National Leagues 2006

[bowes]

I meant Hemel in the north as NL3 being the north region and the RLC Premier being south and midlands, as there'd be no RLC Premier North (this is being sacrificed to bail out NL3).

Hemel are pretty adamant they won't play in a regionalised league, but hopefully they'll get into NL2 in 2008 and they can just settle down to regionalised leagues. They said they're playing in the senior academy for NL clubs before they go near a NL3 South.

Their main worry is they don't want to play in a league that's just a RU off season competition, which is understandable, as this nearly sent them to the wall before. This is also the main concern of Bramley, Dewsbury Celtic and Warrington Wizards, albeit replace RU with BARLA. However, the way NL3 is going it will be impossible to get a full season without a quadruple round robin, so they may as well get a 14/16 game regionalised season (16 if they do cross-division fixtures).

Also it's looking like Featherstone Lions may pull out, so only 5 of the current teams may be able to play next season in NL3.

 

[terracesider]

Very interesting Bowes. I don't see any satisfactory way out. As long as the National Conference remains the amateur flagship, any summer league is inevitably it's going to be regarded by many as an off-season competition,whether for BARLA or RU.

I think NL3 can either become the third tier of a full professional NL structure, with a P&R ladder between all levels or it can be the apex of the summer amateur game. It cannot easily be both.

 

[terracesider]

Final Round

NL1 Round 18
HKR 30v22 Doncaster
Leigh 60 v16York
Rochdale 47v20 Batley
Whitehaven 66v4 Oldham
Widnes 76v34 Halifax

NL2: Round 22
Blackpool 4v60 Barrow
Celtic 14v11 Featherstone
Dewsbury 30v16 Workington
Gateshead 24v32 Swinton
Hunslet 16v48 Sheffield
Keighley 32v44 London S.

NL3: Round 18
Underbank 44v14 Dudley Hill
St Albans 32v18 Warrington
Gateshead 14v28 Bramley
Featherstone10 v 52 Hemel.

 

[terracesider]

One bit of good news. Fax are safe for now.

Can somebody explain how, with a salary cap in place, you can end up owing £90,000 in unpaid wages.

Halifax Today.

Shay stadium seems to be taking longer to build than Wembley. :lol:

 

[bartman]

For their sake I hope they aren't also looking at a cap breach penalty to pay next year as well as having had to meet the overspend now...

Tables with one round to go:

National League One
1 Hull K R 17 15 0 2 675 316 30
2 Widnes 17 13 0 4 653 415 26
3 Leigh 17 12 0 5 489 318 24
4 Whitehaven 17 11 1 5 450 404 23
5 Batley 17 8 0 9 373 420 16
6 Rochdale 17 7 0 10 415 415 14
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 Halifax 17 7 0 10 427 432 14
8 Doncaster 17 6 1 10 436 503 13
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 York 17 5 0 12 460 493 10
10 Oldham 17 0 0 17 216 878 0

National League Two
1 Dewsbury 21 18 0 3 663 338 36
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 Sheffield 21 17 0 4 760 374 34
3 Featherstone 21 14 1 6 585 490 29
4 Celtic Crusaders 21 13 1 7 716 376 27
5 Swinton 21 12 1 8 609 451 25
6 Barrow 21 11 0 10 539 477 22
7 Gateshead 21 11 0 10 523 508 22
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 Workington 21 10 0 11 542 615 20
9 Hunslet 21 4 2 15 395 569 10
10 Keighley 21 4 1 16 387 692 9
11 London Skolars 21 4 1 16 362 744 9
12 Blackpool 21 4 1 16 346 793 9

National League Three
1 Bramley 16 14 0 2 626 230 28
2 Hemel 16 12 0 4 624 324 24
3 Warrington Wizards 15 11 0 4 602 306 22
4 Dewsbury Celtic 16 8 2 6 485 479 18
5 St Albans 15 8 1 6 430 256 17
6 Bradford Dudley Hill 15 8 0 7 396 354 16
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 Gateshead 14 3 0 11 266 522 6
8 Huddersfield Underbank 14 2 0 12 178 516 4
9 Featherstone Lions 15 1 1 13 204 706 3

 

[bowes]

According to www.rl-news.com NL3 is having the plug pulled, but I can't access the story beyond the headline without subscribing.

 

[terracesider]

Thanks Bowes. I've read the thread at RLFans.

Can't say I'm surprised, given this season's debacle.

Neither am I surprised that LHF are not renewing their sponsorship. Now they've got their initial publicity, I imagine they want something more positive than a competition the RFL too often seems indefferent to.

 

[bartman]

So it's a new sponsor needed across the board for National Leagues. Will be interesting...

 

[terracesider]

Final Tables from Sporting Life.

 

[bartman]

Some real floggings in NL1 today.

So next week's play-offs should look something like this:

NL1:
(Hull KR and Widnes get the week off)
Leigh v Batley
Whitehaven v Rochdale

NL2:
(Sheffield and Celtic Crusaders get the week off)
Dewsbury promoted! (York and Oldham relegated)
Featherstone v Gateshead
Swinton v Barrow

NL3:
(Bramley and Hemel get the week off)
Warrington Wizards v Bradford Dudley Hill
St Albans v Dewsbury Celtic

 

[terracesider]

Widnes seem to have hit form at just the right time. Might be time to invest a few quid.

 

[bowes]

I've heard that it's not confirmed yet with NL3 and may not be the case.

Hopefully if it happens they'll brand it as NL3 regional and not RLC Premier solely for teh fact that it would allow teams to enter the NRC and get sufficient fixtures to not be just a fill in.

 

[terracesider]

Some real floggings in NL1 today.

So next week's play-offs should look something like this:

NL1:
(Hull KR and Widnes get the week off)
Leigh v Batley
Whitehaven v Rochdale

NL2:
(Sheffield and Celtic Crusaders get the week off)
Dewsbury promoted! (York and Oldham relegated)
Featherstone v Gateshead
Swinton v Barrow

NL3:
(Bramley and Hemel get the week off)
Warrington Wizards v Bradford Dudley Hill
St Albans v Dewsbury Celtic

SL has confirmed all that and has the full set of dates.

 

[terracesider]

NL1:
Leigh 22 v 23 Batley :lol:
Whitehaven 38 v 10 Rochdale

NL2:
Featherstone 46 v 18 Gateshead
Swinton 26 v 20 Barow

NL3:
St Albans 36 v 16 Dewsbury

The RFL site's NL3 fixtures has Bramley v Hemel on 24 Sept. No sign of Warington and DH anywhere.

 

[bowes]

BDH couldn't be bothered to enter the playoffs so the Wizards got a bye/walkover.

The Wizards have St Albans at home this weekend.

 

[bartman]

Wow, Leigh eliminated. Cas' survival odds just got a little better: 50% v 50% left in NL1 (although it will be 66% eligible v 33% Haven/Batley in a week's time).

Fancy having a forfeited play-off, that's when you know it's time to wind up a division...

 

[bowes]

Not necessarily, it depends on if there's teams to replace them, but they need chucking out even if they weren't quitting. The whole RLC would be wound up with that attitude the number of scratched playoffs there.

They said they weren't entering the playoffs earlier as they have joined the NCL and the seasons overlap. I think NL3 will be wound up but that's not justification in itself.

 

[bartman]

Yeah, maybe so. But if teams are neglecting to finish one season in order to start up another, then it's a sign there's one to many comeptitions. Or just some bad planning in not having them syncronised?

What are some of the reasons conference teams don't front for their play-offs? I hope these are being addressed through perhaps some additional spot support...

 

[terracesider]

Not so much one too many competitions bartman, as one too many seasons. It as always going to create some problems.

 

[bowes]

Yeah, maybe so. But if teams are neglecting to finish one season in order to start up another, then it's a sign there's one to many comeptitions. Or just some bad planning in not having them syncronised?

What are some of the reasons conference teams don't front for their play-offs? I hope these are being addressed through perhaps some additional spot support...

You're not supposed to play in both it's supposed to be an either/or, but BDH were changing from one to the other. NL3 doesn't give a proper season length unless teams enter the NRC which leads to problems as it's too long to be off-season, but not long enough to be the season for players.

The RLC is an off-season comp, but at the playoff stage some players are at RU pre-season or on summer holidays plus the travelling's more (less regionalised) and injuries have built up. Before this season players had to have played 2 regular season games which added to the problem.