Match 26: Halifax (Home)
fevnut's musings
Towards the Qualifiers
Many congratulations to Jon Sharp and the lads on gaining a
place in the Qualifiers for the second season running.
It’s great to have achieved it with two games remaining but I
must admit there is a downside also. In recent years we have had some
incredibly exciting fixtures at the end of the league season, needing to win
either to get into the Middle 8s or to get into play-offs. Even though we have
now qualified I hope the team doesn’t relax in the games against Halifax and
Toulouse. Especially bearing in mind that should London slip up in their games against
Rochdale and Batley there is still a glimmer of a chance of Fev making it to
second place with the bonus of 4 home games in the 8s.
Let’s hope that we can perform better in the Qualifiers than our
dire showing in the Qualifiers last year. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one
left feeling that it was such a sorry end after the excitement of those last
three Championship games. Even one point from the seven games would be an
improvement!
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In March, had any rugby league fan been asked about the
possibility of a French club being in the Qualifiers, I am pretty sure that
they would have said that Toulouse were a certainty and that it was extremely
unlikely that Catalans would be there. After all, Catalans were lying 3rd in
Super League at the beginning of the month and Toulouse were 2nd in the
Championship the end of the month. It’s strange how both French teams have
recently nose-dived and now it is almost certain that Catalans will be in the
Qualifiers and Toulouse look as they might well miss out after their loss
against Halifax last Sunday.
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Many of you will have seen Davide Longo’s complaint about the
Rugby League leaving it so late to make decisions about the structure of the
competitions in 2018 and the implications this has for proper planning by the
clubs. I agree with every word that Davide said. My only complaint was that he was,
probably constrained by what he was allowed to say, less harsh than he might
have been. It strikes me that making decisions so late in the season makes our
sport look amateurishly shambolic - and that is a bit harsh on many well run
amateur sports!
For those of us old enough to remember it still rankles about
the way Fev were treated back in the 1994/95 season when at the last moment the
rules were changed so that 6 clubs instead of the expected 4 were relegated
from the top division thus catching Fev and Salford who had finished 11th and
12th respectively in a 16 team league. And what was it for? To clear the way
for Paris and London to enter Super League. Paris folded after 2 years and
London are now striving to get back into Super League but have never generated
a supporter base that would be expected for a top level club even though they
have by far the largest catchment area to draw on.
If Fev can average about 2,200 as an average attendance on a
population base of 15,000 then you could argue that with a 10 million catchment
area London should be averaging over a million spectators per match!!!
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