The first ever IMG grades have been revealed with Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR, Hull FC, Catalans Dragons and St Helens all being awarded Grade A status.
But the big story was of course around the final few Super League spots with Grade B clubs tussling to finish in the Super League spots.
Two of the current Super League were outside the top 12 with Castleford finishing 13th and London Broncos in 24th. This meant two Championship clubs finished in the top 12 and these were Toulouse Olympique in 10th and Wakefield Trinity in 11th.
Wakefield are now almost guaranteed a spot in Super League next year because their score is set to grow massively due to their redeveloped stadium which could give them another full point.
This would almost certainly give them a spot in Super League in 2025. This comes after RFL CEO Tony Sutton spoke about the next developments for clubs moving forward:
“One thing that has been a very positive development is the creation of a data dashboard, which all clubs have been able to access to view their data and what that means in terms of scoring.
“Clearly that will now be updated following these announcements but the next development of that dashboard will be to enable them to use it as a modelling tool so they can adjust their own scores, adjust outcomes and inputs to see where they might for example place resources.
“Of course as you mentioned clubs have got their own level of detail and therefore can choose whether or not to publish and I think my own view is that that’s very positive for them if they do because I believe in transparency in the process.
“I think the potential for the next step is whether or not we provide all clubs data on that dashboard for clubs to review where the gaps are as well but as with any major change like this, we will do a pretty thorough review of what went well, what didn’t go so well, what we can learn from it, for ourselves as well as for clubs, we will do that in conjunction with clubs.
“I would suspect that we will do that openly at the next council meeting or certainly an all club together meeting so that we can learn from what we need to make better for all of us.
“I think that question as to whether or not those become openly very public or whether those are club decisions from their own data will be asked in that review process because we also believe that transparency is a key element of this.”
Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers secure two players as they step up recuitment
