What is it that we can do though? Not sure how we can 'fight' this.

If you think it through though, it is no different to how it was before. You could win every Grand Final before franchising, but you only came up if you satisfied certain criteria (think Keighley). And if a big club or good stadium was in danger of being relegated, they just made a merger. Or if an expansion club was in danger, they just made them an exception (Broncos being allowed to go bust and then start again, or Catalan being given a three-year guarantee).

So the only difference then to now, in reality, is that it was annual franchising rather than three-yearly.

I still have hope for us to remain in Super League, however lets be realistic and think about the future of the club in the assumption that we will be spending at least 3 seasons in the National Leagues. It's quite easy to think everything is a conspiracy and the RFL hate us, but in reality, if we have 2 good seasons down there, keep modest crowds, win some trophies and have a stadium ready for the 2015 season, it would be very hard for the RFL to deny us a franchise.

TBH I initially thought that there would be no hope for us if we were to get relegated, however all things considered I've changed my mind, which is risky business (having an inch of faith in the RFL) but if we can get our act together we could come back to Super League with all the tools required for success.

This isn't to say I want us to go down! Just trying to be realistic and positive.

So. its all about STADIUMS and DEVELOPEMENT areas, you could be financially sound, have good community departments, have good junior developement but it won't count unless its fits in with above.

I just don't get it Slugger.

When are people on here going to realise...its a done deal already we are dead and burried I do not know why Red Hall waste everyones time and effort putting these bids forward...just put us out of our misery now Lewis.As it was a done deal about Widnes getting back in was.

As said before come three years down the line we will be behind Halifax Tolouse and Barrow.

The question I raise is how can this be developing the game at the end of the season when we go down all the other SL clubs will rape and pillage all our best young players and unless we stick with this policy next year we will be full of second rate Aussies and journeymen for life in NL.

Just dont get SL I am all for developing RL above and beyond the M62 corridor but what do Crusaders and Salford bring to SL...if the RFL can justify this id rather be in NL.

Were/are Hetherington, Caisley, Lindsay et al 'rugby league men' when they ran the game? Wasn't Sir Rodney at the top table when the Super League was first announced?

If memory serves me right Keighley never won. Grand final, they were denied promotion when SL came into existence and at the same time Us, Fev and a few others were culled.

Hunslet were denied and Dewsbury chose not to apply.

For all our French-speaking readers...

This statement has only been made to keep Barrow happy, IMO, and any other club with an owner with a bit of cash to spend. 2015 is a long time away in rugby league. The governing body could be the proud owners of a stadium with a Conference-level football team as tenants by then.

Amounts to the same thing though. Before franchising, the top team only came up if both they and the RFL wanted it, and it was all about criteria then, as it is now. The criteria was arguably less strict, but they kept teams they wanted in by fake mergers. It has always amounted to a franchise system. It was never just about winning. All they have done really is make it a three-yearly process, rather than an annual one.

Don't read this as a pro-RFL thing. For me, top comes up, bottom goes down, and give clubs a moment in the sunshine. If the club has potential, they can build something. If it hasn't, it will go back down again. But it's natural selection, Darwin and all that, everything in it's proper place.

I do think the RFL has an understandable dilemma though. They have decided that they want to spread the game, which is an admirable goal, and at grass roots, it is working. If you want to spread the game, you've got to give the expansionist clubs some measure of protection, because they don't have support built over more than five generations to fall back on. Once you have decided on expansionism, franchising fits it, because it bestows protection.

So what should the RFL do? Natural selection or protected expansionism? They have made their choice, and I think it is an understandable one. It isn't the one I would have made, but then again, I'm quite happy in my northern bubble, mooching down to Belle Vue. They want to make the bubble bigger, and good on them for trying.

After 12 years in super league we have not progressed enough.We should of moved on and improved a lot more than we have.I think its nailed on its us for the chop and it hurts.We have never finished bottom of super league and we have produced some great players but its not about what happens on the pitch anymore.For me the magic has gone out of Rugby league,I used to go to all international matches and cup finals but I wouldn't support these now .I still care about Trinity and I will be there when we are kicked out.I don't care about super league/sky/Murdoch/ . We were kicked out without finishing bottom in 1995 and we came back. We have never finished bottom of super league and there kicking us out again.
For whats its worth I think Celtic will be bust again within a year,you can't keep a team going with less than a 1000 fans.
We are been relegated in place of these made up expansionist teams who virtually no one watches .

They have already done that. Widnes have got their licence on the basis of their application being better than Halifax's. It is possible* that a club with a better application will not get a licence as a result.

* Admittedly this seems unlikely but it would be silly to prejudge applications that might not have even been submitted yet.

I know. It shows how stupid they are to repeat the same stupid mistake

It's not a mistake - the franchise application process is a way of dressing up the selection of which clubs the RFL does and doesn't want in the competition; it's very deliberate.

100% agree.