GARRY SCHOFIELD despairs as the winners and losers of club grading are revealed.
SO Castleford, Leigh and Wakefield are the big winners in the game of A, B and C.
Huddersfield, Hull FC and Salford all have work to do.
And Toulouse, London Broncos, York and Bradford, in that order, are closest to reaching the promised land of Super League via IMG Lane.
They are the most obvious takes from the big reveal of club gradings which confirmed what we were all predicting as the top-flight line-up for 2025.
And, irony of ironies, it’s the same as it was back in 2023.
That further fuels the argument that those clubs already in and around Super League have the best chance of maintaining their place.
The dream of the likes of Oldham, one of the most interesting stories of the last couple of years, making it back there, something they might well have achieved through points won on the pitch rather than a spreadsheet, is pretty much impossible.
I’m all for clubs improving themselves, and I desperately want to see the game flourish.
But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… sport is all about winning and losing.
Look at the buzz around Wakefield this season.
It’s not down to the new stand, welcome though that is, or the excellent work being done in the community, important though that is, and has been since my own days as a player.
It’s because Trinity have delivered the thing fans really want to see – victories, and with them, entertainment.
You can have the flashiest big screen going, but if it’s generally showing the other team scoring, supporters will switch off.
It’s a very simple scenario – the most important thing is what happens on that pitch.
That’s what attracts fans and has them coming back. Making it only 25 percent of a formula only a few people can work out takes away from the whole purpose of playing sport.
Look at the seasons Castleford, Huddersfield, Hull and Salford have just had.
Salford again punched above their weight to make the play-offs, while the other three managed only 20 wins between them.
Yet the admirable Red Devils, who over the last six years have three times made the play-offs and been to both Old Trafford and Wembley, are below them in the IMG rankings and at the biggest risk of dropping out of the division?
And as I cast my eye over the 36-club list, I noticed the lowest of those given a ranking (Batley and Whitehaven apparently didn’t submit all the data while Goole are new on the scene) were North Wales Crusaders.
Of all the relatively recent so-called ‘expansion’ teams, they look to have been the most consistently successful.
Please make it make sense!
GIVE us an ‘L’…
Just as you have to feel for London Broncos over the pickle they’ve been left in by IMG – although they have risen up the gradings chart I note – you also have to spare a thought for Craig Lingard, given the chop at Castleford.
Like Leigh and Wakefield, Cas have looked at the IMG system, and regardless of whether they like and agree with it or not, acted to beef up their score.
That came at the expense of spending on the team, with Craig operating on a tight budget.
That’s been a speciality of his over the years, but doing it in Super League is the toughest ask of the lot, and clearly the quality of the squad he worked with had an inevitable impact on results.
That said, Cas collected seven wins and a draw, and while they took a few hammerings, also produced some spirited performances to see off Salford, St Helens and Catalans.
When I gave my own gradings for the performance of the twelve Super League clubs over the regular season, Cas got six out of ten, and I said I hoped Craig would be around for a while yet.
Unfortunately that won’t be the case, but I think he deserves a lot of credit for the way he went about the job and the honesty he has always shown.
I got to know Craig when we were both at Keighley, and I have a lot of time for him.
He’s a real thinker, and astute tactically. He accepted the situation at Cas, cracked on with the job and in my view, deserved another year and the chance to work to a higher budget.
But Martin Jepson is now the man wielding the influence down Wheldon Road, and as the new owner, can act as he sees fit.
Danny McGuire will step up from assistant, and regular readers of this column will know he is someone I also admire and would like to see in charge of Leeds one day.
Danny did a good job when he took the helm at Hull KR after the departure of Tony Smith and before the arrival of Willie Peters, and has certainly served his coaching apprenticeship.
With a decent squad and the way he likes to play the game, that ‘classy’ tag Cas have always liked to have should be applicable.
As for Craig, limited though opportunities are these days, with the kind of CV he has, he surely won’t be out of coaching for long.
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