Among the general weirdness of 2020 one of the many regular strange sights was that of an 11-team Super League table. It just didn’t feel or look right. It was a guarantee that at least one team would find themselves without a fixture each week. That was immediately disconcerting, even before considering the reality that Covid made postponements and fixture reshuffles an inevitability.
After declaring Toronto’s bid for re-entry into the competition about as reliable as one of Joe Anderson’s development contracts the game’s decision-makers nevertheless decided to restore order to the table by adding a 12th team for the new season which starts in March. Staying optimistic, once in a century pandemics should have less impact in 2021. It makes sense to try and press on towards a version of normality even if there is still uncertainty. To that end - and in the absence of any on-field Championship action to decide promotion - bids were invited from interested clubs. Fans of franchising could settle in for a rare treat. Never mind antiquated sporting concepts like promotion and relegation - this would be decided by far more thrilling and subjective issues like geography, stadium capacity and how likely you are to persuade beer companies to buy television advertising space on a Thursday night.
The franchisers dream has turned into a nightmare with the selection of Leigh Centurions as Team 12. Taking actual rugby league results out of the equation had to open the door for a more ambitious selection, didn’t it? Toulouse offered the prospect of all-French match-ups against the Catalans Dragons. Another good excuse to enjoy a bit of summer sunshine across the channel, assuming you can still get into France after Brexit. York has plenty to recommend it as a tourist destination while the Knights continue to impress on and off the field. Or what about London? Page one of The Franchiser’s Handbook decrees that any competition worth its sodium chloride has to have a team from the nation’s capital involved. The Broncos had ambitious plans to share AFC Wimbledon’s new stadium, which if nothing else would mean that wheelchair-using visitors like myself would have no longer had our view obstructed by a whacking great shed.
The only way this could have turned out worse for expansionism is if Bradford or Featherstone Rovers had got the nod. The Bulls remain the kind of financial risk that Charlie Sheen would shy away from, while Featherstone seem doomed to be forever stigmatised by the modest size of the town, it’s location in the rugby league heartlands and its association with the mining industry. Social media lit up after today’s announcement, with scores of fans of clubs from just off the M62 piling in to complain about the addition of another in Leigh but express their relief that it was not another in Featherstone. And they did so without a trace of irony. They’re unequivocally against heartland clubs in their vision of what Super League should be unless we’re talking about their heartland club. All of which is drawbridge-pulling Priti Patel-ery. There but for the grace of God. Or something. A bad run of form - as we have seen from Leeds and Warrington in recent years with both reduced to slumming it in the hastily scrapped middle eights - and it could be your lot being told they ‘add nothing’ to the competition and that they need to be replaced by the Dublin Dolphins at the earliest opportunity.
Leigh is an unimaginative choice in the context of growing the game outside the north of England. There seems little doubt that there has been a reluctance find out what other areas could offer the sport. Some called it backward or cowardly and it is difficult to make the case that the Centurions are a particularly progressive choice. In many ways they will maintain the status quo even if they out-perform expectations. They’ll be immediately installed as favourite to finish bottom and go back down to the Championship. That is if we’re doing relegation next year. But even if they compete it will do nothing to combat criticism of rugby league as an insular and parochial game paralysed by fear. It will just be a new name in the frame. A differently labelled version of what we have already seen. The question is whether we should necessarily be ashamed of that if that is currently where our strength lies.
Yet what Leigh also are is a safe bet in troubled times. The shadow of the pandemic still looms, with no guarantees that matches won’t be affected next season. We can’t be sure what kind of attendances will be allowed. Restrictions are still likely for some months to come despite the development of the vaccine. It may just be that a punt on Toulouse was discounted because memories of the problems experienced by other non-UK clubs in 2020 are all too fresh. Toronto’s withdrawal is well documented and perhaps an exceptional case given the logistics involved, but it should not be forgotten that Catalans only managed to play 13 regular season games in 2020. Whether that was their reluctance to travel in the Covid climate or that of their opponents, the effect is the same. Still, someone at Super League might want to make a note to try and avoid the premature introduction of easily abused win percentage systems if they ever find themselves in a similar situation to the one seen this past season. You live and learn. Leigh might lose more than they win and bounce straight back down, but they will probably fulfil their fixtures and they are highly unlikely to withdraw after six weeks. Again the blame for the Wolfpack’s controversial exit is almost secondary. The sport just can’t endure the humiliating negativity of a similar happening this time around.
Whoever pulled out the winning ticket was always going to find it tough anyway. Entry into Super League post-Covid is something of a poisoned chalice. We have already endured the baffling decision of the clubs to offer reduced funding for 2021 to Team 12. The argument that everyone is tightening their belts right now does nothing to ease the suspicion that this is more protectionism from the established elite. Too many clubs aren’t concerned about the health of the game as long as they can retain their position within its hierarchy. It is the reason why only one bid could be accepted when there were six clubs who felt they could contribute. Maths geniuses at the elite clubs have long since worked out that an equal share among 12 clubs is greater than an equal share among 14. That is unless by increasing the league’s size you also increase interest, spectators and sponsors and therefore revenues. But again that’s too risky for some of our club owners to contemplate. They have little faith in the sport and so their prophecies are self-fulfilling.
I wish Leigh well and genuinely hope they can grow to be competitive. The example of Salford in reaching two finals in the last two seasons should be inspirational. The Centurions have yo-yoed between the top two divisions too often in the past, an accusation that can also be levelled at London and some existing Super League clubs too. Castleford, Wakefield, Salford, Huddersfield and Hull KR have all spent time in the second tier in living memory. There’s a good argument that all of the brickbats aimed at Leigh, Bradford and Featherstone during this process apply to some of those clubs too. They just happened to be sitting in a Super League seat when the music stopped. It is not going to be easy to remove them or - more desirably perhaps - force them to up their standards to compete. But I do hope the five clubs who were unsuccessful today get another opportunity before too long.