Top post Freddie.

I can only assume the poster of this topic is perhaps not as old as some of us others, Whilst I do feel some frustration we are not what we could be, nor what we once were, I would like to defend the club 100%
I can now watch a team with exciting players playing an exciting brand of rugby, on the whole. I can also keep up to date with news on FB, I can watch highlights, sometimes even the full game, I can still read the Worrier if all else fails, I can. Listen on audioboom, I can turn up to fans evenings, I can still get involved with the trust if I have the inclination, I can talk crud with the rest of you on here, we have a meaningful comp that we have no divine right to be winning because of what we once were, we have excellent local sides to engage with, and a community that has a history of producing players and support with a fair wind.
I've seen some dark days, false dawns, hope smashed. These are good times, people have access to fax like never before.
We have a great coaching prospect, and a skipper in Muzza who gives the cause everything he has and leads by example. We have a more professional back room than I can remember in a long time, work continues in the community.
For me as a fan I see realists involved at the club, people who care, people who won't gamble with the existence of the club.
I said last year don't write this group of players off, on their day they could turn a SL side over, and crikey, if we get these last two games right, we could have the Rhinos down the Shay, how good would that be, my dream is not to see us in SL, it's to see the Shay full of people watching Fax and enjoying it.
As always, with a fair wind and plenty of effort and optimism, who knows. Sure it's probably going to take a SL club or two to falter for the trap door to be engaged, that's not impossible, I'd be sad to see us having daft money thrown at just getting into SL, a lot of bridges needing rebuilding over the last 10 years or so, Fax's card was well and truly marked by many people who'd had their fingers burnt.
The club is going forward at a pace I support, until we sign or find those rough diamonds who become world stars, or one of us wins the Lottery, we're doing absolutely the right things, take Sheffield, Bradford, Featherstone, I wouldn't swap with any of them, nor would I want to go through our final SL season again. I would say to people, don't accept free tickets, pay in, buy stuff from the club shop, bring a mate, speak well of the club, cheer the lads, enjoy it and if we have done all that, as I said, until we find those starlets, or can snap up the fieldens, burgess's, widdop as kids and keep em, that's as much as we can do, Questioning ambitions of people in the club isn't valid at this point, they're realistic, I applaud them.
As for Tony Abbott, he has a had a pretty busy year, not quite four weddings and a funeral, but I don't think he's had stacks of time and cash that could have been free'd up for Fax. He gave us something though, and if he is more prominent again in the future, time will tell.
Two big home games, it's all to play for, if we can have a good run in, then who knows what year 3 will bring for Richard Marshall and Fax. I'm glad we have what we have. I've seen a dam sight worse

One thing is for sure.
Without our BOD, coaching staff and the rest of the people behind the scenes who keep giving their all tirelessly for the club we would be going nowhere fast except backwards.

Whilst I'm at it, what burns me most was the abuse us championship fans took for questioning licensing. We weren't opposed to expansion, didn't want Rugby League to be semi pro and stuck in the heartlands.

As I remember, we said it could be a club killer of clubs weren't ready, (where are Celtic Crusaders again), would be done shoddily with an agenda and would weaken the championship making normal promotion impossible if it was ever reintroduced.

Apparently being right made us "flatcappers".

And that is all that is wrong with the game. There is no plan, there is no family, there is no strategy. The sport is where it is because it doesn't know it's from its elbow. We must be the only sport in the world that has promotion and relegation but has laws in place that prevent promotion from happening. A sport that hops around from shooting itself in the foot all the time! What a great product we keep managing to mess up!

And Nigel Wood gives himself another 5 unaccountable years on a salary greater than the prime minister. You couldn't make it up.

Frankly I'm grateful to all who have had a hand in Fax recently, they've all been saints battling against all the adversity and indifference

I think the Board should communicate more with the fans I agree it is an area the club have never been good at to be honest but they are doing their best to be fair and we do not have a sugar daddy like Leigh, London and until this year Sheffield.
Lets see where we finish and then I am sure the Board can tell us where the club is going when they know what funding they will get.
We have made improvements with things like the programme, having a screen, Fax Pro TV and a Reserve team its just that nagging thing that the club seem a bit remote from the fans and for me do not try hard enough to get into those that don't support Fax like around town and in pubs with fixture lists and flyers like FCHT do the club rely on the dedicated few.

I think there are a lot of very good comments on here. From a lot of passionate fans (and perhaps around longer than me) with memories of bad times as well.

I don't really want to look back, although I accept it impacts the future as we start from a position based upon our history. What I want to see is the BOD tell The fans what it is they are going to do over the next few years and why.. These guys run the club, and based upon past experiences look like they are doing a good job. We all have our views in what is the right/wrong way ahead but they need to explain what is going on. I am fed up with the focus being purely on the next match, or next player, or next meal offer.

So my key questions are really
What do they mean by better foundations? How much of this has been done and what's next? How long will each stage take?
Are we going to continue the way we are (Part time) and hope things improve or is there a clear plan timeframe to move to a full time club? (I don't know the "right" answer for this as I don't have enough information, but I agree if Sheffield are where we will be then it's a daft step)
What is the financial position of the club now and is there a forecast of the way ahead?
Why do we have so many uninvolved shareholders?

In a sense I am asking the type of questions my boss tells me about the company I work for and can show me.

And I don't just want to know for next year, tell us the plan for a few more years.

For goodness sake if they know it share it, if they don't know it then perhaps they are not as solid as we think.

I Had a convo with a fax mate about this. I think the decision whether to go FT or not, depends on how many of your current squad are willing to go FT. What's happened to Sheffield will put anyone off. But Leigh went FT and got it bang on. Main reason is, most of Leigh's championship winning side went FT. Most of Sheffield's didn't and they ended up recruiting from C1. I hope you do go FT and keep the main of your squad. Some good things happening at Fax. One of the best RL stadiums, foundations being laid, and a solid fan base.

On the structure i always HATED licensing as i loved relegation/promotion scraps. How the championship survived those years is beyond me. I don't think the current structure will last long. With Wakefield's embarrassing season last year and Leigh finishing top3 years in a row and still not getting promoted, it is exposing it's flaws. I've said now we've finally sorted our HB issue out, if we sneak into the top 4 i think we will be the top championship club which says everything about the system as we don't deserve to be anywhere near promotion on our performances this season.

1 up 1 down, top 5 play-off in SL (you know the system that worked). But hey, the RFL are innovative so let's fix things when they aren't broken.

I agree,good post.Only thing i will say in defence of the current system is that if Leigh do get promoted they will be much better prepared for super league than a part time club who finishes top after a one off good season.

I totally agree. By the time a club knows it would be promoted as "Champions" go up, only average Full Time players available to be signed for following season.

So my suggestion:

Team top halfway through season is promoted. Plenty of time to recruit.
Crowds for rest of season dwindle with no interest, result:Championship dies. In fact I am surprised Fat Controller hasn`t implemented this scenario already

Not so well but, if you're planning to be a full time club at some time in the future, you'll need to have a year of transition and probably not do so good. It's either that or stay part time for ever.

Well, I've read that a couple of times and even with you being a bulls fan, I can't find owt to disagree with. Amazing!

The thing is if you get promoted to SL you still get a choice of better quality players than every team in the championship simply because unless you are willing to throw stupid money around like Leigh, most players want to play at the top level.

Courtesy of Ben Black!