errrrmmmm that's exactly why we are in the Champs this year is it not.... other clubs chairmen/women!!!

Agree BM. What's right is right and down we have to go.



Listened to BCB and it sounded a good game, to be fair - though they do have a bad habit of a) both talking together and b) leaving the 'nitty gritty' until after they've filled in the incidentals. for instance, after the score they went on about Caro's weaving run and how he got round attempted tackles etc etc, BEFORE they'd even told us he'd put the ball down - I guess you were excited but first things first lads!



Almost wish I'd gone tbh, but I can't quite work up the enthusiasm.

Think the reason given was it was too late to change the fixtures and unfair to penalise a club that was relegated and already planned for life in C1.



Bigger travelling support wasn't a reason given, officially anyway.



I just hope Catalans go down so I can sit back and enjoy the fixture fiasco in next year's 8s.

I really wish people like Billy Bullsheet would stop banging on about bloody restructures. All he's doing is getting people's hopes up constantly. He has a worse track record than Nosey Parker for incorrect news stories, but for some reason people listen to him. It MAY happen, but there's also a bloody big chance it won't. Whilst he continues to prattle on about it over social media and his personal radio station, all he does is feed fans' hope, which will inevitably be dashed once again if/when it doesn't happen.

Technically they don't even need to go down for that to still be an issue next year, if they end up in the bottom 4 of SL again. Irrespective of this year's results we could still quite easily see Catalans, Toulouse and Toronto all in the middle 8s next season.

Good point Nothus. Probably a more likely scenario too come to think of it. On the subject of re-structures etc it's very boring now. We should plan for C1. There will be no stay of execution I guarantee.

Was it that?



Or was it changing the international travel arrangements of an entire league full of part timers with one week's notice?

International travel arrangements? Whitehaven were quoted as saying they could take the Bulls place. I want Toronto to succeed but fast tracking them would have been wrong.

I listened to their commentary and to be fair it was Mick piling all the praise on Joe. John picked Caro as man of the match (apart from his try's Mick was saying he was always out of position on defence nothing new there) and gave high praise to Sironen. He rarely mentioned Joe which I think was fairly professional of him. Totally agree though if it would have been that way

Fair play to him, that's exactly the way someone should do it if they have a natural bias towards something. Good on him.

Definitely. He is very knowledgeable too just got to get past the accent! haha

I'm certainly not after any reprieve, but saying "what's right is right" is plain wrong. Being forced to start in the Champ without a pot to in, no players, no money and minus twelve points six days before kickoff meant our fate was sealed before a pass was thrown. It is what it is, but there was nothing right about it, everything wrong about it, and I seriously worry that that mad decree may even prove the death of the club.





Yeah that's about where I am at the moment too

I hear it's not set in stone yet that we are relegated, that's from a bulls player

I would say to him don't get your hopes up.

Well the conspiracy theories are out that the RFL are trying to save Catalans through the referees. Although i've just seen a still of a spear tackle The Catalans were involved in and i've every sympathy with Fax's frustrations. Remember Johnny Campbells red for going slightly over horizontal. Well if you see the still of Catalans spear (which you won't be surprised didn't get a red) you can see why fans get so frustrated. If Campbell got 2 for his then Bird should be minimum of 5. I very much doubt the RFL will ban their best player for the remainder of the season. They really don't help repel the conspiracy theorists sometimes.

I agree. Still a hybrid squad even if they stay up for whatever reason the RFL might come up with

I think you already know my views on what was done to us this year, as I've said it often enough, I guess and now we're finally where we should have been at the start of the season so no, I don't think that is fair - it's been gerrymandered, imo.



In truth, I'm at the stage where I'm not even sure I'm too fussed about what league we're in next year; if they decide to leave us up, that is what they'll do and nothing we (or flatcappers the world over) can say or do that will change it. Truth is though, we've been relegated now according to their rules so should go down, two wrongs wouldn't make a right, much as there might be some sort of justice in it.



From a practical point of view I wonder if we're in any position to stay up anyway? We've been told we're down and have already done planning on that assumption so we'd be the one (again) not in any kind of position to play at the higher level. We've already lost fans - are we sure they're coming back if we're reprieved? cos, if not, there's a gaping hole in our finances in putting a team together. If, as we've been told, we're wait for licensing to come back and get back via our academy then so be it, however long it takes, qué sea sera and all that.

It's ridiculous that we are even having a conversation about this! Is there another sport on the planet where a team finishes bottom of the table in a league where the rules say the bottom two teams are relegated, and then there is some sort of ongoing question about whether that team will be relegated? It's absurd..



I definitely don't want the rules to be changed to keep us up. That's mainly because we started the season knowing the rules, and those rules should be applied.



But there is now another reason, and that's to do with preparation for 2018. It is clear that we are going to start 2018 with a squad that - best case scenario - is going to be competitive in League 1. There is no reasonable chance that we could put together a competitive squad for a Championship that will contain the likes of Hull KR (Or Leigh or Widnes, whichever..) along with London, Halifax, Fev, Toulouse, Toronto etc. Does anyone really want to spend 2018 in a desperate bid to avoid relegation? Because that's where we'd be.



Basically it would be another season of getting battered by the good teams, and then grubbing around with Oldham, Swinton and Dewsbury to avoid the bottom two places (and quite possibly getting relegated anyway at the end of 201icon_cool.gif - and getting hated on by the fans of all the other teams for the 'special treatment' we'd been given...



No thanks

Summed up well Paul, I agree 100%. Leave us out of it, we've suffered enough.

Surely suffering would be being relegated and it would be lesser of a sufferance to be kept up - forget the morality side etc.... yes we should be/should have been relegated - what happens if we stay up? surely as a business that is better for the Bulls than going down? more fans, bigger revenue, hybrid squad - more time etc....

stuff the fax and Keefly fans (sorry nowt personnel) they can crow all they want, at the end of the day this decision will be made by the RFL and the club Chairmens not the Bulls nor the Bulls fans.



Anyone fancy a cheeky fiver on the Bulls being in the second tier next year?

The only quibble I have with this is that when we started the season, the rules were very specific that a new club starts in League 1. The RFL (using their special Clause 11.17

which states they can do whatever they want) overruled the rules.



So I can't speak for everyone else, but I started the season knowing that the rules are flexible and mean whatever the RFL wants them to mean at the time they look at it.



I don't think it is absurd, it's just the RFL...

PS, to stop people looking, I made up clause 11.17

I assume there is one there somewhere in their constitution, based on the RFL's actions though

I wouldn't count on that...

There is and it's Rule 1 "The RFL can do what they want irrespective of the following suggestions of appropriate rules"

I think its very clear that Chalmers and Lowe bought the club on the stipulation that we would start in the Championship on -12 points. If they weren't willing to accept that proviso then they didn't have the buy the club (and, yes, that would probably have meant no club, but still....)