He's not on loan!

I know, realised as soon as I posted it



Deleted the post, not quite quick enough

Not sure about that, without checking the RFL rules though I am pretty certain that Kevin Lockes salary sits on Wakefield's cap regardless of whether they pay him that or not.

Well I think Leythers (including Paul Rowley) should stop moaning and get on with it.

We knew the rules before the season started. AFAIK no rules have been broken and Wakey have only done what anybody else in their position would have done. We ourselves have done it, even including paying a 50k transfer fee for a player which is virtually unheard of these days. Sure there is an imbalance in funding, but we have had the benefit of an imbalance all season long in the Championship.

It seems to me to a lot of Leythers these last 2 matches have been a rude awakening and now all sorts of excuses are coming out of the woodwork which there have been no mention of before. We even had Leythers embarrassing us on other forums blaming the referee for our result at Salford.

If we don't make SL it will be because we weren't good enough. Then we'll have to wait and see what happens next year.

(Blue touch paper lit, stands well back)

That's fair enough.But unless the salary cap increases for clubs outside of SL, I'm afraid we might just be flogging a dead horse.

Well I agree with that. Whatever happens I'll still be watching the Leythers.

I think you are right and to a certain extent I do sympathise as it is a massive task to be expected to compete with the discrepancy between the two caps. This raises then then question of whether a team in the Championship should be allowed to spend more if they can afford it. However, Leigh would still be in a similar situation where they were hammering the opposition all year, then having to cope with the increased intensity for the middle 8s.

Well this would give a slightly better chance if that was the case.

The intensity of the league around us is the problem, I think the difference in finances can be overcome.

The only potentially practical solution I've come up with would be to reduce SL to 10 teams, which would introduce another 2 full-time teams to the Championship whilst also freeing £2m/season to fund other clubs in the Championship. This could result in a Championship league with as many as 5-8 full-time squads. That should raise the playing bar significantly.

Obviously the middle 8 format would then need to be adapted.

You would then have a bigger 'have' and 'have not' situation. I find it somewhat tiresome that fans who were gloating when their cash advantaged team was battering the poorer Championship teams and now they are bleating because they are losing to teams with more cash than them.

BTW, good post Pat.

I think that this subject has kind of run it's course now, but I wish to throw out a slightly different question.

Next season, SL clubs get a Marquee signing outside of the cap, obviously within it's own cap, how much is this Marquee signing amount & if Championship Clubs are not allowed a Marquee signing as I believe they are not, will this just make the gap & therefore task of gaining promotion even greater.

As far as tomorrows match is concerned, I expect Leigh will put in a much stronger performance, but ultimately I fear a narrow-ish loss, maybe 6 to 10 point margin.

For next season, I expect the RFL will impose a recruitment cut off period on all teams to avoid this seasons debacle, personally I feel 4 to 6 weeks to be fair, then it wouldn't be so much of an issue.

Hope both sets of fans enjoy the match, but Leigh fans more so than Wakey obviously.

See you all in the North Stand.

That's being negative. What would you like then? Let's leave it as it is, and then the 4 SL clubs go back up, and then the same happens next year, and then they say THIS ISN'T WORKING, then go back to franchise,and then will we be satisfied then. FWIW we are discussing the issues that are unfolding,and giving opinions on how we can improve the chances of clubs outside of SL a realistic chance to get into SL. IMO it as unfolded to be a bit of a farce, but it is what it is and we have to get on with it. there are 5 games to go and i sincerely hope we can get promoted. COYL

"It has unfolded to be a bit of a farce", possibly but that is based on two poor performances when some of the 'stars' were found out to be poor against good opposition. A few weeks ago this new set up was the best thing since sliced bread and we were charging up to the Super League.

The Qualifiers can't be judged so early by anyone. Yeah, it gives the likes of Wakefield a second chance at staving off relegation; but that apart, it's a chance for a Leigh to maybe get into the big time again. And when was the last time we had that opportunity?

If we beat Wakey tomorrow things will look differently again.

All this talk of superior salary caps, etc, isn't going to change anything.

At the very worst, Leigh can easily finish 5th in this mini league. And who in the whole of rugby league wouldn't fancy us in a one-off match?

All to play for, people! ALL to play for.

BeLEIGHve.

I don't think the farce as been based on our two recent poor performances.

FWIW. I think we are better than those last two games, and PR & Co have done a magnificent job with the resources available, and i don't think we are that far off.

At the end of the day, it's given us (and Bradford, Halifax, and Sheffield) something to aim at. That's more than we had under franchising. At the moment, all four Championship teams are 'off the pace', plus the bottom four SL teams have woken up to what awaits them if they mess up these qualifiers.

However, if any of the four Championship teams can up their game, we could still have an embarrassed SL team or two, in there.

As for the 'uneven playing field' and lack of a signing deadline, hopefully these are issues that can/will be addressed before next season. However, whilst they do seem to be issues at the moment. the whole set of qualifiers has to be played out, before tweaks to the system can be discussed.

For me the transfer deadline day needs moving to an earlier date to stop very late signings (I suspect the RFL will do that)aside from that I'm not sure much needs changing and hopefully more clubs in the Championship will be able to afford full time squads meaning that competition gets better.

Leigh are a very good side and I think we'll start to see that in the remaining games, Wakefield are rightly huge favourites and fully expected to win tomorrow but our boys can play a bit and if we get the 50/50's and a bit of luck anything can happen in our 3rd game on the bounce v SL teams.

Nothing to be negative about as I'd take this every time over the years of 'Play off RL' we have endured without promotion being in our (or any other clubs)hands.
Hopefully Wakefield will be bringing a decent away support and we'll have another cracking afternoon at the LSV with the place bouncing.

It's James Child, anything could happen!

As I stated earlier, anyone who thinks the new Wakey signings are better than what they had previously, needs to seek help!!

Just got a 'better coach' now, and are giving 101% in the Qulaifiers, rather than in SL, where they were wooden spoonists after just a few months.

I'm really disappointed by the sudden negativity emanating from the club. Both from the board and the coach about the difference in salary cap between the two leagues and the end of season signings by Wakefield et al. This negative clearly has an affect on the team and we need to move away from that return to the positivity that eminated from the club over the past two years.

I would say it's not negativity! It's feedback.And to endorse the feedback (if the opportunity becomes available) you would do it in front of the cameras.

Don't forget that this is all skewed by the defeatist negative attitude of Wakefield who gave up on getting out of the bottom four before the season was less than half way through. You can understand it with 3 or 4 games to go but with more than 10? Teams with ambitions like that have no place in the elite of our sport.

It's irrelevant what Wakefield have done. The club as a whole is spending too much energy talking about things out of our control. The only thing we should be talking about is what we do, not others. Negativity is dangerous, it's like a cancer that can quickly spread throughout the club. We need to knock it on the head quickly and start focusing on the positives before we implode.

We have a lot of successful business men involved with the club now. They wouldn't let this happen in their businesses, so please stop it happening at the club.

I agree with that, there are no positive vibes coming out of the club, it must have an effect on the players. They should be chomping at the bit to get at Wakefield not having to prepare listening to moans about level playing fields and registrations. I hope, come three o'clock, that they are totally focussed.