Tigers out of the Woods?

It's been revealed today that relegated Castleford arn't going to be taking Saturday's result lying down.






The Tigers Chief Executive Richard Wright is planning to meet with Red Hall officials to discuss the posibility of expanding Super League to thirteen teams, a move which, if approved would give the Tigers a stay of execution. At present, the Tigers relegation will be confirmed if either of the competition favourites Hull KR or Widnes win the National League Grand Final in October. Only unlikely victory for Batley or Whitehaven can save Cas.

Wright believes that Castleford are an "asset" to Super League but, seeing as he's their Chairman, one would hardly expect him to say otherwise. Whilst relegation is a shame for the club and the town, Wright's comments may not endear him to the rest of the league, not least the supporters of relegation and the other 12 clubs, who would all have to take a hit in their Sky TV money.

The BBC's Dave Woods has also jumped on the bandwagon, but has gone one further by asking for a fourteen team league.
Again, the familiar line of Cas being a "traditional" club has been troted out, and the possitive attendances at the Jungle have been alluded to, but Woods is missing one major point.

Assuming each squad has 20 quality players, by virtue of the 20:25 ruling, that is potentially another 40 quality players that have to be found in the space of less than five months. Castelford's current side would need to be rebuilt even if they did remain in the league, as many players will have already signed contracts with new clubs prior to Saturday, whilst Hull KR or Widnes would have to turn a NL1 side into a Super League side in a similar timeframe.
The only way that two sides could prepare a side for 2006 would be to head to the South Pacific.
In a season where the presence of Kolpak players has already been bemoaned, Woods seems to be advocating the introduction of more. The current talent pool in Britain cannot sustain 14 Super League clubs. Top clubs want to keep hold of their Senior Academy stars and whilst the Salary Cap permits, they will. The only way to increase the talent pool is to eliminate the need for Kolpak players and encourage youth development and that means abolishing automatic relegation.

In an ideal world, Woods would be right. A fourteen team elite competition contested with the best of British with no consiquences for promoting youth development. Unfortunatly, we don't live in an ideal world. Super League doesn't have the players, the finance or the system in place to properly support two extra sides.