FWIW : Mon Oct 05, 2015 5:05 pm  

As a Wakey fans I'm just relieved. I felt we were the better team on the day but by a small amount. Good game actually.

I just want to say that all this gnashing of teeth and Jims outburst is irrelevant to me. Truth is neither of us should be in SL - Leigh should.

Wakey have been rubbish all year and didn't really deserve a second chance but to be fair we took it and you can't ask for much more than that. After 15 SL seasons we've had a shock to the system which hopefully we won't forget.

Ditto Bradford, for a team that is still largely SL standard personal wise you've never been the top team in the comp all year - Leigh have and by some distance. So you can't really complain, if anything the play offs did you and Lowes a favour because if it had been straight P&R you'd have been nowhere near.

Think Wakefield need to shape up or ship out and stop wasting everyones time and the Bulls need to realise that despite all the iconic nonsense they have no god given right and they will have to work a lot harder than this season to get back up.

What a life.

Re: FWIW : Mon Oct 05, 2015 5:33 pm  

We've definitely reaped what we've sown and for that we will have to cut our cloth accordingly.

Re: FWIW : Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:06 pm  

I’m a bit despondent at the moment, so excuse the rant.

By stating that the Bulls or Wakefield don't deserve that spot is probably true, but I can't see how Leigh should have it either. Leigh had a great season, and a great cup run, and with their fantastic record of wins at home the regular season did them proud. But it wasn't really about the regular season though was it? Lowes stated aim was to finish in the top 2 and that's what he did. If he had to finish first I'm sure that's what he would have gone balls out to do. As it was he didn't have to, and didn't. And as the wheels so spectacularly fell off Leighs middle 8 campaign when it really mattered, I can't see why you think they should have gone up in place of teams who got results when it mattered.

As a Bulls fan, personally I feel SL a tainted promotion anyway. By now most clubs have made their signings, leaving what's left to, well, us. If promoted I could have seen us struggle, much as I see Wakey will, albeit probably with us spending the full salary cap. Hell, I’ve seen enough defeats through our last season in SL (even though we did beat Wakefield twice ) without sitting through it all again. But looking at it that way makes it all seem pretty pointless, right?

It’s only with the expensive (and media dominant) Rugby Union World cup, and the thoroughly thrilling NRL Premiership finals that I realise how stale and biased the UK system is. Since 1998, 11 different teams have won the NRL Premiership. Since the inception of SL only 4 teams have ever won, and even now after possibly the dullest SL season ever, the final is contested between Leeds and Wigan. Again. From a neutral perspective, where is the interest?

And next year, who is going to be up there in the top 4? Hull? Widnes? Wakefield? Nope, I’ll paint my ar$e blue and eat hay with a donkey if it’s not same 2/3 teams as ever. Why is the NRL such a competition and SL not?

And yeah, I know the Bulls had it once and blew it. But that wasn’t the fans fault. I’ve paid more than I should to see (and save) my team, but after a season of hammering part-timers, more poor excuses, and then defeat in a system stacked against introducing new/different teams I’m more jaded now then I was through all the financial turmoil of recent years.

Re: FWIW : Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:11 pm  

Bully_Boxer wrote:

We've definitely reaped what we've sown and for that we will have to cut our cloth accordingly.

We are always cutting our cloth, it,s about time we had a bit of luck

Re: FWIW : Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:44 pm  

As a 'Leyther', I can well understand the mixed emotions of Wakefield fans and the despondency of Bradford fans, whose team came so near to getting back into SL. I'm despondent too, at how our team totally blew it in the Qualifiers. (was it arrogance, exhaustion, poor tactics, unrest over impending arrivals and departures? Who knows, but we had better learn from it!)

However, we all knew the rules before we embarked on this season, and the simple truth is that Wakefield deserved to retain their SL place, because they eventually finished fourth in the Qualifiers, as per the laid down rules. Had Bradford won last Saturday, then they would have deserved to go up, as per the laid down rules.

Roll on next season, and good luck to the Wildcats and Bulls - but not too much good luck, eh?!

Re: FWIW : Mon Oct 05, 2015 9:02 pm  

Alan wrote:

As a 'Leyther', I can well understand the mixed emotions of Wakefield fans and the despondency of Bradford fans, whose team came so near to getting back into SL. I'm despondent too, at how our team totally blew it in the Qualifiers. (was it arrogance, exhaustion, poor tactics, unrest over impending arrivals and departures? Who knows, but we had better learn from it!)

However, we all knew the rules before we embarked on this season, and the simple truth is that Wakefield deserved to retain their SL place, because they eventually finished fourth in the Qualifiers, as per the laid down rules. Had Bradford won last Saturday, then they would have deserved to go up, as per the laid down rules.

Roll on next season, and good luck to the Wildcats and Bulls - but not too much good luck, eh?!

Fair shout Alan; and if the system stays as it is I reckon our three teams are damned to an eternity of playing each other in the Qualifiers until hell freezes over (no disrespect to any other teams). Do we deserve to be in the Championship - yes, because we didn't win on Saturday. Do we have a God-given right to be in the SL - no - no team does.
Is it fair - that's irrelevant, because its what the RL decide, and our teams have to jump through whatever hoop the RL hold up.

[Bulliac]

Re: FWIW : Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:42 pm  

I think it's fair to say that, had promotion depended on being top of the early bit of league games and not in the eights, then that is where we would have concentrated the effort.

for Leigh, I think they are a good side and with a few additions would have done OK in SL. Their team was good enough but the tactics were poor imo. You can keep slinging the ball around in the championship and your mistakes will, like as not, go unpunished, but the SL teams will burn you. Leigh need to learn that when in a winning position [as they were a couple of times against SL opposition in the eights] then you close the game down and play the percentages - had they done so, it may well have been them in the MPG.

Re: FWIW : Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:52 pm  

Bulliac wrote:

I think it's fair to say that, had promotion depended on being top of the early bit of league games and not in the eights, then that is where we would have concentrated the effort.

for Leigh, I think they are a good side and with a few additions would have done OK in SL. Their team was good enough but the tactics were poor imo. You can keep slinging the ball around in the championship and your mistakes will, like as not, go unpunished, but the SL teams will burn you. Leigh need to learn that when in a winning position [as they were a couple of times against SL opposition in the eights] then you close the game down and play the percentages - had they done so, it may well have been them in the MPG.

I agree with all that Bulliac. People have suggested that Leigh deserved to go up 'because they finished top of the Championship'. However, if that had been the laid down rule at the beginning of the season, there is absolutely no guarantee that Leigh would have finished top. (in fact we would have probably finished fourth, and then won all our 'play off' games'! )

Talking of play off rugby - what we had in the Championship prior to this season - did you know that we didn't win a play off game (often with two attempts per season) from 2004, until 2014?! Maybe our attempts in the Qualifiers this season, were doomed before we started!