As a Thunder fan I obviously have a biased view on this also. We are hearing nothing from Thunder (not that we are surprised at that) and glean most of our info from the other boards.

There has been much said about Thunder cheating etc and who should have been relegated and who shouldn't but that is by the by now. It is obvious that we relied too heavily on one person for funding and have paid the ultimate price.

If Thunder are to drop to the Championship 1 then I think the obvious way to do that is to deduct the 9 points this year which would leave us second bottom, then it would not matter where Toulouse finished and your good selves would be saved and could spend your millions freely ( )

As for Thunder,,,, I have a very pessimistic view. I have watched them since 1999 and lived through the dark days and the slightly lighter days! A drop to Champ 1 and playing with local players and amateurs will, as far as I am concerned, result in heavy defeats and dwindling crowds and the slow death of my team (I realise that many around the RL world won't shed a tear over that). My view is that it may be better to die with some dignity now and concentrate on the amateur game in the NE and, if possible, build from there.

But we shall see

No we wouldNT be happy for any team to go bust and fold, all we want is to be all playing to the same set of rules, and the RFL CANT SEEM TO GET THEIR HEADS AROUND THAT.

Only a halfwit will rejoice in that.

I dont know of anyone with a personal gripe with any expansion club. The issue is with the RFL and how they're going about it, and all the while we've got France making our 'elite' look like a pub team for 40 minutes. God knows how much damage the Aussies will do to our game again over the coming weeks.

Good luck, whatever the outcome.

what a twisted and bent way of looking at it

pray tell what exactly is twisted and bent about it - seems perfectly straight and rationale to me..!

For goodness sake. This has nothing to do with a franchise points system for the simple reason that this is a one-off way of dealing with the abnormal occurrence of a club going bust and how you make a sensible decision for the good of both the Champ and Champ 1.

In any event, Leigh happen to "tick the boxes" both from a "franchise" perspective (if you must call it that) AND from a performance perspective - as I have already said. So its a moot point. What do you suggest - the beaten GF (Oldham) and us play a two legged winner takes all match-up to decide who takes a place in the Championship? Weeks after the season has finished - is this fair or reasonable?

You are kidding yourself if you think that Champ 1 and the Championship are purely played in a halcyon P&R format. Where teams cannot get relegated or have special dispensations, you are messing about with "reality" in a serious way.

mapleyther

Whatever they decide to do they need to hurry up. Clubs need to plan ahead. We're announcing season ticket prices next week based on CH1 fixtures. If we were to be put back in Championship there's an extra fixture. To be honest, I can't see the RFL being so kind to us anyway.

The problem here is if they have asked to go down, then surely thats a simple decsion for the RFL. Are the RFL trying to 'force' them to stay in the championship, hence the delay or have they not actually asked to go down.

What is baffling me at the moment is if the RFL restructure the leagues and make the Championship a 10 team league how will it benefit anyone. Surely the Championship needs to be a 12 team league for the clubs to bring in more income.

But that would mean only a 9 team Ch 1, hardly fair to those teams incomes, best way is for one league based on a geographical fixture list.
With the play offs deciding the champions.

If they start selling cheesy chips at Swinton, then I dont mind sacrificing the trip to Batley in its favour.

If the RFL go regional it is vital they consider these important things.

why cant they play each other 3 or 4 times as they do in scottish football.