Current bookies odds to win the Championship:
Leigh 1/3
Bradford 6/1
London 18/1
Sheffield 25/1
Featherstone 33/1
Halifax 33/1

Charlie's £100 bet with Mick Jagger as to whether Leigh finish higher than Fax in the 2016 Championship season is looking reasonably safe to me.

Why on earth would anyone take a straight bet that Fax would finish higher than Leigh in 2016 appears completely beyond logic, no matter how rose tinted your specs may be. I would not consider a 10p wager never mind £100.

If Paul Rowley was given a free choice to pick a team from the combined Leigh and Fax squads, how many Fax players would make his starting line up for the first Leigh game of the 2016 season against Batley?

You said Chase wouldn't sign.You still persist to annoy.You will lose your bet with Charlie and I will have the pleasure of ripping you to shreds.

Mick...Terry... Fax fan.... You've been there,you've done it...As have we...

Go grab a Horlicks from the Supermarket buddy...My posts won't be sending you to sleep this season.

Mr Atomic I admit I jumped the gun a bit with my bet with Charlie the clown,but I will honour the bet and stranger things have happened in Sport,I don't take anything for granted a few Leigh fans stated you would go through the middle 8s unbeaten and we all know what happened there.The Bookies are not always right we have a strong settled squad at the Shay,a great young Coach in RM and a very happy environment, beware the Fax recipe for success.

Not quite correct as an extra home game for finishing 1 or 2 is surely an advantage. The opponents home and away should also be weighted as far as is possible. They were supposed to be but that's difficult judge considering how poo we were for 6.5 of the 8 games.

Although we can take nothing for granted, I believe that this time it will be a very different story.
The important ingredient that has been added to this year's squad is big game experience and the know how to close a game out against the higher level opponents. The attacking rugby we played last season was an absolute joy to watch. However, we have to hope that this season we can again score tries against any opposition but we will be a bit more street wise in terms of the more risky attacking plays - especially in vulnerable areas of the field.

Granted but not much of a one after 23 rounds of preceding competition.

As to Leighs performance in the mid 8's you were indeed "poo", the mystery to me is why? How did a club that performed so well in the regular season, lose the plot at the business end? Did you have an injury crisis? discord in camp? From my detached view point I couldn't believe the way your season fizzled out with a whimper. I though you were nailed on for promotion.

8 players having ops in the off season might go some way to explaining it but not entirely IMO

The bookies rarely get it wrong when fixing their odds. The only change to that finishing order would be that I would have Dewsbury ahead of both Fev and Fax. Maybe switch London and Sheffield, but pretty much bang on.

As 'Demon' says, there were up to eight players needing ops - some of whom were playing injured, and others who were sorely missed.

However, I'm pretty sure the other seven 'qualifiers' were in the same boat and were, for whatever reason, able to handle the situation better. Hopefully we will learn from that experience!

As has been said we did have players playing needing operations however it's more than that in my opinion. For 2 years we swept away all before us only losing 2 games in 2 years. Then all of a sudden we'd lost 3 on the bounce, against Hull KR we should have had won at half time, whupped by Salford we might have targeted for a win and by 1 point against Wakefield, coupled with Bradford's Salford win in 3 weeks we'd gone from top of the world to having it all to do for the first time in 2 years. Could tell the players were physically AND MENTALY drained. Hopefully they'll have learnt from the experience and the introduction of more experienced players will mean we'll be ready this year.

[Edit] Or at least that's what went wrong in the 2nd half of the Qualifiers. Against SL teams I don't think we appreciated how important momentum was. If a Championship team scores against you it's no big deal, if a SL team scores they'll keep you pinned down the pitch & score again & go on a roll. Again hopefully we'll have learnt that & the experienced players brought in will help.

Can you ask what price he is to be a Leyther at the end of the season then please?

I think that is a pretty good summary of what happened LS.

A very interesting analysis and one that makes sense. Hopefully the old saying that "you have to lose one to win one" will hold good for you this season