You only "don't think" 14 clubs was DB's motive, then you say "Leigh knew exactly what they were getting themselves into" It's ambiguous....

But never mind, if Beaumont had a reason to apply, or SL had a reason to accept them then maybe that will come out in the wash at some later date.

This is why the 2 x 10 concept could tick all boxes if clubs took a wider game approach and not paying yesterdays overdue bills.

The second tier of SL MUST be a full time comp with a minimum salary spend, and would need 5/600k funding to allow a 1.2m min spend. At this point relegation into SL2 is not the death bell it currently would be for a Wakefield or Salford going into the Championship, but more importantly the skill gap between comps would be reduced and the extra funding used to strengthen rather than replace completely a part time squad.

HullKR are a classic example of adding to a FT squad that was largely kept after relegation. Leigh are a classic example, 2017, of adding to a competitive full time squad that beat 3 SL teams in the middle 8's to win a place - competitive in all but a couple of games and really shouldn't have gone down. Keeping FT on a near SL cap without the expensive imports means you become competitive

A full time SL2 is a logical step to move into and up from, that allows 20 teams fans to have a vested interest in purchasing the product from Sky and allows Sky to show more games and watch a promotion/relegation battle unfold - something UK sports fans are used to and watch

That is partially correct, ie SL gave Sky the minimum they required at no risk.

What is missing is that in early December Salford had managed to reduce their costs by breaking a cva that found them deducted 6 points that didnt matter, the assumption was they were skint and may struggle to see the season out on reduced funding.

Leigh had recruited to be FT in the Championship, with Cash available to add for the play offs. The second lock down wasn't planned but was a possibility. The biggest hurdle as the 700k cash in the bank to spend on 6/7 quality players never got used as available Players simply wouldn't travel to the UK from the NRL. DB knew he needed 6/7 quality players to be competitive (not finish bottom) - he couldn't find them, we got battered with injury pre season and early doors and the rest is history.

Leigh are now recruiting a very capable squad for 2022, my only fear is that it wont have the incentive to become the 12th SL club due to the worst case scenario of keeping 12 in 2022 and moving to 2 x 10, whilst underfunding SL2 in 2023 that includes 8 clubs from the championship - ie The Championship in all but name, 4 from a 14 club SL and 6 from Championship is a far better balance as only 4/6 clubs would have to transition from PT to FT

Get those postponed games rearranged Leigh.
You only need a minimum of 6 wins to stay up.
You can do it!

I think Leigh fans will be grateful to get one win, never mind 6.

Hopefully Leigh do see a win. The fans deserve it

Who will be the first?

In my opinion i don't think the standard in Super League is as high as it was 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, but a lot of that is down to covid.

It's not going to happen

Probably due to the same players switching clubs.

Thanks for a very interesting post. Can you clarify the funding is it say 12 SL2 clubs on £600K and 12 SL1 clubs on £1.780 Million (I think that makes the £25M a year)........

This is far from "Supergreed" and sounds good.... However in the current "second 10" as per the league tables sit Sheffield, Whitehaven, Batley and Halifax so would superleague really take a small cut in their funding and give clubs who have no real chance of competing in Superleague half a Million each to waste??

How would SKY feel about this? They are not happy with the elite product so how does Batley.v.Sheffield go on Television wages paid for by SKY??

To me there has to be quality well funded clubs at the top of the championship to replace those who have a bad season, but the scenario you pose wastes a lot of valuable SKY money on clubs who can maybe sneak promotion if the gods are with them but would collapse against the big boys.

Most of the money needs to be in Superleague and only a small portion to be available to potential SL clubs in the championship probably paid as prize money for coming say top two.. With respect this is the real world and Lenegan would be shot at dawn by SKY if there was a repeat of the last set up currently breathing it's last.......

The key is MINIMUM salary spend of say £1.2m and being a FT club, not many clubs outside SL could afford £600k+ above central funding, that stops the ludicrous situation of some clubs in recent years who took the schilling and paid back loans

FT: Leigh 32 Salford 22

HOOOOOORRRRRRAAAAYYYYY !

The great escape is on isnt it ?