it seems to me by reading some comments on the widnes board, that its not only us pancking over a dissapointing end to the season!

especially now 2 of their super dooper league players have gone back to wire



this just shows how close it all is at the top. literally nething can happen over next month!
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COME ON FAX !!!!!!!!!![/size

its still there for the taking!

exactly ryan

if a way im glad weve had a slump, it may be good mental preparation for the playoffs

if weay well and beat sheff tomorrow night everything will start looking rosy again

we need to win tommorow night is the first hurdle we face if we lost tommorow night and barrow beat widnes then i cant see us catching barrow.

see my post on other thread "what a shame" if we don't make GF then so be it our mission is complete box ticked

i find it very sad that rugby league 'the greatest game of all' has reduced itself to fans not being bothered if there team wins the league because they have ticked a box on the path to promotion. no longer does the best team get rewarded for their efforts on the field its more important that sponsors and digniteries (who dont care about the game but just want a free meal) can sit comfortably in the stadiums while real fans get shafted by inflated refreshment prices!!!

The nrc was always a mickey mouse cup which essentially replaced the need for pre-season friendlies but now to make some ££'s for the rfl they came up with this brilliant idea to allow the winners the right to apply for super league and by doing so creating this feeling of apathy from the winning teams supporters for the remainder of the season.

hmm but didnt te RFL also say a team must be consistant? Therefore one cup win won't be enough

Since you can no longer gain promotion to SL by wining a Grand Final, they are both[i 'Mickey Mouse' [/icups. The main incentive for winning a GF was to gain promotion. Now it's all about being able to bid for a SL licence. At least you actually have to win the NRC to qualify. All you have to do is appear in a GF to qualify to make a bid.

To say that Widnes fans don't want to win the GF is ridiculous. It's no longer an imperative for us to gain promotion, therefore not as important, nay vital, as it once was. Both tournaments are a means to a distant ends. Nevertheless, it still gives the club who wins it the honour of being league champions. The NRC has probably gained in significance and, by the same token, the GF has decreased in significance. It is still better to win a GF imo, but neither carry anymore significance to the other in terms of gaining promotion. Other off the field issues, once you have won one or more of these competitions, come into play for that.

I haven't seen or heard this. Obviously competitiveness will be an issue, and a club struggling outside the play off zone for the next two years would be unlikely to get in. One win, depending on the club and yearly league placings, may be enough to win a licence.

If i am not mistaken. The RFL said something like you must contest the top 3 , incase you missed out on one of the finals. How many top 3s is anyones guess. But then thats Red Halahahaha for you .OOP's Too many laughs in that.

i for one am not a fan that follows by them rules, screw super league! screw box ticking!

i wanna win a championship!

the path starts 2morrow nite hopefully

I don't recall hearing anything about top 3's?

What would that mean, given the play-off system?

You could finish 4th in the league table twice and yet get to the semi-final eliminator both times. Would that be regarded as finishing 3rd, or is it just league position?

I think once you have achieved the ability to make a bid, and ticked at least one box, your overall playing strength will be judged, but also along side the off the field side of the club. As long as you finish in a play-off spot each season should be enough, provided that everything else is spot on.

Like you say it's all in the hands of a bunch of numpties at Red Hall whom probably aren't too sure how they're going to judge it anyway. They'll make it up as they go along and put in who they see fit, regardless of criteria and league positions.

The main worry for Widnes fans is not for the immediate future, but a future we face should we fail to get a licence for 2012. That future would seem to be as a feeder club like the rest of the Championship. The more I learn about what's afoot, the more concerned I am about the chance of a heartland club ever getting a licence again from the lower divisions, and the continued existence of once great clubs in these leagues.

I don't like the franchise system but if that's what is the chosen system, you have to live with it.

What is unacceptable is that the system is then not followed where it does give the result the authorities want.

You can guarantee that the clubs who are wanted in Super League will be in whether they meet the criteria or not.

I think the turn of phrase was 'constantly knocking on the door'. Make the rules but keep them open ended thus making said rules a waste of time.