It's all about parity, and the Fax - v Fev and Fax - v Toulouse matches were as good as any SL I've seen on the TV. There could be a very strong Championship with our own Grand Final, and yes, just ignore SL and let them get on with it. After all, SKY seem to be bothering less and less and continues to reduce its funding and eventually SL will be destitute relying entirely on sugar daddies (some couldn't survive without them as it is anyway). He who laughs last laughs longest, as the saying goes.

I’m not saying the lower leagues should break away. I’m just saying if it happened. The SL clubs and RFL would probably not give a toss

I think the current health of the game is summed up by the 8th best club, who are within spitting distance of an elite A grading, literally having had the (virtual) buckets out a few months ago in order to see them through the season - and that ranking is seen by many as being about right

Quote function not working again so copy and paste.
Quote : I’m not saying the lower leagues should break away. I’m just saying if it happened. The SL clubs and RFL would probably not give a toss.

We know you weren't and to use a popular on thread analogy, just saying to do so would be like turkeys voting to introduce thanks giving after just voting for Christmas!!

Yeah total madness yet them and Wakey with some minor improvements can get themselves to be A graded clubs. That to me just screams that the bar is set way too low when basket case clubs are so close to been classed as an elite club. Even IMG were surprised we had so many A clubs which maybe says they have not thought the rankings thorugh that well when the game is in such a mess but over half the clubs are elite.

Copy and paste again.

"It's all about parity, and the Fax - v Fev and Fax - v Toulouse matches were as good as any SL I've seen on the TV. There could be a very strong Championship with our own Grand Final, and yes, just ignore SL and let them get on with it. After all, SKY seem to be bothering less and less and continues to reduce its funding and eventually SL will be destitute relying entirely on sugar daddies (some couldn't survive without them as it is anyway). He who laughs last laughs longest, as the saying goes.

Yep. Ball cocks to them.
They may think they are this superior band of brothers but they are actually the small minority and outside their domineering little world everybody else in the game and most of the neutrals know what they have and are doing to the game and are the most despised group of individuals from every sport in the UK.

In the past I can't remember the last time I was at a Fax game and gave even 1 seconds thought to what Wigan, Leeds or any of them were doing.

They didn't affect my enjoyment, disappointments or whatever one jot then and they won't do in the future.

Follow up statement from the club. https://t.co/mp7v2nc4j1 Worth noting that this board have only been involved in the last 12 months of the 3 year assessment period.

Follow up statement from the club. https://t.co/mp7v2nc4j1 Worth noting that this board have only been involved in the last 12 months of the 3 year assessment period.

Just to confirm, the only thing that is based on a 3 year average is the on field performance isnt it? Our board saying different though. Again suggests flaws in the grading system when even teams seem to not fully understand how things work.

Our finances are clearly a mess though but i think a lot of us suspected that.

A cat amongst pigeons article i suspect https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... dium=email

A cat amongst pigeons article i suspect https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... dium=email

Just to reemphasise the current board have only been involved for the last 12 months and whatever their longer term input is will only be seen further down the line but during the last year things seems to be heading in the right direction even if in small steps.

If there is anyone else who has deeper pockets and are sure they could do a better job with the state of the game at the moment then please have a go.

No, just about everything is based on a 3 year average (catchment area being one that's not but that's extremely unlikely to change anyway). I'm not sure why there should be any confusion, as it's clearly stated in the grading handbook.

Just quoting for comparison purposes:-

Fax
Performance 2.39/5
Fandom 3.2/5
Finances 0.55/4.5
Stadium 1.67/3
Community 1.25/2.5

I guess its like what we expected and looking at the grades the club has done well on the Fandom score although I think the reality is that Bradford's score will come down next season in this respect due to reasons that Fev alluded to in their statement. Again though they do get a lot more fans than us which will translate in to clicks so we have done pretty well to be so close to them.
Community as mentioned we can't do anything about this really and this is the most ridiculous pillar in the gradings. Stadium wise it does look like we got the full 1.5 score for the facilities along with the big screen bonus and the rest made up on utilisation.
Leaves us with finances which we have the lowest score that we have seen any club given which is obviously a worry but we could spin it and say that with some investment we have the potential to make a lot of points up here on our competitors.

Overall I know Matt Shaw likes to be a bit of a drama queen at times and in the article calls for Fax fans to get real, I think the majority of Fax fans see ourselves as miles off a SL club but promotion and relegation did at least give us hope, I mean going in to this season I can't have been the only fan who had thought we had a sneaky outside chance of promotion can I. London eventually went up so it shows that it was in fact possible. Now you look at our scores in this system and tell me where we find 4 points from that turns us from a low B to a borderline SL club.

Our scores on performance, fandom, stadium, and community are not so far off been the max that we can achieve due to different restrictions and finances just been in the championship is quite restrictive in itself. You take all that in to consideration and its very clear to see that a team like ours is not supposed to be in the top flight under the new system.