New season odds

[The Phantom Horseman]

12 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Do none of you like betting? There is almsot a zero chance that Wakefield don't finish top of the league. They are the biggest favorites in many a year with very little hope of any team getting near to them. I think Bradford are about right, they will have 2nd/3rd highest spending in the league and have a large squad that looks set up to do pretty well this season. They will be a mile of Wakey though. I really see nothing with any real value in the Championship betting odds.

I think this pretty much sums up the Championship. Based on what their owner has said, it looks like Wakefield will have spent almost three times as much as any of their rivals, and will be in the same ballpark as Leigh's reported spend in 2022. I don't see them being anywhere near as good as Leigh were that year, but they almost certainly won't need to be.

The two traditional Championship powerhouses from previous years, Toulouse and Fev, look very unlikely to be anywhere near as good as they have been in previous seasons. Toulouse have lost arguably their key player Josh Ralph "for economic reasons" and so far haven't announced a replacement. Fev have featured three players in pre-season whose last activity was being released by League 1 teams, Fev still have a lot of good Championship players but got rolled by Bradford in the pre-season game and are clearly not going to dominate teams like they have in the last two years, though I wouldn't rule out making an imapct at some stage of the season.

Bradford are almost Wakefield's nearest challengers by default, they have retained most of their squad from last year, added a couple of players and might not need to improve to finish second.

If there is value in the betting market it's probably York who are 11-10 with Betfred and Evens with Skybet to finish in the top 6. They have made some eyecatching signings and having struggled with half back injuries over the last couple of years they have about 5 good options there now. They're in the middle of naming their squad  numbers on social media and have about 5 players numbered 20+ who would start at most Championship teams. Widnes are a shorter price to finish top 6 but I'll be very surprised if they finish above York who are probably the likeliest team to take a step foward this year in my view and could end up top 3 challengers.

[Sports Prophet]

23 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

A hundy Only in Australia.

Funny enough, I was wondering if anyone would pick me up on that  

The correct pronunciation would in fact be “throwahundy” or the commoner would say “chuckahundy”.

Edited January 24 by Sports Prophet

[Mumby Magic]

7 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think this pretty much sums up the Championship. Based on what their owner has said, it looks like Wakefield will have spent almost three times as much as any of their rivals, and will be in the same ballpark as Leigh's reported spend in 2022. I don't see them being anywhere near as good as Leigh were that year, but they almost certainly won't need to be.

The two traditional Championship powerhouses from previous years, Toulouse and Fev, look very unlikely to be anywhere near as good as they have been in previous seasons. Toulouse have lost arguably their key player Josh Ralph "for economic reasons" and so far haven't announced a replacement. Fev have featured three players in pre-season whose last activity was being released by League 1 teams, Fev still have a lot of good Championship players but got rolled by Bradford in the pre-season game and are clearly not going to dominate teams like they have in the last two years, though I wouldn't rule out making an imapct at some stage of the season.

Bradford are almost Wakefield's nearest challengers by default, they have retained most of their squad from last year, added a couple of players and might not need to improve to finish second.

If there is value in the betting market it's probably York who are 11-10 with Betfred and Evens with Skybet to finish in the top 6. They have made some eyecatching signings and having struggled with half back injuries over the last couple of years they have about 5 good options there now. They're in the middle of naming their squad  numbers on social media and have about 5 players numbered 20+ who would start at most Championship teams. Widnes are a shorter price to finish top 6 but I'll be very surprised if they finish above York who are probably the likeliest team to take a step foward this year in my view and could end up top 3 challengers.

Fev beat us preseason.

[The Phantom Horseman]

5 minutes ago, Mumby Magic said:

Fev beat us preseason.

Yes that's correct. I wasn't referring to the final scoreline.

[Roughyed Rats]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Weirdly no, the whole of the NCL but no league one. 

Even the bookies must realise it's nonsensical to have league one 

[Fly-By-TheWire]

15 hours ago, arcticchris said:

Not really sure why Bradford are so high up in the odds. Maybe name value still matters.

Quite generous odds for Catalans who look to me, despite the loss of huge players, to be still significantly better than Leeds and Warrington with iffy recruitment (Leeds) and an unproven coach (Warrington).

I'm not sure Leeds is a recruitment problem.   The squad they had last season was more than capable of Top 4.   This year they've made a couple of big-name additions, and there isn't a huge gulf in quality between squads these days anyway.

I think there is a bigger question surrounding Rohan Smith.   With that squad he's surely got to do better than languishing in the lower half again.

[Gomersall]

2 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Funny enough, I was wondering if anyone would pick me up on that  

The correct pronunciation would in fact be “throwahundy” or the commoner would say “chuckahundy”.

So you’re a posh Aussie! About as rare as a juggling dodo.

[Sports Prophet]

5 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

So you’re a posh Aussie! About as rare as a juggling dodo.

Too bloody right I am  

[Puk]

16 hours ago, Eddie said:

And the Championship…

Team	Grand Final	Regular Season	Top 6 Finish
Wakefield Trinity	1/3	2/7	1/50
Bradford Bulls	12/1	14/1	8/15
Featherstone Rovers	12/1	12/1	4/11
Toulouse Olympique	12/1	10/1	1/3
Halifax Panthers	16/1	18/1	4/7
Sheffield Eagles	16/1	20/1	8/13
Widnes Vikings	20/1	25/1	1/1
York City Knights	20/1	25/1	1/1
Batley Bulldogs	33/1	33/1	13/8
Doncaster RLFC	33/1	40/1	2/1
Dewsbury Rams	50/1	50/1	3/1
Barrow Raiders	100/1	100/1	13/2
Swinton Lions	100/1	100/1	13/2
Whitehaven RLFC	100/1	100/1	13/2

Certainly have York in the top six with the back line we have got this season it's going to cause a lot of problems for other team's.

[Neutralfan7]

Whitehaven top 6 @ 13/2. Made some interesting signings and if we click we could shock a few

[graveyard johnny]

Liam Watts not to get sent off this season  and serve less than 4 match bans - double odds 14/5

[Tex Evans Thigh]

8 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Yes that's correct. I wasn't referring to the final scoreline.

That Fev squad will only slightly resemble the squad that ends up playing in the league. Fev's first 17 is the second strongest in the league and could challenge Wakey on its day but the big problem for Fev is depth as a few injuries and you're into the aforementioned released League 1 squad players. A lot will depend on injuries and the dual reg agreement with HKR. I could see Fev anywhere from 2nd to 6th.

[Josef K]

I have put £10 on Wigan to do the double CC & GF with Betfred 8/1.
£5 on Jai Field 14/1 & Bevan French 12/1 for top try scorer. 

[FearTheVee]

Those Saints odds are good value given we finished level on points last year with more than a little disruption from the WCC and injuries (I know every team has them).

We seem to be going a bit under the radar which I think will serve us well.

[Harry Stottle]

On 23/01/2024 at 20:51, Eddie said:

And the NCL Div 3, great to see all four NCL divisions on there, fairly sure that’s a first. Regular Season 

Distington	5/2
Featherstone Lions	5/2
Leigh East	4/1
Drighlington	10/1
East Leeds	10/1
Hensingham	12/1
Beverley	14/1
Bentley	16/1
Milford	16/1
Eastmoor Dragons	20/1
Seaton Rangers	25/1

That's quite a bit of travelling for Leigh East, not one local fixture for them.

[Eddie]

35 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

That's quite a bit of travelling for Leigh East, not one local fixture for them.

Different standard but the Anglian Vipers have the same issue, closest game 2 hours away. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

20 hours ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

That Fev squad will only slightly resemble the squad that ends up playing in the league. Fev's first 17 is the second strongest in the league and could challenge Wakey on its day but the big problem for Fev is depth as a few injuries and you're into the aforementioned released League 1 squad players. A lot will depend on injuries and the dual reg agreement with HKR. I could see Fev anywhere from 2nd to 6th.

I think you're right in what you say there and indeed James Ford has said as much himself in terms of the squad that starts the season not being the one that ends it, I've made the point several times on the Fev forum that our preparations for this year very much resemble 2019 although the clearout this time has been even bigger. There's no doubt that money is very tight at the club at the moment especially with no home games until 29th March but it might be that once income starts coming in again some mid-season additions will arrive.

As you suggest Fev's finishing position is hard to predict, the upside as you say is probably to be Wakefield's nearest challengers if absolutely everything fell right but for the first time in a few years there's definitely a chance of missing out on the top 6 altogether if things go awry.

[graveyard johnny]

any odds on the 1st SL coach to be asking where the local taxi rank is?

[ELBOWSEYE]

2 hours ago, graveyard johnny said:

any odds on the 1st SL coach to be asking where the local taxi rank is?

Touting for business?

[Agbrigg]

If you can lay championship bets in the same way  as an horse race the obvious bet is a double , Wakey to win and your chosen team (Bradford ,or whoever) to come second