Keep your eyes on the playoff game and Toulouse
There's a danger here that the Yorkshire cartel that conveniently has 11 clubs puts pressure on for 2 conferences of 11, stitching everybody else up in the process. This needs to be fought with logic at at all costs. Cumbria and the Expansion sides need to be split across the 2 conferences. Something like the below would be much better than Yorkshire and everyone else.
"WEST"
Haven
Worky
Widnes
Oldham
Swinton
Rochdale
N Wales
Cornwall
Halifax
Bradford
Keighley
"EAST"
Wakey
Fev
Barrow
Sheff
Donny
Hurricanes
Toulouse
Hunslet
Dewsbury
Batley
York
That would be much more competitive, more even geographically if we have to merge which is still an idea I'm not keen on!
If we went to a Conference system such as that, then we would only have 10 home games. That is not enough.
I can see them going to an NFP style league where we end up with 26/28 matches, playing everyone else in the league and some (possibly North-Western) teams twice. There is no gain for Championship Clubs to lose home matches- especially then if they have extra trips to say Cornwall.
I would have that for one season as an emergency measure, then have two leagues of 11 based off the 2024 table, but start the season with a reintroduced Northern Rail Cup to ensure the 13 home matches.
Whilst they are at it have a finals day again!
Could always have two conferences and then end the season with something like the old top and middle eights. Throw in one for the bottom teams as well though it might have to be sevens instead of eights. That would give every club at least three more matches.
Whatever they do it isn't expanding the game! Travelling support is very poor these, WV are one of the best! But expanding local support and involvement has got to be the first priority and that is reflected in the IMG criteria.
There's a danger here that the Yorkshire cartel that conveniently has 11 clubs puts pressure on for 2 conferences of 11, stitching everybody else up in the process. This needs to be fought with logic at at all costs. Cumbria and the Expansion sides need to be split across the 2 conferences. Something like the below would be much better than Yorkshire and everyone else.
"WEST"
Haven
Worky
Widnes
Oldham
Swinton
Rochdale
N Wales
Cornwall
Halifax
Bradford
Keighley
"EAST"
Wakey
Fev
Barrow
Sheff
Donny
Hurricanes
Toulouse
Hunslet
Dewsbury
Batley
York
That would be much more competitive, more even geographically if we have to merge which is still an idea I'm not keen on!
Yorkshire v everybody else would be by far our best chance of ever reaching play-offs!!
ah james...you have the axe...somebody accused me of having it...un less you have passed it on now to someone else...or your just a fan cheesed off
ah james...you have the axe...somebody accused me of having it...un less you have passed it on now to someone else...or your just a fan cheesed off
SalWid we would all like an Arab to buy the club and spend loads, but unfortunately there isn't loads of money. You can always join the board and put your money in for big signings. 😂👍
if only you knew how much money I could spend...oh things would change ....:)
Featherstone have said when they were having a go at IMG that they are discussing a merger of the Leagues today.
Can see a few cheesed off people whatever happens.
A lot of Championship teams don't want to merge - in typical rugby league fashion, I could see them being kept separate based on Newcastle's inclusion, and then someone pulling out on the eve of the season again...
Other thing that occurred to me after yesterday's IMG stuff is on attendances.
If we were in a conference then we would be at a disadvantage for attendances against the likes of Featherstone and York who are next to us as we would not have the more attractive set of fixtures that the Yorkshire clubs would have.
Good point! If promotion is to be decided on IMG criteria, rather than performance on the field, that should be the way in which the 'conference' league decisions should be made.
Travelling support etc has to be included or is the idea to improve your team's advantage by not supporting at away games?
If we had a decent season, we would average 3000+ which is a criteria point.
However, to do so we need games against the likes of Wakefield, Bradford, Featherstone which will not only see some reasonable away support, but be more tempting to the floating supporter than say one of the Cumbrian sides (no disrespect intended!).
It's a point though, if we are averaging 2900 with one game to go what is stopping us opening the gates and getting 5000 with freebies and bumping up the average?
We don't seem to use local schools by giving away free tickets to a chosen age level, not every week but maybe for games against teams with poor away support.
Parents would be dragged in with the kids of course. We did something similar iirc with schools singing or something! They were sited in the West stand I think.
These are all tricks to bend the IMG points!!!