What do you think the various external professionals roles where? Clearly, they were there to interrogate the data in the business plan, facilities etc and determine what was good (and achievable) and then make comments to the RFL independent board based on their professional acumen.

If as has been suggested the Fax application was full of holes, then the external professionals would have no choice but to point out the flaws and the score would be affected accordingly.

I haven't seen any proof that Wakefield was chosen over you. It's been said from good sources that ours was not the worst application from the Super League. Just because everyone has been slagging us off for years does not make it.

Good luck anyway. Would rather see you in than Quins.

Suggested on here by Wakefield fans but not in any way shape or form substantiated with any evidence.

Halifax's bid was seen originally in the first round of licenses when they were up against Widnes and Barrow. Widnes were thankfully successful, but Halifax were then told it was good enough to be considered later, that they made all the valid criteria. It obviously wasn't swiss cheese as people are suggesting, otherwise they wouldn't have put it through for later consideration.

I have never agreed with anything you have said before, as im sure you're aware.

But this actually makes sense.

It has been said also that we put in a bid that was much better than expected. Fax were told to stay in because of worries about Crusaders, in my view, but we fouled things up by putting in a much better bid than expected.

"It has been said" where exactly? Rumours from fans.

But didnt he say he put in nigh on a million pounds in the first four months or so he owned Widnes?

Its ok saying O'connor has made it a priority to make Widnes self sufficient, and I have no reason to doubt that, but if he needs to spend £1m, £2m, £3m, £5m, £10m to do that, he needs to have £1m, £2m, £3m, £5m, £10m to do it.

What we have seen with Crusaders is the costs involved in making that jump are massive, and if they had a Steve O'connor prepared to pump in the money to make them self-sufficient like he wants to do with Widnes, They likely could have done.

There are some fans whose stated facts I accept, and it is a small bunch, but that was the prevailing wisdom not so long ago. Wakey fans always thought we had a good application. We just expected to be dumped out because it had become an easy option for the RFL: it had become the accepted opinion and Cas were doing too well on the pitch.

There are actually some facts about if you look hard enough. And want to see them.

Crusaders were a shambles and as I've said elsewhere the RFL were to blame for ignoring warnings about Samuels and clearly not carrying out a proper 'fit and proper persons' test on Moss and Roberts. I didn't see Woods' interview so I'll refrain from commenting other than to say that he could have been persuasive eloquence personified and it still wouldn't have helped, such is the entrenched attitude towards the RFL right now.

Administration can't be held against a club now because the rules were changed. Not hard to understand. Neither [ishould[/i it be hard to understand that the 'competition' is about ALL the things you mentioned plus others. It's the overall package that counts. For some reason this seems to be a difficult concept for some fans - and to be fair some commentators - to grasp.

Finally - there has been plenty of rage on here and the Fax board, whether you feel it's justified or not.

Genuine question - what would they have failed on?

Don't have to, because we have never been relegated to the championship. Think about that.

You can't have it both ways.

If you are for franchising, our application was stronger. That was the determination. End of.

If you are against franchising, Fax would have been in this year in place of Quins as a promoted side. If you are against franchising, however, you have to accept that Widnes don't deserve to come up, because you've never won the Grand Final. You can't have it both ways.

Meaningless babble.



You say this in hindsight but it's not what you were saying at the time. Not only were Crusaders a shambles, the RFL have been a shambles ignoring the massive warning signs and the propaganda about the strength of their club when there were plenty who could see the fragility of it all. People wanted it to be a success, ergo, they ignored their best senses. I can understand that, if not the reaction to the fans who didn't share their optimism.

As for Wood, you obviously didn't see it. Eloquence would have been wonderful. Coherence would have been nice. Stumbling over every question, repeatedly failing to answer anything asked, which is a sign of dishonesty, well it is completely fair to say that it was not really acceptable. It was political speak, all of it. No substance. No amount of insight. It was like Question Time, although less professional. If he had nothing to hide, he wouldn't have been so guarded. I don't think they honestly considered the Fax bid for one second. They were throwing wakefield out, and then something happened. Crusaders pulled out at the nth hour. Despite making very recent signings for next season. And when they pulled out, for whatever reason, the RFL went with the easy option instead of working out how they could make Halifax work. Thats a theory, we will never know the complete truth.



It is very very hard to understand actually. Why they changed the rule in the first place for instance. Was it to protect Crusaders? I think it was. Has it been used now to protect the status quo now? Yes it has. Does it make any sense whatsoever? Probably not.

Sorry but you're asking me to dismiss the administration as it is now part of the rules to ignore it. Except it was the only reason given why my club was kept out of super league last time. What has changed? Apart from the goalposts? Saying "its in the rules now" doesn't cut it for a second.



The problem is, when you're looking at a whole package, it is absolutely impossible to prove from the championship that you will better a super league outfit. More money involved, more crowds (due to human nature) it is much easier to run things like youth setups and have better crowds. This is no reason to protect wakefield indefinitely at the expense of Halifax. When a club has had a season like they have, have defaulted on several promises for a new stadium, have recently been through administration, you have to wonder what they'd have to do to actually get replaced.

As for the rage thing, yeah, standard b.s. tactic designed to throw muck at people. Grow up.