Quote ="charlie"Looks like Cru are staying up; www.crusadersrfl.com/article.php?id=5233'" How fecking presumptuous is that Seriously though, we have signed a few players who I reckon won't stay if we drop - nothing to say we can't sign Thurston if we wanted to. Also Crusaders are a shop window for any Aussie wanting a chance in SL and would soon find a new mug sorry club to take em on (don't actually know who this bloke is tbh).

Quote ="charlie"Looks like Cru are staying up; www.crusadersrfl.com/article.php?id=5233'" How fecking presumptuous is that Seriously though, we have signed a few players who I reckon won't stay if we drop - nothing to say we can't sign Thurston if we wanted to. Also Crusaders are a shop window for any Aussie wanting a chance in SL and would soon find a new mug sorry club to take em on (don't actually know who this bloke is tbh).

Quote ="charlie"Looks like Cru are staying up; www.crusadersrfl.com/article.php?id=5233'" How do they do it?? What do they say to players in australia when they are trying to sign them?? they must guarentee they are playing SL next year or else they would wait until after the franchise is confirmed...it makes you wonder..

Quote ="charlie"Looks like Cru are staying up; www.crusadersrfl.com/article.php?id=5233'" How do they do it?? What do they say to players in australia when they are trying to sign them?? they must guarentee they are playing SL next year or else they would wait until after the franchise is confirmed...it makes you wonder..

Yeah but why would a player sign now if it was in doubt? it seems like nobody will sign for us because our future is in doubt but Crusaders? oh yeah mate I will go there....

Not really, with 10 games or so left it's plenty of time to sell yourself so another SL club will take you regardless of whether Crusaders stay up. That may well be Hickeys plan (see we do it too) however he may have got his image tactics wrong

Hickey did, it's not like our plight was any different 6 month ago - not sure I'm with you on this one

If we do sign a bigish name for next season now and we then don't get a franchise if they are good enough then I am sure another club will come in for them and if we do stay up then they have a contract.

but Hickey signed last year and then must have realised he's that overweight he's got no chance elsewhere so I will go where I signed and honour the deal...

Think thats a bit harsh to salford.

since promotion back to super league 2 years ago we are making progress

- New staidum
- some briliant community initiatives
- some good youth players - ratch, sneyd, clay, etc
- increased our league position every year since we returned

Ok crowds arent ghreat - the club are working hard to address this and hopefully barton will help.

It makes me laugh people expect the clubs to make huge strides in just 2 years......rome wasnt built in a day!

PLus, I think fans of other clubs dont see some of the goo work other clubs do in their own communities

I hope you stay up, I hope its increased to 15 (unlikely) - whoever goes down will rightly feel cheated!

That's fair enough but the point was we are better, except for the Stadium of course - not just better than you but most it would appear. I agree most fans don't see what other clubs do bit like most of us never spot our own team committing fouls. That's why this company ?? has been employed to sort out fact from fiction, we shall see.

Over all I think we have brought to SL more than Salford, certainly so far - just how I see it.

we should get the nod over salford after brooker sorted goulding out.

Brooker

There is one possibility that we may all be overlooking imo . The legue could demote 2 current SL teams in preference for Widnes AND Halifax . This way they could have more justification for their decision and make it very difficult for clubs to mount a serious objection . Wakefield and Crusaders could both be demoted on the grounds of administration . This takes away Wakey's argument that it's unfair they should be the ones to go if Crusaders also went into admin . From a personal point of view it could be us and Wakey on the grounds of broken promises on the stadium front , again if we were both demoted then neither of us could use the counter argument that if Cas ground not built etc then why are Wakey different to us or vice versa . With Halifax already being allowed to re-apply I feel , more and more , that this could be the way RFL are thinking . Demote two clubs on similar grounds and allow Fax in

[url=http://www.redpassion.co.uk/forums/wrexham/75361-wrexham-village-ltd-proposal-strike-off.htmlIt Looks Like The Owners Of Crusaders May Have Issues[/url

Another combination, Crusaders and Cas. Crusaders because of lack of funds and Cas with no stadium and no up-grade of Wheldon Road, now BV is going to be brought up to-date.

I'm feeling pretty positive at the moment, for some reason I think we'll get our franchise, I think the noises we have made are too loud to ignore and they're not just pipe dreams.

You could be right . When you look at the possibility of two teams demoted then there are a number of possible combinations that can be made to sound feasable , but I do feel that if RFL take this approach then they would demote two teams for similar reasons ie admin or grounds etc , as it makes it easier for them to justify

I've had this crazy idea, lets take the 14 best applications from all RL clubs and make a Super League, it must be done on the applications and not the "who we want" or what may be best for the game, just the 14 strongest.

Would it work.

I'll have a pint of what you drink upton, i just can't see any noises being enough.

Sounds too logical for RFL.

No, too straight forward.

My heart says we won't get a franchise but my head has doubts. The club seem to be going in the right direction and have even advertised 2 job vacancies in the past couple of weeks, the last one being an admin position in the community department which you wouldn't think could be run on the same scale in the lower league. May be a short lived job! Hope my heart is proved wrong.

What a stupid idea...

Have you considered working for the RFL?

This is true, but I get the impression that others in the RL world see us as "all mouth, no trousers" - i mean how long have we been going on about a new stadium? Some people see the hospitality box as a massive portacabin we built instead of upgrading the ground properly as we promised.

It would be really unfair for us to get the boot, but as others have said - the other teams who are competing with us would say the same about their own bid. We'll just have to wait and see.

I have always considered, "lack of faith" from the RFL in us as a club, to be one of our major stumbling blocks.
From all reports the RFL are, and continue to be hugely impressed by the efforts the club has gone to, hopefully they will realise that what has been achieved in 6 months could go on and make us a very reputable SL club.
At this moment in time we are the most progressive "club" in the competition, other clubs are being told to look at some of our operations as "best practice".
I hope this stands us in good stead, and that the RFL bods realise what they are dealing with, and don't let either our past or their proposed expansionist future derail the good work being done.
Potentialy the sleeping giant has started to stir, lets not be put into a RFL induced coma, to protect clubs with nothing to offer.

There is a strong rumour from certain parts of the kick and clap world, that Harlequins are considering a drop in division for a couple of years to build a sustainable winning club. All this with some kind of golden handshake assurance from the RFL. Surely this would make sense with proposed re-branding and would make it somewhat easier to sell the game to public of the 'Big Smoke' if they were watching a winning side. A one step back followed by giant leaps forward.

Like I said it is only a rumour, sometimes there is no smoke without fire and not beyond the realms of possibility.