With promotion and relegation in UK Rugby league, teams can have a patchy record in the top flight. A few simply haven't done enough to figure in this series but the Widnes Viking just made the cut. A club with a fine legacy has fallen somewhat in recent times. From the mid 70's to the early 90's it was one of the best.
It fell out of the top flight in 1995 but returned in 2002. That year it was one place short of a finals berth but from there it was a steady decline, ending with relegation in 2005. Neil Kelly had taken charge in 2001 and was Super League coach of the year in 2002 but had to go due to the deteriorating on-field results. Frank Endacott stepped in for the 2005 season but to no avail.
Denis Betts came to the club with it in the second division Championship and while they got the wooden spoon in 2012, they were spared the drop because promotion-relegation wasn't operational at that time. By 2017, a system known as the Qualifiers was being used and although coming last in the league that year, survived the drop. It wasn't as fortunate in 2018, unable to stave off relegation in the playoffs.
Francis Cummins took charge for the last nine games of the 2018 season but couldn't save them. Early in 2019, the club went into administration and while narrowly avoiding liquidation had 12 points deducted as a penalty. The club is nowhere near getting back into Super League in the foreseeable future.
No comments:
Post a Comment