Must be nice to get out of Wigan for a few hours mind.

wont it be balanced out earlier/later in the season
its called forward planning

And a full time Leeds still couldn't catch up a part-time Wigan where it mattered.

That was bad.

Oh I agree. But were Wigan Part time?

When wigan went fully pro there was only 1 other fully pro team.

As opposed to the 14 full pro teams we have today.

It's not difficult to grasp then is it, that it's a tougher more level playing field in this era than when wigan were winning lot's of trophies.

I always (rightly or wrongly) associate Leeds' move to being full-time with the departure of John Bentley and Gary Divorty.

That would make Leeds' first full-time season 1992/93

I've no idea when Wigan made the transition.

I wonder if the cars provided to certain players are still provided by Lada

Yeah, I should have worded it clearer.

The top sides do not play as many rounds as they used to is what I meant. There is only 4 games to get to Wembley now, I am sure it used to be more than that.

I thought the number was the same as it's been for years?

It is AFAIK

That isn't what you said though was it?

And It was around the 94 /95 season that Wigan went completely full time, although to be fair that did have a lot of players on full time contracts from around 1990 / 91 but so did may other clubs.

The number of rounds is, but not the round that top clubs join at. We used to join at the same time as the division 2 sides (it was only 2 divisions then), then they made top sides seeded (and there was something else also which I can't remember), then we went to 3 divisions and it changed again.

It might well be the same it's been for years, but that depends how many years you are talking about.

Has moving the cup to a later summer finish damaged it?

i dont think moving it back in the season is a problem
but the length of time between the quarters and the semi final means the competition loses all momentum, move the fourth round further back and make all the gaps between rounds three or four weeks

Leeds first qualified for the Northern Union Cup Final (as it was called back then) during the 1909/10 season. They played a 1st round, a 2nd round, a Quarter Final and a Semi Final to get to the Final. Other than the 1st and 2nd rounds now being called the 4th and 5th rounds (as the Challenge Cup has been opened up over the years to include the amateurs) the number of games played by the elite sides basically remains unchanged.

In your defence though there was introduced a preliminary round in the mid 80's to early 90's to allow the top amateur sides to take part. IIRC it was a random draw and as a top side you were unlucky to get drawn in an extra fixture. Leeds got drawn in 6 of these over the course of 8 seasons, playing some of the minnows along the way such as (in order) Bridgend, Swinton, Kells, Hunslet, Bradford and Bramley.

Good thread this now.