It will be pretty important to put the difficult ones over in the tight games, particularly at the end of the year, though I guess there will be plenty from a bit nearer in the earlier stuff.

Wildly of thread, the club and fans have been missing competiveness going to matches, at least now we can go watch matches that are that. I am sure it has not gone unnoticed even with other clubs in superleague last season that had some one sided heavy scores were disappointing

I know things happen, but I want to the team to play football and not get dragged into brawls. That seems commonplace just because its the Championship.

Well I'm definitely looking forward to this season more than I have done for a very long time. I'm still unsure of how this new structure will pan out. I worry that the lower end Championship clubs might struggle to compete with full time teams. But then I also wonder whether realistically a championship team can compete with SL clubs in a 7 game tournament when they're at such a huge financial disadvantage. If Bradford/Leigh/London or whoever lose 2/3 key players at the wrong time of the year then they can probably forget about promotion despite what they might have done in the season leading up to the split. But take T Smith and one or two others out of Wakefield and they'd probably be very vulnerable.

I think that's the one positive we may have.

We have a big squad and with some of the 'easier'' fixtures we will be able to 'rest' players [sorry, rotate the squad] whilst the SL teams at the bottom will presumably feel they have to put in players who are not 100% in a desperate attempt to keep out of the bottom four.

Sadly, I don't think that will be quite enough but we have to take what we can get, I guess.

Don`t recall any player getting sent off in the first minutes of the Championship GF. So can you back up the `brawls being commonplace` in the Championship?

Enigmatically speaking ?

yes as you say the probability is low but nonetheless there. Maybe it should have been the bottom two of SL and the top two of the Championship and home and away to increase the cup game effect, but there are other factors in the super 8s than providing an arena for promotion upsets. Perhps someone can tell me what they are.

Its a case of trying to deal with the financial and player disparity, do you think? It is clear as has been discussed that there are gulfs in different funding. Even Jimmy has said as much.

I guess its an incentive for all teams to bring there best games each week but I cant help thinking that the top four Championship clubs will be in the end London, Bradford, Leigh and Fev. So its a straight 4 playoff from the start.

Reducing the Big Prize to just 4 SL clubs is Disappointing, As a neutral is was ok as it was and engaged the rugby league calendar with the continuation of super league contests.

Also will the TV ratings be that great for this super 8s we will be in.

Don't see any reason that they'll be any worse than a bottom four SL clash. Many in non regular RL areas won't have a clue what "Super League Qualifying 8s" are anyway..

I think the idea is to confuse people with the naming in the hope they tune in assuming it's Super 8 Rugby

The Leigh fans clearly don't think we are up to much, they have a thread going called 'undefeated' that's worth a look

not really worth a look, as the only post of interest is that we are at 16-1 to go undefeated whereas they are 20-1, which they fail to debate. noteworthy is that both are odds against not for, which tells you all you need to know, actually no it doesnt, the odds on topping the 12's tell a tale too.

Maybe they will maybe they won't. It would be good to finish top as the extra price money is worth the effort and big help as we know. But it's about how you perform in the play offs (assuming Leigh qualify for them) that counts. As every teenage mother of Wigan and Leigh will tell you. Pulling out the big plays is a matter of timing.

" Undefeated" saw the thread, I was suitably amused. Yes sport is about timing, certainly coming to the latter end.

Going unbeaten in the meaningless phase 1? So what.

Phase 1 is where 3 teams with big boots have to stomp on puppies for lots of rounds. Some of the puppies are a bit bigger than others and might snap a bit, but they are all puppies.

Phase 2 is where the 3 teams with big boots plus one puppy get stamped on by teams wearing absolutely huge boots.