BY JOHN DAVIDSON
WE’RE ALMOST halfway into the 2021 Super League season and already a clear pattern has developed.
Leigh Centurions have played 13 games, lost 13 and sit at the bottom of the ladder. Leigh’s attack has not been too bad, scoring 212 points in total, which is more than Salford, Huddersfield, Castleford and even Wigan.
But their defence has been woeful – they have conceded 508 points, at an average of 39.07 points per game. With Salford two victories above them on the ladder, the Centurions need a miracle to beat the drop.
However, you could say they were always pushing shit up a hill.
Unfairly Leigh were not given a full distribution of TV money for 2021 like the other 11 clubs. To add to this, the decision to promote them in place of Toronto Wolfpack only came in mid-December, giving them scant time to prepare and recruit properly.
Added to the spectre of Covid, and the difficulty of bringing players over from the NRL when England was in full lockdown, and you have a perfect storm. Leigh are destined for the drop, again.
But looking back in recent seasons and you can see another pattern – one where the team that comes up from the Championship struggles badly and is swiftly relegated back down.
In 2020 it was Toronto who started the season with six straight losses in Super League before the season was halted, though they did manage a Challenge Cup victory over the Giants.
Of course, the Wolfpack later pulled out of the competition and were eventually kicked out.
However, considering how poor their recruitment was, how shoddy their salary cap management was and their results in the league before Covid interrupted the season, the smart bet is that they would have gone down anyway.
In 2019 it was London Broncos who came up, were heroic with 10 wins and almost beat the drop, but still went down in the last round.
In 2018 it was Hull KR who came up but impressively managed to stay up, though it was through the Super 8s format and not the traditional ‘finishes last and goes down’ method. Widnes were relegated to the Championship that year.
In 2017 it was Leigh who again were relegated, after just being promoted back into Super League.
In 2016 it was Hull KR who went down, after losing the Million Pound Game to Salford. And the year before it was Wakefield who managed to stay in Super League, after edging Bradford in the Million Pound Game.
What does all this tell us?
A few things. It is extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible, to rise out of the Championship and actually stay in Super League. Only the Robins have managed to do it in the past decade and improve as a club.
Bradford and London were both relegated at the end of 2014. While the Broncos managed to make it up two years ago, it was a fleeting experience, and the Bulls have never come close, due in partly to their series of constant financial and administrative dramas.
Leigh came up, then went straight back down and appear set to do the same this year. Widnes were relegated in 2018 and look a long way off mounting a promotion push now.
The boom/bust promotion and relegation cycle between the two divisions does no clubs any good. They cannot plan more than one season ahead. They cannot work on improving stadia or their academy or their marketing, as most funds are directed solely to the playing squad.
There is not enough money in the Championship, rich owner aside, to sustain life or a decent playing squad in a mostly part-time league. Something has to give.
You look at the struggles of the Broncos this season, and with Danny Ward recently departing. Their season in Super League in 2019 has sadly not set them on a path of growth or progression. London is a vital market for rugby league, its crucial, and the Broncos clearly need support.
This season in the second tier the two standout clubs are Toulouse and Featherstone. At the moment both are undefeated – Toulouse winning eight and from eight, Rovers unbeaten in 11 games.
Either club is most likely to be in Super League in 2022. But how will they fare in the top flight?
There has to be concerns. Are their squads strong enough? Do they have the infrastructure necessary? Is their stadia up to scratch? Their front office?
Many would agree, and I am one of them, that a second French side in Super League is an attractive proposition. It is more appealing for fans, broadcasters and sponsors, it creates an appealing derby with Catalans, it gives the comp a more exotic flavour.
But if it is Featherstone who are promoted, they exist in an already extremely crowded location with neighbours Cas and Wakefield. That aside, it was mooted at the end of 2019 that if Fev won the Million Pound Game against Toronto and were promoted to the top flight, they could stay a part-time operation.
That just simply wouldn’t fly.
If anything, the gap between full-time and part-time in rugby league is far too wide. And with the introduction of the ‘Six Again’ rule, and the current tendency towards blowout scores and increased on-field fatigue and injuries, that gap is only getting wider and wider.
There isn’t enough money in UK rugby league to adequately fund three divisions of professional and semi-professional clubs. That reality will land in a big way next year when central funding is severely cut back, when the reduced Sky TV deal is in force.
Therefore, the teams in the Championship are going to find it even massively harder to not only get into Super League, but to have any chance in hell of competing once they make it there. The funding disparity will be even bigger.
Yes, sometimes fairytales in professional sport happen, but very, very rarely. The penny has to drop eventually.
Many will cry that promotion and relegation is a part of British sporting tradition and history, and has to stay. I understand that.
But sentiment is one thing and reality is another. Rugby league in Britain cannot sustain the current set-up, the current status quo. Change is coming, thanks to less money being available, whether we like it or not. We have to adapt to survive.
A return to a form of franchising, to a licensing format of some description, makes the most sense, however controversial or unpalatable it seems to many.
We cannot be both hamstrung by history and tradition, and be forward-thinking, grow and prosper in a new climate at the same time. One or the other has to give.
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