IMG Give Seven Clubs Grade A Status Seven Betfred Super League clubs have been awarded Grade A status in the indicative phase of the new club grading process that is being introduced as part of Rugby League Commercial and IMG’s ‘Reimagining Rugby League’ strategy. Leeds Rhinos lead the way, following detailed analysis of every club’s performance under five pillars – On-Field Performance, Fandom, Finances, Stadium and Community. But they are run very close by three other clubs with Wigan Warriors, St Helens and Catalans Dragons all close behind. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

IMG Give Seven Clubs Grade A Status Seven Betfred Super League clubs have been awarded Grade A status in the indicative phase of the new club grading process that is being introduced as part of Rugby League Commercial and IMG’s ‘Reimagining Rugby League’ strategy. Leeds Rhinos lead the way, following detailed analysis of every club’s performance under five pillars – On-Field Performance, Fandom, Finances, Stadium and Community. But they are run very close by three other clubs with Wigan Warriors, St Helens and Catalans Dragons all close behind. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

I'd say the B grades are where the story is here.

Cas fans are incandescent with rage, by all accounts.

Just been looking at the winners & losers.

This season, I'd say the winners are Wigan & Leigh.

Fuming that IMG can see right through "we promise we'll build a new ground if you give us a license, honest?"

In reality stadium scores are only a pretty small part of the overall rankings.

Cas havent offered much on the field either in recent years (nor have Hull before any shouts up) and while crowds are impressive given the size of the town theres little chance of growth.

Speaking entirely neutrally, I think based on those gradings we should expand SL to 14 teams. I have not in any way seen where Bradford rank and I refute any suggestions otherwise.

Cas haven’t really offered much of anything in general, in recent years. They had a few good years on the field under Powell, but won nothing. The facilities are a constant issue, they’re one of the only super league clubs that haven’t properly upgraded in some capacity. You’re still looking at the same facilities that Frano Botica and Sean Edwards used to grace.

No doubt some Cas fan will pipe up though because the bog walls have been repainted a few times since.

Cas won the LLS by a then record 10 points in 2017 under Powell.

That’s funny, it’s not mentioned on the super league website, in terms of past winners of the competition.

It only mentions grand final winners.

Now, I wonder why that is.

Cas are a solid SL club. Kicking them out because of a cack-handed spreadsheet exercise would be crazy in my view.

I love how Castleford are appealing against their own incompetence in submitting the wrong information.

The funny thing about all this is that we went through the exact same song and dance around 14 years ago. I remember Richard Lewis on sky sports proudly hailing the introduction of licensing and the new grading system.

I wonder how long it’ll take to abolish it this time.

You said they had won nothing. I'm merely pointing out they won one of the three available trophies as recently as 2017.

To be honest, I'm firmly in the camp that says the LLS should get more kudos than it does whatever it says on the SL website.

I get the distrust after that. They chucked a massive amount of credibility and good faith in the bin.

I understand why people thought they might fiddle with the system or come up with an exemption for London.

But so far they haven’t and the basis of assessment is transparent and objective.

We’ve done everything else before too.

Wigan & Workingtons badge the same. This IMG $h!te need to be rid of ASAP! Nothing but a bunch of clowns the F**ing lot of em.

Maybe thats a new gimmic, the SLchampions have to start again in League1 and battle back

They’ve been to a grand final which is more than Leigh can say,

Well, that's the deck chairs thoroughly rearranged (again)...

What a delectable medley of rugby league splendour.

Really? Perhaps you could point to it. All the anger I can see is aimed at the club, unless that is what you meant. I do realise it is fashionable for every reaction to be reported OTT these days.

I think grading is worse than P+R, and it will continue the sniping and culture of putting down other clubs down, when one of the few unique selling points that Rugby League has (and the one that has made an indent into mainstream culture) is the "sense of community". If this puts off players and fans from some clubs, and many of those left just hates each other even more that's going to be gone too.

We have a history of kicking clubs out of the top division for "other reasons" (dawn of Super league, licensing, geographical expansion, gradings, etc) and it doesn't do the teams dropping down/kicked out any good. Then later when one of the chosen few fails we have to find a gap to fill and those "unfashionable" clubs have been intentionally weakened.

The grading clearly shows there are more than enough clubs who could make a go of it in Super League than there are places, even if they expand it (which they won't, and in my opinion they shouldn't). Therefore it is unfair to block some clubs from entry on anything other than results on the field.

A problem I can see with this idea is at the end of seasons people are going to get the spreadsheets out rather than concentrate on the action, itll be like 'if Cas win their last game and move up a place and open a new disabled area and Tolouse lose the score will go up 0.15' yawn

And then the SL chairmen will have another meeting in the captains nest and declare more loop games are the answer and steer the boat back towards the iceberg