Why in the round ball World Cup do they have a game for third place? It's pointless in my opinion!

It's nowt more than the gutted not good enoughs v the gutted not good enoughs!

We didn't have Kiwis v Us after the semis in the real World Cup!

Spelly.

Last Thursday, the Fan Ambassadors met with the Club Chairman, Stu Murphy, regarding recent events of the club.

Since Tim Holmes announcing he was vacating the General Manager post a number of questions from the Fan Base, have been raised on various social platforms.

SM gave a glowing tribute to Tim's tenure, the Club did not want him to leave, but he said that the Board & Tim's views on the role of the General Manager did not align, and hence why there is a current Vacancy for the role. The Club view the role as a day to day management role which includes clerical and governance, rather than an emphasis of Social Media, and other differences that are confidential between the Board and TH. The Board did offer an alternative “customised” role to TH.

The FA voiced their disappointment at Tim leaving, and voiced their opinion that the 'Feel Good' Matchday experience of season 2026, is in danger of 'falling off a cliff' without Tim's drive. SM assured us that this, hopefully, will not happen. It was brought to SM that the Club missed a massive opportunity to engage with Fans for the recent Doncaster game, as it followed the England WC game that kicked off at 5pm, before our 7.30pm kick-off. When I arrived at 7pm, the Bridge Suite was virtually empty, and the football was on the Big Screens. The rest of the night was a damp squib, poor attendance, no tannoy, no DJ, no scoreboard or game clock. Not to mention the result. SM mentioned that the lack of scoreboard/clock was because it was switched off due to the scaffolding, though it was on against Oldham as the scaffold was still low enough for it to be seen. The ongoing issues with the PA system have been addressed with the external contractor and the Council have been pushing this. All testing was doing on the day of the game and it was off again in the evening.

It was raised to SM what was the direction of the Club re; SL ambitions or are we just happy to be a steady Championship Club? Where are we with the 6 year plan (IMG or Promotion) or have we given up on the idea of SL?

The 6 year plan has now changed considerably and effectively needs re-writing from scratch, as the RFL/IMG keep tweaking the pillars, the latest tweak was announced in January but only 2 days ago the club were notified of potential changes again. Certain existing SL Clubs made moves immediately to adjust their IMG rating, which now doesn't guarantee London Broncos elevation to the top table. So our hands are tied, until we see the way the Championship/London 2027 pans out before we can put a realistic plan in place. But yes the aim is to attain SL status eventually.

The future of the 1895 Cup and the possible return of Summer Bash was raised. It was asked if the Championship Clubs got their heads together and approached the RFL, would they give us our own Mini Magic weekend. SM said their is the potential for it to happen as the RFL & RL Commercial are possibly going to allocate a Championship Commercial Official (at a cost to all clubs) which will give the Clubs better representation at HQ. So the possibility of the 1895 & MM being a 'thing' going forward.

With the announcement of a new TV deal imminent, it was asked what filters down to the Championship. SM said 9% of all monies come down to us, to clarify, that 9% is shared out between the 20 Clubs. It is not necessarily equally shared, that is for the Clubs to get around the table and thrash out.

Reserved seating; This has been a bug bear in the South Stand for a while, with Away Fans sitting in Home Fans reserved seats, and the lack of action from the Stewards. Fans select their seats when they buy their Season Tickets for a reason, they don't need a row on trying to take their seat. SM said there is a new security company in place under the council and thing have improved and hopefully will continue to improve going forward. A couple of times recently the Away teams coaching/stats staff have plonked themselves in my seat. SM said the Away Team are allocated the 4 rows behind the Away dugout ONLY! Not on the back row of the Gold Section. For some games they may also use the gantry or behind the sticks.

HBC are responsible for the painting/upkeep of their stadium so we don't know how long the scaffold will be up on the West Stand (so no scoreboard, it will be turned on for the Barrow and Salford games hopefully still visible in parts).

FA heard that the North Stand is next so when does this impact us? SM confirmed that no works schedule is set for any stand apart from the West as it is. HBC will provide a schedule to WV asap as it has been requested and therefore we can try to minimise disruption with fixture scheduling or seating areas.

Don't shoot the messenger. 

Paulie xx

https://i.ibb.co/rfQB6nFY/Round-Nineteen.gif

Only seven of the weekend's games were played after the Keighley v Dewsbury game was cancelled at the 11th hour.

Bonus points will be added when the final two games are played. Biggest riser this week was 7Vikingnomad.

Looks like a full round of games this weekend....

Anybody else heard this or know who the mystery person is?

If they aren't able to put them on an hour after the game has ended then they should at least keep us informed

Spelly.

Onwards now to Crusaders👍👍

https://i.ibb.co/RTN63NDK/Round-Eighteen.gif

The table includes Round Eighteen and one game from Round Sixteen.

There were four minor clean sweeps this week - Halfback Ragnarsson (their 3rd in 4 weeks!), Farnworth Viking, 7Vikingnomad and the ever loyal Spelly.

The biggest risers were Farnworth Viking and 7Vikingnomad.

I'll hold off putting the fixtures for Round Nineteen (???) until after this weekend's games are completed. 

And now the RFL have allocated those games to specific random rounds, I'll have to adjust where I allocate the points. What a mess!

1. York - now in SL

2. Toulouse - now in SL

3. Bradford - now in SL

4. Oldham - Cut back on budget with Geyer joining Huddersfield, Dixon going to Salford and Dean/Ormonroyd now at Bradford. Currently in 3rd place with a game in hand so will go 2nd.

5. Halifax - liquidated, re-formed with the loss of about 8 players and a points deduction.

6. Featherstone - in admin with a £3m debt, denied entry and hoping to re-join in 2027.

Then just missing out on the play offs, Widnes in 7th place.

Current Widnes league position is 6th place. Thats with the above plus 10 League 1 teams joining the division. We have been overtaken by London, Newcastle, Barrow and Doncaster in addition to Oldham still being ahead of us.

London have had massive investment and Newcastle have the link up with York but I would say Barrow and Doncaster are of a similar standard to 2025.

My conclusion given the top sides are now in SL (we missed the boat on that one) is that we have gone backwards. We should be in the top 4. Thoughts?