone know why every single one of Toulouse's away games is being played on a Saturday? There may be a good reason for this, of course, but it does seem a bit strange given nearly all their opponents normally play their home games on Sundays, and this didn't happen when they were previously in the Championship.

The reason I ask is that I thought the Fev-Toulouse game on June 10th would be an obvious one to be chosen by ViaPlay and switched to Monday night, but if all Toulouse away games are earmarked for Saturdays then that's presumably not going to happen.

 

[roversspud]

30 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Out of interest, does anyone know why every single one of Toulouse's away games is being played on a Saturday? There may be a good reason for this, of course, but it does seem a bit strange given nearly all their opponents normally play their home games on Sundays, and this didn't happen when they were previously in the Championship.

The reason I ask is that I thought the Fev-Toulouse game on June 10th would be an obvious one to be chosen by ViaPlay and switched to Monday night, but if all Toulouse away games are earmarked for Saturdays then that's presumably not going to happen.

 

What a very good question!!!

[kiggy]

43 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Out of interest, does anyone know why every single one of Toulouse's away games is being played on a Saturday? There may be a good reason for this, of course, but it does seem a bit strange given nearly all their opponents normally play their home games on Sundays, and this didn't happen when they were previously in the Championship.

The reason I ask is that I thought the Fev-Toulouse game on June 10th would be an obvious one to be chosen by ViaPlay and switched to Monday night, but if all Toulouse away games are earmarked for Saturdays then that's presumably not going to happen.

 

 

Sorry-edited this post as I read it as away games to Toulouse not the other way around

I doubt the RL have given a lot of thought to travel commitments etc. I.e Saturday games are easier to get to. So I would assume it's because the XV's, Stade Toulousain,  play mostly on the Sundays and they get first dibs on deciding which days they play.

The ViaPlay coverage is a good point, but you would struggle to get 500 at that match on a Monday evening.

Edited February 20, 2023 by kiggy
Conf

[The Phantom Horseman]

2 minutes ago, kiggy said:

I doubt the RL have given a lot of thought to travel commitments etc. I.e Saturday games are easier to get to. So I would assume it's because the XV's, Stade Toulousain,  play mostly on the Sundays and they get first dibs on deciding which days they play.

 

I'm talking about Toulouse's away games - the ones being played in England. If Barrow, Batley, Bradford & co are being told they can't play a home game on a Sunday because of a French rugby union team's schedule then we really would have a problem...

2 minutes ago, kiggy said:

 

The ViaPlay coverage is a good point, but you would struggle to get 500 at that match on a Monday evening.

At Fev? If the two teams are neck and neck at that point there will be a lot more than 500 in attendance!

[POR]

At the MO looks like FEV got sumat going with that recast thingy co whithaven game shown again from tuesday out of interest for our overseas friends shown from midnight uk time on sunday so if you don't know score then live game

[Daft old hooker]

2 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I'm talking about Toulouse's away games - the ones being played in England. If Barrow, Batley, Bradford & co are being told they can't play a home game on a Sunday because of a French rugby union team's schedule then we really would have a problem...

At Fev? If the two teams are neck and neck at that point there will be a lot more than 500 in attendance!

Exactly if you put a 3 in front of the 500 you would be much nearer the probable attendance. I get it’s probably not fair to Toulouse for them to come on a Monday evening but not sure about a Sunday afternoon which they have done before unless there has been a change in the availability of flights.

[Michael Bates]

50 minutes ago, Daft old hooker said:

Exactly if you put a 3 in front of the 500 you would be much nearer the probable attendance. I get it’s probably not fair to Toulouse for them to come on a Monday evening but not sure about a Sunday afternoon which they have done before unless there has been a change in the availability of flights.

Why isn't it fair for Toulouse? Full time aren't they? What difference does it make to them when they play?

[ivans82]

I know its early days but the Championship has turned into the scottish premier league i.e. 2 Teams miles better and the rest nowhere .Reading through Clubs forums they are nearly all stating lack of investment , poor recruiting ,lack of size in the pack ,poor game plans etc. The League does look a lot weaker than previous years .Is it not time to increase the Super League by 2 Teams otherwise it looks like we will continue with the same Teams going up and down for ever .

[kiggy]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I'm talking about Toulouse's away games - the ones being played in England. If Barrow, Batley, Bradford & co are being told they can't play a home game on a Sunday because of a French rugby union team's schedule then we really would have a problem...

At Fev? If the two teams are neck and neck at that point there will be a lot more than 500 in attendance!

Yes, I know, and I edited my post immediately to say that I thought it was the away to Toulouse that was mentioned and not the other way around. 

[Michael Bates]

5 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Yep it´s actually damaging the league and we are still getting deeply unpopular loop fixtures in SL and clubs that might have the chance to grow or at least regrow (Toulouse, Leigh, Fev, Widnes) are just switching places. Leigh got 8k in SL, they will probably double their crowds in SL and that is the boost of SL. If it means a reduction in central funding to the weakest SL who can´t generate rev that should be tough luck I´m afraid. 

The problem is, as I understand it, the SL clubs control how the SL money is spent. The clubs that's sole purpose is to exist between 8th and 11th in SL would never vote for an increase in teams.

[Michael Bates]

3 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Well if those clubs are told, and I think one or two might be, that if SL is staying at 12 you certainly won´t be one of those teams then their tune may change. Plus the weakest clubs off the field like Wakefield and KR traditionally are both putting the infrastructure in place to close that gap. Wakey shiny new stand and KR are pretty much a year or two away from being able to go to the cap each year.

Hope so. Hopefully whatever new system is in place rewards forward thinking clubs.

[Griff]

22 minutes ago, ivans82 said:

I know its early days but the Championship has turned into the scottish premier league i.e. 2 Teams miles better and the rest nowhere .Reading through Clubs forums they are nearly all stating lack of investment , poor recruiting ,lack of size in the pack ,poor game plans etc. The League does look a lot weaker than previous years .Is it not time to increase the Super League by 2 Teams otherwise it looks like we will continue with the same Teams going up and down for ever .

Is your plan to promote Fev and Toulouse to a 14 team league? What happens at the end of the season? A strong team comes down and is replaced by a weak team?

We're actually going in the right direction. An under comp with a couple of clubs who could at least make a decent fist of staying up. Maybe in a few years there'll be four or five such Championship clubs.

But your plan's great if you want to return to no p+r.

[The Blues Ox]

8 minutes ago, Michael Bates said:

Hope so. Hopefully whatever new system is in place rewards forward thinking clubs.

I like Wakey as a club but lets not pretend they are forward thinking. They have been peeing the sky money up against a wall year on year without making any progress and you could have put maybe 5 or 6 of the current Championship teams that already have decent grounds in SL and I imagine they would have faired as well if not better than Wakey. Its great they are doing something but lets not pretend it hasn't needed doing for nearly 20 years.

[Michael Bates]

2 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

I like Wakey as a club but lets not pretend they are forward thinking. They have been peeing the sky money up against a wall year on year without making any progress and you could have put maybe 5 or 6 of the current Championship teams that already have decent grounds in SL and I imagine they would have faired as well if not better than Wakey. Its great they are doing something but lets not pretend it hasn't needed doing for nearly 20 years.

My not so subtle inference was Wakefield but I didn't want to open myself up for abuse! But yes, 100% what you've said. They're finally doing something they should have done 20+ years ago when they got promoted.

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

Yes but for me legitimate criticism of Wakey ended once that stand started going up. Yes it took too long, yes they should´ve been booted before but they are doing it now. In many ways it feels like a year too late but Leigh don´t look like running away from them and even if they do go down, they will be in a strong position to come back up. 

Wakey vs Fev next year for promotion would be interesting to say the least. 

Mine didn't simply because I remember many years ago when my team was pouring money in to our home and the bottemless pit that was Thrum Hall and under pressure of the threat of losing our seat at the top table eventually moved down to the Shay which ultimatley nearly saw us nearly go belly up while years later other teams that made promises were still collecting their pay checks off Sky without doing anything with their grounds. I don't blame those teams for doing what they could to save spending money on their grounds and maybe I half wish we did the same but I refuse for one second to be jumping up and down with joy that over 20 years later they finally got around to it. We saw many championship teams held back in that time who maybe should have been given a shot in SL and who is to say they wouldn't have offered more value than some of the current teams. Again I do not dislike Wakefield, I like them as a club, its a similar area to Halifax and what I see as a proper Rl town.

[Gav Wilson]

5 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Out of interest, does anyone know why every single one of Toulouse's away games is being played on a Saturday? There may be a good reason for this, of course, but it does seem a bit strange given nearly all their opponents normally play their home games on Sundays, and this didn't happen when they were previously in the Championship.

The reason I ask is that I thought the Fev-Toulouse game on June 10th would be an obvious one to be chosen by ViaPlay and switched to Monday night, but if all Toulouse away games are earmarked for Saturdays then that's presumably not going to happen.

 

Presumably down to flight schedules mate. You say this wasn't the case previously but York have only ever played Toulouse on a Saturday - Home and away.