Great result for Swinton, Especially since the bookies gave them a 24-point head start. I thought they were kind of weak before, but they really proved me wrong. If I had to split up the league, I'd say there are three groups based on how good they are. There's us at the top, then Fev and Toulouse kinda together, and everyone else is sort of on the same level. And the early results seem to back that up.

Yusuf Aydin playing for Fev against Bradford

Bulls win at Fev

York lose 15-14 against Barrow, Dagger & Keinhorst come off injured Tai on report use of the elbow

Nice scalp for barrow

Dagger got a nasty wound to his armpit

This is ultimately where the full time and bigger budget squad comes in.
I think a lot of teams can compete in Championship but a key injury can end it fir them.
Hopefully we have a squad that can handle that better.

So who exactly is going to challenge us - this weekend has basically left me wondering if Sheffield will be the team that pushes us.

imo it's about been able to challenge ourselves and get up for the games and improve . I thought it was flat both on and on the field yesterday, so for me the big test is our own motivation

There won't be anyone - as I've said a couple of times on this forum, the Championship this season is the weakest for many, many years.

Agreed. I could see us slipping up against one or two of Toulouse (away), Sheffield, Bradford (hope it's the league not the 1895 cup), or even a Cumbrian team away. But it'll be a combination of injuries, complacency, cup final hangover, and the opposition having a blinder.

The difference this year is going to be the route to Super League.
In previous years, when it was close at the tail end of the season, teams started bringing in bigger names for short term stints just to get them to the GF.
This year with the exception of us and Toulouse, it isn't going to happen whether they win it or not, so when injuries kick in, teams will simply do their best with what they have, which will make it easier for teams like us with a bigger squad or teams that are lucky with injuries.

Time will tell how it works out.

Sheffield look the most impressive opposition so far. Fev gave us a game but the lack of depth is really showing at the minute.

Must admit, Widnes starting 3/3 has surprised me but that's more because I thought they'd struggle this season rather than beating the opposition they have.

York look troubled at the moment and I'm not entirely sure why with the players they have available to them

Sheffield's team isn't that different to the one they have had over the last couple of years, I'm not convinced that they have improved that much but might be a top 3 team by default because so many others have regressed.

Depth is indeed an issue at Fev but we were without Springer, Tanner, Bussey, Day and Massey yesterday. If you took (say) Atoni, Bowden, Pitts, Vagana and Uele out of Wakefield's line-up it would certainly have some impact.

York seem to have had a lot of ex-SL signings that haven't worked out for some reason (as have other clubs to be fair), with Lineham now looking a "typical" York signing of a player whose best days are some way behind him.

Sheffield are good, and I did find it weird they weren't being taken as seriously as Bradford or Fev at the beginning of the season. They have a real good balance with experienced-but-not-over-the-hill players like Welham and Dawson-Jones, with a really well drilled pack - Titus Gwaze being their standout player IMO. But they also have loads of depth - they have 4 halves to choose from in Aston, Thackeray, Hansen and Farrell - so they'll be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. However, player for player they're nowhere near as strong as us. Really looking forward to going to their spot in a few weeks' time. If we play well, they'll stick with us for 50 mins then fall away.