Eye on the Championship #4 - Delight for Toronto and Oldham

In 2018, Toronto fluffed their lines in the biggest game in their history and were defeated at home by London Broncos, to miss out on promotion to Super League.

There were no such mistakes in the 2019 Million Pound Game. They defeated Featherstone by 24-6 to ensure that Super League, for the first time, will have a non-European presence. The score line did not reflect the closeness of the game though.

It was in fact Featherstone who led at half time and found themselves 40 minutes away from a maiden Super League berth. It is immense credit to Toronto that they did not panic nor fold. They managed to repress that thought at the back of their mind – ‘it’s happening again’.

There was a subtle change to their style. They changed from a more expansive style to a direct one and eventually took the game away from Featherstone. Having not being defeated since March, it cannot be argued that they do not deserve their promotion.

Credit too must be paid to Featherstone for an incredible play off series. They defeated three teams who finished above them in the league, in consecutive weeks all away from home and then pushed Toronto all the way.

Sometimes we can find ourselves bogged down in intricacies in rugby league. There were no such subtleties with Featherstone’s play. You could tell that with the ferocity of their carries in the very first set of the game. There was no way that this side were going to die wondering.

Attention now turns to 2020. It would not surprise to see a glut of signing announcements for Toronto. What will be interesting is the identity of those players. Will they go for the big names that they have the spending power to attract? Or, will they go for solid, established players, who have a track record performing at this level? We would suggest the latter is a more prudent approach!

As Toronto will not take their central funding, the existing Super League clubs will receive a windfall for 2020. That joy may be short lived as many clubs will feel threatened by Toronto. They are not a club like London in 2019 whose sole focus was to survive; Toronto are aiming big. Several established Super League club may face threats to their status.

There is so much to talk about with Toronto. We could talk about that their play-off crowds exceeding all their equivalents in Super League bar one. We could talk about the suggestion that their early season home games may be taken around Europe and North America, taking our game to places it has never been.

We could fill several blogs about it! For now, we’ll leave it at this; Toronto are heading to Super League and whatever happens, they are going to shake up the established order.

Meanwhile, in League 1 it was Oldham who defeated Newcastle at home to return to the Championship after a two year absence. Both on the day and over the course of the season, they were deserved winners.

There are concerns as to whether their stadium is up to a Championship level. But as we have said previously, it should be about who deserves to be promoted on the field. To gain promotion in what was a very competitive league this season is a fantastic achievement.

The season for Newcastle will be seen as a disappointment. They are an ambitious club who fell just short of the target that they set themselves. This will not deter Newcastle though and it would be a surprise if we do not see the Thunder back in the Championship before too long.