But what does the talented half of your partnership (Mr Richards) think?

Unfortunately I don't think we'll win a game in the Qualifiers either but I hope to be proven wrong. But, it has to be said, I did predict Sheffield to finish 5th before the split so I have been wrong before and will be again.
1. Widnes
2. Hull KR
3. Salford
4. Wakefield (Losers of £1m game)
5. Leigh (Winners of £1m game)
6. Bradford
7. Halifax
8. Sheffield

I've gone against my pre-season prediction that there'd be no Championship club promoted for next season. After watching Leigh play in the Challenge Cup against three SL sides, albeit in 'one-off games', I think they'll move on up to the top tier after slipping up a few times in the regular Qualifiers campaign.

The Qualifiers Prediction via the18thman.com - the18thman.com/2015/07/29/the-qu ... rediction/

The Qualifiers Prediction via the18thman.com - the18thman.com/2015/07/29/the-qu ... rediction/

Thanks.

We like being underestimated.

Also,we really,really,like the whole world and its mother backing all our opponents,especially the governing body representatives who were involved with our first opponents when 'iconic' Odsal was saved [url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/9490230.RFL_s_surprise_swoop_to_buy_Odsal_Stadium/In The Interests Of The Wider Game[/url


[url=http://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/news/post/solly-expecting-big-things-from-the-bullsSolly[/url

Yes it was a surprise to me that the RFL didn't step in and buy Don Valley to help the Eagles to carry on playing in Sheffield -they have after all supported the development of the game in Englands 5 th largest city fairly consistantly over the years - consistantly poorly that is.

Hi Angelic, that article was subsequently proven to be dripping with untruths. There never were any vultures as the ground was already owned by the BMDC with an RL covenant on it. What later emerged was that the RL had secretly loaned Peter Hood £700k without insisting on a shareholders meeting or even a basic audit and at the time of the sale of the lease the Bulls had not made one single repayment. The RL effectively seized the lease to secure its debt and made the various attempts at rescuing the club from administration almost impossible.

Why they lent money to Hood who was utterly inept, is one of the great uncovered scandals of RL. The RL should have bought the Don Valley stadium though and put a similar amount of effort in as they did in South Wales in my view.

Don Valley was a dead duck. Nobody in their right mind would have bought it as it would never make any money. It was a terribly designed stadium, and after the World Student Games (what it was built for), there was simply no afterthought as to what on earth the city of Sheffield was going to do with this white elephant.

I'm just hoping now that work begins on the new ground soon.

Well said.

Hi M@islebugs,
I recall reading your articulate posts during the saga involving the RFL,various owners,administrators etc.plus the announcements and wondering why the same assistance was not given to Wakefield.
With regard to South Wales that particular crime also had RFL fingerprints and a smoking gun - not only the parachuting in of Brian Noble and Jon Sharpe - who,when he left,was given a nice new job at the RFL - but the former in-house RFL solicitor Rod Findlay also had a position at that club.
I do wonder if the RFL troubleshooters,led by Steve Ferres,were responsible for finding the replacement owners for Leighton Samuels and they uprooted the club from Bridgend to Wrexham and then handed the club over to individuals even the soccer fans warned against.
Anyway,I think they say follow the team forget the regime.( Or similar.)
I hope your new signings fail to be moulded into a successful side for the first Qualifier and the outrageous partisan statement from Blake Solly comes back to haunt him - a bit like the final administrator - [url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/29819/bradford-bulls-new-owner-confirmedThis Wilson Fella[/url
[url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/11826621.UPDATE__Former_Bulls__owner_wins_court_victory_against_administrator/Also Lost Out[/url

It's a bit unfair to say that Don Valley was "terribly designed" and there was "simply no afterthought what ... Sheffield was going to do". It was designed the way it was because those were the requirements of the World Student Games, with the field events area between the main stand and the finishing straight. The intention was that that it would then be used as the main northern athletics stadium, taking over from Gateshead which had much poorer facilities. Unfortunately that was not the way that the British athletics establishment decided to go, so there was no attempt to build up an athletics fan base which would have justified the 25,000 capacity (again a requirement of the World Student Games). Even though the spectator facilities were good enough to handle 50,000 plus crowds for the Stones etc., it was clearly not an ideal stadium for rugby.

The new proposals are much more realistic, so here's looking forward to a decent run in these qualifiers, a good full time season in 2016, and qualification for Super League in our nice new stadium in 2017.