fevnut's musings 2023/#21: Two thirds through the Championship Season and Remaining possibilities

   

Two thirds through the Championship Season

As we are now two-thirds of the way through the Championship League season (18 rounds completed), and Fev are looking really good at the top of the table, we thought we would look back and see how Fev’s 2023 performances compare to previous seasons in the second tier since 1996.

Of the relevant 28 seasons we have excluded 6 from the comparisons.

In the four seasons from 1999 to 2002, the second and third tier were merged into the Northern Ford Premiership. This meant that the opportunity for the top clubs to pile up the points they scored were considerably increased by virtue of playing matches against teams who, in the three-tier structure, would be at the bottom end of the third tier. It would be like, in today's parlance, Fev playing Cornwall or Toulouse playing London Skolars. We think you will agree that such games would have probably added into the mix some huge scorelines.

In addition we have excluded 2020 because the Covid pandemic meant there were no relevant comparisons to make. The other season not included is 2021. Again the Covid pandemic caused major disruption. Toulouse only played fourteen league games and the weekly tables were all over the place because of major disparities because of the number of games played.

The comparisons we have selected to make between the top clubs at the 18-match mark are:

1.    Number of Wins

2.     Number of Points ahead of the team in second place

3.    Points Difference

4.    Points For

5.    Points against

1)    Number of Wins

Fev have won 17 out of their 18 games. That puts them level with five other clubs. The only team to have won all their first 18 games was Leigh Centurions in 2014. 

2)    Number of Points ahead of the team in second place

Fev are currently 8 points clear at the top of the table. There have been 3 occasions when clubs have been more than 8 points clear after 18 matches. One of those was Fev in 2010 when they were 9 points clear of Halifax, but Halifax had played one game fewer. The bonus point system that ran for several seasons had no impact on the above data.

3)    Points Difference

Fev currently have a points difference of 592. The only team to have had a better points difference at this stage were Castleford in 2007 with 613.

4)    Points For

Fev have scored 772 points so far which was only bettered by Castleford in 2007 with 860.

5)   Points against

Yet again, Fev’s Points against in 2023 of 180 is the second best. Leigh had a truly remarkable defensive record last year and only conceded 140 points in their first 18 games. 

We were a little bit surprised that Fev don’t come out best on any of the criteria we have compared but nevertheless, in all of the 22 seasons we looked at, Fev come second in four of the tables and fourth in the other one.

That is a truly remarkable record. Remember, all these comparisons are with the teams who were leading the competition at this point in the season.

 

The possibilities for the final Championship table

The vast majority of the options are still open. Mathematically speaking, Fev are still the only club that cannot be relegated. Yes, even Barrow in 13^th place could still overtake Batley in 2^nd in the extremely unlikely event that Barrow won all their remaining games and Batley lost all theirs!

Six clubs are now excluded from winning the League Leader’s Shield.

The only club that cannot mathematically make the top two is Newcastle Thunder.