here here.

I read this forum daily but don't post very often; however, I have to say that this is the best, most intelligent, post I have seen on this forum in a very long time.

Me too

The Fev chairman gambled with the future of his club, whichever team out of them and Bradford did not make the top 4 would have been in deep do do. Although im not happy with where the club is at this moment in time the reality is I would rather have a steady ship than be in Bradford's position. As has also been said, are Fev any near to SL than us?

I posted before seeing this. Exactly.

The constant knockers only highlight the negatives, the BOD this the coach that but never offer an alternative or a viable solution.
Like I said name the millionaire waiting to take over.
Name the coach that could do any better under the circumstances.
Name the missing star player/players we could sign.
Never an answer because there aren't any.
The real bad news for the game as a whole is there are already moves being considered to change things again in favor of the SL clubs.
Mr Wigan has commented that the Championship is not a strong competition with only a couple of clubs capable of getting into SL and even if they did would not bring anything so the current format should be scrapped.
He is concerned his crowds are down because of the current 8's structure and wants changes to happen, the fat controller agrees so watch this space because whatever they decide will have everything currently outside SL a distinct second best.

Boom.

Haha! You won't spend your hard earned money ? But your happy moaning about the BOD not spending their hard earned money. We all have a responsibility to support our club. Every little helps as the saying goes. RM is a decent coach and working with the skill levels of players available.

Marshalls a good coach, quite simply he hasn't the tools for the job. Players coming back from close season unfit and overweight, halfbacks who can't be d and need to go, forwards who couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding.

Too many players here who are just going through the motions, if you are a professional sportsman you should strive to be the best that you can be, after all we as fans pay £20 a week to watch you that pays your wages.

What a fantastic post, I whole heartily agree. I am on the Fax Trust board because I care and believe in the future of the club and want them to succeed. I take the rough with the smooth and although some fans think having a reserve grade is a waste of time, I believe that some of these young lads are the future of our club. 5 players progressed to the first team last season which to me proves how worthwhile it is! So please, to those oozing negativity, let's focus on the broader picture and the future of the club!

Very true, I think RM is a good Coach, I like watching Fax and will continue to do so,as you say without Finance and a quality Squad his hands are tied, SL is soley interested in itself and doesn't care about Clubs outside SL, we at Leigh have been lucky to have Derek B, I'm not sure another Club can mirror what we achieved last season.

I was at the Shay on Sunday and felt a lot of the Fans feel a bit negative towards the Club, people like yourself, Lucky Black Cat and Living the Dream are the lifeblood of Clubs outside SL, I applaud you, it's not easy ,my concern last week was the lack of youngsters attending, they are the future,we at Leigh have so many coming to our games,I realise it's easy to talk when it doesn't affect your Club, but it's not that long since we were in a similar if not worse state,I think if the Fax players took on board a bit of Tyrer and Ben Kaye enthusiasm, you will be OK..Good Luck for the rest of the season.I may be there again on Sunday.

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The club did an excellent free season ticket for under 16s last season and there was around a 500 takeup,unfortunately the way the season panned out meant the vast majority had lost interest by the end.

Losing all those games back end of last season in the every minute counts league did a hell of a lot of damage to this season.

And me, too many moaners & not enough doers as i found out when i was a fixture sec & on the committee of my local amateur club,belated congrats to Luke Ambler+ Ben Kaye on their 200th Career appearance last Sunday

Are there any good Reserves who might come through this year ?

Are people wanting a reserve team for the sake of it? Any player worth their salt is snapped up by other clubs as we can't compete. I think at this level reserve teams don't pay off.

If you have a reserve team then this encourages local talent to play for the local club. if you dont they will go to other clubs who have reserve sides to get a good level of rugby. The reserve competition has some good sides in it this year St. Helen's, Warrington Wolves, Hull etc. Coming from South Wales we dont have the same problem down there as there is only one club to follow so youngsters want to be there. A few have moved North to be at SL Academy's but not many, Local youngsters want to play for the local club and a reserve team helps them to achieve that, not all reserve players will be good enough to make the step up but surely the last thing Halifax supporters want is a good local youngster coming back to play against the team with another team because they ran a reserve set up.

You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. We've lost some good reserves to SL clubs after we played them and they thought 'he's good, let's have him' but looking at last season we gave a few lads their chance and they took it well. I think if you run a reserve outfit outside SL you almost have to accept that your turnover of players will be high as SL clubs come and poach. You can't blame the lads for trying to make the most out of a relatively short career

But what if the likes of Morgan Punchard and Chester Butler do make it and want to play for their local club at the highest level then surely it will have been worth it. Yes you will lose players to Super League but that how life is you get offered a better job you take it or sometimes you stay where you are because you like the people you work for or the place you work and are appreciated. Swings and roundabouts some you retain some you loose but i would want players who want to play for the club rather than players who are directed to play through Dual Reg.

I think we agree with each other

I think we do

Apart from the young players who have a chance of coming through the ranks having a reserve side gives the other players at the club who are already at first team standard a chance to play if they are not currently in the first team for whatever reason, be it coming back from injury or whatever.
It may seem a contradiction though that since we are skint how we can run a reserve side with the importance of finishing in the top and the first team not looking strong enough.

[Not sure how much it costs to run the Reserve side. Halifax RLFC independent supporters trust raise money to help run the side i believe and not sure but dont think reserves get paid. they train on same nights as 1st team so wouldn't have thought extra funds needed for training facilities

Yes it is the supporters trust who raise the money and do a cracking job, I thought the figured was around £25,000 but could be wrong.
In the past I believe the trust asked the club what they would like the funds to be used for and the reserves were chosen.
I have sponsored reserve team players in the past but lost my job last year so couldn't afford to help out for this season but drop a few quid in the bucket at home games now I am back in work.
The club must have thought it through before this season started because retaining the reserves was in doubt at one stage, whether the extra money would have strengthened the first team sufficiently we will never know.

I'm expecting Punchard to be in the squad soon. The 6/7 combo needs a change at some point