Match 29: Leigh Centurions (Home) Championship Shield
fevnut's musings
Turmoil
When the current structure was first
proposed we welcomed it. More than anything else this was because it provided a
potential pathway for Championship clubs to gain promotion to Super League.
Now in its fourth year we are having
serious doubts about it now. Whatever happens the first requirement is the
opportunity for promotion from the Championship. But looking at what has
happened since 2015 we find some very big problems with promotion via the
Qualifiers. The Championship has become such an unbalanced competition with
part-time clubs trying to compete with an increasing number of full-time clubs
and the huge disparity between the playing budgets of the clubs. Never has that
become more clear than this year when the Championship was split between six
clubs competing for the four places in the Qualifiers and six more who frankly
had no chance of doing anything other than trying to avoid relegation.
It ended up with just 1 point
separating 2nd place from 6th and the club in 7th place gaining just half the
points of the club finishing 6th. There were 72 matches between the ‘Top 6’ and
the ‘Bottom 6’. Of those the Top 6 clubs won 70 matches leaving just two games,
one victory for a Bottom 6 club (Batley defeating Toulouse in April) and one
draw (Barrow v Toronto in February).
Both Fev and Leigh ended up missing
out on the Qualifiers by just one point and both are going through a degree of
turmoil as a result that this has on central funding.
Fev and Leigh
Fev are the club in less turmoil of
the two. Yes, we are having to drastically cut our budget and as a result having
to shed quite a few players although some exciting signings appear to be in the
pipeline for 2019. On the playing side the morale of the team seems to have
collapsed. After the glorious win against Toronto at the end of July we have
played two games in the Championship Shield and despite winning both the
standard of rugby from our team has been so poor compared to the way the team
had been playing for most of the year. The performance against Batley and
Rochdale was so poor that it didn’t feel like it usually does when we win.
Leigh are in considerably greater
turmoil, with their owner deciding to quit and attempts to rid themselves of as
many players as possible. Despite this they seem to have taken the dire
circumstances on board and have turned in two quality performances in the
Shield with quality victories over Sheffield (68-6) and Barrow (38-0).
When news started coming through of
the state that Leigh were in, many Fev fans thought that the Championship
Shield Trophy was nailed on for us. How wrong can you be! We would like to be
optimistic but it’s quite difficult now. I just hope that in the last fortnight
our players have been subjected to intensive therapy from a sports psychologist
in order to get their heads in the right place for Sunday’s match. Everyone of
them is capable of playing so much better than they showed against Batley and
Rochdale and they simply have to play at their best if we are to have a chance
of beating Leigh and gaining home advantage in the final on September 30th.
Challenge Cup Final
We suppose it was inevitable that those who hate having French
and Canadian teams in our leagues would jump upon the low attendance at this
year’s Challenge Cup Final and blame it upon the French club. fevnut makes no
secret of the fact that Catalans are our favourite super league club. We are
Fev through and through but as long as Catalans are not playing Fev we like to
see them winning. For personal reasons, totally unconnected with rugby league,
we have spent many happy times in the Perpignan area and taken advantage of
opportunities to go and watch Catalans, Pia and Saint-Estève. It’s a great area and those
fans who travel to matches at Stade Gilbert Brutus generally regard it as one of
the highlights of their rugby league year.
To suggest that the poor attendance at the final is because of the
Catalans is simplistic. Watching it there was a good core of Catalans
supporters despite the huge problems and expense of them travelling at short
notice on an English bank holiday weekend. Last time they were in the final
(2007) the attendance was over 84,000. We believe that the diminishing
attendance is primarily caused by factors (such as Super League Grand Final and
Magic Weekend) that have undermined the concept of the Challenge Cup final
being a festival for rugby league supporters of all clubs. This is the issue
that needs to be addressed.
For all of us who love rugby league, the spreading of our game
is so important. Catalans winning the Challenge Cup will undoubtedly do a huge
amount of good for the sport in France and that is to the benefit of us all.
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