as iv'e said before,iv'e little interest in watching leigh in a league called SLE limited reguardless of how they get there.but if thats what the club wants then i'll go with it for now.i personally would love the people who run the sle limited organisation to pull up the drawbridge and be done with it.at least that way we all know were we stand instead of being left hanging around like little oliver twist <please sir can i have some more>.

Bugs me every time I see this type of statement - it implies that every club is expected to continually improve every year until after 100 years you are bigger than Real Madrid. It never happens like that. Leigh have had many years of success and decent crowds for most of its existence - but in the last 20 years or so we have fallen on hard times. It is not reasonable to compare Leigh and Crusaders. Crusaders have started off reasonably well but it is early days yet - can they survive the lean times like Leigh have (without the RFL bending over backwards) - because they will definitely come for every club..

how right you are.

the sad thing is they dont realise how ridiculous they sound when they continually come out with it.

That is it in a nutshell, the way to go.

Wigan finished top of the Super League, can't go any higher, fans are happy.
Leigh East finished top of the Conference, cant go any higher, fans are happy.

If Leigh Centurions finish top of the Championship, can't go any higher, fans should be happy, shouldn't they?

yes

Spot on , we are not in a golden era of watching live sport as we were between the turn of the century until the 80's when TV finally overtook the world , right now is THE most difficult time for any sports club not in the spotlight , we have our history , which some will claim is a positive , but it is also a hindrance , the Crusaders don't have any ' negatives ' in their past , they are currently on an upward curve , from a baseline start

They have no ' level ' to be judged against , no ' expectation ' to match , everything they achieve is something new , and therefore can be construed as good

This is why I constantly suggest we need ' new ' fans rather than ' ex , lapsed ' ones , we have to start to think like a new club , like an expansion club , with no pre conceived idea's as to what we ' do '

Very difficult question , I'll Need to sleep on this one , as I said in my previous post , our history can and does influence our opinion of things , that you cannot change , maybe one day in the future the fans of Leigh will be ' happy ' to be a reasonably successful Championship club

But at this moment with the fans And the memories they have now

No

Are Leeds United fans content to spend the rest of its existence in the Championship? How about Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Notts Forest or 20 to 30 other clubs that have experienced the "top-flight"?
I would be amazed if any of these fans would be! Why - they have tasted being at the top and they have the ambition and drive to get back there. Fans of Mansfield Town and Darlington maybe are not so bothered because they don't have that "pedigree" - they never had it and don't really know what its like.

Try comparing League to virtually ever other team sport going rather than the bizarre way RL has now structured itself.

If that is directed at me - been a Leigh supporter for over 40 years - once a Leyther always a Leyther. To have a professional RL team is North Wales is the best thing to happen to North Wales since the A55 and I can now get home to Leigh in 1.25 hours rather than 2.5.

Many people support a football team and a rugby team so why not 2 rugby teams (they are in different divisions - if both were in the same division there would be no contest - Leigh all the way). Could hardly ignore a professional rugby team on the doorstep after all these years. Yes Crusaders may not last in the long term but it has been great to experience a new and vibrant rugby league team this season - just hope the seeds are now sown. North Wales is crying out for some proper sport.

Have read this board almost daily for years - just occasionally a thread warrants a response, as this one did.

iv'e got no problem with wrexham,quins,catalan,sws,gateshead,scholors or any other club that wants to join the rfl.i dont think i ever have.i hope you enjoy your new club and i hope you enjoy all the benefits that being in the box brings.

Its because Leigh have been in SL that we as fans want Leigh to get there again especially as this time round the club gets more time and not just in/out ,had we never been there then we wouldn't be as bothered i guess

I know what you're getting at but unfortunately the answer for the majority will be no, you can tart it up however you want but this is and always will be seen as the second division, all fans live in the hope that they can see their team play at the highest level their club can achieve, and the only thing fans want to see stopping them reaching that level is their clubs on field effort and commitment not being good enough to achieve it.

If the answer is no, we need a complete rebrand and overhaul of the Conference.

If Miners or Easts win the NC, will they be disappointed because they can't go higher?

The Sydney Leagues seem to manage ok. Time we did, too.

Are both of those clubs not already in their highest league possible.

East and Miners are amateur clubs achieving success at the top level, Leigh Centurions aspirations and those of their fans should be to compete at the top level of pro RL.

Just because the Aussies like it don't make it right, using those rules Newcastle and certainly Blackpool shouldn't be in the Premiership, but they seem to manage ok

Isn't that our problem tho. The thought process of a few being we should be right up there like the olden days, but look where we are.
We are a average club at the level we are at. Aspirations of SL is still there if only we can become a force again at this level. But winning this comp and NRC as trophies not ticks for boxes.

Agree.
100 years has given Leigh 1,200 diehards (in a similar way to what 100 years and a bit more time in the first division / SL in recent years gas given Widnes 3,000 diehards).
Recently Generations in Leigh(and Widnes etc) have grown up following Wigan , Saints or Wire and (as the majority do now) Football.

100 years is totally irrelevant to your average 18 year old from Leigh as the times at the top table havn't been there.

Nearly forgot...
800 is a decent following for a RL team these days (outside the top 4 in SL).
Not sure its a positive for the game in general but definatly a good sign for Crusaders , lets hope the off field dramas have finished and they deliver on a franchise that promised a lot (admittedly a franchise that was designed for another club in another town in mind)

Do the Sydney Leagues Manage ?

They are feeder clubs , they get small localised crowds , have any of them just had a 12,000 capacity stadium just built for them ?

Even they are funded from gambling , they don't ' manage ' , they just provide somewhere for the clubs juniors to play , they are essentially just like Easts and Miners

We have no choice , we double our crowds in the next five years or move from the LSV to Crilly Park as Fred has suggested

I never said we should be right up there, we are currently at the right level, the posts I was replying to implied we should be happy being top dog in this league, my view is we shouldn't be happy until we are sat at the top table, and competing with those around us.

Yeah, but the question was, "If Leigh Centurions finish top of the Championship, can't go any higher, fans should be happy, shouldn't they?"

If we can't go any higher (at least by winning the Championship), then we are by definition in the highest league possible (certainly at that point).

Miners or Easts could use the fact that they are champions as a launchpad to apply to be in Championship 2... or, if the whole game moves to summer rugby, perhaps there WILL be a pyramid in which Miners and Easts can go up. We are the only sport that has licencing for its top division, true, but we are also the only sport that plays its pro comp and its top amateur comp in diametrically opposite times of year. That seems to me to be a more fundamental problem in creating a meritocratic league structure than the licencising system...

(ducks for cover)

No probs ... so why bring the East and the Miners into the equation when they are not denied promotion into a higher division, with franchising being an obstacle.

I`ve no problem watching a successful Championship Leigh side and IMO could n`t give a rats rse about SL, however I`d much prefer the governing body to decide that the drawbridge of SL is finally over, rather than changing the criteria when it suits. I fully understand the needs of SKY to sell dishes and to increase viewing figures but to be the influencing factor in to how our sport runs the game is sad.



Thats irrelevant ......... The Miners or East have no right to passage into Championship 1 ........ The professional tier of our sport goes SLE,Championship and Champ 1.

Regards the licensing process why does n`t the RFL adopt this system into all of the 3 tiers of RFL. If they`re so convinced that this way of thinking is the correct way to manage/stabilise our clubs , surely this should be the blueprint for the future of RL.

Well some of us remember the 1971 Challenge Cup Final and our 1981/2 Championship crown.

We are still watching our team now and know we had a chance of lifting the NRC Cup this season. We also know we have blown our chance of a Grand Final appearance this season.

We also know that whatever happens for the next 3 seasons we will still be outside the top flight whatever our club does on and off the field. We can triple our average attendance it makes no difference to where our club will be.

One season in Superleague and thrashed every week (well almost every week) but still we had better crowds than Salford or what are now known as Harlequins.

There are about 5 clubs in the game now capable of winning the Superleague title. Fact. Same in the footie game for their Premiership.Everyone knows that.

Why do other clubs want to be in the top leagues of these two sports ? Why do fans of those clubs want them to be there ?

In our sport every Superleague club given a favourable draw could win the Challenge Cup no club outside that league can.

Why do I want Leigh in the top league when I know they can't be champions whilst they are in it well it is because I know the club I support can be better than top of the Championship.

A kid in Atherton these days can travel just as quickly to the Piedome as the LSV. Why would such a kid interested in watching top class RL go to the LSV in those circumstances?

Franchising might work on continents but it will never work in a relatively small country with no tradition other than of fair play' promotion and relegation and a complete detestation of something they do not agree with.