Just to clarify this, Maher was on the bench for Leeds but wasn't used, thus he played for us on Sunday. Had he played for Leeds on Thursday he wouldn't have been able to play for Batley on the Sunday.

Sadly, that does seem to be the most likely.

We are getting to the point in the season where clubs may be looking to 'lose' someone in order to bring someone else in, so it does open up more chances of loans or even a proper signing, assuming we've got the cash.

In the forwards I don't necessarily agree it's that different, certainly in terms of smashing into the line and making great yards; many of the better teams in the Championship have plenty of big rough old heads in the pack and I wouldn't think it is any easier to win the collision than it is in SL. In fact, the lack of big grizzled forwards has been our undoing on several occasions.

I'd guess that, with championship funding levels, you're talking around 4K fans to support a reasonable full time operation, without a sugar daddy that is, so you're only ever likely to see it in the larger towns and cities. Unless the emphasis on funding changes, I can't see this major difference between SL and the championship changing any time soon.

I notice that Bradford allowed Brandon Pickersgill & Keenen Tomlinson to play for Skolars in the Challenge Cup this afternoon, so we mustn't have much of a plan to use them (or to be in the cup for very long). Both won't be able to play for us in future rounds now.