I think you’ve missed my point. If London finish bottom, they have been the worst performing team. If they finish above Hull they haven’t been the worst team, and therefore it will sting when they go down, even though they knew at the start of the season they were grade C. As for who’s getting bullied, that’s quite obvious. Any of the clubs that are deemed not good enough for Superleague without even being given the chance have been bullied. If the RFL want to cut the roots off clubs like Featherstone, Barrow, Keighley etc who dare to dream that’s up to them, but what is the point of these clubs existing if they are never given a chance to play at the top level ? How are they going to improve their “fandom” when all the local kids want to go and watch the “bigger” clubs that play in Superleague. How are they going to improve their finances when less fans means less income and how are they going to get bigger sponsorship deals when potential sponsors know they’re product is never going to be seen under the lights of Superleague on a Friday night ? Can you seriously say that to be caught in a spiral of diminishing crowds, finances and general desirability as a club because IMG and the RFL say so is not being bullied ?

Those clubs have had 30 years to get good enough for SL.

See Jack's point.

Depends what you call good enough. It was less than 30 years since the top team in The Championship were deemed “not good enough” and denied entry to the top table. The repercussions for Keighley were disastrous and unfortunately they will never recover to become the club they were back then. If you think that’s fair that’s your opinion. Hardly seemed worth almost destroying a thriving club in a Rugby League town for the sake of Paris St Germaine. Where are they now ? The RFL bangs on about inclusivity and not discriminating but then commits acts of blatant discrimination. I suppose in their case it’s selective discrimination. If you are a black, gay man who supports Leeds or aspires to play for his hometown club in Superleague then no problem. If you are a black, gay man who is born in Featherstone and supports or wants to play for his hometown club in Superleague then prepare for some discrimination coming your way. It won’t be your colour or your sexual preference, it will be the simple reason that you were born in Featherstone, simple as that. Because it’s no bigger than a village, you will be discriminated against. Even though your club gets much bigger crowds than Leeds per capita you will be discriminated against. You will never have a chance of regaining your heady heights of a small village competing against the bigger teams because of all the ridiculous discriminatory rules preventing you from proving what you can do on an actual rugby field. If you think that’s fair we’ll agree to disagree.

You should run for parliament, Owl. In response (whilst acknowledging historical controversies) I'd simply say that over the last 5 years Fev have spent a lot of money trying to get into SL and bottled it on every occasion. They can't say they haven't had their chances. Moreover, when as now seems likely, the NRL take a significant and possibly sport saving stake in SL, I can't see them being keen to invest in already congested post codes. Whether we like it or not, that was the games history ( I was at Wembley in 83 when Fev pipped Hull) but not it's future.

The run in -

4 Salford Red Devils (+18 - 28)
Hull KR A, Catalan H, Hull FC A, Wigan A
5 St Helens (+184 - 26)
Huddersfield A, Warrington A, Castleford H, Leigh H
6 Catalan Dragons (+46 - 26)
Wigan H, Salford A, London H, Hull FC A
7 Leigh Leopards (+160 - 25)
Warrington H, Castleford A, Hull KR H, St Helens A
8 Leeds Rhinos (+27 - 24)
London A, Hull FC H, Wigan A, Hull KR A

Nothing is certain -
Salford have to take one win - but do have a very hard run in with Hull KR, Catalan and Wigan.
Leigh have arguably the hardest having to play Warrington, Hull KR and St Helens.

Hull KR have a huge say in the PO race having to play 3 of the 5 teams involved

What if youre from Featherstone, black, gay, and made out of straw?

Parliamentarian, my wife says I’m full of hot air so maybe that’s a good shout Arthur. I was using Fev as an easy example, a rugby league stronghold with 20% of the population regularly turning out for their local team. Leeds would need to average 120,000 every game to match that sort of commitment. It could have been anywhere from Barrow to Oldham in fairness. As for Fev’s past failures, the same could have been said about Leeds efforts to win The Challenge Cup post 1999 , but we let them bang away for another 15 years.They didn’t take our dream away. Didn’t know about the potential NRL investment, but if they think any kind of investment in the “already congested postcodes” would be wasted I do wonder where they think the money is best invested. Paris St Germain or Toronto maybe, because that went great last time. Another couple of massive away followings. The Catalans away following consisted of 5 blokes from Barrow on Friday night. I would much rather have 500 to 1000 from one of the smaller clubs creating some atmosphere for everybody if they earn the right on the playing field to be in Superleague.

As long as you have non-combustible accreditation I think you’re okay.

Yep. Fair bit of speculation about NRL involvement in OZ. Not sure it would be a great thing for some of the reasons you have just articulated, but at least we'd have the involvement of an organisation with a genuine record of delivering success in RL. I grew up visiting away grounds at 2nd division clubs (as they were back then) in genuine cup ties. There was a romance to it all that I wish we could recover. I just don’t think that's possible anymore, so while I understand and sympathise with your point of view I think you're destined to become more dissallusioned about the direction the sport takes.

Its a toughie.

Personally the only reason I like the challenge cup is the potential to go watch teams away from home, ive not been lucky enough to bag certain grounds with Leeds and it will be nice to hopefully swell the coffers of clubs when were forced into playing a game away from HQ instead of drawing a top 4 team at home every year.

Fevs catchment area and traditional Fev supporters come from the nearest big town Pontefract, which is where at least 50% of where their support comes from if you are from Ponte you support Fev also Ackworth and all the surrounding villages.

Knottingley is bigger than Fev and thats pretty 50/50 Fev/cas
split, Fev always had a wider fan base from surrounding Towns who don’t have a pro team. Fev are the Green bay packers of RL somewhat.