Quote: Honkytonk "Last year as a FT squad????'"
I seem to recall that our GM and the owner had conversations and meetings around "continued" funding when we moved into Trailfinders. I believe (and am happy to be corrected) that a 3 year plan was put before the owner with the ultimate goal of us returning to Superleague and he agreed to an initial 3 years more funding, albeit at a lesser level than before.
Without his (or anyone elses) funding combined with the central funds, we wouldn't be able to afford to be Full Time. I believe (again happy to be corrected) that the owner is now fully retired and therefore the bottomless pit now has a bottom and therefore, we will eventually need to fend for ourselves, whether that be in 2019 or soon after.
Having not seen his smiling face this year, I can't comment on whether Mr Hughes is a happy chappy or if he's resigned to the only route back into SL being a return to licensing, given at least 1 SL club with a wealthy owner is coming down to replace HKR, Toronto seem to have unlimited funding and Toulouse (as they always do) look to be more competitive next year meaning that 3rd or 4th spot is what we'll be looking at unless we get busy in the marketplace in the off season.
I'd have the coach and Mr Hughes down here for the duration of the RLWC, talking to NRL sides about taking "fringe players" on a years loan because we lack the grunt needed to go up.......IMHO that is