So after a slight topic drift.........

Seriously though Ive just noticed that all SL games kick off on Friday night at the same time, the first time this has happened all season so obviously planned like that just in case there is any last minute drama in the placings yet in the Championship with 3rd-8th up for grabs and the last relegation spot between 4 teams and 3 of them only seperated by a few points we have games kicking off across the weekend.

I don't get why our league is not planned so the last day the games are all played at the same time and it makes a bit of a mockery of it all when there are only 4 teams out of 14 in our league with nothing to play for.

It's a mockery already though isn't it? Besides the ridiculous summer bash fixture, just swap the result from our home league game against Bradford where they used 4/5 loan or DR player's and look what those two points does to the league table. An absolute shambles!

Having different kick times is just part off how it has been for some time now for a number of reasons.
TV coverages, clashes with other events and even temperatures in the South of France have been mentioned.

3 pm on a Sunday afternoon is still the usual time for us but the days when everyone turning up at that time are long gone.

As long as I know our kick off time I don’t care either way what the rest are doing but it does give me the option of watching / listening to other games that are either live on TV or the York v Batley game on Monday that I wouldn’t have had years ago.

Agreed, except the last games of the season should be played simultaneously so as to protect what little integrity the game has left surely?

What you say is all valid but not enough to justify flexible kick times on the last fixture weekend.To add to the farce you have play off rivals playing each other with players already committed to their rivals next season eg Douglas.Whatever the counter-arguments the signing window should be Oct-Feb and not before..

Just stating some of the reasons for it not supporting the reasons for it. I don’t care either way, for me there’s more important things than the RFL making that decision and kick off times. https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... gr%5Etweet

Just stating some of the reasons for it not supporting the reasons for it. I don’t care either way, for me there’s more important things than the RFL making that decision and kick off times. https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... gr%5Etweet

A few years ago this forum was fun to be part of. Now nearly every thread is taken over by a few people who just slag each other off at every opportunity. Very little is discussed about Fax.

Yes agreed and I and others for the good of the forum I believe are going to desist.

Moving on and can’t promise everyone will agree on everything but what would you like to discuss about Fax?

It isn’t about agreeing with each other about Fax or the RFL that’s what forums are for, discussion and appreciating others different options. it’s the personal slagging off of each other and people that gets too much.

Yes point taken and agreed and as soon as Ilkley mentioned it I was the first one who suggested how and the first to have taken the time to answer and tell you that as far as I am aware and concerned the slagging off should stop.

As an Edits: To be clear my answer was in the context of only being able to speak for myself on the issues you raised I could not promise everyone would agree on the proposed solution, I believe GFB is okay but can’t speak for LU and TF has hit the ignore button to my posts.

The other points you have raised about “opinions” ( I assume you meant opinions not options) and what constitutes a discussion is a much broader subject, would it be an idea to start another thread then we can discuss it there, it may help in defining the boundaries?

Is that okay or is there anything else you would like me to do in connection with the issues you have raised?

Well, London's licking of Sheffield AT Sheffield shows what a crazy Championship season it's been. Love to watch old Sourpuss's post match interview. What on earth can he moan about after that, surely not the ref?

No great love for Featherstone, although it does seem slightly ridiculous that a team that completely dominates a league doesn't get promoted. League 1 top team automatic promotion and then a play off for second spot seems reasonable but I suppose you can't expect sense from the RFL. That said from a purely selfish point of view couldn't be more pleased with the 2 finalists - neither bring anything at all to the league with zero away support, so with Wakefield coming down the championship becomes a bit more viable next year. Will be very interesting to see how Campbell reacts at Fev - I think it may be carnage.

Well done London. Couldn’t be happier that Fev chocked again. They thought they had it sown up all season. As stated above beauty club in the final bring anything to the game with away fans. I’m sure the RFL and IMG are love if the prospect of another French them or London back in SL so they donet have to make an excuse up giving them a licence for 2025.

Yep, well done London. Have to say I despise the RL equivalent of Millwall fans (fev "fans"icon_wink.gif so very pleased with the result. Let's also hope Toulouse get out of our league so we no longer have the absurd carry on of part time players having to trek abroad.

Fev not making the final does show the sport up a bit, they've been runaway leaders, but get little reward.

There's an argument that you could recruit a small, mid table squad, then if you look like you are heading for the playoffs, strengthen in the right areas and hit form at the right time and still make a real go at it

Why does just show up our sport, Football league has had playoffs for years now, same thing can happen. Its not that the rules are changed mid-season, we all know that reaching the play offs is the main task and then its knock out football. Leeds won the SL from 5th or 6th a few years back, you could see how they built momentum through the year. If teams knew it was "finish top of the league" then you might found they set up differently, or maybe too many would spend too much money trying to achieve that!

Whilst Fev won the league by a significant margin, there were plenty of signs that they were not always that convincing. Teams who compete with their pack and then move them around have a fair chance, we proved that against them twice, and looks like London did same to them yesterday.

Well, after being thoroughly disillusioned with the game these past couple of weeks this weekends results have really perked me up. Rugby League isn't the be all and end all in life but it can certainly be a big part of life for some folk. Well done Toulouse and London.

Agree, gizempo. Fev know how it works and they tried to do a Leigh with a massive strong squad but obviously not strong enough otherwise they would have beaten London. Sacking Sean Long despite being "runaway leaders" also seemed quite bizarre.

I notice a few Fev fans on TotalRL are saying they won't renew their season tickets. Fev appear to have already put their season tickets on sale before they knew which league they'd be in (arrogant or what?), and the match day admission increased to £25. Looks like they've dug themselves a deep hole!

Regarding season tickets. Fax did the same. At least Fev gave prices for both eventualities.

The funny thing about the Fev failure to me was a lot of their fans when they sacked Sean Long suddenly making out that Ford was the new messiah after a couple of decent wins against poor opposition when the reality was that it is so hard to change something mid season especially when their players were looking at the league table and probably thinking they were pretty comfortable. Its not really the same as a relegation threatened team bringing in a new coach and hoping to get that lift. I think the way they got rid of Long means a bit of karma for them.

Does make me wonder what could have been for us though as we were certainly one of the teams that had the style of play that suited beating them. As it is i'm really non plussed as to who goes up, if its London then its a one season only thing as they won't make the grade and even if its Toulouse then its still likely to be Wakefield just beating them. The reality for Fev though is that they have been confined to this division for the forseeable future just like the rest of us and you have to wonder what sort of financial strain this attempt has put them under.

Irrespective of one's feelings for fev (and their obnoxious fans), it wouldn't look right for the ideology of "Super League" to have yet another "village team" to add to Leigh and Castleford, not to mention the potential trouble if they got thrashed at PO Road by the likes of Cas and Hull.

I'm guessing they gambled all or nothing re promotion, so expect a huge cull from Fev in the coming weeks. Hey, how about getting Springer back?

I think you could be right regarding Fev offloading players and no doubt Campbell's court case could have an impact on that as well but realistically who would you want to see from Fev at Fax? This isn't a case of none of their team been good enough as they would all get in our current side, its more that a lot of their team are knocking on a bit now and to be fair they will be on good money at Fev and could be priced out of the Championship market.

Yep agree with that and maybe that was their problem. Leigh put together a team that could dominate our league but it was also a team where the majority of them were capable and had the ambition of going into SL, so more desire to achieve that. Whereas when looking at the Fev team it's hard to think of many that would now cut it in SL. So what's the motivation for them, potentially some will now remain on decent championship pay.

Everyone knows and have stated numerous times that unless you have a backer / benefactor with deep pockets then getting into and staying in SL is virtually impossible.

Interesting to see how each club responds after they are given their respective gradings next week and it becomes a battle for the criteria instead of a battle for the play offs and if it changes who if any clubs have a better / worse chance.

I suspect with reduced funding and attendances it will be meaner and leaner for most.

What Mark Campbell at Fev decides to do after he has had time to get over and reflect on the inevitable disappointment of missing out could be a big indicator, by the way his court case isn't until the 3rd of Feb 2025!!

Congratulations to London, they played the system spot on and finished the season strongly. It'll be interesting if they now manage to establish themselves in SL. Going forward under the name "London" will, however, always be a problem as nobody in the Big Smoke really relates to the city in name, I would have thought taking on a regional name (Fulham was probably the biggest success in the city) would be a better idea.

It'll also be interesting to see if Toulouse decide to carry on in the Championship now the IMG will effectively pull up the drawbridge to SL. Hopefully not, as all they bring is high travelling costs in a league where clubs exist on very tight budgets. And would any Fax fan be happy if we participated in a French league with no local rivals? I certainly wouldn't. I'm surprised Toulouse fans are happy with this carry on as well, it's bonkers