It will be very interesting in the Championship next season with only the top side being promoted

How will Widnes (with their £500k parachute payment)
Toronto(With their dream of buying a SL place at all costs,With a sprinkling of NRL talent,but also a club stacked with mainly "SL has been's" at present and also a poor coach IMO in Rowley)
Toulouse(probably the best side to watch in the championship this year)
All shape up for their big chance of SL for 2020?

Which of these 3 clubs will go for the golden ticket and push the boat out next year, knowing full well that this could be their last chance saloon for a while of a chance of reaching SL ?

Which sides out of those championship clubs that don't prevail and make SL in 2020 will still be strong enough to mount a challenge for SL in 2021?

Thoughts and your predictions guys

Widnes I don't give a chance. Toronto for me will make it next year as long as they make the correct coach change

Likewise that’s key for Widnes, come up with a good coach appointment and they could be in with a shot however gut feeling is that it’ll be a bit of a meh appointment.

Anybody know of any front runners for the Widnes post?

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Rowley?

There are a lot of rumours flying about that McDermott is being lined up to take over at Toronto, if he does that puts them as favourites imo. I don’t rate Rowley.

Widnes had £1.8M this year, they didn’t do too well with that. I don’t see them been a powerhouse with £1.3M less.

I expect Toronto to win the league at a canter again. However as we saw last week anything can happen in a one off game and promotion will be decided by the Championship Grand Final

Behind Toronto it’s up for grabs, Toulouse, Widnes, Halifax, Bradford, Featherstone, Leigh (if they are still in existence)

Purtill and Henderson

I don’t think Widnes will be as bad next year they were hit hard with injury’s & had to use a lot of youngsters. They will have learned a lot & with a bit of leadership will be stronger side for it. If Toulouse can get a couple of big forwards they will challenge. Toronto will have a big clear out I feel, so it will depend on who comes in & can the coach who ever it is make a team from the individuals.

Widnes I hope.

FUnny that because I see Toronto and their fat mercenaries imploding big time - in fact I’ll give you a £10 bet for charity on it.

It will be between Widnes and Toronto with daylight between them and the rest of the league

Regards

King James

Your predictions aren't really the best though are they?

I'd love it to be Bradford, but I feel it will be Toronto.

There'll be some Toronto players playing at London, Salford and Hull KR next season.

So i'll be putting my money on Bradford York or Toulouse now you've predicted that.

It's not the top side that gets promoted. There is a top 5 play off system like in SL so anyone in that top 5 can gain promotion.

I think Toronto would naturally be the favourites to finish as league leaders, but it's early days and there is a whole Autumn and Winter of personnel changes that are about to happen.

Widnes are an interesting one. I don't see anything there that would particuarly excite me - morale at the club seems to be rock-bottom and I can see some of their better young players being looked at closely by some Super League clubs.

It will be interesting to see how heavily the likes of Bradford and York back themselves, and Toulouse will be a team worth watching.

But when promotion comes down to an 80 minute play-off, I don't think there's much to choose between the top teams.

Is this "promotion series" going to be shown on Sky ?
There should be some cracking games in there, especially if Leigh and Fev can be competitive.
Unless the wheels come of a Toronto, you would have to expect them to dominate the league but, play offs can certainly produce a few upsets and there is no guarantee that that the club finishing top of the pile will gain promotion.

I would like to think so. The qualifier games were far more entertaining than the majority of the super 8 games this season.

Agreed.
Thankfully, it's all been consigned to the history books and we wont have to try and explain the system to anyone, ever again

yep and by finishing 5th you still have a chance of being promoted into super league

who's going to put his name to this one

Until the next hair brained scheme that is!!

Yup, in the same way that you can finish 5th in SL and win the Grand Final. ATEOTD, every club knows what they're playing/aiming for at the start of the season, however mad it is!

Yes I'm aware of that and I worded my question wrong by saying 1 up and 1 down.(instead of 1 up via a play off series) although the point still remains that only 1 side will be promoted.

IMO 2019 is the best opportunity for certain sides like Widnes to gain promotion as they will find it more difficult the year after funding wise to push again for promotion

This situation is ridiculous. We need both Toronto and Toulouse in Super League. The new system makes that impossible for 2020. Until we go to licensing and a 14 team Super League the game will not reach its potential.