But how could you return to Odsal ? The club left because of the cost of the upkeep of the ground amongst other things. Surely that hasn’t improved if not got worse as no one has been there for months. Saying that it won’t matter if Odsal is a wreck when licensing was clubs were meant to have modern stadiums and they still still have licenses to Cas and Wakey. Both of those grounds should be closed.

At least it’s out of the way early on as far as Fax are concerned so we can focus on the business in hand.

From those who tick the crowd box and are still in the mix from what I can see it’s down to commercial attraction and stability add to that expansion they’ll go for Toulouse.

Toulouse would be a commercial pick with the RU world cup coming up . Fax dont tick any boxes putting on an objective hat. The only super league standard tick we had in recent years was Richard Marshall and the bod sacked him .

Unless Im missing something then judging us against the criteria that came out yesterday the only one we don't meet was the one that ruled us out. We are nowhere near but who wants to be part of a "transparent" process that openly says that weighting to each criteria will be done after the applications had all been viewed.

The game's rulers are a joke. No wonder fans, at all levels, are leaving in droves.

I think Bradford had to apply just as a way of saying "Hi, we're still here and aspiring to get bigger" rather than a realistic tilt at getting into SL. Can you imagine Bradford on half money playing out of our hole in the ground again. We'd be utterly doomed. If its about bringing in healthy crowds and having someone to subsidise the money SL are withholding then that sounds like Leigh to me.

Think our application was just to say to our fans we have ambition. Couldn't see the point myself but get why the club had to do it although applying for something you don't stand a chance in seems like a waste of time. Some fans would have had a moan if we didn't apply though.

How could we not apply though? What message would that have sent out to supporters? If we really aren't interested in getting back to the top again, what is the point of carrying on? We've got to be as good as we can be, on and off the pitch, until the tide finally turns and our time comes again as it surely will. Up The Fax!

Widnes have not applied and ive not seen any great who ah from their fans. Im sure they still have ambition to get back to the top though. They clearly didn't want to enter a raffle where their ticket wouldn't even be in the bag just to give supporters false hope. Applying for SL with no chance is just an empty gesture and what we need is actions. I believe the club are working hard behind the scenes but like I say I can totally understand why they thought they had to apply.

I'm not disagreeing with that, at least we're out of the circus and can concentrate on having a successful season next year hopefully. As I've said previously, I believe that the 'lucky' club has already been chosen and the rest are just being used to make it look as if a fair process has been used to find the 12th club. Ooh la la!