Gateshead anyone?

Looks like Heremaia is likely to start at scrum-half, can't say I agree with that personally. Yes Seymour had a poor game last week but we need to give him and Holdsworth some time to form a partnership. Holdsworth missed the majority of pre season and the two of them only played around 20 minutes together in the 2 trial games, it's fair to say that you'd expect them to be rusty in the opening few rounds. We need some consistency at halfback, throwing Heremaia in at 7 every other week is going to do is no good whatsoever, and from what I've seen of Heremaia at scrum-half, he's no world beater. Theres no doubt he is an important player to us, but at hooker, interchanging with Houghton...not dictating play in the halves. He was outstanding last week at Headingley, playing in his natural position! Why move him from there? We would be weakening ourselves imo, and I think its a mistake from Gentle if he goes with this.

Although Bulls fans greatly appreciated the help from certain other clubs and fans, none of that helped the current owner. It kept the previous owners in situ a bit longer.

It was not "the rugby league community" that bought the stadium, it was the RFL. As an asset, and for a commercial rent. One of these days, I would not be surprised to find that the RFL is able to surrender the head lease for rather more than it paid for it. But time will tell there.

OK has not complained about the confiscation of funding. ANd we fans know we don't have to like it, we just have to live with it. It was a condition of getting the licence. The only thing he (and quite a few fans) have taken issue with is that the funds went to all the other clubs.

This debate seems to be degenerating into challenging one item after another of selective recollection or understanding. I have not seen my response to Standee's initial assertion refuted in any way, just attempts now to divert attention onto matters unconnected with the original asertion. As so often happens in the face of a robust defence. Little more to be gained by playing that game.

The game that matters anyway is on the pitch tonight., and with Leeds doing us no favours last week, and what is bound to be a vociferous home crowd, I'd say it remains a mighty big challenge for the visitors.

To be fair, no previous club exiting insolvency had received significant financial support prior to the transfer of ownership.

Actually he has, although more about where the funds have ended up rather than the fact of the confiscation per se.

I agree. I thought Seymour did ok last week. Sure he made some mistakes but at least he played like he cared. Holdsworth however was fairly anonymous and if Heremaia does play at 7 tonight then Houghton will have to play much, much better than he did last week because I can't remember him having a worse game.

Jamie Foster has some very nice things to say about Hull and the supporters in today's Hull Daily Mail.

He also says he won't celebrate any tries or goals should he score tonight.

Good lad is Jamie, hope he gets a good reception.

Actually he has not. Check out what he said. He specifically said he accepted the confiscation; but he thought that distributing it to other clubs rather than using it for e.g. nationwide youth development was unfair. Personally, I think he was unwise to say it, even if he thought it. But that was all he said.

we are missing watts and ellis who are 2 big units plus tickle and am sure our pack are missing them,saying that we have enough on board to win tonight,must say i would have preferred to have seen seymour at 7, hopefully a good crowd as well

Not arguing with any bit of that...................

To our knowledge, though, does anyone know what really happened in each previous case? Especially the "reconstructions" that avoided insolvencies, like Hudds/Sheffield, and Gateshead/Hull. And the role of Super League Europe in acquiring shares in the latter?

In our case, as in the case of various other clubs at various times, the RFL paid us advances on sky monies due later in the year. We knew something like this was going on, because the RFL took out a debenture on the Bulls' assets in Janbuary 2011. That could only have been as security for advances. And, don't forget, to repay those advances the club sold its principal asset to the RFL. So the RFL did not actually lose any money, has a property currently yielding respectable income of around 6.5%, and I am quite expecting that at some stage in the future we could be "encouraged" to move to Valley Parade, and the RFL will receive a nice settlement for surrendering the long lease. That, though, is pure speculation on my part, and the RFL might equally seek to move from Rot Hall to Odsal and make it the national RL centre. Who knows?

The RFL lost virtually no money on the Bulls' insolvency, and came away from it with a big chunk of real estate. tbh, they seem to be the only party that did not lose out of this whole sorry affair.