I suspect next season could be tougher than this. A SL team with parachute money, Toronto already setting there stall out, TO who have said they will look at this season and learn, Fax Fev and us.

Rowley didn't get Leigh promoted, he left just before the start of the 2016 season. That said, Toronto will be pushing hard for promotion next season.

I think what Rowley learned at Leigh was the need for a bigger, tougher pack on the previous year, which was the platform for which you went up. I get the feeling he's using that experience when building the team in Toronto for next season.

What he should have learned from our Middle 8 collapse in 2016, was:-

1) To rotate a talented squad, rather than risk basically the same 17, in an unnecessary attempt to 'win the league'. (and the 'hub cap' trophy that goes with it) Beating all and sundry in the Championship is all well and good, but the Middle 8's is an entirely different competition - and the only one that counts.

2) When playing SL opposition, you can't afford to be the 'great entertainers' and fling the ball about with gay abandon, regularly dropping it in your own half. SL teams are quite capable of finding their way to your try line, without being repeatedly presented with gift wrapped opportunities!

3) Appalling on-field discipline wins you few friends - especially in the high places of the Disciplinary process. True, a bigger, tougher pack is a big advantage - but only when they are available for selection!



P.S. We would be eternally grateful if your guys would roll over on Friday, so that we don't have to go to Perpignan for a third time this season, or give Widnes the chance of tonking us for a fourth time!!

Oxford people were told in Toronto the names of some of the people Toronto were in talks to for next season, 4 year contracts on offer to some of them. Won't name them as I have no idea if any have signed but a couple of the names were jaw dropping. We shall see.

Their team next season is likely to be substantially stronger than this season as some of them will probably say yes. They didn't do too badly against a top championship side with their current team from memory.

The Championship manager of the year 2017. Well done Andrew.

Well deserved.

Thoroughly deserved.

Incredible that some want him out!

66% win rate in 2107

I suspect Tim Sheens had a wry smile on his face. Nearly a perfect season for them. Not forgetting the great work by coaches at Fax, Fev and Dewsbury under incredible financial pressures.

I thought Britain had gone away from a plucky second best awards with the advent of Sky cycling, Tennis, boxing, Olympic successes.

Lets just hope this isn't our default standard.

That's the way it goes. Leigh won the Championship convincingly, three years on the trot, but our coaches never won that award. It always went to the coach of a Yorkshire team - Richard Marshall got it last year, for taking 'Fax from 3rd to 4th ( ) - prompting cries of a "Yorkshire Mafia" conspiracy, from over the 'good' side of the Pennines! (the award is voted for, by the Championship team coaches, the majority of whom are at Yorkshire clubs) Henderson has done remarkably well to break that Yorkshire stranglehold.

Now, if he could just coach you to defeat, this coming Friday, please!

Alan- That's a very interesting post. I suspect Sheens had to go the whole season unbeaten to get it.

I was mistaken about Richard Marshall - it was in 2015 that he won the award (Halifax did finish 4th)

In 2016, John Kear was Coach of the Year, when Batley finished 3rd, and in 2014, Paul Cooke won the award, when his Doncaster team also finished 4th. Leigh topped the league on each of those three occasions, so Tim Sheens stood no chance! I thought Neil Jukes may have stood a chance in 2016, given that he inherited Paul Rowley's mantle, just seven days before the season started, it was his first coaching job, and he inherited a squad with issues - putting it mildly!

The last four seasons in the Championship (3 with Leigh, one with Hull KR) one team has had massively more financial muscle and therefore a vastly superior squad to the others and there would have been something badly wrong had they not dominated. Perhaps it's harsh on the coaches involved in that it's hard to be seen to over-achieve when you have by far the best squad but equally there's no point in having coaching awards if you just give them to the squad with the best players.

FWIW I would have probably given the award to Neil Kelly as he did the most remarkable job this season in my opinion, but he wasn't even nominated and Henderson probably would have been my second choice.

For Fax and Fev to finish above TO was a tremendous effort by both teams too. Fax finishing with the best defence in the league was some achievement when you are shuffling DR players around.
Agreed Kelly did a great job. I was skeptical when he was appointed but he proved a few wrong I suspect. Duffy at Swinton did well with a club reportedly on the verge of closure.

Hendo does deserve it IMHO... He just needs to get the mental attitude correct for the 10% of the game the players go missing, and we will get back up to Superleague... Glad he got it over Sheens