Yup. I'd speculate that it's between us and Cas who gets the SL1 spot. On performance it's obviously Cas at the moment but on facilities they are about to drop way behind us. So if we perform well next year we have a chance. Hence this year 11th will do just fine, risky though it could be.

Again pure speculation, open secret or not.

Terrible stats. The only stat I don’t feel is a fully fair reflection of the game is Butler. Watching the game, it was clear he was putting himself in positions to receive the ball and make a carry, but nobody bloody passed it to him.

I’d be interested to know what the possession stats were for the period of the time he was on the pitch… also - what were his stats for tackles?

I agree with you I am not sure we had the ball during his first stint as the began wiping the floor with us.

There are stats for Butler on is subject ,Do not seem that good until some one said he was only on field for 15 mins .Talk about putting the boot in before he is given a chance.Same thing happened to Whitbread who now looks one of our more better performer's

While stats are very good reading it was painfully obvious at the game it was our backs/ centres where the issues were. These stats just back up my thoughts while watching it unfold.

The forwards matched Salford and did their job only to be let down by a few individuals in the backs. For me the forwards did their job. We desperately need Hall back (what happened to him btw?) and Batchelor back to centre. I would give Evans/Kershaw a go on the wing vs Wigan too.

I feel a bit for Croft being a young wakey lad but he looked completely out of his depth as did Minns.

I am not a big fan of Croft and dont honestly think he will make a decent SL centre, but he will make a decent championsip player. I did not go to the game but from those stats the kid needs a bit of slack. He had a bloke outside him him earning three times what he earns who did not make a single tackle in the whole game. How many of those missed attempts were as a result of the poor kid trying to cover for the joker on his wing.
Having said that , if poaching allows Lineham to pull on a shirt next week after those stats i will be amazed

Watching the highlights Croft shot out and messed up some tackles but equally Lineham also did the same leaving a ton of space behind him for a kick (not the first time).

I’d seriously change things up next week if possible. Don’t think we can run with the same centres/wingers of at all possible. The only back for me who came out looking half decent was Murphy.

I think you may be a bit out with that Vasty, the SL1 X 10 will consist of the teams who finished 1 to 10 at the end of 2023 season. The bottom 2 teams will drop into SL2 to join the top,7 championship teams, the 10th team will be decided by a play of system between the lower 5 championship teams and the top team of league 1.That is my understanding from listening to various RL programs, but this is rugby league and we know how things change unexpectedly, I also believe that the IMG group will have the final say on any changes, but at the moment there is no indication of franchise or licensing it’s the on field performances that decide the teams. It may be that in the future, IMG will want Bigger cities both in the U.K. and Europe, if that did happen at the expense of teams like Trinity, then I would not support the game any longer.

But that’s exactly what I said???

2023 is the season that counts.

No mate I honestly haven’t seen or heard anything concrete.

Im more following smoke signals.

To me there is simply no panic in the air.

Trinity are concentrating on building a SL standard stadium and running a SL academy. Why would you bother if you were not fairly sure of things. We seem to have been incredibly tight this season even for us.

Ditto you lot. Cas always chuck in some flash signings both pre and mid season. Not much this year.

Finally despite the games new direction not a peep from any SL directors, nothing.

If you were not reasonably happy with what the future holds I don’t think that would be the case.

I haven’t had contact with MC for a while but I’ve had a fair bit with JM and he seems incredibly up beat. Considering they are bothe accountants and thus optimism is contrary to their nature. It’s all very odd

Crickey why was Minns left out there on the field?! We had enough cover on the bench to move Batch into the centre.

I don't know where to start with Lineham.

Worry is in M W the French team strength is there backs .If Hall out and replace Minns and Croft with 2 forward we are still going to struggle.It was the backs who carried the forwards up to 5 week ago but now it is th e same forwards who are carrying the backs .Worrying times indeed

#Not sure if Batch got a knock early on as he came off pretty early for a spell on the bench

At least as bad as the stats are we still have players committed to the cause which is a huge positive for me as looking at that scoreline you’d presume they all had capitulated but it’s simply not true . What’s very plain to see is that collectively we can’t afford to carry any passengers , when we do we end up with blowout scoreline . Not a simple fix by any means , our big money players are sat on the sidelines and it is killing us and then players not up to the task at hand are thrown into the breach . Bet Willie thinks he’s run over a dozen black cats with the luck he’s getting , heard on the latest heritage podcast that Kay wont be available until the last 2 games , so there is our decent hooker/winger out for the best part of the season. Watching wakefield as lng as I have we could quite easily give Wigan a bloody nose on Sunday , they’ve certainly got it in them , but I feel we now have too much fire power sat out to trouble most teams , hopefully we can muster a win over Toulouse going forwards and just keep them at arms length