I think the title of this thread has been misinterpreted. I'm not sure it's an invite for other fans to argue with each other on Widnes' own forum

Respect Widnes fans as usually good banter and respect both ways between Fax and Widnes fans. I bet 99% of Fax fans would say Widnes deserve to be in SL and wish them the best as to be fair the rest of us are some way behind off the field.
The worst Set of fans for me are at Barrow who seem to think they are so special and seem to think they will be in SL just because of one good season! Barrow are a joke who do not even have decent Floodlights yet alone a Stadium fit for SL. The Fans also a so full of crap and have no respect for others. They have done well but I hope they struggle next year due to the way a number of Fans post on here and elsewhere. The sooner Barrow lot realize they have little to no chance in getting in to SL the better.They then might stop acting like spoilt little kids who think they should have everything.

To be fair to them they are just excited...
They have done fantastically well.. it is hard for a team that drops from the league above to finish top of the pile in this league so to come from the league below is fairly immense.

Fax, Barrow, Fev, Leigh... most fans are cool and wear glasses tinted with the teams colours and it's excellent that the banter rarely spills over into anything else.
This board is so good because of the visitors from other clubs whereas the TIW board is a completely closed shop.

I look forward to this continuing until the next round of franchise applications begin and we all start to loath each other and tear pieces at everyone elses bids

I don't think the RFL will replace a current SL club for Barrow. They are almost as dependent on their owner as Celtic are. Their ground would be the worst in SL. Some new floodlights, a lick of paint and nicer bogs won't change that. It would be like putting lipstick on a pig.

They don't have the crowds or a known SL figure of 7,000 like us. They don't have the youth system anything like ours in place either. I think, if the RFL go for anyone from outside the M62 corridor, it will be Toulouse. I reckon the RFL have had their fingers burned by Celtic, and Barrow are only slightly better - in as much as they won't need as many Aussies. I really cannot see Barrow having any chance of a licence by 2012.

I suppose, if the RFL are dead set on a Cumbrian club, they will promote Barrow. There's nothing we can do about that. But if they do, there would be little point in SOC hanging around much longer and Widnes may never again be in a position to make the step up. We would still be a force in this league, but our whole youth structure would probably go, and we'd become a feeder club. Do the RFL really want that?

That's funny as IMO Samuel is uninterested now they in SL! He even sold there 1 asset (stadium) so they are more relaint on the RFL money than anything!

In truth LS didn't own the ground anyway. He just sold the lease.

he

YES! They are already trying to do it by exempting dual registration players. They don't care about established teams in the heartlands they want expansion at any cost hense Celtic promoted, Toulouse invited to join the Championship and the Magic weekend being moved to Edinbourugh.

If the money were guarenteed, so long as they agreed to play 'on the road' they'd get the nod. If they got the nod over Widnes (as both clubs stand today) the whole of RL should be outraged.

Sadly that would not be the case. Many would gloat.

As is the way with rugby league today we would have many gloaters, many prescribing to any old tosh the RFL told them and more negativity within the widnes club than ever before. I'm not sure we'd ever recover, we have done everything a club in this division possibly could. If they keep us out, thats a clear message to any club that you simply cannot be promoted, ever, unless it is politically right to do so. Which for a team based in the heartlands, will never happen.

Feeder teams are a the most disrespectful of things they have ever introduced, I include forced mergers in that. You have teams 130 years old being little more than a slave to a team lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I wont ever watch one. It's not a club anyway, its a reserve team. Im not interested in watching a reserve team to a leech.

I echo what I said a year ago. I hope the RFL gets into such trouble over all this crap that they have to abandon it all. They are incredibly disrespectful to ancient clubs which have been supported by their communities for many years and the supporters, many of whom have been fans of the club for generations. My old man had a saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". Now he might have just been saying that so he could make a pun on the name Ferdinand, but that holds a lot of truth. Having clubs die just so you can risk it all on ill thought out ventures elsewhere is ing suicide. There are a lot of lapsed fans who could be coaxed back much much easier than getting new fans away from their kickball. (and soccer as well.)

Rant over.

For now.

I've always laughed at Rugby Union and County Cricket from the point of view that right in the middle of their league season any number of their first team could be called away for any amount of time to play in some international competition. I've always thought how Fucked off I would be to be one of their fans going into a big game knowing that some of your best players are off somewhere else!!!

Now it looks dangerously as though that could happen here... you're playing well and then at the whim of someone else you could lose a player or number of players off somewhere else!!