Winner Takes All

[East Coast Tiger]

f**k it. Wakey 29 Cas 17
British RL the real winner on the day :roll:
Another year of 12 foreigners and Rooney while a club with real potential up the road has to rebuild again.
The next question: Would Hull KR or Leigh be better in SL than Cas? If not c'mon Haven.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

f**k it. Wakey 29 Cas 17
British RL the real winner on the day :roll:
Another year of 12 foreigners and Rooney while a club with real potential up the road has to rebuild again.
The next question: Would Hull KR or Leigh be better in SL than Cas? If not c'mon Haven.

The same Rooney who Warrington are rumoured to be announcing the signing of after their game tomorrow against Saints.

Wakefield deserved the win, you can't deny them that. But I agree that its farcical that a side filled with so many thoroughly average overseas players, plus the mercurial David Solomona, is still allowed to participate in Super league.

I feel Hull KR would be exactly the same as Leigh were last season, only with about 1,500-2,000 extra on the average gate. For whoever comes up next season the task is to prove that the club is well run and should be selected for the competition once promotion and relegation is done away with in favour of the franchise system. The way the league is currently setup, all of the decent available players will have long since signed on for current Super League sides. The promoted team cannot hand out a single Super League contract before they are actually lifting the trophy as players won't risk signing contracts which may become null and void, preferring instead to take a concrete offer from someone else.

I think Super League's most pressing issue at the moment is trying to solve the overseas player problem. In football over here most top division clubs have maybe 4 or 5 English players in their squads. The Premier League just chooses to ignore the issue and its not too bad in football as the lower leagues are of a good standard. In league however there will soon be only a handful of British players in each squad and obviously the lack of depth and quality in the lower leagues means GB will continue to suffer.

 

[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]

Woo, told you Wakey would win

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

once promotion and relegation is done away with in favour of the franchise system.

This is what I am abolutely in favour of. Is this something that is in the pipeline, or are you just speculating? A promotion/relegation system is just about untenable with a salary cap IMO.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Yeah, bring on the franchises.
There's only 2 or 3 problems with the franchise systems that I can see.
1) Some lower division clubs might give up, believeing they have nothing to aim for.
2) They have to announce who will be given the franchises well in advance and any team that is currently in SL that misses out (ie Wakey or possibly HKR) will just give up and finish last. For example. If Wakey survives next year but the RFL they announces at the end of 2007 that Wakey will not be in SL in 2009 they might as well get rid of all their players and save the big Sky dollars in 2008 for when they go back to NL1, thus leaving a virtual NL1 side or worse in SL for a year.

 

[bartman]

This is what I am abolutely in favour of. Is this something that is in the pipeline, or are you just speculating? A promotion/relegation system is just about untenable with a salary cap IMO.

Season 2009, with the accepted 14 franchises announced offseason 2007-8, with reviews every three years. Speculation that the extra two spots have been reserved for expansion (ie Celtric Crusaders and second French team?)

So it will be musical chairs for some clubs scrambling for the remaining (promotion) spot and next year shapes as really important for Wakefield, Castleford, Widnes, Hull KR, Leigh, Whitehaven...

 

[Evil Homer]

What a joke relegation is.

 

[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]

As a Wakefield fan, i wouldn't have a problem with us merging with Castleford and even Featherstone if that meant a spot in the franchise system...

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

Season 2009, with the accepted 14 franchises announced offseason 2007-8, with reviews every three years. Speculation that the extra two spots have been reserved for expansion (ie Celtric Crusaders and second French team?)

So it will be musical chairs for some clubs scrambling for the remaining (promotion) spot and next year shapes as really important for Wakefield, Castleford, Widnes, Hull KR, Leigh, Whitehaven...

Thats great. I don't know how I missed that announcement. When was that announced by the way?

Finally teams will be able to plan (albeit short-term) for the future without the immediated spectre of relegation ahnging over their head. I'm sure this is going to help the English/British players immensly as teams down the bottom of the league will no longer have to scramble to find an over the hill yet experienced Aussie to help them avoid relegation, therefore allowing the club to perservere with the young British player. Great stuff.

I hope the 14th team is Celtic. Though I wouldn't mind another French team I think it's going to take probably another 3 years before Catalan can realsitically challenge for the play-offs consistently without having to rely on Aussie's/Kiwi's. Hopefully eventually the talent pool will be wide enough to allow 16 teams producing quality footy.

 

[bartman]

Thats great. I don't know how I missed that announcement. When was that announced by the way?

It was a quiet announcement with little extra detail. Made some time ago, last year if I recall? Here's one article for reference: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/4556801.stm

The expansion of places in Superleague will obviously be geared to new territories, so I'd be surprised if Celtic Crusaders weren't given a franchise, regardless of whether it's earnt through the promotion process (but at least they are mucking in and trying).

I'm not sure we'll be ready in a year's time to move forward with a second French team, particularly Toulouse where I fear the popularity of RU will create similar or worse problems to those experienced in establishing Catalans, in terms of reports of sabotage of promotional material and use of shared facilities...

Weasels' suggestion may well be not far off the mark as how they try to resolve the Cas/Wakey issue and have at least one SL team in the area. A merger won't make the majority of hardcore fans to happy though...

 

[bartman]

Item on tonight's Look North news about how Cas are lobbying SL clubs to see if anything can be done to keep them up. You've got to feel for them, and the argument that they've performed well and likely better than anyone coming up in their place would perform is valid.

However at the start of the season everyone knew someone would drop, and they were one win away from not being that team. And with the RFL coming out mid-season saying that three NL1 teams are pre-approved for promotion should they win makes me think it's unlikely the situation will reverse.

Cas best placed trying to make sure they give next season's NL1 their all and be top or thereabouts in the league's mind when they start thinking about the franchises at some point during next season.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

It was a quiet announcement with little extra detail. Made some time ago, last year if I recall? Here's one article for reference: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/4556801.stm

The expansion of places in Superleague will obviously be geared to new territories, so I'd be surprised if Celtic Crusaders weren't given a franchise, regardless of whether it's earnt through the promotion process (but at least they are mucking in and trying).

I'm not sure we'll be ready in a year's time to move forward with a second French team, particularly Toulouse where I fear the popularity of RU will create similar or worse problems to those experienced in establishing Catalans, in terms of reports of sabotage of promotional material and use of shared facilities...

Weasels' suggestion may well be not far off the mark as how they try to resolve the Cas/Wakey issue and have at least one SL team in the area. A merger won't make the majority of hardcore fans to happy though...

Cheers for that. In my opinion I'd like to see the Crusaders and another team from London (I understand that might not be realsitic at this point in time but I have read recently that more and more schools in London are starting to play league and for a city of Londons size surely another team is a must). Hopefully Quins attendance starts to pick up and it becomes a reality. It will be good for the game.

 

[bartman]

I'm pretty sure that whichever 14 we see in 2009 will change in 2012, and maybe again in 2015... there are some clubs in the heartlands and areas of development that could make solid, well supported, possisbly profiable franchises in the future but won't be ready come 2009. Maybe a second London side is coming, but not quite for this time...