 Players like Dean Sampson made Castleford into one of rugby league's superpowers |
I'd love Castleford to stay up but you have to say that it is going to be tough after their heartbreaking defeat against Salford last week.
Cas have a tremendous tradition in the sport - they've never been relegated in their history and it would be a travesty to lose a team like them - or Widnes for that matter - from the top tier.
I felt the same about Halifax last season.
Halifax is a huge catchment area for both talent and support but now they have no Super League side and there's no sign of them having one back there any time soon.
I can see no answer other than to do away with relegation from the Super League altogether.
Some might say that's anti-competitive, but I would say we're playing professional sport - it's a business at the end of the day.
I'm not a money grabber. If I wasn't a professional sportsman then I'd be playing rugby league as an amateur.
 |  It's so easy for clubs to get in a downward spiral once they get relegated |
When I finish in Super League, I'll carry on playing for the love of the game.
But you have to separate the professional and amateur games for the good of everybody.
It's so easy for clubs to get into a downward spiral once they get relegated.
Sponsors pull out, you don't have the money to keep your best players and you can't get out of the division.
You can't lure the sponsors back, so it becomes a vicious circle.
Look at what happened to Rotherham in rugby union. Years of seeking to make the Premiership, then they get there, lose every match, get relegated, go into massive debt and now they're struggling just to stay alive. That shouldn't be what sport is all about.
It's dumb to put the future of a club in jeopardy because of one bad season. And it all comes back to money, I'm afraid.
Sponsors have no confidence that teams lower down the table will stay up, so they simply go to the bigger teams.
But if there was no relegation, why couldn't a Salford or whoever bring in the same kind of money as anyone else?
With money coming in, those clubs can make long-term plans.
They can invest in their academies and then you'd have vibrant clubs all through the league.
And that 'big four' is suddenly a 'big eight' or 'big nine'.
That's how I see it anyway. Now I've got that off my chest, I'm really happy with how the Bulls are shaping up at the moment.
Our performance against London was one of our best of the season.
But we're not blowing our own trumpet too soon. This season we've had the odd flash of brilliance but then been crap, for want of a better word, the week after.
We're starting to find some consistency now though and that's the key.
Without taking anything away from our performance, I didn't think London were completely on their game. But we were ruthless. The only reservation I have is that we got a bit lackadaisical in the second half. Scoring points has never been a problem for us but we've had a few problems in defence.
So that's what we're going to concentrate on in training this week.
 Vagana: prone to exaggeration |
The best thing to come out of the match was big Joe Vagana finally getting over for a try! We're all happy for him, but boy, can he spin a yarn!
It was a try from a metre out, if that.
But the story as it stands - and it changes slightly every time - is that he started 70m out, beat six men, outpaced both wingers before side-stepping the full-back.
We've all got to dream, I suppose.
MMIX
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